Agayadan village: Household archaeology on Unimak Island, Alaska

The large, communal dwelling is one of the hallmarks of the culturally comp lex, hunter-gatherer societies of NW North America. Many archaeologists lin k the transition to multi-family dwellings in this region, ca. A.C. 500-150 0, with dramatic social transformations, including the emergence of residen tial corporate groups and social ranking. Understanding the organization of these multi-family houses is critical to understanding the evolution of so cial complexity in the north Pacific. Excavations at Agayadan Village on Un imak Island, Alaska provide important new data on the organization of late prehistoric multi-family houses in the eastern Aleutian region. Analysis of the spatial distribution of fire hearths, roasting pits, storage pits, and other interior features demonstrates that some aspects of the household ec onomy operated on a corporate, or communal level, while in other aspects th e families within each house maintained their economic independence.