Mid to Late Holocene Population Trends, Culture Change and Marine Resource Intensification in Western Alaska

Abstract

The goal of this project is to understand the influence of population size on human adaptation processes and culture change during the Mid to Late Holocene in Western Alaska. We use a database of 1180 radiocarbon dates ranging from 6000 to 1000 14C years BP and drawn from 805 archaeological components in Alaska to construct a proxy record for relative change in regional and Alaskan metapopulation sizes over time. Our analysis indicates that a major population crash coincided with the disappearance of the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) and the subsequent emergence of the Norton tradition. The ASTt population began to decline around 3600 cal BP, and by 3500 cal BP it had disappeared almost completely from northern tundra habitats, though it persisted in coastal areas in Northwest and Southwest Alaska for another 500 years. The reduction in human population across Alaska after 3600 cal BP appears linked to a reduced carrying capacity that was perhaps driven by a caribou population crash. Such a shock would have increased population pressure and fostered increased reliance on marine resources, precipitating cultural changes associated with an increasingly complex maritime economy. The sharp decline in ASTt population size reduced the number of cultural role models for this population, resulting in the loss of some of the tradition’s characteristic cultural traits, while the influence of neighboring populations in southern Alaska and across the Bering Strait apparently increased, counteracting this attrition of cultural traits. Holistic explanations of the ASTt-Norton transition must take into account population size, ecological adaptation, and cultural transmission processes, as is true for cultural change more generally.

Convergent catastrophes and the termination of the Arctic Norwegian Stone Age: A multi-proxy assessment of the demographic and adaptive responses of mid-Holocene collectors to biophysical forcing

“…A particularly interesting effect in the case of Northern Norway is the detrimental impact of the acidic ash fallout and acid rain on lichen and mosses which form the dietary basis of reindeer. This has been demonstrated to have had severe impact on comparable prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Alaska (Riede et al, 2017; VanderHoek and Nelson, 2007), where it led to the Alaska-wide population decline and disappearance of the Arctic Small Tool tradition following the 3600 cal BP Aniakchak eruption and an hypothesized caribou collapse (Tremayne and Brown, 2017). Note that direct, local ashfall is not a requirement for this to have an effect.…”

Iyatayet Revisited: A Report on Renewed Investigations of a Stratified Middle-to-Late Holocene Coastal Campsite in Norton Sound, Alaska

“…After this time, use of the site ceased again for another 1,000 years, with perhaps a brief visit around AD 560±210. We currently do not know the reasons for these abandonments, but Tremayne and Brown (2017) have demonstrated a widespread population decline in western Alaska coincident with the disappearance of the Denbigh Flint complex. However, there is no similar signal for regional population decline coincident with the disappearance of the Norton from Iyatayet, suggesting regional cultural evolution and shifting land use strategies.…”

“…The distinction is not necessarily one of capability, but rather the intensity of marine-mammal and fishing exploitation. The cause of this marine-resource intensification is still undetermined, but a collapse in caribou populations may be partially to blame (Dumond 1987;Tremayne and Brown 2017;VanderHoek 2009). More research is required to test this hypothesis.…”

Human resilience and resettlement among the Islands of Four Mountains, Aleutians, Alaska

“…The BIA reports reveal how little we know about the Four Mountains archaeological record. This limited surface snapshot of Four Mountains cultural history is incongruous with the more robust eastern and central Aleutian ecological, oceanographic, and geologic data (e.g., Byrd et al, 2005; Call and Loughlin, 2005; Hunt and Stabeno, 2005; Ladd et al, 2005; Mordy et al, 2005; Nicolaysen et al, 2003, 2005; Pekar et al, 2005; Meleney et al, 2008; Tremayne and Brown, 2017).…”