The Archaeology of Beringia 9780231891929

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B E R IN GIA LOCATIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND POLLEN SITES

Bering

SWjjÈ A R C H A E O L O G I C A L SITE LOCATIONS, WESTERN BERINGIA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

D y u k t a i Cave Ust-'Dyuktai Ust Mil II Troitskaia Ezhantsy I k h l n e I, II Berkach!I Ust'-Bilir Sumnagin I Ust - T i m p t o n Tumulur Berelekh

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Kyra K r e s t i a k h Kukhtui Siberdik Kongo Maltan Maiorych Inas'kvaam II Lake E l ' g y t k h y n Yakitikeem Kurupka I C h e l k u n II. Ill Ushki I. II, IV. V

A R C H A E O L O G I C A L SITE L O C A T I O N S . EASTERN BERINGIA 39 25 Tunalik 40 26 K a h r o a k 41 27 U p p e r U t u k o k R. 42 28 K u k p o w r u k R. & 65, 121 43 44 29 K u g u r u r o k R 30 L i s b u r n e 45 46 31 G a l l a g h e r 32 Putu 4/ 33 Killik R. 48 34 N i m l u k t u k R 49 Tuktu 35 50 36 Noatak R (Nr 5. 7. 8) 51 37 Noatak R. ( N i m 5-2a, N i m - 1 2 ) 52 38 Noatak R. (Nr 30) 53

Noatak R (KR 1-2) Noatak R ( K u g 1-1) Akmak. Kobuk Trail Creek Batza Tena B o n a n z a Creek Girl's Hill O l d J o h n Lake l o c a l i t y B l u e f i s h Cave Old Crow locality T o l o v a n a locality Campus M o o s e Creek Bluff Birch Lake Healy Lake l o c a l i t y

B o t h p o l l e n a n d a r c h a e o l o g i c a l sites

miles

54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

Dixthada X B D - 1 0 6 . X B D - 1 10 X B D - 1 0 7 X M H - 2 8 0 . XMH-297. Ft Greely Ent Fish Creek Gerstle R D o n n e l l y Ridge l o c a l i t y T a n q l e Lakes locality Little T o n s i n a 21 L o n g Lake l o c a l i t y Ravine Lake Dry Creek C a r l o Creek Teklanika R locality L Minchumina B e l u g a Point Igiuglg G r a v e y a r d Pt U g a s h i k N a r r o w s Ugashik K n o l l

71 72 73 74 75 76 77 76 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86

Anangula G r o u n d H o g Bay H i d d e n Falls LaVk-2 KkVa-2 KeVd-3 JiVs-1 JiVs-2 JeVi-1 C a n y o n Creek Otter Falls JhVq-1 JfVg-3 KfVd-2 Engigstciak leSh-1 P o i n t e d Mt F i s h e r m a n Lake

P O L L E N SITES. E A S T E R N B E R I N G I A A B C D E F G H I J K L

K o t z e b u e S o u n d 6 7 ° 3 0 ' N . 165° 52'W N o m e 64° 3 0 ' N , 165° 25'W I m u r u k Lake 65' 35 N 163-15 W D e e r i n g Fm C a p e Deceit 6 6 ° 0 5 ' N 162 44 W Epiguruk 67° 05 N 158' 10 W B e a r p a w Creek 69"' 24' N. 152' 06' W Isabella Creek 64 5 2 ' N 1 4 2 ° 4 3 ' W M i d d l e T a n a n a Lakes 64 00 N 145 00'W T a n g l e Lakes 63 0 2 ' N 146 04 w A n t i f r e e z e P o n d 62° 21 N, 140°50 W P o r c u p i n e River 6 7 ' 2 8 ' N 139' 54 W O l d C r o w River 68 0 5 ' N 139°56 W

The Archaeology of Beringia

120

140

160

180 160

140

Beringia at W i i r m m a x i m u m . (Derived from Hopkins 1972; Haag 1962).

120

The Archaeology of Beringia FREDERICK HADLEIGH W E S T

Columbia University Press New York, 1981

Clothbound editions of Columbia University Press books are Smythsewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.

