Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly... more Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska.
The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and rep... more The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and reported on in the early 1980s and 1990s. The remains of two individual mammoths (the “Upper” and “Lower”), and elements of horse, bison, and caribou make this a unique faunal assemblage for a region in interior western Alaska, and the western edge of eastern Beringia. The mammoth remains were the only portions of the faunal assemblage radiocarbon dated in the 1980s. The Upper mammoth ages were widespread between 13,000 and 16,200 BP with the older dates being more accepted for the death of the individual. A single age on the Lower mammoth was produced at 22,880 14C yr BP. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates generally confirm the accepted ages for the two mammoths and provide more precise ages of 16,200 ± 50 and 22,710 ± 90 14C yr BP for the Upper and Lower mammoths, respectively. AMS dates on caribou and horse are similar to ages on the Upper mammoth and show an overlap in their ...
Ice is the defining feature of the Arctic. Lake, river and sea ice, as well as frozen ground – pe... more Ice is the defining feature of the Arctic. Lake, river and sea ice, as well as frozen ground – permafrost – characterize and dominate the Arctic environment. Ice is the crucial medium for travel and subsistence for Arctic inhabitants, and understanding of this material has enabled human occupation of the region. However, baseline data regarding the significance of ice for buried and submerged cultural resource sites is lacking. The need for study and conceptual awareness of the medium is critical, especially as Arctic regions and resources are impacted by rapidly changing climatic conditions.
In 1931, the Hudson’s Bay Company cargo steamer, the SS Baychimo, was trapped in sea ice and aban... more In 1931, the Hudson’s Bay Company cargo steamer, the SS Baychimo, was trapped in sea ice and abandoned in the Chukchi Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. Large amounts of scientific and navigational instruments and gear and personal items were left aboard, among them an ethnographic collection gathered in 1930 from Inuit groups in the Canadian Arctic by Richard Sterling Finnie. The ship was boarded several times over the next three years with items being salvaged by locals from nearby Wainwright and Barrow. In 1933, crew and passenger from the MS Trader, a small trading vessel from Nome, boarded the abandoned ship and recovered several of Finnie’s ethnological specimens. In 1934, Peter Palsson, crewmember of the Trader, gave several ethnological specimens to members of the United States Department of the Interior-Alaska College Archaeological Expedition. That year, the Baychimo collection was accessioned to the nascent University of Alaska Museum (now, the University of Alaska Museum of the North). For over 80 years, the collection’s relationships with Finnie, the Baychimo, and Palsson remained obscured, and its historical significance has just been rediscovered. This article describes the collection and the path it took from the Baychimo to the University of Alaska Museum.
The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and rep... more The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and reported on in the early 1980s and 1990s. The remains of two individual mammoths (the “Upper” and “Lower”), and elements of horse, bison, and caribou make this a unique faunal assemblage for a region in interior western Alaska, and the western edge of eastern Beringia. The mammoth remains were the only portions of the faunal assemblage radiocarbon dated in the 1980s. The Upper mammoth ages were widespread between 13,000 and 16,200 BP with the older dates being more accepted for the death of the individual. A single age on the Lower mammoth was produced at 22,880 14C yr BP. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates generally confirm the accepted ages for the two mammoths and provide more precise ages of 16,200 ± 50 and 22,710 ± 90 14C yr BP for the Upper and Lower mammoths, respectively. AMS dates on caribou and horse are similar to ages on the Upper mammoth and show an overlap in their ecological ranges in interior western Alaska between 16,000 and 17,000 14C yr BP during the Late Glacial, similar to other areas of the state. The sole AMS date on bison produced an infinite 14C age (>43,500 14C yr BP), considerably older than the Upper and Lower mammoths’ remains, and indicates that older deposits are present at the site. A dearth of dated Quaternary paleontological specimens from western Alaska hinders our understanding of this region’s paleoecology. This study enhances our conception of the geographic and chronological spread of late Pleistocene large terrestrial mammals in Alaska and Beringia.
Rossiskaya Akademia Nauk, Sbornik muzeya antropologii i etnografii. (Russian Academy of Sciences, Journal of the Museum of History and Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia), 2010
Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly... more Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska.
