A Burial Cave in the Western Aleutian Islands, Alaska

A Burial Cave in the Western Aleutian Islands Alaska

Dixie West Christine Lefegravevre Debra Corbett and Susan Crockford

Abstract During the 1998 field season the Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiologi-cal Project (WAAPP) team located a cave in the Near Islands Alaska Near the entrance of thecave the team identified work areas and sleepingsitting areas surrounded by cultural debrisand animal bones Human burials were found in the cave interior In 2000 with permissionfrom The Aleut Corporation archaeologists revisited the site Current research suggests threedistinct occupations or uses for this cave Aleuts buried their dead in shallow graves at the rearof the cave circa 1200 to 800 years ago Aleuts used the front of the cave as a temporary huntingcamp as early as 390 years ago Finally Japanese and American military debris and graffiti re-veal that the cave was visited during and after World War II Russian trappers may have alsotaken shelter there 150 to 200 years ago This is the first report of Aleut cave burials west of theDelarof Islands in the central Aleutians

IntroductionDuring 1998 the Western Aleutians Archaeologi-cal and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP) team dis-covered a cave ATU-198 during archaeologicalreconnaissance in the Near Islands1 Alaska (Westet al 1998 Fig1) Hearths and work areas wereevident inside the entrance to the cave Humanbones were found associated with carefullyarranged stones in the caversquos deep interior A sec-ond partial stone arrangement at the rear of thecave is believed to be a burial feature although nohuman bones were observed

Prior to this discovery and despiteHrdlickarsquos (1945) and Jochelsonrsquos (1925) active in-

vestigations to find caves in the western Aleu-tians no cave burials had ever been reported fromthe Aleutians west of the Delarof Islands in thecentral Aleutians This is therefore a unique opportunity to shed light on previously unknownwestern Aleutian burial practices

In 2000 with permission from The AleutCorporation the WAAPP team returned to con-duct a thorough study of the site concentrating onthree aspects of the cave 1) its physical origin2) the habitationwork area at the entrance of thecave referred to as ldquoGallery 1rdquo and 3) the humanburials located at the rear of the cave referred toas ldquoGallery 2rdquo (West et al 2000) The cave was

Dixie West Natural History Museum and Center for BiodiversityUniversity of Kansas Lawrence Kansas 66045

Christine Lefegravevre Museacuteum National drsquoHistoire Naturelle Laboratoire drsquoAnatomie compareacuteeESA 8045 (CNRS) 55 rue de Buffon 75005 Paris France

Debra Corbett US Fish and Wildlife Service1011 E Tudor Road Anchorage Alaska 99503-6199

Susan Crockford Pacific Identifications Inc 6011 Oldfield RdVictoria BC Canada V9E 2J4

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol 40 No 1 pp 70ndash86 2003 ISSN 0066-6939copy 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

arc00000_westqxd 81603 1233 PM Page 70

Fig

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ing

the

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tion

of t

he

Nea

r Is

lan

ds

at th

e fa

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West et al A Burial Cave in the Western Aleutian Islands Alaska 71


72 Arctic Anthropology 401

mapped after establishing a 2 m grid throughoutArtifacts and animal (bird mammal and fish)bones found on the cave floor in the habitationarea at the front of the cave were collected andbagged Burials were morphologicallymetricallyanalyzed in the field photographed drawn andreturned to their original burial areas

Origin and Description of the CaveNatural fissures in volcanic rock formed the cavewhich is located 16 m above sea level The cave istriangular shaped and forms a 5 m wide tunnel ex-tending 48 m into the hillside (Figs 2 and 5) Col-lapsed rubble eroding from the slope directly overthe cave entrance forms a steep apron (30 degrees)covered with Elymus grass and umbelliferous plantsthat obscure the cave entrance Flotsam found justinside the entrance of the cave suggests that cur-rently occasional winter storms produce waves highenough to carry modern debris into the cave en-trance Over time the rubble eroding from the slopeabove the cave will close the narrow entrance

Methods Used During the Field Expedition

Because this is a human burial cave archaeolo-gists conducted fieldwork to gather as much information as possible while leaving cave contentsmdashboth sleepingsitting areas (Gallery 1)and burials (Gallery 2)mdashintact and undisturbedFrom Datum 1 a tapeline was run to the base of theapron on the exterior of the cave to Datum 2 (Figs2ndash4) A second tapeline was run to the rear ofGallery 1 (Datum 3) and then angled to parallelGallery 2 the rear of the cave where the burialswere located A 2 m grid was established using thetapelines as base lines Features artifacts and hu-man remains were plotted using this grid Animal(bird mammal and fish) bones scattered on thecave floor were collected and bagged based on theestablished 2 m grid system Isolated human boneswere left undisturbed and in place after beingmapped andor photographed Elevations of thecave exterior and interior were established using ahand held level

Two test pits (Test 1 and Test 2) were exca-vated in Gallery 1 and one test pit (Test 3) wasdug just outside the entrance of the cave (see Fig 2) Tests 1 and 2 were opened to discover thedepth of cultural debris Below the surface cul-tural materials were rare consisting of Elymusgrass and pieces of wood and only extended

Figure 2 Plan of the burial cave Gallery 1 representsthe habitation area of the cave Graves were discoveredin Gallery 2 at the rear of the cave


down to approximately 30 cm No artifacts wererecovered from Test 1 A piece of rolled birch bark(sample 738828) recovered from Test 2 was sub-mitted for radiocarbon dating This bark was ap-proximately 390 years old (Table 1) Test 3 wasestablished outside the entrance of the cave to seeif any cultural remains (household debris) hadbeen discarded there it was completely sterile