Copyright © Columbia University Press, 1980, 1981 All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America

Columbia University Press New York Guildford, Surrey Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data West, Frederick H. (Frederick Hadleigh) T h e archaeology of Beringia. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Bering Land Bridge. 2. Indians— Origin. 3. Paleontology—Bering Land Bridge— Pleistocene. I. Title. F951.W5 979.8 81-6160 ISBN 0-231-05172-7 AACR2

Contents Figures

vii

Tables

ix

Preface

xi

Acknowledgments 1. 2.

xvii

Introduction

1

Northeastern Siberia and Alaska: T h e Remnants of Beringia as They Exist Today

5

Reconstructing the Environment of Late Pleistocene Beringia

31

3.

Archaeology: T h e Beringians

75

4.

Origin and Relationships of the Eastern Branch of the Beringian Tradition

5. 6.

155

T h e Beringian Tradition and the Origin of New World Cultures

183

Epilogue: T h e Beringians and Beyond

211

References

233

Author Index

255

Subject Index

259

Figures

Frontispiece Beringia at Würm maximum. 1. Climates of northeast Asia and northwest America. 2. Vegetation associations, northeast Asia and northwest America. 3. Native languages, northeast Asia and northwest America. 4. Local vegetational successions in the late Quaternary summarized from pollen studies. 5. Generalized regional vegetational successions in western Beringia. 6. Summarized vegetation successions at archaeological localities in western Beringia. 7. Glacial chronologies of late Quaternary Beringia. 8. Fluctuations in sea level. 9. Contrast in Late Wurmian and Holocene faunal composition of eastern Beringia. 10. Formal classification of Beringian blade cores. 11. Tangle Lakes. 12. Tangle Lakes. 13a and 13b. Denali culture materials from Tangle Lakes, drawings and corresponding photographs. 14a and 14b. Denali culture materials from Tangle Lakes, drawings and corresponding photographs.

13 15 30 36 47 50 57 64 71 90 112 113 116 118

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FIGURES

15a and 15b. Denali culture materials from Tangle Lakes, drawings and corresponding photographs. 120 16. Size extremes in blade cores. 17. Beringian sites in the Tangle Lakes in their relationship with late glacial features. 128 18. Stratigraphy and soil relationships at two Denali complex sites of the Tangle Lakes. 136 19. Materials from Campus Site, Alaska. 140 20. Materials from Akmak site, Alaska. 141 21. Materials from Onion Portage (Kobuk complex) and Noatak River drainage, Alaska. 142 22. Materials from Donnelly Ridge, Alaska (Denali complex). 143 23. Materials from Donnelly Ridge (Denali complex). 144 24. Materials from Dyuktai Cave, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 145 25. Materials from Dyuktai Cave, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 146 26. Materials from Ikhine I, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 147 27. Materials from Ezhantsy, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 148 28. Materials from Ezhantsy, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 149 29. Materials from Upper Troitskaya, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 150 30. Materials from Upper Troitskaya, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 151 31. Materials from Tumulur, Yakutia (Dyuktai culture). 152 32. Materials from Ushki, Kamchatka (Dyuktai culture). 153 33. Materials from Ushki, Kamchatka (Dyuktai culture). 154 34. Land emergence curve, central Beringia. 168 35. Extinction of the central Beringian biome. 174 36. The Mackenzie Corridor as portrayed in a model of late Wiirmian deglaciation. 194 37. Hypothetical population curve, central Beringia. 201 38. Hypothetical population curve, eastern Beringia in late Quaternary. 225 39. Generalized regional sequences from selected areas of Alaska-Yukon. 228 40. Index map. Endpapers.

Tables

1.1 Climatic Data, Eastern Siberia and Alaska. 1.2 Daylight: Hours That Sun Is Above Horizon at Three Latitudes. 2.1 Hypothetical Climatic Transect, Central Beringia under Full Glacial Conditions. 2.2 Generalized Summary of Large Mammal Occurrences in Beringia during Wurm Times. 2.3 Selected Radiocarbon Dates on Pleistocene Mammals in Beringia. 3.1 Materials of Unclear Standing, North America. 3.2 Formal Classification of Beringian Blade Cores. 3.3 Beringian Tradition Assemblages of Eastern Beringia. 3.4 Beringian Tradition Assemblages of Western Beringia. 3.5 Radiocarbon Chronology of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene in Tangle Lakes.

