Acting Curator of Archaeology

Jeff_Rasic @nps.gov

907-455-0632

Jeff Rasic is serving as the Acting Curator of Archaeology and is also employed by the National Park Service as an archaeologist for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. He has worked in the Caribbean, mid-Atlantic states, and western U.S. over the last 17 years and since 1995 has focused on field work and research projects in Alaska, especially the northern and interior portions of the state. Research interests include the early human settlement of Beringia, the analysis of stone tool assemblages, and archaeological survey and mapping methods. Recent projects include the geochemical analysis of obsidian artifacts and identification of obsidian sources within Alaska; archaeological surveys in the Brooks Range and upper Yukon River; and investigations of the biogeography and extinction of large game animals in Alaska.

PhD Anthropology, 2008, Washington State University

MA Anthropology, 2000, Washington State University

BA Anthroplogy, 1993, Wake Forest University

Selected Publications:

2010     Rasic, Jeffrey T. Functional Variability in the Late Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Eastern Beringia. In Explaining Lithic Assemblage Variability Across Beringia, edited by T. Goebel and I. Buvit. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press (in press).

2009     Slobodina, Natalia S., Joshua D. Reuther, Jeffrey T. Rasic, John P. Cook, and Robert J. Speakman. Obsidian Procurement and Use at the Dry Creek Site (HEA-005), Interior Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 26:115-117.

2008     Rasic, Jeffrey T. and Natalia.S. Slobodina. Weapon Systems and Assemblage Variability During the Northern Archaic Period in Northern Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 45(2): 70-87.

2008     Wilson, Aaron and Jeffrey T. Rasic. Northern Archaic Settlement and Subsistence Patterns at Agiak Lake, Brooks Range, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 45(2):128-145.

2007     Odess, D. and J. T. .Rasic. Toolkit Composition and Assemblage Variability: The Implications of Nogahabara I, Northern Alaska . American Antiquity 72(4):691-717.

2007     Rasic, J.T. and P. Matheus. A Reconsideration of Purported Holocene Bison Bones in Northern Alaska . Arctic 60 (4): 381-388.

2004     Rasic, J.T. Debitage Taphonomy. In Aggregate Analysis in Chipped Stone, edited by C. Hall and M. L. Larson, pp. 112-138. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City .

Current Projects:

Paleoindian Adaptations in Eastern Beringia: Prelude or Postscript to the Early Settlement of the Americas?

Archaeology Collection Manager

jwwhitney @alaska.edu

907-474-6943

James Whitney has been the Archaeology Collection Manager since 2000. He oversees the care of the artifacts and documentation, manages the collections database, assists researchers with use of the collections, and supervises student assistants working on collections projects. His current research interests include mangement and conservation of archaeological collections and historical archaeology of Alaska and the American West. His research in historical archaeology is focused on the material culture of placer gold miners and the expansion of the capitalist world-system.

MA Anthropology, 2009, University of Alaska Fairbanks

MA Museology, 2000, University of Washington

BS Natural Resources, Concentration Archaeology, 1997, Cornell University

Selected Presentations:

2010     Whitney, James. Historical Archaeology of Snare Creek: Documenting the History of a Han Athabascan Community in the Coal Creek Mining District. Paper Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Anchorage.

2009      Whitney, James. Historical Archaeology of Marion Creek , Alaska : Placer Gold Mining and the Capitalist World-System. Paper Presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Juneau.

Current Projects:

Historical Archaeology of Snare Creek, Alaska: Documenting the History of a Han Athabascan Community in the Coal Creek MIning District.

Research Archaeologist

sjshirar @alaska.edu

907-474-6819

Scott Shirar has been a research archaeologist with the University of Alaska Museum of the North since January 2008. As a museum archaeologist his responsibilities include managing projects funded through federal agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. He also leads summer fieldwork projects and conducts original research. Scott’s research interests and specialties include: faunal analysis, subsistence studies, seasonality studies, trade and exchange, and the late prehistoric time period generally.