Radiocarbon DatesOrganic preservation in the cave was excellentFour organic samples from the sleepingsitting ar-eas at the entrance to the cave were submitted fordating These included three samples of workedwood and grass both found in abundance thereThe fourth sample was a roll of birch bark recov-ered from Test Pit 2 The dates for these objectsrange from 390 BP to 100 BP A human rib boneand a piece of charred organic material from Bur-ial 1 were also submitted for dating yielding datesranging from 1200 to 800 years ago Radiocarbondates are presented in Table 1

Radiocarbon dates suggest that human buri-als and their associations (charred material) aremuch older than activities represented by sleep-ingsitting areas at the cave entrance Numeroushuman bones were discovered on the floor at therear of the cave and the relatively younger date ofcharred materials found in this area possibly indi-cates that activities associated with human inter-ments occurred over long periods of time possiblyhundreds of years

The oldest date from the island 2200 BPcomes from a village site ATU-193 located on thenorth side of the island (Table 2) (Lefegravevre et al2001 West et al 1998) Dates from the village siteflanking the cave to the north ATU-197 areyounger than those of Burial 1 One date from thevillage site flanking the cave to the south ATU-199indicates a more recent occupation another onefrom the same village site overlaps the burial agesand suggests that the human remains could repre-sent former occupants of the ATU-199 community

Organic materials associated with the sleep-ingsitting areas at the entrance of the cave areconsiderably younger than Burial 1 The extraor-dinary preservation of the grass a hand grenadefuse a wine bottle and a graffiti date of 1947scrawled on the cave wall in Gallery 1 immedi-ately suggested that these ldquolivingrdquo areas mighthave been created by both Japanese and Ameri-can soldiers during and after World War II How-ever buried remains in the test pits and the dates


Figure 3 Details of Gallery 1 of the burial cave





indicate that Aleuts or possibly Russian trappersused this space prior to the 1940s visits by sol-diers

Human BurialsDuring the 2000 field season with permissionfrom The Aleut Corporation West collected andanalyzed the disturbed human bones associatedwith Burial 1 Identification was performed in thefield without the aid of a comparative skeletonSome individual bones were collected for addi-tional analyses While analyzing the bones Westdiscovered that the disturbed bones associatedwith the burial represented not one but at leastthree individuals 1) an elderly person 2) a juve-nile to young adult and 3) a very young child Thebones representing the three individuals as wellas bones that could not be assigned to a specificindividual are listed in Table 3

Individual 1Very worn teeth as well as bones of the vertebralcolumn ribs arms legs hands and feet indicate

that the remains are those of an elderly adult Indi-vidual bones were in very good condition and theskull mandible pelvis and most bones of the armsand legs were absent Archaeologists thoroughlyinvestigated the cave but the missing bones werenever found Three hypotheses have been pro-posed to explain the presence of the partial skele-ton 1) the cave may represent a secondary burialIn other words after the individual died hisherbody may have been left to decompose in anotherlocation then some but not all of the bones weretransported to the cave and interred This burialmethod is not otherwise attested to in the Aleu-tians 2) Foxes may have disturbed the burial anddragged some of the bones away The numerousfox bones recovered in the cave (see descriptionbelow) as well as the strong smell of these carni-vores still perceptible at the time of our visits in-dicate that Arctic foxes also used the cave as ashelter One must nevertheless note that carnivoregnawing was not observed on any of the remainingbones 3) Human visitors either Russian fur trap-pers or soldiers occupying the island during andafter World War II may have removed some of thebones from the cave This seems the most likely


Table 1 Radiocarbon dates from the Near Islands Burial Cave ATU-198

Date in YearsField No Lab No Material Type of Date BP

Gallery 1738828 Beta-146028 Birch Bark AMS 390 40738786 Beta-146027 Grass Standard 160 60738824 Beta-146029 Wood Standard 100 70173648 Beta-125194 Wood Standard 100 40Gallery 2738812 Beta-146025 Human Rib Standard 1160 60738816 Beta-146026 Charcoal Standard extended 790 90

counting

Table 2 Radiocarbon dates from ATU-193 ATU-197 and ATU-199

Date in YearsSite No Feature Lab No Material BP

ATU-193 Feature 44 Beta-121087 Charcoal 2210 60ATU-197 Feature 79 level 3 Beta-121082 Charcoal 540 80ATU-197 Feature 76 Beta-121083 Charcoal 360 60ATU-199 Feature 19 Beta-121084 Charcoal 230 60ATU-199 Feature 20 Beta-121085 Bone 960 60



Table 3 Identified human bones from the Near Islands Burial Cave ATU-198 Lleft Rright NAnotapplicable UTunable to tell

Individual 1 Individual 2 Individual 3

Type of Bone L R NA UT L R NA UT L R NA UT

SkullSkull fragment 2Teeth 1

Vertebral columnAtlas (1st cervical) 1Axis (2nd cervical) 1Other cervical vertebrae 4 3Thoracic vertebrae 9 4 1Lumbar vertebrae 2Sacrum 1

ThoraxClavicle 1Superior rib 1Central rib 5 4Rib shaft fragment 5 4 5Rib neck region 4

ArmHumerus 1Radius 1

HandScaphoid 1Metacarpal 1 1Metacarpal 3 1 1Metacarpal 4 1 1Metacarpal 5 1 1

LegFemur 2Tibia 1Patella 1 1Fibula 1 1

Foot 1Metatarsal 1Metatarsal 2Metatarsal 3Metatarsal 4Metatarsal 5Sustentaculum 1 1 1Talus 1 1Intermediate cuneiform 1Navicular 1 1Cuboid 1Lateral cuneiform 1

