2014 Pilot Study

A linear formation of earth mounds identified on Kiska Island during the 2014 pilot study. B. Hornbeck, 2014.

The Rat Islands Earth Mounds Project was developed after B. Hornbeck identified 46 earth mounds in linear and cluster formation near an Unangax^ village site on Kiska Island in 2014.

B. Hornbeck, C. Funk, and S. Goranson completed an archaeological test excavation on one of these 46 earth mounds (Mound 14). This test revealed cultural materials and episodic deposition. Materials collected from this test include eight lithic artifacts and a charcoal sample which returned a calibrated radiocarbon date of 3,505 +/- 20 BP.

Mound 14 profile, WSW wall, with soil interpretation. C. Funk & N. Bigelow, 2014.

 

Three of the lithic artifacts from Mound 14 are tools and five are waste flakes made from basaltic material. Three of the flakes have striking platforms, all of which exhibit crushed surfaces suggesting bipolar reduction. One tool is a bipolar wedge/chisel/punch made of basalt. The remaining two tools are large pebbles with striated or scratched use wear on their surfaces. These tools were used as abraders or polishers. The location of the use wear on curved surfaces is unusual compared to the abraders and whetstones from the nearby village, where most of the use wear is on flat, faceted surfaces.

Mound 14 lithics (left: abraders/polishers; middle: waste flakes; right: wedge/chisel/punch). B. Hoffman, 2014.

By the end of the 2014 field session, more than 100 earth mounds were discovered across Kiska Island and Segula Island. Post-field analysis of satellite imagery and archival documents revealed an additional four clusters of earth mounds across Kiska Island and Amchitka Island.

The pilot study began during the 2014 field season of the project "Aleutian Archaeology: Identifying Cultural and Environmental Relationships c. 6000 BP to 250 BP" - also known as the Rat Islands Research Project. The Rat Islands Research Project was funded by the National Science Foundation through Award #1303566 (PI: Caroline Funk, University at Buffalo; CO-PI: Brian Hoffman, Hamline University; CO-PI: Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska, Fairbanks).