MA Anthropology, 2007, University of Alaska Fairbanks

BS Anthropology, 1999, Indiana University

Selected Publications:

2011     Gaines, Edmund P., Kate S. Yeske, William C. Johnson, Scott J. Shirar, and James F. Kunesh. Pleistocene Archaeology of the Tanana Flats, Eastern Beringia. Manuscript currently under peer-review, on file with the archaeology department, University of Alaska Museum of the North.

2010     Shirar, Scott. Late Holocene Ecology and Subsistence Technology Along the Noatak and Kobuk Rivers , Alaska. Manuscript currently under peer-review, on file with the Archaeology Department, University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks.

2009     Shirar, Scott. Subsistence and Seasonality at a Late Prehistoric House Pit in Northwest Alaska. Journal of Ecological Anthropology 13(1):6-25.

2007     Odess, Daniel and Scott Shirar. New Evidence of Microblade Technology in the Nenana Complex Type Site at Dry Creek, Central Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 24:129-131.

Selected Presentations:

2011     Shirar, Scott. Results of Recent Survey in Onion Portage National Historic Landmark, Kobuk Valley National Park. Paper presented at the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Fairbanks.

2011     Barton, Loukas, Scott Shirar, Linda Chisholm, Jeff Rasic, and Jim Jordan. The Koniag Expansion: New Results from the Central Alaska Peninsula. Paper presented at the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Fairbanks.

2010     Shirar, Scott. Interpreting Seasonal Occupation: A Late Holocene Example from NW Alaska . Paper presented at the 37^th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage.

2010     Shirar, Scott, Jeffrey T. Rasic, and Patrick Druckenmiller. A Synthesis of Prehistoric Canis Remains in Alaska . Paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis.

Current Projects:

Archaeology of Late Prehistoric Lakeside Settlements in Northwest Alaska

Archaeology of the Central Alaska Peninsula

Ecology and Subsistence Technology Along the Noatak and Kobuk Rivers during the Late Prehistoric Time Period

Archaeology Technician

sccoffman @alaska.edu

907-474-6819

Sam is a museum technician who deals predominately with the geographic information systems (GIS) component for the archaeology department and museum. His research interests include lithic analysis, hunter-gatherer landscape-use/adaptation, GIS modeling and analysis. Sam’s main focus of research deals with the late Pleistocene/early Holocene archaeology of the sub-arctic and Great Basin. To learn more about his on-going and past research please visit his blog <http://midnightsunarchaeology.blogspot.com/>

MA Anthropology, 2011, University of Alaska Fairbanks

BA Anthropology, 2007, University of Nevada, Reno

Selected Publications:

2011     Coffman S. and B. A. Potter. Recent Excavations at Teklanika West a Late Pleistocene Site in Denali National Park, Central Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 28.

2011     Fenner L., G. Smith, S. Coffman, and G. Noyes. Comparing Great Basin Paleoindian Raw Material Procurement Strategies: X-ray Fluorescence Data from Obsidian Fluted and Stemmed Points from Mud Lake and Lake Tonopah, Nevada. Current Research in the Pleistocene 28.

Selected Presentations:

2011     S. Coffman and B.A. Potter. Recent Excavations at Teklanika West, Central Alaska. Paper presented at the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Fairbanks.

2011     S. Coffman and C. Holmes. East meets West, Archaeology at Teklanika East, Central Alaska. Paper presented at the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Fairbanks.

2010     S. Coffman and B.A. Potter. Archaeological Investigations at Teklanika West, Central Alaska. Paper presented at the 75^th annual meetings for the Society for American Archaeologist, St. Louis, MO.

Fawn Carter

Aimee Ely

Roberta Eastwood

Stormy Fields

Conner Hite

Allie Pelto

Cassidy Phillips

Lori Hansen

Heather Hardy

Tristan Walsh

Allison Ward

Andrew Weaver

Steve Lanford