11 13 60 67 70 78 92 93 107 129

Preface

FOR AMERICANIST SCHOLARS perhaps the most important region in all the New World is that great stretch of northern country now consisting of extreme northwestern North America and northeasternmost Asia. The prehistory of that region is the subject of this work. It cannot be claimed that this study was undertaken lightheartedly, but at least its scope as originally conceived was a great deal more restricted. It was to be an article of about 5,000 words. All too quickly it grew beyond those bounds and then burgeoned into a rather formidable affair. Its completion was not aided by several lengthy and unavoidable interruptions. Most disruptive of these was a relocation to New England. Certain essential portions of the framework of this study were completed in 1976, the year of its inception. Included among these were figures 4, 5, 6, and tables 3.1 and 3.3. These compilations have been updated to 1980. It is of interest—at least to the writer—that none of the additions has altered in any serious degree the interpretive and theoretical positions that emerged as a result of these studies. I hope most profoundly that this indicates their essential soundness rather than a kind of unwitting refusal to be pushed off what are in reality indefensible positions. This is set forth, of course, as a caveat; readers will undoubtedly form their own judgments.

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PREFACE

Clearly too, however, the fact of this material's being in printed form with the writer's name affixed is sufficient indication of his own unflagging faith. Perhaps it would not be amiss to set out here a little of the background of this work. It was an interest in New World origins that first impelled me toward Alaska. T h e source in turn of that interest can be traced to a long-ago graduate seminar entitled "Glacial and Postglacial Chronology" which, daunting experience for a graduate student, seemed to be peopled largely by faculty types. T h e task given the two representatives of archaeology was a review of early man studies in America. As my friend and I pored over what seemed a great deal of largely unsynthesized data, the thought continually recurred: if one were really interested in early man in this hemisphere, the region in which to focus that search obviously was Alaska and northwesternmost Canada. Here, after all, virtually at the point of entry, was the logical place to intercept those first immigrants. At the time, though, only Froelich Rainey, Ralph Solecki, and R. S. MacNeish—whose works we leaned heavily upon—seemed to be going about this search in what had come to appear a reasonable manner. Thus it came about that my first academic post was at the University of Alaska. While this put me on the ground, delays of several sorts intervened and it was not until the mid-sixties that it became possible to devote full field research time to this end. T h e discovery in interior Alaska of an important, but undatable, core and blade site—Donnelly Ridge—provided the first means of integrating a bare handful of similar sites from elsewhere in the interior into what was called the Denali complex. ("Core and blade" is an unfortunately awkward usage but there seems to be no alternative term. In general, of course, it refers to the presence or dominance of a battery of flintworking techniques that were particularly characteristic of later fourth glacial time.) Denali became, and remains, the first and only such tightly defined construct for interior Alaska. From the outset it was clear that this Denali complex, or culture, was strictly of an U p p e r Palaeolithic, Old World character rather than belonging to one of the recognized preceramic American traditions.

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From 1966 to the present the research so begun has centered in one of the most remarkable archaeological districts to be found anywhere in the Far North—the region of the T a n gle Lakes on the south slope of the Alaska Range. T h e first archaeologist to make collections in the T a n g l e Lakes was the late Professor Ivar Skarland of the University of Alaska. In a proper sense my work there and that of my associates is strictly an extension of the research h e began. It was a continuation that actually began when he was still alive and with his encouragement. Although it was early evident that the Tangle Lakes area was unusually productive archaeologically, owing to the vagaries of collecting procedures nothing of certain core and blade technology was encountered until 1967. In that year my then field assistant, now colleague and f r i e n d , Douglas Reger and I discovered a clear-cut Denali complex site and in a matter of days, our eyes s h a r p e n e d now to these peculiar kinds of occurrences, t u r n e d u p several more. Sites of totally d i f f e r e n t technologies and time periods have been f o u n d over the years. At last count our surveys and test excavations have logged in over 240 sites, making the T a n g l e Lakes district the most richly endowed such region in the North. But the experience of Donnelly Ridge and the other original Denali culture sites was pervasive and almost unconsciously it was the core and blade sites of the Tangle Lakes that attracted o u r greatest interest. Now, in contrast to the original four sites, twelve new Denali sites were discovered, and in addition several other core and blade sites of as yet unclear affiliations. Always the overriding questions related to the origins of these Siberian-related sites and beyond this to what, if any, part the Denali people themselves played in the origins of New World cultures. As always in prehistoric archaeology the assignment of age—dating—was crucial in even approaching these problems and, as always in the subarctic, the sites continued to be parsimonious in the e x t r e m e in yielding organic remains of any sort. Fortunately, however, f r o m the very outset other means were available to help solve the problem of time placement, and eventually in several of these Denali sites small

