Procurement, Reduction, And Use Of Lithic Technology From Ca. 9500-11,800 Years Ago At Niidhaayh Na', Central Alaska

The middle Tanana Valley near Fairbanks, Alaska has been the subject of nearly a century of archaeological research focused on the earliest inhabitants of the region. Recent research at Niidhaayh Na' (XBD-110) provides new information about human behavior and technological organization at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. This multicomponent site is located on the Delta moraine and overlooks Delta Creek (Niidhaayh Na'). The results of the first seasons of full-scale excavation research at the site, begun in 2017, reveal two lithic workshops dating to ca. 11,800 and 9500 calendar years ago, associated with core fragments, tools, debitage, and intact faunal remains. Future research at the site will advance archaeological understandings of human adaptive decision-making during the late glacial period in central Alaska, with implications for our understanding of the first Americans and human behavior more generally.