The Iyatayet site is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

and

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

located on the northwest shore of

Cape Denbigh Cape Denbigh is located on the Seward Peninsula in Eastern Norton Sound in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is notable for the Iyatayet site, an Archaic stage hunter-gatherer archaeological site. The headland is a moderately high, rounded hill, joined ...

on Norton Bay in

Nome Census Area, Alaska Nome Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska, mostly overlapping with the Seward Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,046, up from 9,492 in 2010. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore ...

. It shows evidence of several separate cultures, dating back as far as 6000 B.C. It was excavated starting in 1948 by

J. Louis Giddings James Louis Giddings Jr. (April 10, 1909 – December 9, 1964) was an American archaeologist who made significant contributions to Arctic archaeology.Henry B. Collins,"Obituaries" 12 February 2015 During three decades of his fieldwork in Northwest ...

, the pioneering archaeologist of the area. It is significant as the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age ...

of the Norton culture, representative of human occupation c. 500BCE-500CE, first described by Giddings in 1964. It is also significant for the Denbigh Flint complex, which lay underneath the Norton materials, and provides evidence of some of the earliest human activity in the region. The site was declared a

in 1961.

Description

The Iyatayet site is located on both sides of Iyatayet Creek, near its mouth on the northwest side of

, a peninsular projection into Norton Bay, on the central-west coast of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. The site has a complex series of depositions, which begin with a Nukleet (

Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shet ...

) tradition settlement, identified by a series of depressions. Beneath this layer Giddings found a house pit which had been dug into older cultural materials. Both the house pit and the older materials became the type site for the

Norton tradition The Norton tradition is an archaeological culture that developed in the Western Arctic along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Strait around 1000 BC and lasted through about 800 AD. The Norton people used flake-stone tools like their predecessors, ...

, which lasted roughly from 1000 BC to 800 AD, and the site also has some elements of the older

Arctic small tool tradition The Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) was a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait around 2500 BC. ASTt groups were the first human occupants of Arctic ...

. Organic finds in these layers were relatively sparse, including ivory barbed weapon heads, toggling harpoon heads, and fragmentary tool blades. Decorative ivory finds included a doll figure. Stone artifacts were more numerous, with evidence of toolmaking (

debitage In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, b ...

) as well as projectile heads and stone knives. Pottery was also found, which was largely utilitarian and unornamented. Giddings interpreted the house site to be a winter accommodation, with its occupants engaged in seal hunting and fishing, with some efforts at caribou hunting as well. The site was examined by Giddings in 1948, but not formally written up by him until the 1960s; he referred to it as the "Denbigh Flint Complex".

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites in Alaska Archaeological type sites Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Alaska Geography of Nome Census Area, Alaska National Historic Landmarks in Alaska National Register of Historic Places in Nome Census Area, Alaska

Description

See also

References