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PREFACE

quantities of charcoal were found, providing radiocarbon dating as well. These evidences from the Tangle Lakes, combined with the important data being derived by other researchers working in similar sites in Alaska, have finally allowed a new confidence in assigning ages to this culture and its relatives. It has occasioned some amount of consternation that the evidence of age has consistently shown these sites to be more recent, by as much as 1,000 to 1,500 years, than the welldelineated Clovis early man sites found generally south of Canada. Three short, rather obscure papers and the memorable attendance at the Bering Land Bridge Conference called in 1973 by the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences chart a trend in thought that has culminated in the present work. At Khabarovsk, then again in Irkutsk and Novosibirsk it was possible to compare findings and collections directly with those of our Russian counterparts working on the far side of Bering Strait. Just before the Khabarovsk meeting a year's research leave made possible the intensive study of Upper and Middle Palaeolithic materials in several major European repositories. This has now developed into another focus of research. In the present context the major benefit of these comparative studies has been the conferral of an additional degree of confidence in the analysis of late Palaeolithic remains in Alaska. Perhaps "culmination" is too strong a word; this study is actually conceived as a temporary end point. Most assuredly all the evidence is not yet in. Nevertheless, a great deal is in, and while those of us who have carried out archaeological research in the Alaskan interior have all along been accustomed to regarding the area as archaeologically unknown, it has suddenly become clear that this condition, in fact, no longer obtains: if it were possible to sort through the many pieces of recent and continuing research bearing on the question of human origins in the North, not only would relatively abundant evidence be found, but there would be found in that evidence a gratifying and convincing coherence. T o this realization that there actually existed a sizable body of archaeological evidence was added another equally important revelation, that sud-

PREFACE

xv

denly there was on record a great deal of hard evidence allowing new depth and precision in the reconstruction of late Pleistocene-early Holocene landscapes. That the overall framework for solving these problems lay in the reconstruction of Beringia had long been obvious. Meeting colleagues from the other side of Bering Strait made it clear that the same kind of research was proceeding apace there. Here, then, could they be brought together, were the means for finally suggesting the outlines of that chimera that was interior Alaskan—and Beringian—prehistory and its place in the building of American cultures. It is toward this goal that the present study is directed. This point will become clear later in the text, but it is perhaps well to confess now that this writer belongs to that recalcitrant tribe that sees nothing convincingly earlier in the New World south and east of Alaska than Clovis culture. In the same vein, I see the core and blade manifestations of the North—the Beringian tradition—as basal there. And therein lies the basis for this work. At this stage I can only repeat the sentiment of my first Alaskan mentor, Ivar Skarland, who after completing a similar study in 1948, remarked that he felt like the "proverbial glutton who had bitten off more than he could chew, chewed more than he could swallow, and swallowed more than he could digest." It is apparent from what has been said above that the reconstructions forming the basis of this book are the result of hard work by many researchers in many fields. It is thus with a great deal of humility and a great deal of gratitude that I record my debt to my colleagues. Their names will be found throughout this work. T h e data used here are theirs; any abuses of them, my own. But I must single out several friends and colleagues on whom I leaned repeatedly, especially through the early phases of this writing: Hans-Georg Bandi, Paul Colinvaux, George Frison, Dale Guthrie, J o h n Matthews, Troy Pewe, and Steven Young. T o these it is a pleasure to add my co-workers at Williams College: Dale Bradley who is responsible for most of the drawings, Ralph Hansen who did the photography, and Diane Morsa who has willingly typed

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PREFACE

and retyped the manuscript. T o all these my sincere thanks. Finally, to my wife Constance, who provides sage counsel and continuing inspiration, and to our children, I dedicate this work. Frederick Hadleigh West Williamstown, Massachusetts

