Tag Archives: Rat Islands research

Archaeology, University at Buffalo Lab Research

Learning about archaeology through lab work

Author: Cesar Najarro | Senior | University at Buffalo | Feb. 15, 2016

My name is Cesar Najarro and I am currently a senior at the University at Buffalo and have been working in the archeology lab with Dr. Funk for about two months now. The focus of our research revolves around a series of islands located just off the coast of Alaska called the Aleutian Islands. These islands were inhabited by a semi-nomadic people named the Aleuts (also know as the Unangan). These people lived off land and sea resources, particularly the marine fauna available to them at different times throughout the year. Their prehistoric sites throughout the islands include massive deposits of animal remains resulting from generations of hunting and eating and disposal habits. These remains allow us to understand several varying factors about the environment and the impact humans had on it.

My first assignment in the lab was to categorize and sort the material collected in 1/8th inch screen based on the characteristics of the various fragments in the samples. Among these fragments were fishbone, bird and mammal bones, charcoal and sea urchin skeletal parts. All of these remains result from Aleut activities and thus give insight as to how they shaped their environment. In particular the sea urchins were of great importance because of their sensitivity to any type of environmental change, thus making them excellent markers for different time periods, as the size of their remains change by noticeable amounts. Although sorting was not the most exciting task in particular, it did give me a new found appreciation for the patience and dedication archeologists must have in order to properly categorize their findings while simultaneously looking for patterns within the fossil record in order to make an outline as to how the environment changed and what possible factors influenced said change.

My second and as of now current task revolves around capturing and processing digital images of bone artifacts made by the Aleuts, such as fishhooks. This I find much more interesting because it caters to one of my own hobbies (photography) as well allowing me to further develop my skills with image processing software. Capturing the  photos is straight forward, there is a small set up we have to do before hand in order to best capture the details of the artifact; factors such as light, angle and even movement of the camera must be accounted for in order to capture the best possible image of the artifact. Once this is done, I process the photo using GIMP (GNU manipulation software; https://www.gimp.org). I edit the images in order to refine and highlight certain aspects of the artifacts, such as carvings and breaks. This all serves to give insight into the culture of the Aleuts and convey the level of sophistication these people had in their ability to craft fine details into their tools, a trait that can be associated with a society with a strong culture and rich history.

Archaeology, Birds, University at Buffalo Lab Research, Zooarchaeology

Measuring Bird Bones

Author: Ariel Taivalkoski

While it has become more common to identify the bird bones from archaeological sites to family, it is rare to have a bird bone assemblage as large as that from the Rat Islands Project site KIS-050 test excavation. The midden context of this Kiska Island site has preserved the bird bones in excellent condition. We have over 5,000 bird bones, many of which are whole. It was initially daunting to organize the data collection for this assemblage and our analysis spreadsheet went through several iterations before I was able to create a database that allowed us to collect the most useful information while still allowing us to finish the analysis of this collection within a timely manner.

During one of the revisions of our spreadsheet, I decided that I would need to begin measuring our bones, following standards in Gilbert (1996) and Driesch (1976) that aid in species identification. My primary goal for recording these measurements was to help us quickly differentiate between the large numbers of Alcids, which range greatly in size, that were present at the site. Additionally, this will help us to conduct our overall species identifications in a timelier manner.

This revision came after I analyzed 15 level assemblages to family. Dr. Funk and I have spent a couple days recently revisiting the identified elements to record these standard measurements. This process has allowed us to expand our data set, as well as served to double-check my family level identifications for the first identfications I made.

Ariel Bird Bone

Archaeology, University at Buffalo Lab Research, Zooarchaeology

Invertebrates in the midden

Author: C. Funk | Rats Project Lab at UB | July 9, 2015

Thanks to the efforts of twenty or more undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers at UB and Hamline University our ¼ inch screen bulk samples from the KIS-050 village midden are sorted to component parts. Samples of identified fish, bird, and mammal elements are in the isotope lab at UAF. Mammal bone elements are being identified by the Hamline team, birds by the UB team. Stone tools go to Hamline, bone tools stay here at UB.

