Gr 9 Reading Level

1. Alaska dig reveals tales of Eskimo life
long before contact with Europeans
By Anchorage Daily News, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.09.13
Word Count 1,059
An ulu handle with the image of a wolf-like beast on either end was uncovered at a dig site south of Quinhagak, Alaska, on
the Bering Sea. It would have held a semi-lunar blade of ground slate. Photo: Photo courtesy Department of Archaeology
of the University of Aberdeen/MCT
ANCHORAGE — Some unfamiliar items washed up on the beach near the village of
Quinhagak on the Bering Sea in Western Alaska about five years ago. The curiosities were
native to the area, with designs similar to those found in the Yup’ik Eskimo culture of the
region.
And they were wood, a material that usually decays after a few decades. Yet they were also
old. The mystery of where these items came from and why they were in such good
condition just had to be investigated.
Warren Jones is the general manager of Qanirtuuq Inc., a company which runs a grocery
store in Quinhagak and helps promote the village. Jones took some photographs and sent
them to Rick Knecht, who studies how humans have lived over the centuries as an
anthropologist.
Professor Knecht used to work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks but is now employed
by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He also helped establish museums on Eskimo
heritage in Kodiak and Unalaska.

2. The Question Was: How Old?
Knecht recognized the artifacts as prehistoric, which meant they were crafted in the years
long before contact between the Yup’ik Eskimos and Europeans in the 1800s. Knecht was
working on a project on Nunivak Island in Central Alaska at the time, so he dropped by
Quinhagak to examine the items. The professor toured the area and talked to Jones about
the possibility of doing a dig together.
The upshot was a partnership between Qanirtuuq and the Scottish university that is
uncovering an unprecedented trove of archaeological treasure.
“This is easily the largest collection of pre-contact Yup’ik material anywhere,” Knecht said,
describing the thousands of items that date from between 1350 and 1670.
Some of the most important pieces from previous digs are now on display at the King’s
Museum in Aberdeen. The exhibit is titled “Nunalleq,” which means “the old village” in the
Yup’ik language.
Teams of international volunteers working with local residents have found 8,000 of what
Knecht calls “better artifacts.” There are perhaps that many more fragments, all containing
information about life in the area centuries ago. And it seems like every day new and
eyepopping tools or decorative items are retrieved from the ground.
Treasures From Nunalleq
There are carvings, weapons, woven grass, clothing, dolls, even haircut trimmings from
inhabitants who lived there hundreds of years ago. “We found some amazing pieces on
Saturday,” Knecht said, adding that he has never seen anything like this before.
The first test holes were dug in 2009 and they were small, at about six feet across. But the
abundance of material that the researchers found showed that the site had been occupied
for a long while, and that the settlement probably consisted of 200 to 300 people.
Ever since then, the dig has expanded every year. In August, between 15 and 20
volunteers from all around the world joined Quinhagak residents in a “field school” to
excavate the site that now stretches for about 150 yards.
Professor Knecht is excited by what the team has found. He's really interested not only by
the amount of items discovered at the site, but by the quality and rarity of the materials.
He explained that because the ground has been frozen for the whole time, the artifacts are
in very good condition. “Because it’s been in permafrost up until now, the level of
preservation is just marvelous,” Knecht said. “Eighty percent of what we’re finding is wood
or other organics. A lot of them are preserved to the extent that they still have original paint
on them. For all practical purposes, we’re looking at new wood.”

3. Frozen In Time, Perfectly Preserved
This is extremely important for the research because at one time a large amount of the
things used by the Yup’ik people were made from wood. In most circumstances such items
decompose within a century or so. Here, however, the excavators have found whole
wooden masks, bowls, bows, arrows and spears.
Knecht explained that they have found not just the hard tips of the spears made out of
bone, but the softer handles and shafts of the weapons.
They also discovered "scraps of sealskin clothing with original needle holes" as well as
“animal fur, little bodies of insects” and, in one instance, a mouse. The team have dug up
grass baskets that are still a little bit green. As soon as these are brought into the air the
color fades as the oxygen hits the ancient grass.
The team has also discovered very delicate ropes made of grass and roots. These kinds of
materials are very rare to find as they usually have rotted away many years ago.
“There are very few archaeological projects in this area, which is about the size of Great
Britain,” Knecht said. The professor acknowledged that little is known about how people
used to live in this part of Alaska. "There’s been so little archaeology in Yup’ik country that
everything we find here is a revelation."
Old Village Revealing Secrets
Knecht said the dates of the objects are important, because they span a particularly cold
period of the so-called Little Ice Age, an abrupt period of lower-than-usual temperatures
and ice advances recorded from 1430 to 1455. It wiped out the Norse settlements in
Greenland and hammered crops throughout the northern hemisphere of the Old World.
The destruction was written about in court records in Europe and Asia. But how did it affect
Alaskans?
That’s something Knecht hopes the old village can reveal. “From this site, we can learn a
huge amount about how people lived before and after the ecosystems changed.”
Knecht thinks the old village was a winter gathering place on the Arolik River. It was
abandoned after the river shifted. The land is famously moving in this part of the world,
constantly rearranged by rivers and ocean currents. The shoreline is rapidly eroding at the
old village.
“Most of (the site) may have been washed away already,” Knecht said. “We may just be
looking at a portion of it. Maybe a quarter of the original site is left — and it’s going fast.”
The ocean has already taken out the original dig site, he said. “If we hadn’t done the work
we did in 2009, 2010, everything, about 8,000 pieces, would have been lost. We’re just
barely staying ahead of it. It’s kind of an emergency.”

4. Quiz
1 What event led to the destruction of the original archaeological dig site?
(A) cold temperature
(B) the river shift
(C) ocean's tide
(D) a mud slide
2 What is the reason why it is rare for the teams to find ropes made of grass and roots?
(A) Yup'ik people did not generally use grass ropes.
(B) The shifting of the earth washed the ropes away.
(C) These types of materials usually rot away very easily. (D) The extreme cold
temperatures destroyed the ropes.
3 What is the primary reason for the archaeological dig?
(A) to fill the King's Museum with artifacts
(B) to learn how Eskimos lived centuries ago
(C) to discover what destroyed the Norse settlements
(D) to teach volunteers how to run an excavation project
4 Select the paragraph that states the importance of discovering wooden artifacts for
archaeologists.