Phalanges 9 3


explanation for the scattered and partial remainsbecause the missing bones represent the largestand most easily recognizable elements of the hu-man body (see Guggenheim 1945)

In 1998 West noted that the vertebral columnsuffered from extensive arthritis and possiblyshowed signs of lesions associated with tuberculo-sis A thoracic vertebra and a lumbar vertebra fromBurial 1 were sent to The Arthritis Center of North-east Ohio for x-rays and morphological analysis oftrauma and pathological conditions Dr BruceRothschild who did the analyses confirmed thatthe human buried in the cave suffered from arthri-tismdashin particular spondyloarthropathy a form ofinflammatory erosive arthritis He also noted thatldquothe zygapophyseal joints show ostephytes ofosteoarthritis but also show erosions and remodel-ing characteristic of spondyloarthropathyrdquo (Roth-schild personal communication 2000)ldquolsquoSpondyloarthropathyrsquo is the name applied to sev-eral varieties of arthritis characterized by a ten-dency to reactive bone formation ossification atsites of tendon ligament or capsule insertionasymmetrical pauciarticular peripheral joint ero-sions and fusion and axial (spine and sacroiliac)joint diseaserdquo (Rothschild and Martin 1992101)On the other hand osteoarthritis ldquois a non-erosivetype of arthritisrdquo and is the most common form ofarthritis occurring in virtually all humans abovethe age of 75 (Rothschild and Martin 199282)Rothschild (personal communication 2000) doesnot believe that either type of arthritis is necessarilyrelated to the rigors of a hunting-gathering way oflife in a harsh environment but rather are diseasesassociated with old age X-rays confirmed that thisindividual did not suffer from tuberculosis

Individual 2The remains of a juvenile or young adult are repre-sented by isolated teeth vertebrae rib fragmentsleg hand and foot bones (Table 3) This individ-ual was aged by determining the fusion rates onindividual bones The arches in the thoracic verte-brae have fused to the bodies but the epiphyses ofthe bodies are unfused and absent Fusion of epi-physes to vertebral bodies occurs when an indi-vidual reaches 18 years of age (Steele andBramblett 1988) In addition a left distal epiphysisof a tibia was identified The fusion of this epiph-ysis to the long bone shaft occurs at 16 to 17 yearsin females and 18 to 19 years in males (Steele andBramblett 1988) The unfused element indicatesthat the individual was at least under nineteen

years old at time of death Additionally teeth ofthis individual were mature but showed minimalwear This individual was probably a teenagernearing adulthood when heshe died Again mostof this individualrsquos bones were missing possiblyhaving been collected by later visitors to the cave

Individual 3The third individual was a very young child at thetime of hisher death (Table 3) The age of this in-dividual was determined based on the identifica-tion of a deciduous central incisor The root of thetooth is fully formed but no resorption has oc-curred A fully formed deciduous incisor is pres-ent in an individual between 18 months 6months to 4 years 12 months (Steele and Bram-blett 1988) Vertebrae provided further indicationsof the age of the individual The arches of the cer-vical vertebra had fused to the body Fusion of thearch to the body of the vertebra occurs when a per-son is between 3 and 6 years old beginning withthe cervical vertebrae (Steele and Bramblett 1988)Evidence derived from examination of teeth andvertebral fusion suggests this individual was atleast 3 years old when heshe died and was proba-bly between 3 and 4 years 12 months whenheshe died

Other Human RemainsMetatarsals (foot bones) that could not be con-firmed as belonging to either the elderly individ-ual or the juvenile are listed in Table 3 Numerousadditional isolated human bones found scatteredthroughout the cave are listed in Table 4 and aredescribed below

12ndash14 m from Datum 1 A left clavicle measur-ing 141 mm in length belonged to an adult Notparticularly robust this could have been a fe-male While this clavicle may represent anotherindividual we cannot rule out the possibilitythat it may be associated with the elderly per-son or juvenile recovered from Burial 1

16ndash18 m from Datum 1 A piece of left frontalbone of a skull could have belonged to an indi-vidual of any age minimally 8 to 10 years oldbased on its general size A right femoral shaftthat is 158 mm long was also recovered in thislocale The femur lacks both proximal and distalepiphyses According to long bone shaft meas-urements (Finnegan 2000 Merchant 1973 Mer-chant and Ubelaker 1977) this individual wasbetween 12 and 18 months old at time of death



18ndash20 m from Datum 1 A left femoral shaft also158 mm long is developmentally at the samestage as the femoral shaft recovered from 16ndash18m from Datum 1 This left femur probably rep-resents the same individual as the right femurpreviously described This individual was be-tween 12 and 18 months old at time of death

2ndash4 m from Datum 3 The left ischium with un-fused epiphyseal surfaces represents a young-ster between 6 to 8 years old based on diaphysiscircumference length and general morphology(M Finnegan personal communication 2001)A human rib fragment was also recovered fromthis location

4ndash6 m from Datum 3 A skull fragment of a veryyoung child was discovered in a low niche nearthe middle of the cave The frontal bone of thisindividual exhibited a metopic suture At birtha suture separates the frontal bone (forehead) ofthe skull this suture usually fuses before an in-

dividual reaches two years of age (Steele andBramblett 1988) A right femoral shaft measur-ing 108 mm is estimated to represent an indi-vidual 10 to 12 months old at time of death(Finnegan 2000 Merchant 1973)

6ndash8 m from Datum 3 An eroded left femoralshaft 107 mm long represents an individualslightly older than the individual representedby the right femoral shaft recovered 4ndash6 m fromDatum 3 This individual is estimated to havebeen 12 to 15 months old at time of death (Mer-chant 1973 M Finnegan personal communica-tion 2001)

