[Aztlan] 3000 YEAR OLD WHALE BONE MASK RE-WRITES ALEUT HISTORY

[michael ruggeri]

Anchorage Daily News


Whale bone Mask may rewrite Aleut history

By ALEX deMARBAN

Published: July 28, 2007

Archaeologists unearthing an ancient village from an Unalaska  
hillside believe they've found the remains of the oldest-known Aleut  
whalebone mask.


Much of the mask is missing -- it's mostly intact above where the  
cheekbones would sit -- but archaeologists are pretty sure it's about  
3,000 years old, said Mike Yarborough, lead archaeologist at the dig.

Stained brown by soil, cracked in two at the left temple, the  
discovery made early this month by a member of Yarborough's team is  
about 2,000 years older than any known Aleut mask, he said.

It was created around the time Mayan civilization began, around the  
time Homer was producing the Iliad and Odyssey.

The Earth had suddenly cooled then, and ice surrounded the Aleutian  
Islands nearly year-round, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist and  
University of Alaska Fairbanks professor.

People at the ancient site -- a sprawling village marked by  
unprecedented stone houses and delicate ivory carvings -- ate polar  
bears, ice seals that no longer visit the island, and a whale that's  
never been documented in North American waters, said Knecht. He led a  
dig at the village in 2003 but wasn't part of the mask discovery.

Perhaps six inches wide once, the mask could have been worn and  
broken at a funeral, Yarborough said. Cultural anthropologist Lydia  
Black, who died earlier this year, wrote that members of ancient  
Aleut burial parties wore and shattered tiny masks during funerals.

"It's speculation to say what happened 3,000 years ago, but it was  
broken when we found it," Yarborough said. "It very well could have  
been (a funeral mask)."

People occupied the village sometime between 2,400 and 3,400 years  
ago, but materials found near the mask indicate it's 3,000 years old,  
he said.

It's generally similar in appearance to its next oldest cousin, a  
1,000-year-old mask found at Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula,  
he said. That one, also a half mask, is on display at the Anchorage  
Museum at Rasmuson Center.

Denise Rankin, vice president of the tribal government in Unalaska  
and an employee with the Native corporation, said features such as  
the round head, almond-shaped eyes and slender nose remind her of  
people she sees today.

"They look just like an Aleut face," she said.

Knecht, e-mailed a picture of the mask, said the giant eyebrows evoke  
ancient images of faces pecked into granite boulders at Cape Alitak  
on Kodiak Island. The petroglyphs, made with hammer stones more than  
500 miles east of Unalaska, were created more than 2,000 years ago,  
he said. "It's a great find," he said of the mask.

The ancient village where the mask came from has yielded several  
important discoveries, including the remains of dozens of homes,  
Knecht said. They had stone walls and sub-floor heating ducts to  
spread heat through the homes, he said.

Archaeologists have also found well-preserved human remains from  
ceremonial burials and elaborate jewelry such as an ivory hair pin  
with decorative faces carved on both sides.

The state has spent about $1.65 million on the excavation so it could  
replace a wobbly, wood-surfaced bridge built in 1979. A $28 million,  
700-foot concrete bridge is scheduled to rise alongside it within two  
years, said Michael Hall, design project manager.

The state has budgeted $950,000 for the dig Yarborough started last  
year, Hall said. His effort touched off a controversy because he  
agreed to excavate with backhoes and truck the dirt to a fenced area,  
where Hall said it would later be sifted.

The heavy machinery was meant to speed the excavation so the bridge  
could be built more quickly, Hall said. The dig was originally  
supposed to take only a month last spring and cost $250,000, but the  
village has turned out to be much larger than anyone expected. The  
state extended the deadline to Aug. 15, Hall said.

Opponents, including some Aleut residents, grumbled that the  
excavator would smash clues to the past and shatter ancestors' bones  
as it punched through earth.

The tribal government, which called the old bridge unsafe and voted  
to support the quick excavation along with the local Native  
corporation, hailed the mask as one sign that archaeologists are  
working carefully.

They seem to be doing detail work with shovels and hand tools a lot  
more than they're using heavy equipment, said Rankin, with the tribal  
government.

"They're doing an excellent job," she said.

Archaeologists have trucked about 2,700 cubic yards of dirt to the  
fenced area and seeded it so grass will grow, Yarborough said. Some  
people have talked about letting students sift through the dirt as  
part of a class, he said. Discovered artifacts have gone to a lab for  
storage and later will be sent to the local museum. But the mask went  
directly to the museum to be placed in a climate-controlled area and  
watched by a curator.

The heavy equipment didn't break the mask -- there are no lighter  
colors indicating fresh cracks, he said.

"It was broken sometime in antiquity," he said.

Knecht, who opposed the backhoe excavation, said a more traditional  
dig with archaeologists sifting dirt through screens might have found  
the rest of the mask. Those pieces are likely buried in the big pile  
behind the fence, he said.

"I shudder to think what's been damaged or lost," he said. "I know  
they're being as careful as they can given the limitations of digging  
with heavy equipment. But inevitably there's a price to be paid in  
history and culture by taking that shortcut."






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