Introduction

The Margaret Bay Site

    The Margaret Bay site is a large village occupation on Iliuliuk Bay, Unalaska. It is relatively undisturbed and has deposits more than 2m in thickness. The carbon-14 determinations place it at approximately between 1000 and 3000 B.C.E.  It is a multicomponent site and is very rich in artifacts, fauna, and features.  Excavations at the site began in May, 1996.  The 1996 season ran from May through September and the 1997 season also ran for the same time period.  The project is under the direction of Dr. Rick Knecht, Director of the Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska, and by Prof. Rick Davis of the Department of Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College.

    The excavation revealed remains of several stone-walled semi-subterranean houses.  The chipped stone tool assemblage recovered in the 1996 and 1997 seasons number more than 100,000 artifacts, and it resembles closely the Arctic Small Tool Tradition (ASTt) sites on the Alaskan Peninsula and Cape Denbigh and even those known from Greenland.  In addition to the ASTt stone tool elements, the assemblage also contains large blades, stone lamps, stone bowls, labrets,  ochre grinders, pendants, and miniature carved masks.  Several of these artfact classes may indicate continuity with the Anangula Blade site which is nearly 8000 years old and was first found on Anangula Island which is located on the north western shore of Umnak Island, approximately 125 miles to the west of Margaret Bay.

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March 12, 1998