204 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 192 



carbon dates of 5,600 or 7,150 years ago ±600 years (Wormington, 

 1957, p. 150)— it is natural that Birket-Smith (1953, pp. 225 f.) 

 should suggest that it was accidental that copper was found only in 

 sites of the very late prehistoric period in Prince William Sound and 

 Kachemak Bay. We should also note that ornaments of native copper 

 occur in both Beach Grove and Marpole (Eburne), with radiocarbon 

 dates from the latter site ranging from 943 B.C. ±170 to A.D. 179 

 ±60 years (Borden, personal communication). Despite this range 

 in dates, and Dr. Borden's hestitation to accept the earliest count 

 from the site, there seems to be no question but that copper working 

 was old on the southern Northwest Coast. However, the Yakutat 

 and Atna stories about the origin of copper working lack the mytho- 

 logical character which would suggest great antiquity for this art; 

 rather, the protagonists appear to have been ordinary Indians, though 

 supernaturally blessed with luck. There is, of course, no necessary 

 connection between the copper work in these two areas. 



We may assume, therefore, that Old Town was settled in the late 

 prehistoric period and abandoned before the late phase of the proto- 

 historic period. However, it is possible that the postulated "earlier 

 protohistoric period" of drift iron may overlap in time the "later pre- 

 historic period" of native copper alone. The Yakutat natives had 

 easier access to the great ocean beaches where wreckage was found 

 than did most of the Chugach, and may always have had more iron 

 than the latter, and have found it earlier. Absence of iron from 

 Chugach sites where it might have been expected, may, therefore, be 

 due to geographical factors. 



We do not know how early in post-Wisconsin times the Yakutat 

 area may have been open for human settlement. Riddell has reviewed 

 the geological and botanical data which may indicate at what period 

 or periods southeastern and southwestern Alaska could have been 

 inhabited. In summarizing these findings (1954, p. 105), he concludes 

 that: "Even the currently most heavily glaciated region of the coast, 

 of which Yakutat Bay is the approximate center, probably was suffi- 

 ciently deglaciated and populated with the necessary types of flora 

 and fauna to allow human occupation about 6,000 years ago." The 

 Aleutian Islands and the southern Northwest Coast were habitable 

 several thousand years earlier. About three to five thousand years 

 ago occurred the post-glacial optimum in southeastern Alaska, followed 

 by a glacial advance (Riddell, 1954, pp. 75 ff., 177). 



It must be remembered . . . that the present icefields in the Pacific Coast 

 region are not remnants of the Wisconsin advances, but are the residue of a rela- 

 tively small ice advance of approximately 3,000 years ago. This period of ice 

 advance is sometimes referred to as "the Uttie ice age." Before this advance, 

 the glaciers in Alaska had retreated a greater distance than have the present 

 glaciers. [Ibid., p. 108.] 



