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Alaska Notebook: Layers of the Past 

It’s a rare, brilliantly sunny August day in Dutch Harbor. On a narrow spit across from a dock full of ships and fishing boats, archeologist Rick Knecht is standing on what appears to be an unremarkable hillock of grass about 15 feet high. The rise grew over centuries of use by Aleut hunters and families. Knecht is running a dig to uncover the mysteries it holds.

The hole, about 20 feet square and a few feet deep, reveals an eclectic mix of artifacts. There is a World War II-era wooden sewer pipe. There is a huge whale vertebra.

The dig recently produced a rare whalebone figurine and a ground slate point dating back roughly a millennium.

The crew also found a human skeleton, which remains in place, covered by a blue tarp, while Knecht awaits written permission from the local Aleut tribe to proceed with excavation.

“What we’re looking at are layers of Aleutian menus,’ Knecht says, pointing to the crumbly thin white layers, which consist of shells, bones and teeth of what Aleuts ate. A nearby site, he says, produced evidence of walrus, ringed seal and polar bear. That suggests a much colder climate, with an ice pack that extended much farther south than it does in this era.

“There are huge cycles in the archeological record,” Knecht says. He notes that the spit formed 3,000 years ago when sea levels dropped. Now with global warming, sea levels are rising again.

“We find everybody’s stuff in here,” he says. “We found 18th century trade rings with Cyrillic engravings.”

During World War II, he says, “GIs had ‘bone days.’ They’d come here for recreational digging. There are photos of GIs holding skulls.”

The older the find, the more excited he gets. “I like hearing veterans’ stories, but the archeology of World War II puts me to sleep. To stand next to a guy who says, ‘Yup, I dropped that here. . . “ He dismisses the thought with a snort.

His radio squawks. It’s the Unalaska police department. They’ve heard about the skeleton and want to know more.

Knecht assures them that it is a historical find , not a homicide, and returns to work.

 – Matt Zencey

This essay first appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, adn.com. Reprinted with permission