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publishers of the following works for permission to reproduce or adapt various figures: Frontis. D. M. Hopkins, T h e paleogeography and climatic history of Beringia during late Cenozoic time, Inter Nord (1972) 12:121-50, published by the Centre d'Etudes Arctigues, Paris; and W. G. Haag, T h e Bering Strait Land Bridge, Scientific American (1962), 206, no. 1, published by W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, California. Figure 1. V. C. Finch, et al., Elements of Geography, Physical and Cultural (New York: McGrawHill Book Company, 1957). Table 1.2. P. R. Johnson and C. Hartman, Environmental Atlas of

Alaska (Fairbanks: University of Alaska, 1969). Figure 3. M. G. Levin and L. P. Potopov, eds., The Peoples of Siberia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964); and Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska (map), by M. E. Krauss, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Figure 8. J. S. Creager and D. A. McManus, Geology of the floor of Bering and Chukchi Seas— American studies. In The Bering Land Bridge, ed. D. M. Hopkins (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1967). Figure 9. R. D. Guthrie,

xviii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Paleoecology of the large mammal community in interior Alaska during the late Pleistocene, The American Midland Naturalist (1968) 79:2:346-63, published by the University of Notre Dame. Figure 19. H.-G. Bandi, Eskimo Prehistory (College: University of Alaska Press, 1969). Figures 20 and 21. D. D. Anderson, Microblade traditions in northwestern Alaska, Arctic Anthropology (1970), 7:2:2-16, published by the University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. Figures 22 and 23. Frederick H. West, T h e Donnelly Ridge site and the definition of an early core and blade complex in central Alaska, American Antiquity (1967), 32: 3:360-82, published by the Society for American Archaeol-

Figure 34. D. M. Hopkins, Sea level history in Beringia during the past 250,000 years, Quaternary Research (1972), 3:4:520-40, published by the University of Washington, Seattle. Figure 36. V. K. Prest, in R. J. W. Douglas, Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Report 1 (1970), copyright Energy, Mines, and Resources Canada, Ottawa; reprinted from R. F. Flint, Glacial and Quaternary Geology (New York: J o h n Wiley & Sons, 1971). Figure 37. Inset. R. G. Klein, Alaska's

Matthew Island, recent population explosion, Polarboken (1973-74), published by Norsk Polar institutt - °sl°

scene

of

St. a

ogyand to these individuals who generously supplied additional information: W. E. Wiersum, R. D. Reger, A. D. Shinkwin, D. R. Nichols, Yu. A. Mochanov, J. F. V. Millar, C. E. Holmes, R. Gal, N. N. Dikov, D. E. Derry, S. D. Davis, G. H. Clark, P. M. Bowers, G. H. Bacon, H. L. Alexander, Jr., R. E. Ackerman.

Introduction

W H A T FOLLOWS IS an attempt at setting forth a particular and p e r h a p s novel point of view with respect to the movement of early peoples into what was, in terminal Pleistocene time, the outermost northeast corner in the distributional range of humanity. T h e unusual conditions which then ensued in this salient owed their existence to the almost chance conjunction of several circumstances of which the most important may well have been the peculiarly rich ecotonal character of a land now f r a g m e n t e d and most largely destroyed. T h e surviving remnants of this vast province give small indication today of its f o r m e r nature, and it is owing only to a great deal of recent reconstruction on the part of many sciences that a synthesis of the present sort may be attempted. T h e n a m e Beringia was the coinage of Eric Hulten and was first applied in his classic work, Outline of the History of Arctic and Boreal Biota During the Quaternary Period (1937). T h e r e the term was largely restricted to that broad, shallow submarine shelf joining the continents, most o f t e n r e f e r r e d to as the "Bering Land Bridge" (or occasionally in recent years as the "Bering Sea Platform"). Although speculation that there had formerly existed a land connection between Eurasia and America predated even the earliest exploration of the region (see Wilmsen 1964), it

