CHUKCHI HOT-SPOTS, PALEO-POLYNYAS, AND CARIBOU CRASHES - CLIMATIC ANDECOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF NORTH ALASKA PREHISTORY

The course of human prehistory in the western American Arctic is often argued to have been controlled by climatic fluctuations, yet the clim atic data used are extra-regional. Rarely are culture and climate corr elated at appropriate temporal. and spatial scales. Oceanographic fact ors such as nutrient upwelling off Anadyr Gulf also control biological productivity and influence human ecology. Reanalysis of the Iyatayet and Onion Portage stratigraphy, northwest Alaska beach ridges, and tre e rings reveals several climatic ''down-turns'' or stormy, colder peri ods at: 3300-3000 C-14 yrs B.P. (1600-1200 cal B.C.), 2000-1700 C-14 y rs B.P. (100 cal B.C.-cal A.D. 300), several during 1200 to 800 C-14 y rs B.P. (cal A.D. 800-1050), and 600-200 C-14 yrs B.P. (cal A.D. 1450- 1800). Warmer weather prevailed from 4000-3300 C-14 yrs B.P. (2400-160 0 cal B.C.) and from 1700 to 1200 C-14 yrs B.P. (cal A.D. 300-700). Co astal sites were more intensively occupied during warmer periods befor e 1200 C-14 yrs B.P. or A.D. 700, while inland areas were occupied mor e intensively during cold periods, at least after the refinement of do g traction. The development of social complexity during the Ipiutak wa rm period may be associated with population increase and technological innovations that provided a buffer against climatic conditions. The T hule culture developed during a stormy interval correlative with coole r temperatures and glacial advances