Race to save Alaska's lost "melting villages"boosted by major research grant

[Rowdyboy]

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2014/01/race-to-save-alaskas-lost-melting.html#.UuG386_nYqQ

Dr Knecht added: “Since we started in 2009, the shoreline has retreated a full 10 metres. This is happening all around the arctic and because these were coastal people, the archaeological record is lost with it. But it’s not just an archaeological record – it’s one of the clearest records of the past that we know of anywhere in the north.”

Named ‘Nunalleq’ (meaning ‘the old village’) by village elders, discoveries at the site number tens of thousands and have included samples of human hair, ceremonial face masks and an ivory carving of a legendary river monster.

The dig has been carried out in full partnership with the local indigenous community. The pieces have been transported to the University of Aberdeen for preservation and archiving but remain the property of the people of Quinhagak and will be returned afterwards.

The site was inhabited between 1300 and 1650, during the Little Ice Age (shortly after 1400), which was a period of rapid global climate change. As well as providing a fascinating account of how the Yup’ik people lived hundreds of years ago, the project is also relevant to bigger issues concerning climate change in general.