Saturday, August 7, 2010

Midden at Mitk’sqaaq Angayuk

  
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Over the last few days we have started to excavate in the (hopefully) Kachemak midden at Mitk’sqaaq Angayuk. We have not found any diagnostic artifacts that could tell us what time period the midden dates to, but we are still hopeful it is at least 2000 years old. Yesterday we got into a black layer that was completely full of cod bones. The bottom photo is of a bucket that Patrick wet-screened to look for charcoal for radiocarbon dating. Once we get the date back in a couple of months, we will know for sure how old this layer is. Almost all the bones you see in the photo are cod bones! This winter I will identify the fish bones and shells in my lab at UW, but in addition to cod I have already noticed quite a bit of salmon, halibut, and sculpin in the midden.
The top photo is of me labeling a bag. The middle photo is of volunteers Katie Botz and Leslie Watson digging in the midden

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