Josh is sorting and analyzing the invetebrate assemblage from this bulk sample. The materials are c. 1000 years old.
Josh is sorting and analyzing the invetebrate assemblage from this bulk sample. The materials are c. 1000 years old.

This month the invertebrates from the bulk samples will receive our focused attention. Josh Howard, a graduate student working in the Rats Lab at UB this summer and I are sorting, counting, weighing, and starting to identify the invertebrate assemblage from the ¼ inch bulk sample fraction. We measure whole lantern pyramids (mouth parts) from Strongylocentrous spp. (sea urchins) to track their size over time. Smaller urchins may indicate periods of heavy harvesting and signal community shifts in the local intertidal zone. Limpet size shifts may similarly signal ecological changes, but most of the limpets are fractured and impossible to measure – their little hat tops, the apex portions, are separated from their wide brims.

Periwinkles and other gastropods, mussels, and chitons live in the modern rocky intertidal zone near the archaeological site, but they are poorly represented in the archaeological assemblages. We count the hinge fragments of mussels and the whorls of gastropods to learn how many are present in a sample. The numbers are variable, but low for each bulk sample – less even than one serving of bouillabaisse or Portuguese caldeirada de peixe might have in it. We’d be happy to count chiton plates, if only they were present in the prehistoric occupation debris of KIS-050. We thought they should be present, since our team ecologist saw so many in the modern intertidal zone.

Archaeologists in the Aleutian Islands tend to think of prehistoric sites and reefs as paired – reefs can be rich resource areas. But as our work continues to demonstrate, prehistoric Aleut use of these resources was complex. The details of which invertebrates were harvested, where they were eaten, and how people disposed of them remain obscure to us. Measuring invertebrate abundance, size, and community parameters will tell us more about the circumstances of Aleut choice – what species were even available to eat in the dynamic intertidal environment?

The sorted shellfish, awaiting further analyses.
The sorted shellfish, awaiting further analyses.
Archaeology, Birds, University at Buffalo Lab Research, Zooarchaeology

Sorting Midden, Analyzing Bones

Author: C. Funk | UB Rats Project Lab | May 29

Our bins of unsorted midden and unanalyzed bird bones are emptier every day as we work through our sorting and analyses. Darren Poltorak just spent three months sorting 1/4″ screen bulk samples  – we sent the fish he sorted to Megan Partlow of Central Washington University for analysis. Her data will be posted on our results page soon.

Darren sorting fish from the 1/4" bulk samples.
Darren sorting fish from the 1/4″ bulk samples.

I’m weighing, counting, and measuring the shellfish from the bulks Darren sorted. Soon Josh Howard will be sorting the 1/8″ screen bulk samples. He’ll be measuring many sea urchin mouth elements so that we can look for changes in sea urchin body size over the more than 2,000 years people harvested them from the Corvie Bay intertidal zone. Ariel Taivalkoski and I are working to identify our more than 5,000 bird bones. So far she (with a little help from me!) has identified 1,700 bones to avian family. We are seeing interesting shifts in the types of birds present over time and in differentl behavioral contexts.

Ariel entering avian faunal analysis data.
Ariel entering avian faunal analysis data.
Archaeology, Fairbanks Lab Research, Paleobotany, UAF Lab Research, University of Alaska

Peat Cores on Kiska Island

Author: C. Funk | University at Buffalo

Nancy Bigelow, our project specialist in pollen and plant macrofossils, took several peat cores and column samples from the area around our Summer 2014 camp – which happened to be situated near a newly described prehistoric Aleut village site (KIS-050). Her cores will give us a dated sequence of plant macrofossils (which come from the local area) and pollen (which may be wind-borne from a much broader area). Plants are sensitive to environmental changes like the amount of precipitation, temperature, windiness, soil chemistry, or amount of sunlight – and the impacts of human activities near them or interventions in their lifecycle.

