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MOOSE CREEK SITE
DENALI & NENANA OCCUPATIONS
A LATE PLEISTOCENE SITE IN
CENTRAL ALASKA
OCCUPATION SEQUENCE 5,680 TO 11,19O BP
PAGE 1 OF 6 PAGES
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 28, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM
Moose Creek site excavation.
PICTURE CREDIT AND COPYRIGHT, DR. GEORGES A. PEARSON
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE EXPANDED IMAGE
EXCAVATION IN PROGRESS ON THE MOOSE CREEK SITE, 1996

Chindadin points---abstract banner.
THE MOOSE CREEK SITE 1996 RE-EXCAVATION
DENALI & NENANA OCCUPATION SITE
11,190 B.P.

   The Moose Creek site was first excavated in 1979 and 1984. The early excavations discovered a Nenana occupation and produced carbon 14 dates of 8160 + 260  and 11730 + 250 years ago. The main reason for re-excavating the site in 1996 was to look for and identify diagnostic lithic tool types that would positively define either Denali or Nenana stone tool assemblages. Dr. Georges A. Pearson and his excavation team of 16 members discovered two superimposed Denali micro-blade components above the Nenana occupation. The project uncovered diagnostic tools that positively identified both Nenana and the later Denali complexes. This excavation also produced additional radio carbon dates that further supports the early dates for the Nenana occupation at Moose Creek and other sites in the Nenana Valley. It was also demonstrated that the Nenana complex is not associated with microblades.

 "THE EARLIER COMPLEX (IN THE NENANA VALLEY) IS REPRESENTED---AT THREE SITES: DRY CREEK, MOOSE CREEK AND WALKER ROAD, TENTATIVELY LABELED THE NENANA COMPLEX"---1989, Powers & Hoffecker.

The Nenana Valley below the Moose Creek site, 1996.
PICTURE CREDIT AND COPYRIGHT, DR. GEORGES A. PEARSON
VALLEY BELOW THE MOOSE CREEK SITE, 1996

MOOSE CREEK SITE
CENTRAL ALASKA
DENALI & NENANA OCCUPATIONS
11,190 B.P.

   The Moose Creek site is significant for its early Nenana culture occupation that dates to 11,190 years ago. The site is located in central Alaska approximately 100 km (62 miles) southwest of Fairbanks in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range. It is situated on a hilltop which is located on the highest terrace above the Nenana Valley and near the confluence of Moose Creek and the Nenana River. The town of Ferry is about four miles from the site.

Excavating the Moose Creek site, 1996
PICTURE CREDIT AND COPYRIGHT, DR. GEORGES A. PEARSON
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE
EXCAVATION IN PROGRESS
MOOSE CREEK SITE, 1996

   This picture shows three members of the 1996 excavation team. They are working on some of the more than 45 square meters that were excavated there in 1996. The Moose Creek site is situated on the highest terrace on a hilltop that was formed by glacial outwash from the Nenana River and Moose Creek. This location provides an unobstructed view of the entire southern half of the Nenana Valley and the Chicken Creek drainage to the east. This suggests that the people who once camped there used the site more for a strategic lookout for monitoring the movement of game rather than as a seasonal camp. No evidence of a permanent dwelling was found at Moose Creek.

   The Moose Creek site was discovered in 1978 by J.F. Hoffecker and C.F. Waythomas during the North Alaska Range Early Man Project. Subsequent excavation of the site in 1979 and 1984 discovered two cultural components. The excavation of 20 one meter squares brought to light one component of nondiagnostic stone tools that produced carbon 14 dates between 8160 + 260 and 11730 + 250 years before present. The other component consisted of only a dozen flakes and a biface fragment of undetermined Holocene age.

The Nenana Valley below the Moose Creek site, 1996.
PICTURE CREDIT AND COPYRIGHT, DR. GEORGES A. PEARSON
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE
NENANA VALLEY, 1996

   The scene above shows the south Alaskan Range in the background and the Nenana Valley below. The Moose Creek site is located 689 feet (210 m) above the modern floodplain.

   The Moose Creek site was initially assigned to the Nenana complex because there were no microblades or any indication of a microblade technology found within the lowest occupational level. Microblades are part of the lithic technology of the later Denali complex and is not believed to be associated with the Nenana complex tool kit. But the lack of diagnostic tools from the earlier excavations and the validity of associating those stone tools with radiocarbon dates obtained from soil organics was a real problem. In-other-words the first excavations of the Moose Creek site in 1979 and 1984 did not produce enough evidence to conclusively prove that there was a Nenana complex occupation in the lowest level.

CONTINUE ON TO PAGE TWO

"REFERENCES"

1991, "Clovis Origins and Adaptations," "The Nenana Complex of Alaska and Clovis Origins," by Ted Goebel, Roger Powers and Nancy Bigelow, pp 49-76.
1993
, "From Kostenki to Clovis," "The Ones That Will Not Go Away," by J.M. Adovasio, pp. 203-204.
1997
, "Expedition Affirms Significance of Moose Creek Site," Mammoth Trumpet, Vol. 12, No. 4, October, pp. 13-18.
1997, "new Evidence for a Nenana-Complex Occupation at the Moose Creek Site, Central Alaska: Preliminary Results of the 1996 Re-excavation," Current Research of the Pleistocenn,14, by Georges A. Pearson, pp. 72-74.
1999, "Early Occupation and Cultural Sequence at Moose Creek: A Late Pleistocene Site in Central Alaska," Arctic Vol. 52, No. 4, by Georges A. Pearson, pp. 332-345.
2002, "Late-Pleistocene and Holocene Microblade Industries at the Moose Creek Site," Current Research of the Pleistocene, 17, by Georges A. Pearson, pp. 64-65.
Personal communications with Dr. Georges A. Pearson.

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