2

INTRODUCTION

was not until well into the present century that objective evidence was f o u n d to s u p p o r t that theory. T h e occurrence of closely related plants a n d animals on either side of Bering Strait provided substantial indirect evidence of the f o r m e r existence of a land connection, and Hulten suggested that this f o r m e r land connection—of vast extent—had served as a ref u g i u m d u r i n g the Pleistocene a n d as a center for the dispersal of that biota. Still, as is pointed out by Hopkins in his introduction to The Bering Land Bridge (1967a), the exact n a t u r e of the mechanisms which would have created the putative dry land connection was a matter of rather tangled debate until the 1930s, when the concept of glacial eustacy finally f o u n d scientific favor. Instead of a tectonic causation, with its randomness of occurrence, here, at least for the late Cenozoic, was an elegant device—nonrandom, recurrent, and universal—that not only explained the e m e r g e n c e of the land bridge but also established the p a r a m e t e r s of its periodization. As sea levels fell, with the e n t r a p m e n t of large parts of the world's water quotient in glacial ice, shallow coastal margins everywhere e m e r g e d f r o m the sea. In the case of the Bering Land Bridge, with full glacial conditions a n d the consequent lowering of sea levels in excess of 100 meters, there was b r o u g h t into being an expanse of land e x t e n d i n g over 2,000 kilometers f r o m north to south a n d almost as m u c h in its maxi m u m width. Since World War II, and particularly over the past fifteen years, a great deal of research concerned directly with Beringia a n d its remnants—Alaska a n d northeastern Siberia—has been carried out. O l d e r conceptions are giving g r o u n d to newer, m o r e firmly based reconstructions, and the picture that will ultimately e m e r g e will be of f u n d a m e n t a l importance to u n d e r s t a n d i n g that last major a d v e n t u r e of m a n , his movement into the New World. In the course of the present work and within its context r e f e r e n c e will be m a d e to some of the most significant of these recent studies, and it is hoped that at its conclusion some of their implications for late h u m a n prehistory will at least have been a d u m b r a t e d . Beringia is today conceived as having been composed of the now-submerged Bering Land Bridge, wide expanses of

INTRODUCTION

3

adjacent Siberia, most of Alaska, and a portion of northwesternmost Canada. No longer is it a vaguely defined construct mainly useful in the explication of certain aspects of recent earth history. Instead, Beringia is now seen to have been, in glacial episodes, a complete biotic province unto itself. As passageway between continents, refugium, and center of dispersion for many species, the province of Beringia was of profound importance in shaping the floristic and faunistic history of two continents.

CHAPTER

ONE

Northeastern Siberia and Alaska: The Remnants of Beringia as They Exist Today

BEFORE PROCEEDING T O a consideration of the reconstruction of Beringian landscapes, perhaps some effort should be made to provide a rough baseline against which to compare the nature and extent of the changes that have transpired here in, geologically speaking, the twinkling of an eye. Even if it were within this writer's ability to do so, this would not be the place to attempt a full-scale geography of these two great regions. Rather, this chapter has as objective an outline of their present condition and is intended primarily for the reader unacquainted with the Far North and the peculiarities of those remote regions. It is necessary, of course, to discuss northeastern Siberia and Alaska-Yukon Territory as they now exist—as rather widely separated parts of two continents.

6

REMNANTS OF BERINGIA TODAY

PHYSIOGRAPHY Perhaps the outstanding feature o f both northeastern Siberia and the unit comprising Alaska and the Yukon Territory (hereafter Alaska-Yukon) is their mountainous character. This is especially marked in Siberia, where the mountainous east contrasts so sharply with the great lowland of the west. Lying north of the basin in which is situated the present city o f Yakutsk is the Verkhoyanskiy Range, which, following a generally northern trend, extends almost to the shore of the Laptev Sea. T o the east, and following the same general trend, is the Cherskogo Range; while in the highlands o f Anadyr and Chukotka are to be found the Kolymskiy Range, the Chukotskoye or Anadyr Range, and the Koryakskiy Range, the last in its southward extension, the Kamchatka Mountains, forming the backbone of that great peninsula. Much farther to the south and west and lying eastward o f Lake Baikal are the Yablonovy (trending southwest-northeast) and Stanovoy ranges, the latter with an east-west axis. J u s t north o f the Stanovoy is the Aldan Plateau, a notable highland, forming the southern bulwark o f the Yakutsk lowland. Dominating the northern landscape o f Alaska-Yukon is the Brooks Range, which lies in a great generally east-west arc. By its southerly trending segments in Yukon Territory—the Richardson, Selwyn, and Pelly Mountains—it becomes recognizable as the northernmost and terminating section o f the Rocky Mountains. A virtual inverted mirror image o f the Brooks Range is provided to the south by the Alaska Range. Lying between the two is, to the east, the Tanana-Yukon Highland, continuing as the Klondike in Yukon Territory, and several smaller ranges o f high hills and low mountains. T h e Seward Peninsula, providing the closest mainland approach to Chukotka, is likewise composed o f mountains. Lowland areas o f considerable extent occur on the north slope of Alaska and in the Yukon and Kuskokwim basins o f the interior. T o the southeast in mainland Alaska lie the Wrangell Mountains and to the southwest the Aleutian Range,

