Contrary to popular view, Inupiat Eskimos may have lived on the Snake River Sandspit in Nome, Alaska, long before the late 1800s Gold Rush brought thousands of people to the area. New evidence of early Native culture was recently uncovered by Alaska District.
An excavation by Alaska District archeologist Margan Grover proves that Eskimos were in the Nome area 300 years earlier than thought. A pottery cup was among the artifacts found at the site. A small carved figurine also was among the artifacts found at the Snake River Sandspit.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor, working on a project to improve navigation at the Nome harbor, exposed a semi-subterranean house in 2005. Alaska District archaeologist Margan Grover excavated a second semi-subterranean house and trash midden (garbage dump) in 2006, recovering tools, pottery, carvings, and animal bones radiocarbon dated at about AD 1700.
While not old compared to other parts of the world, the 300-year-old find is significant because it reflects Native culture before contact with other people. Alaska was discovered by Russian explorers in 1741, at least 40 years after the Inupiat built these houses and crafted these tools. The archaeological evidence indicates that Native people lived at Nome long enough to build homes rather than just camping to hunt and fish.
While contractors lined the entrance channel with rock in 2006, Ms. Grover began excavation. The National Historic Preservation Act requires that historical and archaeological discoveries at construction sites be removed, catalogued and conserved. To keep the construction project on schedule as much as possible, Ms. Grover worked long hours and enlisted local Eskimo tribal members and community volunteers to help excavate the sites. Two Alaska District archaeology student hires, Helen Lindemuth and Aaron Wilson, also helped.
Ms. Grover says that the most exciting artifacts found at the sites are a "little man" the size of a small doll but more intricately carved, and an intact pottery cup. She has never seen a figure like the four-inch man carved from ivory at an archaeological site. The cup is rare because people during the Late Western Thule period (1,050 years ago to about AD 1850) did not have kilns to fire their pottery. They fired their clay at a lower temperature in hot coals, resulting in fragile pieces. No one has ever seen complete pre-contact pottery from an archaeological site in Alaska.
Ms. Grover said a tool cache is another important find because it has a complete set of hunting tools for the time period. The cache includes a net gauge for making fish nets, spearheads, harpoons, and tools made from wood, caribou antler, stone, bone, and ivory.
For more, including information on Pre-Contact culture in this area of Alaska, and the community involvment in the display of the artifacts, see the
Pat Richardson for Army.mil News.
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