Dr. Bigelow’s cores are the first from Kiska Island and her work will introduce entirely new information about the prehistoric environment shared by Aleuts, plants, and animals. Her research will combine with the archaeology team’s data to help us frame new questions about Aleut plant use and landscape manipulation. As the field images below show, processing a core is labor intensive, from the extraction process to lab sampling and analysis. Results from the processing of the first core should be ready this spring.

 

 

University at Buffalo Lab Research

The radiocarbon samples are off to the lab.

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Author: C. Funk | University at Buffalo | November 28, 2014

Fourteen little foil packets of charcoal, burned grass, and charred wood have headed off to the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. They’ll compete with Black Friday online shopping packages for space in the UPS plane, but I packed them tightly in a strong little box.

Samples 2

Once they arrive at the Keck CCAMS lab, Dr. John Southon will prepare the samples for analysis. They’ll go into the accelerator where they’ll be ionized and become negatively charged carbon atoms. Then, they’ll be accelerated to become positively charged atoms shooting along a path specific to carbon atoms. Carbon isotope 12, 13, and 14 atoms will deflect from the carbon path at different angles and they’ll be counted as they pass detectors in the accelerator. The counts will provide Dr. Southon with a ratio of stable and unstable carbon isotopes – and because unstable carbon 14 decays at a known rate from a known proportion in organic material he can tell me how old the carbon samples are.

Our job in the archaeology lab will be to associate the dated carbon samples with the rest of the materials. Everything hinges on how responsibly we make these associations. The archaeological materials will be considered older, younger, or more or less the same age as the dated materials depending positioning in the excavation. Similarly dated plant materials from the pollen cores taken in the surrounding landscape will tie developments in the environment to cultural events. Our prehistoric food web models will be based on the dates we assign to archaeological faunal materials according to their proximity to dated carbon samples. And, defining the long-term history of Aleut use of southern Kiska Island relies on the dates for all of the large and small sites we located during the summer’s field work.

We sent seven samples from KIS-050, a newly recorded prehistoric Aleut village site that we mapped and intensively tested during the Summer 2014 season. We are dating materials from a series of middens and house floors. The hope is that we have a strong temporal sequence and that all of the excavated materials can be placed in time ranges of hundreds of years.

Samples1

I sent seven samples from several other newly recorded Aleut village sites and smaller occupations that we located during the archaeological survey. We’ll know when these places were used at least one time in the past, but we won’t know for how long they were used by Aleuts, or for what. The dates from the smaller shovel tests we excavated on survey give us a broad idea of how intensively Aleuts used the whole area over hundreds of years.

These fourteen hard won little packets of charred material separate us from the old days of Aleutian archaeology, when everything was known simply as before, and nothing could be tracked over the lifetimes of individuals and families living in an ever-changing world.

Marine Biology, UAF Lab Research

Intertidal Food Web Analysis

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Author: Nicole Misarti | UAF | October 30, 2014

Courtney Sessum and Kelsey Saylor begin the process of dissecting intertidal samples in the UAF wet lab. Once they have been cleaned, dissected, freeze dried and powdered the samples will be run through an IRMS for nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis at the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility at UAF.

UAF Lab

Life in the Field

Recalling a special day in the field

Author: B. Hornbeck | University at Buffalo | October 25, 2014

About halfway through our stay on Kiska Island, we all… well, let’s just say we didn’t smell like fresh laundry or roses.  Two straight weeks of existence in four layers of clothing encased in Gore-Tex and rubber rain gear doesn’t exactly do wonders for hygiene.  While all of us are experienced in playing the role of rugged field scientist, stripping down in 40 degree, 20mph rain filled winds only to pour lukewarm water over your head takes a great deal of mental fortitude.  Most of the time we just settled for a baby-wipe bird bath before crawling into our sleeping bags at night, partly to conserve water, and partly out of refusal to brave the former option.  Baby-wipe bird baths count, right?  It’s not like anyone could smell you through your rain gear anyway!