REMNANTS OF BERINGIA TODAY

7

which forms the backbone of the Alaska Peninsula and continues as the Aleutian Islands, arching some 1,300 miles westerly, and bounds in the Bering Sea. Suslov (1961: 123) describes eastern Siberia as being geologically complex but consisting largely of a "rigid Paleozoic block resting upon a folded Pre-Cambrian foundation." Much of the irregular mountainous terrain of Chukotka he speaks of as folded ranges of Mesozoic age. T h e Cherskogo Range, also bordering the eastern Siberian platform, likewise consists of a "thick folded series of rocks (the Verkhoyansk Complex)," according to Berg (1950: 313). T h e same remarks hold for the mountain ranges of the western Transbaikal—the Yablanovy and Stanovoy ranges (Suslov 1961: 123). The mountainous peninsula of Kamchatka contains the only active volcanoes in the USSR (Suslov 1961: 380). T h e ages of the rocks forming the Alaskan Range vary from the most ancient (e.g. Precambrian Birch Creek schist) to coal measures of Tertiary age (Wahrhaftig 1958: 54). In terms of genesis, these rocks are for the most part sedimentary and igneous, and in its major construction, the Alaska Range is "carved from a great downfold in the earth's crust— a synclinorium" (Wahrhaftig 1958: 54). The Wrangell Mountains to the east are volcanic, consisting for the most part of lavas and tuffs overlying and interbedded with limestones, slates, and shales (Black 1958: 32). In age these rocks range from later Paleozoic through early Mesozoic (Black 1958: 32). T h e Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands are notably volcanic. Of the 80 volcanoes recognized, at least 47 have shown activity since 1760 (Powers 1958: 61). Much of the mantling rock is of Tertiary and even Quaternary age (Johnson and Hartman 1969: 16-17). T h e major portion of the Brooks Range is made up of "limestone, quartzite and metamorphic rocks" which date to middle to later Paleozoic age (Gryc 1958: 112). Major mountain building occurred in mid-Cretaceous and continued into the early Tertiary or late Mesozoic-early Cenozoic (ibid.). Apparently the only readily traceable genetic relationship between the bedrocks of Alaska and those of Siberia is found on the Seward Peninsula and the peninsula of Chukotka, re-

8

REMNANTS OF BERINGIA TODAY

spectively. Of the former, the lithology is said to be more like Chukotka than it is the rest of Alaska (Hopkins, in Williams 1958). Summit elevations in the central Verkhoyanskiy Range are on the o r d e r of 2,000 to 2,500 meters. Similar elevations are f o u n d in the Cherskogo Range (Berg 1950: 313-14). Elevations of peaks in the Stanovoy also r u n u p to 2,500 meters, while those of the Yablonovy Range tend to be somewhat lower. T h e mountains of Anadyr and Chukotka, while providing a great deal of irregular local relief, tend likewise to be rather lower, on the o r d e r of 1,000 to 1,700 meters. Several of the volcanic cones of Kamchatka well exceed 3,000 meters, and the highest, Kl'uchevskaya Sopka, rises to 4,750 meters. Mountains of Alaska tend to somewhat higher elevations than those of eastern Siberia. T h u s summit elevations in the Brooks Range r u n from about 2,000 to 2,700 meters. Peaks of the Wrangell Mountains range almost to 5,000 meters. Summit elevations in the Alaska Range, despite its great size, generally tend to be on the o r d e r of 3,000 to 4,000 meters, with the notable exception of Mount McKinley, which is slightly more than 6,000 meters. In part because of the considerable topographic contrast in both remaining segments of Beringia, glaciation during the Pleistocene period was irregular and reached its greatest intensity, by and large, in the highest of these mountain ranges. T h e lower-lying plains and hill areas, which are, in fact, of considerable extent, assume major importance as the stages upon which were played the periglacial p h e n o m e n a forming the subject matter of the present work. Mention must be made of the several islands of the Bering Sea-Bering Strait. They are particularly interesting in that they constitute the only surviving subaerial remnants of the central sector of Beringia. Upon that great plain, these islands—the Diomedes, St. Lawrence, St. Matthews, Nunivak, and the Pribilof group—existed as the only major highlands. All owe their relatively modest elevations to volcanic activity, much of which took place in Tertiary and Quaternary times (Flint 1958: 128-36).

