Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 313wait, 1955, p. 37).Since no substitutes for clay lamps were found ateither Crow Village or Tikchik (Oswalt and VanStone, 1967, p. 45),it is likely that this form continued to be useful, possibly because ofthe scarcity of imported fuel.In addition to decorated sherds of the Yukon Line Dot type, 12sherds with check stamped impressions were recovered at Tikchik.Since the occurrence of this style of surface treatment in sites of thecontact period has not previously been reported in this general area,it is necessary to deal with these sherds in some detail and to broadenour comparative scope. In his classification of Alaskan pottery typesOswalt (1955) has recognized two categories of pottery decorated byexterior stamping in the form of checks; Nunivak Check Stampedand Norton Check Stamped. The latter is characterized by smallchecks 2 to 5 mm. in width, and is generally early in Alaska. It isfound at the Norton culture type site at Cape Denbigh in levels withradiocarbon dates of approximately 255 B.C. and 770 B.C. where itis predominantly fiber and sand tempered (Griffin, 1953; Griffin andWilmeth, 1964, pp. 271-273; Dumond, 1965, p. 1244). The typealso occurs in the Naknek drainage where it is tempered with sandand hair and has been recovered from levels dated by radiocarbonat approximately 160 B.C. and 50 a.d. (Dumond, 1965, p. 1244), andin sites at Chagvan Bay dated 150-300, 423-923, and 573-693 A.D.(Ackerman, 1964, p. 28). The latter ware is predominately hairtempered. Larsen (1950, pp. 181-183) also reports Norton CheckStamped ware from Chagvan Bay. At all these sites the ware is thinand well fired except at Chagvan Beach I where two kinds of checkstamped sherds have been identified, one of which is thick and poorlyfired (Ackerman, 1964, p. 28). The only late occurrence of the Nortonform of check stamping, aside from the Tikchik site, is fromdeposits of the late pre-contact or post-contact age on Nunivak Island.Here the ware is predominately grass or sand and grass tempered(VanStone, 1954, pp. 182, 188).Nunivak Check Stamped pottery, which tends to be later, is characterizedby checks of large size that are square to rectangular inshape, up to 6 mm. in width, and often impressed on a thick, poorlyfired ware. This style of surface treatment was first described byCollins from sherds found a foot below the surface near the ruins ofthe wareold houses on Nunivak Island (Collins, 1928, pp. 254-256) ;has a "coarse rock temper and tends to exfoliate" (deLaguna, 1947,p. 229). Additional pottery, similar except for a finer gravel andsand temper, was also recovered from late sites on Nunivak (Van-