Abstract

Cultural interaction and exchange across the Bering Strait of northern Alaska played a central role in the emergence of Arctic maritime adaptations. Yet poor chronological control limits our ability to explore processes of cultural change over the last 5000 years. We address this problem by synthesizing the available radiocarbon record for the region, carrying out Bayesian analysis of a regional radiocarbon database, and analyzing the BAR-1 (Birnirk) site using new dates published in this paper. Our synthesis and our illustrative analysis of the BAR-1 site highlights several intriguing temporal and spatial trends with implications for interaction between cultural groups. Our analysis also underscores the uncertainty associated with dating cultural phases and identifies specific areas where additional research is needed to further our understanding of cultural interaction in this complex region.

摘要

阿拉斯加北部白令海峡的文化互动和交流在北极海洋适应的出现中发挥了核心作用。然而，糟糕的时间顺序控制限制了我们探索过去 5000 年文化变迁过程的能力。我们通过综合该地区可用的放射性碳记录、对区域放射性碳数据库进行贝叶斯分析以及使用本文中发布的新日期分析 BAR-1 (Birnirk) 站点来解决这个问题。我们对 BAR-1 站点的综合和说明性分析突出了几个有趣的时间和空间趋势，这些趋势对文化群体之间的互动具有影响。