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

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 317Stone, 1954, p. 182). Check stamped sherds of this type are widelydistributed in Alaska in both time and space. In the Naknek drainage,checks larger than 5 mm. on a predominately hair temperedware occur in an occupation dating from 300 A.D. until around 800 A.D.{Dumond, 1962, fig. 4; 1965, p. 1244; personal communication). Singlesherds with similar decoration were recovered from a Tigara phaseburial at Point Hope undoubtedly later than 1500 A.D. (Larsen andRainey, 1948, p. 177, PI. 91, fig. 11), a house at Kotzebue dated bydendrochronology at about 1450 A.D. (VanStone, 1955, p. 122), pickedup on the beach at Cape Nome (Collins, 1928, p. 254), and found onthe surface of the midden at Meyowagh on St. Lawrence Island(Collins, 1937, p. 169).In addition, six such sherds were recoveredfrom the Okvik site on the Punuk Islands (Rainey, 1941, pp. 536,550). Two small collections of Nunivak Check Stamped sherds inthe University of Alaska museum are worthy of note. The first consistsof an undetermined number of sherds from a reputedly late siteon Nelson Island, some of which have the Yukon Line Dot type ofdecoration (VanStone, 1954, p. 190). The other includes 12 checkstamped sherds from a Deering house abandoned in 1902. These aretempered with crushed rock and have an average thickness of 11 mm.(Oswalt, 1952b, p. 28).On the basis of surface decoration and provenience alone, it seemsclear that Nunivak Check Stamped ware occurs no earlier than300 A.D. and probably continues well into the contact period, keepingin mind the late occurrences on Nunivak Island and at Tikchik,the sherds from the Deering house abandoned in 1902 and particularlya gravel tempered check stamped vessel of unknown proveniencebut mended with iron staples which was cited by deLaguna(1947, p. 229; 1940, PI. II, 3). Norton Check Stamped pottery, onthe other hand, occurs at least as early as half a millennium B.C. butmay also have lasted into the contact period. It must be admitted,however, that this latter supposition rests on evidence that is flimsyat best and runs counter to the findings of most Alaskan potteryspecialists.Since it seems difficult, if not impossible, to verify the persistenceof check stamped ware on the basis of surface treatment and proveniencealone, it will be worthwhile to consider the question on the basisof other aspects of pottery manufacture. In describing and analyzingthe ceramic collection from the Norton and Nukleet phases at CapeDenbigh, Griffin and Wilmuth (1964, pp. 280, 297) were able to determinethat on the basis of temper and thickness, check stamped