Location Nenana Valley, Alaska Public access Yes | Founded c. 9000 B.C.E. | |
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Cultures Preceded the Clovis culture | ||
Nenana Valley is an archaeological site in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of Alaska.
The site was first occupied around eleven thousand years ago, circa 9,000 B.C.E, and likely represents one of the earliest sites in North America. The location of artifacts in the stratigraphic column suggests that, originally, the site was not occupied year-round, and that during the last glacial period people would have been travelling back and forth between North America and Russia, using this site as an outpost. Zooarchaeological evidence, such as mammoth and sheep bones, suggest that people were following these paths seasonally for hunting. As the ice age ended, the site would have become a more permanent residence. Points found here suggest that the culture is ancestral to that which created the Clovis points, of which variations can be found across the United States.