8ndash10 m from Datum 3 A left shaft of a humerusapproximately 118 mm long was damagedproximally and distally This individual was be-tween 12 and 15 months old at time of death Aright radius suffering distal erosion measuredapproximately 89 mm long and was probablybetween 18 to 30 months old at time of death


Table 4 Isolated human bones from the Near Islands Burial Cave ATU-198 Lleft Rright UTunableto tell NAnot applicable

Provenience Bone Side

12ndash14 m from Datum 1 clavicle L16ndash18 m from Datum 1 frontal L

femur shaft R

18ndash20 m from Datum 1 femur shaft L2ndash4 m from Datum 3 ischium L

rib fragment UT

4ndash6 m from Datum 3 frontal with metopic suture NAfemur shaft R

6ndash8 m from Datum 3 femur shaft R8ndash10 m from Datum 3 humerus shaft L

radius Rpubis Rcervical vertebra arch NAthoracic vertebra arch NAthoraciclumbar arch NAmiddle phalanx UT3 rib fragments L2 rib fragments R

16ndash18 m from Datum 3 femur shaft Rfemur shaft Lhumerus shaft R3 thoracic vertebra arches NAmaxilla R2 rib fragments Rtemporal L


(Merchant 1973 Merchant and Ubelaker 1977)A single individual estimated to be between 1and 3 years old at time of death is representedby a right pubis 4 vertebral fragments and asacral segment Vertebral fragments include anunfused arch of a cervical vertebra the com-plete arch of an upper thoracic vertebra and anarch fragment of a lower thoraciclumbar verte-bra A complete middle phalanx (finger) 17 mmlong could not be assigned to a specific ageThree left and two right rib fragments have beenjudged to have belonged to a child based ontheir comparatively small size

16ndash18 m from Datum 3 Various human boneswere recovered from this area which representsthe extreme back of the cave A right femoralshaft was too incomplete to measure but couldhave belonged to an individual who was 12 to15 months old based on morphology and sizeA fragment of a left distal femoral shaft mor-phologically matches the right femoral shaftfragment described above A right humerusshaft measuring 119 mm probably representsan individual who was between 24 and 30months at time of death Three unfused verte-bral arches representing thoracic vertebraewere recovered Based on the above combinedcriteria this individual was probably over 12months old at time of death (Bass 1971) A rightmaxilla with nearly complete alveola but miss-ing associated teeth was recovered The alveolacontained tooth sockets for a central and lat-eral incisor canine and both deciduous milkmolars An unerupted M1 germ suggests thatthis individual was 18 to 24 months old at timeof death Two ribs represent a young individ-ual One complete rib was 61 mm long Basedon the rib length and circumference this indi-vidual was between newborn and 12 monthsold at time of death (Fazekas and Kosa 1978)The petrous housing the internal ear of a lefttemporal bone was also recovered This indi-vidual was a juvenile at time of death based onits general size

A minimum number of one adult and fivevery young individuals are represented by theseisolated finds Two individuals represented byright femora are estimated to have been between10 to 12 months old at time of death one individ-ual represented by a right femur is estimated tohave been between 12 and 18 months old at timeof death and one individual represented by aright femur is estimated to have been between 12 and 15 months old at time of death A righthumerus represents a fifth individual estimated tohave been between 24 and 30 months old at timeof death A left clavicle was that of an older adult

However the clavicle might belong to the elderlyindividual or juvenile in Burial 1 or represent an-other individual

ArtifactsRelatively few artifacts and only one obvious graveitem were recovered from the cave A small irregu-lar piece of ocher measuring several centimeters indiameter was found in the pit associated with Bur-ial 1 All other artifacts were recovered fromGallery 1 and are associated with the sleepingsit-ting areas Following is a brief description of someof them

Net sinker A net sinker found 20ndash22 m fromDatum 1 is 95 cm long and 60 cm wide Agroove extends around the circumference of thesinker This is a fishing implement commonlyfound in archaeological sites across the Aleut-ian chain

Biface A biface found 10ndash12 m from Datum 1is 82 cm long 39 cm wide and 12 cm thickThis artifact is also routinely present in Aleut-ian sites

Carved snuffbox A wooden snuffbox located18 m from Datum 1 was identified by VinceTutiakof of The Aleut Corporation The snuff-box is 50 cm wide and 39 cm high The baseis oval measuring 46 cm by 23 cm Both the top and bottom rims are en-graved This is clearly an historic artifact astobacco was unknown in the islands prior toRussian contact

Barbed harpoon point A carved bone harpoonpoint is curved and its total length is 317 cmThe proximal end of the weapon measures 14cm in diameter at the base and the broken tipmeasures 8 cm by 12 cm The harpoon pointhad three distinct barbs carved along the shaftof the bone and two of these have broken offHarpoon points are found virtually in every siteand across a wide time span in the AleutiansThis long unilaterally barbed point may repre-sent a late prehistoric type but tool chronolo-gies are still in the process of development(Corbett 1991 Desautels et al 1971 West et alin press) The harpoon point was discovered inthe ceiling of the cave directly above Datum 3This odd location suggests that someone foundthe cleft in the cave ceiling and purposefullyplaced the point there

