ARCHEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ALASKA — SOLECKI 483 



I found no stratified sites in the course of my survey. Many of the 

 artifacts, even some of the "Mongolian" type polyhedral cores and 

 lamellar flakes were found practically on the bare rocks of the hills. 

 What little soil accumulation was present on the hill summits could 

 be called mere rock detritus. The artifacts found on the uplands 

 were on denuded areas of what amounted to bare outcrops of sandstone 

 and siltstone geologically dated as upper Cretaceous. These areas 

 had scant vegetation, forsaken even by the tundra grasses in which 

 the valleys and flats abomided. The slight precipitation provided very 

 little erosion or soil formation; consequently the majority of the 

 cultural remains lay practically where they had been dropped. The 

 frigidity of the climate over a greater part of the year also accounted 

 for the very slight soil disturbance. Therefore, beyond an occasional 

 few inches of soil cover, there was no great accumulation of silt or 

 soil deposits, such as are usually pointed out as an indication of strati- 

 graphic age. Pedologists or soil scientists would call this Arctic 

 upland very young. Telltale surface debris, commonly consisting of 

 glistening flint flakes and other similar workshop remains, littered the 

 small areas where the hunter probably whiled away his time patiently 

 waiting for a sight of game. 



Native stone materials for the manufacture of chipped-flint imple- 

 ments occurred in the form of local river cobbles and in outcrops of 

 cherty rock. The characteristic colors of the flint were various shades 

 of gray and green, with some reddish and black, in that order. The 

 Lisburne limestone deposits in the mountains yielded a good supply 

 of native chert. 



The foothills area of the north slope was found to be best suited for 

 archeological research. Indeed, by far the majority of the sites were 

 located within the confines of this strip. It was apparently no accident 

 that this area was favored by hunters, since even in historic times the 

 inland Eskimos kept close to the mountains over the great part of the 

 year (Stoney, 1899). Upon a little observation it was seen that herds 

 of caribou could have been more easily spotted, ambushed, and dis- 

 patched with short-range weapons from the shelter of the hills than 

 on the coastal plain. Archeologically, also, there were more exposed 

 areas which could be readily examined in the foothills. This con- 

 trasted with the flatter coastal plain, where there were fewer denuded 

 and barren points and consequently fewer sites to be found. A few 

 river-cut banks and some low elevations, where a particularly resistant 

 rock formation bulged the ground surface up in a low hillock, pr> 

 sented the more usual opportunities for archeological examination. 



In the lower parts of the valleys, were it not for the "soil boils" or 

 minor soil upheavals through weak points in the permanently frozen 

 ground or permafrost, no actual soil could be seen because of the tundra 



