Surplus production is a hallmark of Alaska's prehistoric coastal societies. Over the millennia, foragers procured greater quantities of resources with increasing efficiency, developing economies dependent upon storage and institutionalized exchange. In the central Gulf of Alaska, notable evidence of surplus production comes from the late phase of the Kachemak tradition. Since de Laguna's pioneering studies, archaeologists have noted that intensified fishing, storage, and exchange typify this tradition. However, few have investigated the roots of these behaviors. When, how, and why did foragers begin producing well beyond immediate needs? This paper explores archaeological evidence for surplus production in the Kodiak Archipelago, focusing on patterns in land use, technology, and exchange preserved in Ocean Bay II and Early Kachemak assemblages from the Chiniak Bay region. It suggests that surplus production for the purposes of seasonal food storage began in the Early Kachemak, and accelerated in the Late Kachemak as population levels climbed.
Alaska’s central gulf coast encompasses four environmentally diverse regions stretching from Prince William Sound to the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula. Despite their unique geographic and biological settings, these regions have a distinct and cohesive cultural history. Here, the historic distribution of Alutiiq or Sugpiaq peoples reflects the distribution of prehistoric cultures, illustrating a broadly unified evolutionary trajectory. Archaeological data from the past 4,000 years suggest the development of prosperous, permanent villages from smaller, more fluid foraging communities through human ingenuity—the ability to harvest resources with increasing efficiency and to manage inevitable fluctuations in the availability of foods and raw materials in a productive but dynamic environment. Together, changes in climate, population growth, technological innovation, and interaction with other peoples shaped the central gulf’s ancient societies into the powerful corporate groups recorded historically.
The site of Mikt'sqaq Angayuk (KOD-014) on eastern Kodiak Island provides an intimate view of Native Alutiiq responses to the colonial labor regime imposed by 19th-century Russians in Alaska. Recent excavation of Mikt'sqaq Angayuk through the Alutiiq Museum's Community Archaeology program revealed a well-preserved Alutiiq-style sod house and associated faunal midden dating to the 1830s. The midden was rich in cod remains, and mostly colonially introduced products, including metal hunting and trapping gear and European ceramics, comprised the artifacts. These finds dovetail with Russian historical evidence to suggest the site's use as an odinochka: a small seasonal encampment where Alutiiq workers were conscripted to fish, hunt, and trap on behalf of the Russian-American Company. Yet the workers' economic strategies likewise involved a measure of individual autonomy, as revealed in the distinctly Alutiiq ways some imported products were used and evidence that residents also pursued subsistence aims of their own.
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