Spoons of cormorant breastbones Four spoonsmade from cormorant breastbones were recov-



ered in the cave at three different locations oneat 10ndash12 m from Datum 1 one in Feature 1135ndash15 m from Datum 1 and one in Feature 215ndash18 m from Datum 1 Such artifacts althoughuncommon are not unusual in Aleut contextsA spoon similar to those found in the burialcave is illustrated in Jochelson (1925 88 pl26) it comes from Uglursquodaxrsquo on Umnak IslandHrdlicka (1945 65ndash66) in his description ofAleut furniture and utensils noted that spoonsldquo escaped notice by nearly all the observersrdquoIn his description of archaeological remains he(1945 456 Fig 198) noted ldquospoons made frombird sternum from various localitiesrdquo and indi-cated that these ldquocharacteristic and unique

Aleut spoons were made nicely from the breastbone of ducks and other larger birds rdquo

Wooden boat fragments Several pieces of bentwood some fastened with nails were found inGallery 1 of the cave These are historic arti-facts either remains of old Russian ships orearly twentieth century dories used by the NearIsland Aleuts

Japanese teacup A ceramic teacup missing itshandle was found on the ground at the cave en-trance The design on the cup shows a Samuraiwarrior with sword kneeling before a tea serviceinside a room in a house The most plausible


Figure 5 Profile showing details in ceiling height and cross section of Galleries 1 and 2 of the burial cave


explanation for the presence of this object in thecave is that a Japanese soldier discarded it inthe cave entrance during World War II

Other post-contact items In addition to the arti-facts described above a WWII grenade fuse abroken wine bottle axe-cut wood chips andburlap fragments were found in Gallery 1

Except for the red ochre linked to Burial 1all artifacts were clearly associated with the morerecent sleepingsitting areas The objects can beclassified into three groups 1) typical Aleut arti-facts such as the net sinker the barbed harpoonpoint the spoons and the biface These couldhave been left in the cave either by the early in-habitants of the island who used the cave to intertheir dead or by more recent Aleuts who used thecave as a shelter 2) post-contact objects eitherRussian or of Russian influence such as thewooden snuffbox axe cut wood chips and thewooden boat fragments and 3) military debrissuch as the grenade fuse and the Japanese cup

PaleoparasitesSoil samples were collected from the cave forparasite analyses An additional two sampleswere collected from two areas associated withBurial 1 Two samples were collected from fea-tures 1 and 2 sleepingsitting areas located at thefront of the cave Samples were sent to FranccediloiseBouchet Laboratoire de Paleacuteoparasitologie Uni-versiteacute de Reims (France) Bouchet previouslyidentified egg cases of roundworm (Ascaris) andtapeworm (Diphyllobothrium) from a structuremade of whalebone on Buldir Island (Bouchet etal 1999) and from the body cavity of the 6ndash7 yearold Aleut child exhumed on Adak Island(Bouchet et al 2001) Analyses are in progressbut Bouchet has recovered egg cases of the tape-worm in soil samples associated with the sleep-ingsitting area at the front of the cave Thetapeworm uses sea lions and a variety of freshwa-ter or marine fish as intermediary hosts before itdevelops in the abdominal cavities of humans(Bouchet et al 2001) Aleuts relying on a steadydiet of undercooked or raw meat of sea lions andmarine fishes such as salmon could have easilycontracted the Diphyllobothrium parasite Addi-tionally a coprolite believed to be human col-lected from the cave during the 2000 field seasonwas sent to Bouchet for parasite analysis Thisanalysis is currently in progress

FaunaAnimal bones were collected from the surface ofthe cave floor in 2 m coordinates The bones werewashed and dried in the field Then they wereseparated into three basic taxa fish birds andmammals Mammal and bird bones were sent toChristine Lefegravevre and fish bones were sent to Susan Crockford for identification and analysesResults of these analyses are presented in Table 5and discussed below

Mammal IdentificationA total of 127 bones were identified as non-humanmammals A rib fragment was attributed to anunidentified Cetacea Eight Stellerrsquos sea lion boneswere recovered in the same area 6ndash10 m from Da-tum 3 At least two individuals are representedone adult represented by a fragment of premaxil-lary bone four teeth and a carpal bone and onejuvenile represented by an unfused femur Bonesof harbor seal were more numerous (36) andmainly located between 16 to 22 m from Datum 1They represent the partial skeleton of at least twoindividuals

With the exception of 8 bones attributed tounidentified non-human mammals the remaining73 bones represent Arctic foxes Two major clusterswere observed one represented by 15 bones waslocated near Feature 3 (18ndash22 m from Datum 1)another cluster comprising 41 bones was locatedin the crawl space 6ndash8 m from Datum 3 Theanatomical distribution of the remains indicatesthat these clusters represent two individuals thatprobably died in the cave The last 17 bones mightrepresent a third individual

The presence of Arctic foxes on the islandprior to Russian contact is unclear (Bailey 1993)however the carnivores apparently were intro-duced to the island by the Russian government in1750 (Black 1984) and they were undoubtedlypresent at the end of the nineteenth or beginningof the twentieth centuries

Bird IdentificationA total of 1061 bird remains representing 16species were recovered in the burial cave Cor-morants were by far the most numerous speciesrepresented with 71 of the number of identifiedspecimens (NISP) The presence of 50 sternums(breastbones) indicates that at least 50 cormorantswere transported into the cave This represents




Table 5 Animal remains recovered from the Near Islands Burial Cave ATU-198 NISPNumber of identi-fied specimens MNIMinimum number of individuals

Taxon NISP MNI

MAMMALSCetacea 1 1Stellerrsquos Sea Lion Eumetopias jubatus 8 2Habor Seal Phoca vitulina 36 2Arctic Fox Alopex lagopus 74 5Mammal Unidentified 8TOTAL MAMMALS 127

