Chapter II

The material on which this report is based was gathered in 1935 on an archaeological and geological reconnassiance under the author's leadership along the lower Tanana and middle and lower Yukon valleys, between Nenana and Holy Cross. One of the main purposes of the expedition was to study the Pleistocene and Recent geology of the region, with reference to the problem of early human migrations. Dr. Eardley, our geologist, naturally assumed charge of this task. Considerable attention was also paid to more recent archaeological problems, especially to the relationship of the Indian culture to that of the Eskimo near the mouth of the Yukon. Preliminary reports have been published by the author, and Dr. Eardley has also published two geological papers. Although we visited a number of sites at which the bones of Pleistocene animals are exposed, we found no trace of contemporary man. From late Tertiary times to the present, the Yukon has experienced complicated cycles of deposition and erosion; in the valley, the land surface on which Pleistocene or early Recent man would have hunted and camped is now largely destroyed, and the present topography gives no clues to likely camping places

Archaeology · Geography · Geologist · Pleistocene · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology