PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Paul M. Ledger
AU  - Véronique Forbes
TI  - Paleoenvironmental Analyses from Nunalleq, Alaska Illustrate a Novel Means to Date Pre-Inuit and Inuit Archaeology
AID  - 10.3368/aa.56.2.39
DP  - 2020 Jun 29
TA  - Arctic Anthropology
PG  - 39--51
VI  - 56
IP  - 2
4099  - http://aa.uwpress.org/content/56/2/39.short
4100  - http://aa.uwpress.org/content/56/2/39.full
SO  - Arctic Anthropol2020 Jun 29; 56
AB  - Arctic archaeology suffers from a series of unfortunate conjunctures that make accurate and reliable dating of the prehistory of circumpolar North America problematic. Through the late-prehistoric Yup’ik site of Nunalleq, this paper explores a novel approach to dating archaeological sites in the circumpolar north. Presenting data from a peat sequence associated with the archaeological site, we examine if a combination of paleoenvironmental analyses (new insect, plant macrofossil and macroscopic charcoal data, and previously published palynological data), radiocarbon dating, and Bayesian modeling can generate high-resolution chronologies for archaeological sites. The results indicate that archaeological events are resolvable in the paleoenvironmental record and that the timing of such events illustrates a striking concordance with those derived from archaeological data. This paper highlights and recommends how paleoenvironmental analyses can be deployed towards improving the chronologies of Inuit and pre-Inuit archaeology.