BIRDSAlbatross Diomedea albatrus 2 1Storm Petrel Oceanodroma Furcataleucorhoa 4 1Cormorant Phalacrocorax sp 752 50Eider Somateria sp 84 10Goose BrantaChen sp 33 4Small Duck 1 1Ancient Murrelet Synthliboramphus antiquus 9 3Parakeet Auklet Cyclorrhynchus psittacula 3 1Rhinoceros Auklet Cerorhinca monocerata 9 2Horned Puffin Fratercula corniculata 28 4Tufted Puffin Lunda cirrhata 52 5Murre Uria aalgelomvia 6 3Glaucous-Winged Gull Larus glaucescens 13 2Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus 31 4Black-Legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla 32 6Sparrow cf Melospiza sp 1 1Birds Unidentified 1 1TOTAL BIRDS 1061

FISHLongnose Lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox 5Pacific Cod Gadus macrocephalus 46Atka Mackerel Pleurogrammus monopterygius 3Rock Greenling Hexagrammos lagocephalus 2Banded Irish Lord Hemilepidotus cf gilberti 2TOTAL FISH 58

half of the minimum number of individuals Anadditional two young chicks and four 5 to 6 weekold individuals are represented in the collectionCurrently two species of cormorants breed in thewestern Aleutians red-faced (Phalacrocorax[Sticocarbo] urile) and pelagic (Phalacrocorax[Sticocarbo] pelagicus) shags (Siegel-Causey1988 1991) A third species the double-crestedcormorant (Phalacrocorax [Hypoleucus] auritis)has been reported to breed west of the AlaskaPeninsula in the past but the information is sub-ject to debate (Siegel-Causey et al 1991) Bothred-faced and pelagic shags are common in the

western Aleutians year round and nest incolonies on small islands and narrow cliff ledgesnear the sea During 1998 small groups of cor-morants were observed on small rocky islandsnear the shore in the vicinity of the cave Thepresence of cormorant chicks in the faunal as-semblage suggests that people sometimes inhab-ited the cave during the summer Veniaminov([1840] 1984360) described bird hunting meth-ods and indicated that the most profitable al-though most dangerous hunting techniquesincluded using snares and nooses along cliffswhere the birds live


Fish IdentificationCrockford identified a total of 58 fish remains rep-resenting five species Pacific cod (Gadus macro-cephalus) overwhelms the assemblagerepresenting 79 of the assemblage Comparedwith modern comparative samples in Crockfordrsquoslaboratory (in the Anthropology Department Uni-versity of Victoria BC list available on request)the cod recovered in the cave represent fish overca 60 cm in total length (TL) Of these the vastmajority of cod remains (89) represent fish overca 85 cm TL One particular cod specimen repre-sented by an intact cranium is estimated to havemeasured over ca 100 cm TL Among otherspecies identified in the cave assemblage thelongnose lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox) is esti-mated to have measured at least 150 cm TL (mod-ern lancetfish can reach 200 cm) Only three otherspecies are represented and all are specimens atthe high end of the maximum size range for theirtaxa Atka mackerel (Pleurogrammus monoptery-gius) are represented by three specimens oneabout 35ndash45 cm TL and two about 45ndash50 cm TLRock greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus) isrepresented by two specimens both representingfish ca 30ndash40 cm TL

The last taxon a member of the Cottidae fam-ily could not be positively identified to speciesAlthough clearly a member of the genus known asIrish lords (Hemilepidotus sp) the two specimensclearly do not belong to the Red Irish lord (Hhemilepidotus) or the Butterfly sculpin (Hpapilio) species both species well represented inthe reference collection They do not match wellwith reference specimens of Yellow Irish lord (Hjordani) although this may be due to the relativelysmall sizes of comparative samples Due to theirestimated size (ca 40 cm TL) the cave specimensrepresent fish too large to be the Longfin Irish lord(H zapus maximum known length ca 287 cmTL) and thus could only represent an especiallylarge Yellow Irish lord or Banded Irish lord (Hgilberti) a species not currently known as far eastas the Aleutians in the Bering Sea (Mecklenburg etal 2002) As species identification of this sculpinmight result in a new record for the western Aleu-tians further efforts are being made to confirm itstaxonomic identity

The fish bones recovered from the cave areremains from relatively deep dwellers that wouldrequire a boat and hook-and-line technology forcapture Only the lancetfish is known to be regu-larly beach-cast by storms (Mecklenburg et al

2002) Given the very large size of many of the fishrepresented it is extremely unlikely that these re-mains represent carcasses scavenged by Arctic foxIndeed the fish assemblage suggests that the richcoastal marine resources of the region were beingactively harvested by prehistoric Near Islandhunter-gatherers

The faunal spectrum of the ATU-198 burialcave does not differ much from any other faunalspectrum of Aleutian sites (among others Dennis-ton 1972 Lefegravevre et al 1997 Yesner 1977) Pin-nipeds codfish cormorants and alcids abundantlyrecovered in Aleutian middens also represent themajority of the cave faunal sample This suggeststhat the bones represent animals hunted by humansrather than fox scavenged carcasses

DiscussionJochelson (1925) reported domestic use of caves inthe western Aleutians The evidence from ATU-194 suggests that western Aleuts used these natu-ral geological features for more than one purposethroughout time The radiocarbon evidence pre-sented here indicates that the cave was initiallyused as a burial crypt Later the cave was used as atemporary shelter for Aleut hunters and possiblyRussian trappers before being visited by WorldWar II participants

