Body of ice age child found in Interior Alaska
FAIRBANKS — An 11,500-year-old set of human remains has been discovered in the Tanana Valley, a find that could provide new insight into the history of indigenous people in the subarctic.
The partially cremated remains, which belong to a roughly 3-year-old child, are the oldest ever found in the northern part of North America. University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers discovered them in an ancient dwelling last summer in a dune-covered area along the south side of the Tanana River.
“People have been doing work here for 80 years, and we’ve never found anything like this,” said UAF archaeologist Ben Potter, who led the exploration project. “It’s quite unprecedented.”
Not only is the discovery unmatched in Alaska, the remains also give surprising context to the way indigenous people of the era may have lived. The child’s short life probably occurred at the same time the Bering Land Bridge connected Asia and Alaska, providing a migratory route for some of North America’s early inhabitants. The excavated dwelling closely resembles an unearthed site from the same era near Kamchatka’s Ushki Lake.
Some scientists previously thought people in the subarctic during that period were highly nomadic groups that subsisted mainly on large game animals, but evidence from the Tanana River site shows otherwise. The area is surrounded by remnants of salmon, rabbits, ground squirrels and ptarmigan and appears to have been a seasonal but well-established summer dwelling.
The remains of the child — dubbed Saasaa Cheege Ts’eniin, or “Upward Sun River Mouth Child” in Athabascan — were found in an ancient fire pit in a circular semi-subterranean home. The child, whose gender is undetermined, was cremated and subsequently buried.
No additional evidence of habitation was found at the dwelling site, so it appears it was abandoned soon afterward. Radiocarbon dating of wood at the site was used to determine the approximate age of the cremation.
Human remains are rare in the subarctic, and finding those of a child are even more so. About 20 percent of the fragmented skeletal remains were intact at the site. Potter said a boreal forest tends to rapidly eat away all but the largest bones from the biggest animals. But the silty, well-drained soil in the area left the bones and dwelling in comparatively good shape.
Potter’s archaeological team explored the site in part because it’s near the proposed location of a new bridge across the Tanana River. The Alaska Railroad would like to span the area to extend its route to Delta Junction, and an examination is required to make sure development doesn’t destroy an area of archaeological importance.
Potter said such projects have an undeserved reputation for being superficial but that the UAF team prided itself in doing a thorough exploration. The process began in 2006, when archaeologists found evidence of a previous occupation at the site, dating to about 13,200 years ago.
Before the remains were even discovered, the UAF team reached an agreement with local Alaska Native groups that outlined how the site would be excavated. Previous discoveries of human remains in Europe and the Lower 48 have inflamed relations between archaeological teams and indigenous groups, who have complained that the process is often disrespectful of their ancestors.
Joanna Polston, first chief of the Healy Lake Traditional Council, said there’s a mutual desire to preserve the remains and learn from them. She’s thrilled by the discovery and the link it appears to make between Athabascans and their ancestral home.
“As a people, words truly fail me when it comes to how excited we are,” she said.
Potter said the site is just one of many that his team would like to explore in the 2,800 acres of dune-covered territory in the region. After follow-up work next summer, he hopes to land a grant that would fund another two or more years of investigation.
It’s uncertain whether DNA can be extracted from the remains, but Potter said he hopes testing will be able to determine the child’s gender and confirm its link to modern Athabascans. Analysis of stable isotopes could determine the key components of the post-Ice Age diet in the Interior.
Tanana Chiefs Conference President Jerry Isaac said he’s hopeful that the process could unlock medical or genetic information about Athabascans. He even plans to undergo DNA testing himself to see if the ancient toddler is one of his distant relatives.
“This find,” Isaac said, “gives us a glimpse into the past.”
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