The Lamellar Flake Manufacturing Site on Anangula Island in the Aleutians

Abstract

Anangula is an island 1.6 miles long and .5 mile wide, lying on the north side of Nikolski Bay about 4.5 miles northwest of Nikolski village, Umnak Island, in the eastern Aleutians. The designation of this island on United States Coast and Geodetic Survey charts is Ananiuliak, a transliteration of the Russianized form “Ananyulyakh” of the original Aleut name “Anangulagh” (from which we have subtracted the ending -gh to give “Anangula”). In current Umnak usage this island is called in Aleut “Anagulagh,” and in English “Rabbit Island” from the numerous rabbits there, descendants of two pairs of domestic Belgian hares introduced onto the island in 1936 by one of the Aleuts as food for foxes which have since been removed, when the island became a bird sanctuary. The change in the Aleut form of the name for this island from “Anangulagh” to “Anagulagh” undoubtedly accompanied the shift in the dialect spoken on Umnak subsequent to the first arrival of Russians in the Fox Islands in the early 1750's.

Anangula--A Major Pressure-Microblade Site in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska: Reevaluating Its Lithic Component

“…Most publications concerning Anangula were published between the 1950s and the 1980s (e.g., Aigner 1970Aigner , 1977Black 1983;Laughlin and Aigner 1966;Laughlin and Marsh 1954;McCartney 1984;McCartney and Veltre 1996), although other authors have since discussed the assemblage in comparison with other Beringian industries (e.g., Ackerman 1992Ackerman , 2008Dumond and Bland 1995;Knecht and Davis 2008;Slobodin 2011;Steffian et al 2002). Since the 1990s, new data, new sites, and new complexes have been identified in Beringia, hence the need to reevaluate Anangula's lithic tool kit.…”

“…This is probably because many authors considered, at first, that there was no separate microblade component (Aigner 1970(Aigner , 1977Del Bene 1982;Dumond and Bland 1995;Laughlin and Marsh 1954;McCartney and Veltre 1996). This is probably because many authors considered, at first, that there was no separate microblade component (Aigner 1970(Aigner , 1977Del Bene 1982;Dumond and Bland 1995;Laughlin and Marsh 1954;McCartney and Veltre 1996).…”

The Donnelly Ridge Site and the Definition of an Early Core and Blade Complex in Central Alaska

“…Just where beyond the confines of central Alaska there might be identified possible further members of the complex is not clear. The suggested relationship between the Campus site and Pointed Mountain in Northwest Territories was a logical interpretation when viewed in perspective of what was known in 1954(MacNeish 1954, but it does not bear up under the closer scrutiny allowed today. Resemblances are in broad categories only -blades, microblades, burins, and scrapers.…”

“…Through the kindness of William S. Laughlin I have been able to spend some time examining the very large collection from Anangula Island in the Aleutians (Laughlin and Marsh 1954;Laughlin and Aigner 1966). This assemblage is quite different from the Denali complex, and the characteristic implements of the former (transverse burins on blades and blade-like flakes, a predominance of blades that could not be termed "micro," and many end scrapers) are not found in the latter.…”

University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates XVII

“…Samples coll June and July 1970 and subm by J S Aigner, Univ Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. For additional dates from this site, see P-1102, -1103, -1105, -1107 and -1108 (R, 1967, v 9, p 336-337) (Black & Laughlin, 1964;Laughlin, 1963;Laughlin & Marsh, 1954). General Comment: these samples are beyond range of correction factors now available.…”