Book

Dakah de'nin's village and the Dixthada site: a contribution to northern Athapaskan prehistory

National Museums of CanadaOttawa • Published In 1979 • Pages: xi, 197

By: Shinkwin, Anne D..

Abstract
Shinkwin excavated two houses and partially excavated a third at Dakah de'nin's village in 1973 and analyzed the site's archaeological collection. She also analyzed the archaeological collections from Rainey's 1936 and 1937 excavations and Cook and McKennan's 1971 excavation from the Dixthada site. Cook and McKennan excavated at Dixthada to determine if the site were a two component site. (It is.) Both sites are in the Alaskan interior and were ethnographically associated with Northern Athapaskan groups. Artifacts from the two sites include glass trade beads, native copper, awls, bone points, copper points, Kavik points, boulder spall scrapers (TCHI THOS), whetstones, hammerstones, bone drinking tubes, and birch bark baskets. The range of acivities for the sites as indicated by the artifacts include hunting of large and small mammals, fishing , preparing hides, and sewing. Shinkwin reviews the history of contact and the ethnographic data for each site. Data from the two sites, along with Klo-kut in northern Yukon Territory, are examined to determine whether or not one can conclude from the archaeological data that there were three different Athapaskan groups at the three sites. Shinkwin concludes that the archaeological data are too generalized and can only support the fact that the sites are related; that they are Northern Athapaskan.
Subjects
Cultural participation
Ornament
Bone, horn, and shell technology
Lithic industries
Metallurgy
Dwellings
Weapons
General tools
Cultural stratigraphy
tradition
Proto-Athapaskans
Region
North America
Sub Region
Arctic and Subarctic
Document Type
Book
Evaluation
Creator Type
Archaeologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Notes
Anne D. Shinkwin
Summary in French
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-180)
LCCN
80486960
LCSH
Athapaskan Indians--Antiquities