Aleuts used a spectrum of methods to intertheir dead These include sarcophagus burials inwoodenstone coffins (Weyer 1929) pit burials(Aigner and Veltre 1978) cave and mummifiedburials (Dall 1876 Hrdlicka 1945) and burials inniches and rock clefts (Dall 1876 Pinart 1875) inside chambers of dwellings (Black and Liapunova1988) and in middens (Veltre 1980) The varia-tions in methods of burial throughout the Aleut-ian chain might be related to 1) unevenavailability of caves rockshelters and niches suit-able for interment of individuals 2) changes inburial practices over time 3) status differenceswithin communities 4) changes in ideological orreligious beliefs andor 5) variability of culturalpractices due to the distances that separate someAleut populations throughout the island chainHowever a paucity of radiocarbon dates associ-ated with Aleut burials hinders possible explana-tions of variations in mortuary practices overspace and time Nevertheless the discovery of aburial cave in the Near Islands demonstrates thatwestern Aleuts as well as their brethren to theeast interred their dead in caves



At the Near Islands burial cave ATU-198 theanalyzed human bones represent a minimumnumber of eight individuals one elderly adult ajuvenile and at least six children However stonecircles and stone piles at the rear of the cave prob-ably contain intact human remains The archaeo-logical team did not excavate undisturbed gravesDemographically this cave is similar to Near Is-lands burial-house interments in that it consists ofrelatively few older individuals and a larger num-ber of younger individuals and children (Corbett1991 Corbett et al 2001) Other researchers reportthat Aleut corpses were frequently placed in aflexed position during interment (Black and Lia-punova 1988 Laughlin 1980 McCartney 1984)The disturbed state of the bones suggests thatcorpses probably placed intact within the cave attime of burial were subsequently scattered aboutthe cave floor by later human visitors

Burial practices seem to vary based on ageAlthough older individualsmdashjuveniles andadultsmdashwere interred in shallow graves demar-cated by large stones corpses of very young indi-viduals were frequently tucked under overhangsand niches along the sides of the cave This madetheir bones more vulnerable to disturbance byscavengers It has been suggested that cave burialswere sometimes reserved for higher-ranking indi-viduals or those with special occupations (egwhale hunters) in Aleut society (Black and Lia-punova 1988) The presence of so many young in-dividuals in the Near Islands cave suggests thatrankoccupation did not always hold sway regard-ing Near Islands burial practices

A small piece of red ocher associated withBurial 1 represents the only grave object at thecave Ocher is often associated with Aleut burials(Laughlin 1980) The disturbed nature of the burialsmakes it impossible to say whether other gravegoods may have once been associated with theseburials The cultural objects described in this paperare clearly associated with the sleepingsitting areaat the front of the cave and are not burial objects

The most famous Aleut burials are repre-sented by the spectacular mummy caves located inthe eastern Aleutians (Dall 1878 Hrdlicka 1945)Prior to the discovery of the Near Islands burialcave no similar practices had been documentedwest of the Delarof Islands in the central AleutiansBoth Jochelson (1925) and Hrdlicka (1945) under-took active investigations to find caves in the west-ern Aleutians Jochelson (1925) found caves butnone that had been used for burials Until now themost complex burials in the western Aleutians

were represented by the interment of several indi-viduals in small house-like structures (Corbett1991 Corbett et al 2001) Elaborate burials foundin the eastern portion of the archipelago have beencorrelated with complex socio-political organiza-tion The more elaborate burials from the easternportion of the archipelago supported argumentsthat inhabitants of the western islands had a lesscomplex socio-political organization than did theneighboring peoples toward the east The Near Is-lands were considered as isolated from the rest ofthe archipelago and it was assumed that the moreelaborate burial types were never diffused to noradopted by western Aleuts (Collins et al 1945Hrdlicka 1945 Jochelson 1925) The Near Islandsburial cave along with other recent research by theWestern Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiologi-cal Project (Corbett et al 2001 Lefegravevre et al 2001West et al in press) suggests that western Aleutculture did not develop in isolation and possibly ri-valed the sophistication of its neighbors to the east

Acknowledgments Archaeological research wassupported by a grant from Office of Polar Pro-grams National Science Foundation (OPP-9614472) The US Fish and Wildlife Serviceprovided logistical support Much appreciationgoes to the crews of the research vessels AlphaHelix and the RV Tiglax for transportation to theNear Islands We also wish to thank CarolineFunk (WU) Bruce Sterling and Elise Manning-Sterling who helped during the 1998 field seasonand Matt OrsquoLeary (BIA) Virginia Hatfield (KU)Kristine Bruner (KU) and Brian Rowe (Alpha He-lix technician) who helped during the 2000 fieldseason Michael Finnegan forensic anthropolo-gist and anthropology professor at Kansas StateUniversity helped with identifications ofsubadult human bones Finally the authors wishto thank the Aleut Corporation and the Aleutcommunity for allowing us to learn more abouttheir rich past

Endnotes1 The Aleut Corporation has requested that thename of the island upon which the burial cave islocated not be named in this paper

References CitedAigner J S and D Veltre1978 The Distribution and Pattern of Umqan Burial

on Southwest Umnak Island Arctic Anthropol-ogy 13(2)11ndash25



Bailey E P1993 Introduction of Foxes to Alaskan Islands

History Effects on Avifauna and EradicationWashington DC US Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Resource Publication 193

Bass W M1971 Human Osteology A Laboratory and Field Man-

ual of the Human Skeleton Columbia The Mis-souri Archaeological Society

Black L T1984 Atka An Ethnohistory of the Western Aleutians

Kingston The Limestone Press

Black L and R G Liapunova1988 Aleut Islanders of the North Pacific In Crossroads

of Continents Cultures of Siberia and Alaska WFitzhugh and A Crowell eds Pp 52ndash57 Washing-ton DC Smithsonian Institution Press

