An archaeological site on a ridge overlooking Alaska’s Tanana River offers a detailed picture of life near the Bering Land Bridge almost 14,000 years ago. University of Kansas researchers identified three occupation layers dating to 13,800, 13,000, and 12,700 years ago. Published in Science Advances, their findings suggest that the camp’s occupants were doing more than passing through. Although spruce trees cover the ridge today, shrub tundra characterized the landscape during the late Ice Age.
Animal remains indicate that the inhabitants hunted mammoths, bison, horses, and caribou. Within a dwelling feature, excavators uncovered a large stone anvil surrounded by heavily battered bison bones and quartz and quartzite hammerstones. The team interprets this arrangement as evidence of marrow extraction and probable grease rendering near a large earth oven. Needles fashioned from bird bones provide further evidence of toolmaking. Excavation director Kelly Graf began visiting the site in 2013; the work has yielded more than 80,000 specimens, including bone tools, animal remains, and well-preserved activity areas.
Particularly significant are numerous diamond-shaped stone points, worked on both faces, that may have been weapon tips. Graf describes the site as Alaska’s only example with this clear shape. Comparable northern finds from the same period occur on the Russian side of the land bridge, suggesting travel to the camp and possibly in the opposite direction. The bridge formed approximately 35,000 years ago before rising seas submerged it about 12,000 years ago.
