Combined archaeological, ecological, and geologic research on Chuginadak and Carlisle Islands in the Islands of Four Mountains (IFM) probed questions about the sustainability of human settlements over the past 4000 years in the face of geologic, ecological, and social hazards. We use a human ecodynamics approach to frame the investigation and present original archaeological evidence from this poorly known region of the remote Aleutian Islands. Several village sites occupied during the last four millennia are clustered in locations that were not damaged by earthquake-induced tsunamis; however, new geologic evidence indicates that at least one volcanic eruption forced humans to abandon one or more prehistoric village sites. Combined archaeological, ecological, and geologic analyses demonstrate resilient Unangax occupations of the IFM through long-term climate change as well as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions with occasional community vulnerability to volcanic eruptions.
1.Museum Aleutians, 314 Salmon Way,POB 648, Unalaska, AK 99685 USA 2.Whitman Coll, Dept Geol, 345 Boyer Ave, Walla Walla, WA 99362 USA 3.Univ Kansas, Biodivers Inst, Lawrence, KS 66045 USA 4.Russian Acad Sci, Severtsov Inst Ecol & Evolut, Lab Hist Ecol, Leninsky Pr 33, Moscow 119071, Russia 5.Cent Washington Univ, Dept Geol Sci, 400 E Univ Way, Ellensburg, WA 98926 USA 6.Fukuoka Univ, AIG Collaborat Res Inst Int Study Erupt Hist & In, Jonan Ku, 8-19-1 Nanakuma, Fukuoka, Fukuoka 8140180, Japan
Recommended Citation:
Hatfield, Virginia L.,Nicolaysen, Kirsten,West, Dixie L.,et al. Human resilience and resettlement among the Islands of Four Mountains, Aleutians, Alaska[J]. QUATERNARY RESEARCH,2019-01-01,91(3):917-933