Bouchet F C Lefegravevre D West and D Corbett1999 First Paleoparasitological Analysis of a

Midden in the Aleutian Islands (Alaska) Results and Limits Journal of Parasitology85(2)369ndash372

2001 Identification of Parasitoses in a Child Burialfrom Adak Island Alaska Comptes Rendus delrsquoAcadeacutemie des Sciences Paris 324123ndash127

Collins H B Jr A H Clark and E H Walker1945 The Aleutian Islands Their People and Natural

History Smithsonian Institution War Back-ground Studies no 21

Corbett D G1991 Aleut Settlement Patterns in the Western Aleut-

ian Islands Alaska Masterrsquos Thesis Departmentof Anthropology University of Alaska Fairbanks

2001 Prehistoric Village Organization in the WesternAleutians In Archaeology of the Aleut Zone ofAlaska D Dumond ed Pp 251ndash266 Universityof Oregon Anthropological Papers no 58 Eu-gene University of Oregon

Dall W H1880 On the Remains of Later Pre-Historic Man Ob-

tained from Caves in the Catherina ArchipelagoAlaska Territory and Especially from the Caves ofthe Aleutian Islands Washington DC Smith-sonian Contributions to Knowledge 22(318)1ndash40

Denniston G B1972 Ashishik Point An Economic Analysis of a

Prehistoric Aleutian Community PhD disser-tation Department of Anthropology Universityof Wisconsin

Desautels R J A J McCurdy J D Flynn and R R Ellis1971 Archaeological Report Amchitka Island

Alaska 1969ndash1970 USAEC Report TID-25481Los Angeles Archaeological Research Inc

Dumond D (ed)2001 Archaeology of the Alert Zone of Recent Re-

search University of Oregon AnthropologicalPapers no 58 Eugene University of Oregon

Fazekas I G and F Kosa1978 Forensic Fetal Osteology Budapest Akademiai

Kiado

Finnegan M2000 A Guide to Osteological Analysis Fourth Edi-

tion Manhattan Kansas Varneyrsquos

Guggenheim P1945 An Anthropological Campaign on Amchitka

Scientific Monthly 61(1)21ndash32

Hrdlicka Ales1945 The Aleutians and Commander Islands and

Their Inhabitants Philadelphia Wistar Instituteof Anatomy and Biology

Jochelson W1925 Archaeological Investigations in the Aleutians

Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication432 Washington DC Carnegie Institution ofWashington

Laughlin W S1979 Aleuts Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge

Fort Worth Holt Rinehart and Winston

Lefegravevre C D G Corbett D West and D Siegel-Causey1997 A Zooarchaeological Study at Buldir Island

Western Aleutians Alaska Arctic Anthropology34(2)118ndash131

Lefegravevre C D West and D G Corbett2001 Archaeological Surveys in the Near Islands Attu

Island and Shemya Island In Archaeology of theAleut Zone of Alaska D Dumond edPp 235ndash250 University of Oregon Anthropologi-cal Papers no 58 Eugene University of Oregon

McCartney A P1984 Prehistory of the Aleutian Region In Handbook

of North American Indians vol 5 Arctic W CSturtevant ed Washington DC SmithsonianInstitution Press

Mecklenburg C W T A Mecklenburg and L KThorsteinson2001 Fishes of Alaska Bethesda American Fisheries

Society

Merchant V L1972 A Cross-sectional Growth Study of the Protohis-

toric Arikara from Skeletal Material Associatedwith the Mobridge Site (39ww1) South DakotaMasterrsquos Thesis Department of AnthropologyThe American University

Merchant V L and D Ubelaker1977 Skeletal Growth of the Protohistoric Arikara

American Journal of Physical Anthropology46(1)61ndash72



Pinart A L1875 La caverne drsquoAknanh Ile DrsquoOunga (Archipel

Shumagin Aliaska) Paris E Leroux eacutediteur

Rothschild B and L Martin1993 Paleopathology Disease in the Fossil Record

Boca Raton CRC Press

Siegel-Causey D1988 Phylogeny of the Phalacrocoracidae Condor

90885ndash905

1991 Systematics and Biogeography of North PacificShags with a Description of a New Species Occasional Paper of the Museum of Natural History University of Kansas 140 1ndash17

Siegel-Causey D C Lefegravevre and A Savinetsky1991 Historical Diversity of Cormorants and Shags

from Amchitka Island Alaska Condor 93840ndash852

Steele D G and C Bramblett1988 The Anatomy and Biology of the Human Skeleton

College Station Texas A amp M University Press

Veltre D1980 Korovinski The Ethnohistorical Archaeology

of an Aleut and Russian Settlement on Atka Island Alaska PhD dissertation Departmentof Anthropology University of Connecticut

Veniaminov I[1840] Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District1984 Richard A Pierce ed L T Black and R H

Geoghegan trans Kingston The Limestone Press

West D D Corbett and C Lefegravevre1998 Annual Progress Report The Western Aleutians

Archaeological and Paleobiological Project Onfile National Science Foundation

2000 Annual Progress Report The Western AleutiansArchaeological and Paleobiological Project Onfile National Science Foundation

In The People at the End of the World The press Archaeology and Paleoecology of Shemya

Island Alaska University of Kansas Anthropo-logical Series no 24

Weyer E M Jr1929 An Aleutian Burial Anthropological Papers of

the American Museum of Natural History 31(3)New York

Yesner D R1977 Prehistoric Subsistence and Settlement in the

Aleutian Islands Ph D dissertation Departmentof Anthropology University of Connecticut



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A Burial Cave in the Western Aleutian Islands, Alaska

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Transcript of A Burial Cave in the Western Aleutian Islands, Alaska