Abstract

Exploratory excavations in June 1999 added wooden fishing implements, fragments of a net, a ground slate point, and faunal remains to an assemblage of 5,000-year-old twined basketry that had been previously rescued from eroding intertidal deposits at a site in southeastern Alaska. The water-saturated deposits have also preserved remnants of a 2,000-year-old fish trap feature. Although the sample is too small to draw conclusions with confidence, stylistic characteristics and functional interpretations of the finds support reconstructions of intensive salmon fishing and cultural continuity in the Northern Tlingit area for the past five millennia.