REMNANTS OF BERINGIA TODAY

9

Hydrography Included within the regions considered here are several o f the world's longest rivers. O f these, the greatest, in terms o f both its length and its drainage basin, is the Lena, which in draining the hills and mountains o f westernmost Beringia flows northward to the Laptev Sea. A m o n g its important tributaries are the Aldan, the Maya, and the T i m p t o n . T o the east lie other large northward-flowing rivers: the Yana, the Indigirka, the Kolyma, and further east, the Anadyr, which empties into Bering Sea. As the Lena dominates the landscape o f northeastern Siberia, so that o f Alaska is dominated by the Yukon and its major tributaries, the Porcupine, the T a n a n a , and the Koyukon. T h e Yukon, following a generally westerly course, empties into B e r i n g Sea. In terms o f both its length and its drainage basin, the Yukon rivals the Lena. Rising in the Brooks Range and flowing northward to the Arctic Ocean is the Colville River; in the northwest, the Noatak and Kobuk; in the southwest is the very large Kuskokwim, which drains into B e r ing Sea; and in the south-central region, the Susitna, draining into Cook Inlet, and the Copper, which enters the Gulf o f Alaska by way o f Prince William Sound. T h e behavior o f these streams has much in c o m m o n , owing to the importance o f spring thaw and r u n o f f and the generally low precipitation rates characteristic o f both regions. Flow volumes during the short period that these streams are in fluid state is quite variable. T h e r e is, in addition, a tendency for the m o r e northerly rivers to flood annually, since thawing temperatures affect their lower courses relatively late. According to Suslov, the lower Lena generally freezes in the first part o f October while its headwaters achieve that condition toward the end o f that month (Suslov 1961: 155). According to the same author, the ice forms on the smaller rivers, the Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma, more quickly. As shown by Suslov ( 1 9 6 1 : 155, Map 4 - V I I ) breakup on northeast Siberian rivers is primarily a function o f latitude, with more northerly courses breaking up last. T h u s in the vicinity o f Yakutsk, breakup occurs at about May 20. At the latitude o f Verkhoyansk, about

10

REMNANTS OF BERINGIA TODAY

100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, breakup on the Sartang (a headwater tributary of the Yana) may occur around June 1. Rivers in Alaska and Yukon Territory follow much the same regime, but the period of freezing is generally shorter. On average, the Yukon at Fort Yukon on the Arctic Circle is frozen by October 28. Breakup at the same point usually occurs about May 14 (Johnson and Hartman 1969: 44-45). T h e Kuskokwim follows a generally similar regime, as does the Kobuk. In the lowlands of both eastern Siberia and northwesternmost America are thousands of lakes, varying in size from potholes to many square kilometers. (Actually for Alaska the number 3,000,000 is cited by Searby [1968].) Their formation and perpetuation is due in the main to the close proximity of below-freezing temperatures in the upper substrate. There are in addition in various places lakes of considerable size, such as Lake Iliamna in southwestern Alaska and, of course, dominating the southern reaches of eastern Siberia, Lake Baikal. Lake Iliamna, with its length in excess of 100 kilometers, is well overshadowed by Baikal's almost five times' greater length. Lake Baikal is, in addition, the world's deepest lake, plumbing in excess of 1,700 meters.

CLIMATE Perhaps it could be said that one of the closest links that still exists between the remnants of Beringia is that provided by climate. For here the dominant season is winter, and the enormously long and deep high-pressure ridges that characterize the very cold, stable winter regimen are normally continuous across northeastern Siberia to Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Actually, as may be seen by reference to average monthly temperature records, it would be correct to say that this prevalent high-pressure condition has its origin and reaches its most profound expression over interior northeastern Siberia and attenuates somewhat over the interior of Alaska and Yu-

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