4,000 Year-Old Bones
Graduate student Andrew Tremayne discovers 4,000 year old bones near Matcharak Lake in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Archaeologist Jeff Rasic establishes the importance of the find.
4,000 Year-Old Bones
These archaeologists are uncovering a Paleo-Eskimo camp in the Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. Carbon dating dates bones Andrew Tremayne discovers as 4,000 years old. The people who occupied the dig site relied on caribou and other prey. These Natives hunted game and brought kills back to camp. They used the parts and disposed of unused bones in the midden, or trash heap. Exploring the contents of the site helps archaeologists like Tremayne understand the lives of ancient humans in what is now Alaska.
Dr. Jeff Rasic is a National Park Service Archaeologist. He has excavated Ice Age Cave deposits on the Yukon River, led the underwater archaeology of Agiak Lake, and the archaeology of a prehistoric caribou drive. Dr. Rasic specializes in the archaeology of northern hunter-gatherers and is particularly interested in the earliest inhabitants of the north and how they made a living at the end of the last ice age. Since 1995, Dr. Rasic has focused on field work and research projects in Alaska, especially the northern and interior portions of the state.
4000 year old bones significance Native Alaska archaeology
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Project Summary
Paleo-Eskimo
Paleo-Eskimo Archaeology — Paleo-Eskimos are the ancient ancestors of modern Natives in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Travel with archaeologists into the field in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska, as they dig for artifacts from these long-ago traditions, uncovering examples of cunning technology and hunting prowess which... Read More >