The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and rep... more The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and reported on in the early 1980s and 1990s. The remains of two individual mammoths (the “Upper” and “Lower”), and elements of horse, bison, and caribou make this a unique faunal assemblage for a region in interior western Alaska, and the western edge of eastern Beringia. The mammoth remains were the only portions of the faunal assemblage radiocarbon dated in the 1980s. The Upper mammoth ages were widespread between 13,000 and 16,200 BP with the older dates being more accepted for the death of the individual. A single age on the Lower mammoth was produced at 22,880 14C yr BP. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates generally confirm the accepted ages for the two mammoths and provide more precise ages of 16,200 ± 50 and 22,710 ± 90 14C yr BP for the Upper and Lower mammoths, respectively. AMS dates on caribou and horse are similar to ages on the Upper mammoth and show an overlap in their ...
Ice is the defining feature of the Arctic. Lake, river and sea ice, as well as frozen ground – pe... more Ice is the defining feature of the Arctic. Lake, river and sea ice, as well as frozen ground – permafrost – characterize and dominate the Arctic environment. Ice is the crucial medium for travel and subsistence for Arctic inhabitants, and understanding of this material has enabled human occupation of the region. However, baseline data regarding the significance of ice for buried and submerged cultural resource sites is lacking. The need for study and conceptual awareness of the medium is critical, especially as Arctic regions and resources are impacted by rapidly changing climatic conditions.
In 1931, the Hudson’s Bay Company cargo steamer, the SS Baychimo, was trapped in sea ice and aban... more In 1931, the Hudson’s Bay Company cargo steamer, the SS Baychimo, was trapped in sea ice and abandoned in the Chukchi Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. Large amounts of scientific and navigational instruments and gear and personal items were left aboard, among them an ethnographic collection gathered in 1930 from Inuit groups in the Canadian Arctic by Richard Sterling Finnie. The ship was boarded several times over the next three years with items being salvaged by locals from nearby Wainwright and Barrow. In 1933, crew and passenger from the MS Trader, a small trading vessel from Nome, boarded the abandoned ship and recovered several of Finnie’s ethnological specimens. In 1934, Peter Palsson, crewmember of the Trader, gave several ethnological specimens to members of the United States Department of the Interior-Alaska College Archaeological Expedition. That year, the Baychimo collection was accessioned to the nascent University of Alaska Museum (now, the University of Alaska Museum of the North). For over 80 years, the collection’s relationships with Finnie, the Baychimo, and Palsson remained obscured, and its historical significance has just been rediscovered. This article describes the collection and the path it took from the Baychimo to the University of Alaska Museum.
The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and rep... more The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and reported on in the early 1980s and 1990s. The remains of two individual mammoths (the “Upper” and “Lower”), and elements of horse, bison, and caribou make this a unique faunal assemblage for a region in interior western Alaska, and the western edge of eastern Beringia. The mammoth remains were the only portions of the faunal assemblage radiocarbon dated in the 1980s. The Upper mammoth ages were widespread between 13,000 and 16,200 BP with the older dates being more accepted for the death of the individual. A single age on the Lower mammoth was produced at 22,880 14C yr BP. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates generally confirm the accepted ages for the two mammoths and provide more precise ages of 16,200 ± 50 and 22,710 ± 90 14C yr BP for the Upper and Lower mammoths, respectively. AMS dates on caribou and horse are similar to ages on the Upper mammoth and show an overlap in their ecological ranges in interior western Alaska between 16,000 and 17,000 14C yr BP during the Late Glacial, similar to other areas of the state. The sole AMS date on bison produced an infinite 14C age (>43,500 14C yr BP), considerably older than the Upper and Lower mammoths’ remains, and indicates that older deposits are present at the site. A dearth of dated Quaternary paleontological specimens from western Alaska hinders our understanding of this region’s paleoecology. This study enhances our conception of the geographic and chronological spread of late Pleistocene large terrestrial mammals in Alaska and Beringia.
Rossiskaya Akademia Nauk, Sbornik muzeya antropologii i etnografii. (Russian Academy of Sciences, Journal of the Museum of History and Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia), 2010
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