FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — You can bet that anyone who braves the biting cold and gale-force winds of western Alaska is looking for shelter. But when a University of Arkansas archeologist set out in 1986, he wasn’t searching for a warm fire or a soft bed. He was looking for some of the earliest shelters ever built on the Aleutian Islands. What he found was something far more significant.

Dr. Allen McCartney, professor of anthropology, along with colleagues, Douglas Veltre (University of Alaska — Anchorage), Lydia Black and Jean Aigner (University of Alaska — Fairbanks), spent four years on the isolated shore of Unalaska Island, excavating a communal longhouse that may once have sheltered up to 200 Aleuts.

McCartney will summarize the results of their joint research on Friday, Oct. 22, at the Arctic Archeology Conference in Indianapolis.

"The significance of this site is that it represents the earliest point of Russian contact yet excavated in Alaska," said McCartney. "We’re learning a great deal about the impact of Russian culture on the lives of native Aleuts."

Located in the eastern Aleutian Islands along the shore of Reese Bay, the settlement at Unalaska was first documented by Russian sailors in the 1760s. Traveling from Siberia on small ships, the Russians would set up camp beside native villages and stay for a year or more, trading beads and utensils for furs.

The influence of Russian goods and culture permeated Alaska for the next hundred years until the United States bought the territory in 1867. But despite Alaska’s keen interest in its Russian history, McCartney says that archeologists have only just begun to explore the impact of this foreign culture on the native way of life. In fact fewer than 10 excavations have been conducted on early Russian trading posts.

The team’s initial work uncovered two communal longhouses, the larger measuring 120 feet in length and the smaller, 80 feet.

"It’s typical to find one to 6 large communal houses making up a village," said McCartney. "Considering that each structure can house from 50-200 people, that’s a considerable population — especially in light of the limited resources available to them."

Along with native items such as stone knives, bone harpoons and amber beads, the researchers uncovered numerous Russian trade goods, including crockery, metal utensils and over 2,000 trade beads that had been dropped and lost in the grass surrounding the longhouse. Such evidence suggests that the Aleut population was developing a growing reliance on foreign goods.

Unfortunately, beads and baubles were not all the Russians brought with them. By 1800 an estimated 80 percent of the native population had died as a result of infectious diseases, introduced by their trading partners, McCartney said.

"That death toll makes it all the more important to study their way of life," he said. "The culture was severely affected by the first 60 years of contact."

In addition to identifying Reese Bay as an important Russian trading post, the excavation enabled the Arkansas-Alaska research team to confirm reports from early explorers and missionaries who attempted to document the conditions of native life.

One such effort was to correlate an illustration of Unalaska dwellings to the archeological evidence found on Reese Bay. These illustrations had been drawn by an artist named John Webber, who accompanied Captain James Cook on his final round-the-world voyage in 1778.

The drawings show a native longhouse, constructed with an arched timber frame and central support posts. The exterior of the house was covered with grass, and the interior contained a central community area with individual living spaces partitioned along the walls.

Since the 18^th century, Webber’s illustrations have been widely reproduced as some of the best representations of early aboriginal housing in the world. But only through the team’s excavation has their reputation been confirmed.

"We’ve documented the basic shape — the outer edges of the shelter, the walls and stone supports and the interior space," said McCartney. "All of them indicate that Webber’s drawing was highly accurate."

Unfortunately, the timber frame that sheltered the house disappeared long ago, said McCartney. Because the volcanic Aleutian Islands cannot support trees, natives were forced to scavenge for driftwood to construct their homes. McCartney speculates that when the Reese Bay longhouse was abandoned, other natives recycled the valuable wood.

"This site is a terrific example of historical archeology," McCartney said. "Written accounts can give you a general description of the way these people lived, but the physical evidence still needs to be uncovered to discover the details."

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