Made with items we found on the beach, and left-over camp materials.
Made with items we found on the beach, and left-over camp materials. Don’t be fooled by the durability of thick black plastic and duck tape. The wind and rain still managed to find their way in.

Needless to say, we were all pretty excited when we got word from the Tiglax that they had a moment to swing by for a few hours and provide us with lunch and showers.  Real, hot, hidden from the elements, showers!  And to top it off, a break from spam and cabbage!  This was a very special day for the Kiska crew indeed.

As we piled into the skiff, and anxiously awaited our chariots departure to our small taste of ‘civilization’, we encountered a brief moment of technical difficulties.  The motor wouldn’t release from the upright position, and when it finally did, it wasn’t exactly eager to run. We didn’t mind though, we sat patiently, daydreaming of the luxuries that awaited us.

Click the link for a video capturing our happy faces, the exchanges of amused grins, and our arrival on the Tiglax.

Technical Difficulties on the Skiff

Birds, University at Buffalo Lab Research, Zooarchaeology

Bird bones in the lab at Buffalo

Author: C. Funk | University at Buffalo | October 9, 2014

We’re working here in the Rat Islands research lab at University at Buffalo. It’s a Thursday afternoon – outside it’s windy and sunny, a perfect fall day. In here the lights are shining brightly on Ariel, Bobbi, and me. Bobbi is cataloging bone tools and I’ll talk to her about that a bit next week.

Ariel sorting bird bones.Today I’m interested in what Ariel is doing.

Ariel is a second year graduate student here in the department. She is planning to specialize in monumentality and colonialism in Europe for her dissertation research. She happens to have a skill set in bird osteology and that’s why she’s here with us.

“What are you doing over there?” I ask her. She rolls her eyes at me a little bit because I can clearly see what she is doing, “sorting a sample bag of bird bones into elements,” she says. After a moment she says, “I think this is just one bird, part of the thoracic area and the wings. The vertebrae are articulating and the tarsometatarsi are paired.” We do a quick check in the bird book and it seems to be a small cormorant. Our comparative osteological collection will arrive from the Burke Museum in Seattle next week. We’ll identify the bird then.

Ariel with a mostly intact bird skeleton.Bobbi and Ariel and I are talking about excavation sampling strategies and their impacts on which elements were collected and on the patterns of bone presence we’ll use to talk about Aleut resource exploitation, processing, and discard strategies. Ariel says that she thinks she is seeing more humerii and ulnae in general – those are the bones in the bird wing. But some samples have a higher concentration of leg elements. “Mostly,” Ariel looks up at me from her study of the bones on the table, “mostly we seem to have more wings than butts.” Bobbi looks interested at this. “Maybe they were making a lot of bird butt hats. In the field, Debbie said Aleuts made duck butt hats for babies. They cut the legs off and sewed the thighs so the feathered legs stuck up like feathery little ears.” We talk about wearing bird butt hats for a bit before we settle back into work.

I ask Ariel if she has worked with birds at other sites. She has. She worked on the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia. But she worked with flotation samples there, so the specimens were small and fragmented. She says that the Rats materials are larger, that there are more whole elements, and that the preservation of this collection is excellent.

“Why birds?” I ask Ariel. “Because another researcher asked me what I’d like to look at. I picked birds because I don’t want to do fish and it turns out birds aren’t studied often. People think they are difficult but they are actually easy to identify to family. There’s a lot of room for research.”

Ariel and Bobbi working.I’ve stopped bothering Bobbi and Ariel and they are working away. I can hear the bones shuffling around on the table in front of Ariel, and the keyboard clattering while Bobbi enters artifact catalog data on the lab computer.