Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

Analysis of malacofauna remains from archaeological sites on Adak Island (Aleutian Islands, USA)
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Profile ADK-171
0 - 5 cm Present-day sod
Peaty sod, grayish chestnut, friable, unstructured, pierced by roots; transition to the underlying horizon is distinct and even.
6 - 10 cm 40-year-old ash
Between tussocks – light brown to grayish olive-brown, loamy, ductile, adhesive, unstructured; pierced by roots; transition to the underlying horizon
is gradual, the boundary uneven.
10 – 50 cm Peaty soil
10 – 18 cm Under tussocks – dark grey to chestnut getting lighter, loamy, ductile, adhesive, unstructured; pierced by roots; transition to the underlying horizon is gradual.
18 - 50 cm Peaty, dark chestnut, homogeneous, compacted, ductile, adhesive; densely pierced by roots; plant remains are well decomposed; transition to the
underlying horizon is abrupt and even.
50 - 61 cm Sandwich Volcanic ash
Heterogeneous tephra layers. Coarse-grained clastic ash (50-54 cm) is replaced by inequigranular sandy volcanic ash with coarse clastic concretions
(54-57 cm) still lower (57-60 cm) is presented by fine- grained volcanic ash olive color; the boundary is abrupt and even.
61 - 100 cm Stratified mineral stratum
Heterogeneous stratified tephra thickness. Interchanging volcanic ash layers, from brown chestnut to light olive tinted with grayish black; ash layers
is fine- grained, ductile, adhesive; many fine roots; low boundary is abrupt and even.
100 - 140 cm Cultural layer
100 - 125 cm Layer of densely large clam shells packed, almost without fine-grained mineral material, bones. During the excavation we divided this layer into
two – layer 2 and layer 3.
125 - 129 cm Layer of re-deposited volcanic ash, grayish-pink, fine-grained to loamy, adhesive.
129 - 141 cm Layer of small mussel shells. Shells is mixed with tiny fragments of the charcoal. In the left part of side and along slopes the layer flattens and
consists only of broken shells. Crumbs of shells prevail at the contact with lower horizon, material gets sooty. We called this horizon – layer 4.
140 -150 cm Volcanic ash? Sandy loam, brown-pink to grayish brown, compacted, ductile, adhesive, friable upon drying, possible volcanic ash; impregnated
with well decomposed organic matter; the boundary is abrupt and even.
150 - 166 cm Intermediate Volcanic ash
Heterogeneous stratified tephra stratum; the streaks alternate with the lenses of mineral material from volcanic ash; inequigranular to well
sorted, saturated with coarse clastic ash; variegated- light olive to light brown; ductile, adhesive; the boundary is abrupt and even.
166 cm and lower Dune sand
Homogenous sand, unstructured, middle- grained, whitish grey; indistinct ferruginous streaks and spots on depth 166 - 170 cm and 222 - 230 cm;
streaks of black-colored minerals; the boundary is abrupt and even.
IEMAE-1248; 6,525±94 yr BP, IEMAE-1296).
These data confirm that ADK-171 is the oldest
archaeological site found on the Adak Island
(Luttrell and Corbett 2000).
The total depth of the ADK-009 profile was
170 cm, and the cultural layer in this profile was
22 to 166 cm deep. Four radiocarbon dates from
fish bone collagen, show that the cultural layer
was formed from the beginning of 8 th to the beginning
of 19 th centuries cal AD (Table 1).
Depth of Laboratory Material dated Radiocarbon Calibrated dates,
horizon (cm) number IEMAE- age, years BP years AD (2σ
23 – 38 1264 fish bone collagen 755±72 1627 – 1890
45 – 79 1242 fish bone collagen 1126±103 1260 – 1660
115 – 127 1288 fish bone collagen 1360±74 1060 – 1410
150 – 160 1265 fish bone collagen 1888±50 590 – 900
Table 1. Radiocarbon dating of ADK-009
Profile ADK-009
1 – 13 cm Re-deposited culture layer
Dark-gray to black sward culture layer pierced by roots, saturated with crashed shells and bones.
13 – 18 cm Buried sod
Dark-brown to brown buried motley sod with inclusions of light-brown presumably ash spots.
18 – 20 cm 40-year-old ash
Light-brown fine-sorted compressed ash layer of uneven thickness
20 – 22 cm Humus streak
Light-brown to brown smeared humus streak
22 – 166 cm Culture layer
22 – 56 cm Layer I
22 – 35 cm Dark-gray to black fine-grained mineral material saturated with crashed shells, pierced by roots, with inclusions of sparse bones.
Lens of sea urchin plates in the bottom left corner.
35 – 37 cm Streak of fine-grained material: dark-brown to brown with black tint, compressed, unstructured, adhesive, almost without bones and shells.
37 – 56 cm Heterogeneous horizon of crashed shells and bones interchanging with lenses of fine-grained material.
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián