Onion Portage

Important site in northwest Alaska containing one of the continent's longest stratigraphies; occupied from at least 8500 BP by a number of Eskimo-Siberian-Indian subcultures (American Palaeoarctic, Northern Archaic, Arctic Small Tool Traditions, Inuit cultures). The oldest industries, called Akmak and Kobuk, are thought to last from c 9000 BC until the mid-7th millennium BC, and include chipped tools (blades, bifaces and associated cores) which are closer to Siberian types than to those of temperate America. The Kobuk (6200-6000 BC) contained similar tools but of limited variety. After a long hiatus in occupation, the Palisades II industry (4850-3350 BC, variously 4000-2000 BC) shows links with the archaic cultures of the forest zone to the southeast, as does the succeeding Portage complex (3350-3000 BC, variously 2600-2200 BC). Next came tools of the Denbigh Flint Complex (3200 BC, variously 2200-1800 BC), followed by Chloris (1500-500 BC) with the oldest pottery in the Arctic, then a local version (Norton) of Ipiutak (400-800 AD), by a forest-adapted Indian culture called Itkillik Complex (500-1000 AD), and finally by an Arctic Woodland Culture facies of the Thule Tradition. The excellent vertical stratigraphy of this site makes it the major reference for all western Arctic chronologies, especially when taken together with the horizontal stratigraphy of Cape Krusenstern.

A site with a long stratigraphic record located on the Kobuck River in northeast Alaska. 70 living surfaces, each sealed by a layer of silt, show evidence of human occupation dating from c8000 bc to historic times. Tool assemblages, mostly blades, bifaces and associated cores, from the lowest level (designated Akmak) bear some resemblance to pre-ceramic complexes in Asia. The overlying Kobuck complex (62006000 bc) contained similar tool types but they were of limited variety, suggesting that they represent only a part of a much larger complex. These two levels together are assigned to the Paleo-Arctic Tradition. A hiatus in occupation of some 2000 years is followed by complexes of the Northern Archaic Tradition, Palisades (4000-2000 bc) and Portage (2600-2200 bc). Immediately overlying these are, in order, the Denbigh Flint complex (2200-1800 bc), Choris (1500-500 bc) and Norton/Ipiutak (ad 400-800). The excellent vertical stratigraphy of this site makes it the major reference for all western Arctic chronologies, especially when taken together with the horizontal stratigraphy of Cape Krusenstern.