The Moose Creek site is the first site in the Nenana Valley to produce both tear-drop and triangular varieties of projectile points.

The most important archaeological features at Moose Creek are the Denali and Nenana occupations. They were found in buried soil complexes within units two and five. Permafrost conditions did not appear to cause any major alterations to the sites stratigraphy although there was some evidence of permafrost found on the site.

PICTURE CREDIT AND COPYRIGHT, DR. GEORGES A. PEARSON
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GENERALIZED STRATIGRAPHIC PROFILE
1996 RE-EXCAVATION
MOOSE CREEK SITE--CENTRAL ALASKA

   This picture shows the stratigraphic profile of the Moose Creek site. The added text gives a generalized description of the profile. The Moose Creek site is composed of seven distinct stratigraphic (geological) units and contains four superimposed cultural components.
    1. The lowest unit is a sterile glacial deposit of outwash gravels and did not have any archaeological components.
    2. The second stratigraphic unit was 25-30 cm thick and consisted of fine wind-blown silt. This tan colored unit also contained faint discontinuous paleosol stringers. Well separated Chindadn and Denali complex features were contained within this unit.
    3. Above this was unit number 3 which consisted of a 5 cm thick well defined light colored fine sand that did not contain any archaeological features.
    4. Above the narrow band of light colored sand was unit number 4 that was made up of 25-30 cm of golden colored sand. This geological layer also did not contain any archaeological features.
    5. Unit number 5 was 15-20 cm thick and contained a buried forest soil complex of reddish brown B horizons that are inter-fingered with thin lenses of sand. This unit contained Denali complex feature number II.
    6. Unit number 6 measured 15-20 cm thick and contained lightly weathered sandy loam. Within this unit was the youngest archaeological feature on the site which remains unidentifiable.
    7. Unit number 7 was 5-7 cm thick and contained surface litter and a humic layer with no archaeological features.

The youngest archaeological feature discovered at Moose Creek was found in geological unit number 6 and designated as component number IV. Most of these artifacts were manufacturing flakes made of milky white rhyolite. The 11,000 flakes were found dispersed in thick concentrations. The few tools that were found include some highly battered flake cores, biface fragments, a side-scraper and a graver. There were not enough identifiable stone tools to determine a cultural affiliation.

BIFACES
DENALI COMPLEX I
MOOSE CREEK SITE--CENTRAL ALASKA
1996 RE-EXCAVATION

These two bifaces were recovered from component II in the Denali I occupation and belong to the paleoarctic tradition. Their intended use, had they been completed, may have been for either knives or projectile points. The larger of the two bifaces measures 2 3/4 inches (7 cm) long.

The most recent or youngest culturally identifiable lithic material found on this site was designated as component III. This feature was discovered in buried soil bands overlying the sand in geological unit 5 approximately 12 inches (31 cm) below the surface. The artifacts that diagnostically assign component III to a specific culture are several microblades and a microblade rejuvenation tablet. The use of microblade technology places this feature within a Denali complex occupation. A complete Northern Archaic-like projectile point made of basalt was also found along with other tools, including end scrapers, a blade, and a broken lanceolate projectile point preform. There were no hearths found at this level.

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"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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