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International audience; The reconstruction of diet, subsistence strategies and human-animal relationships are integral to understanding past human societies, adaptations and resilience - especially in the circumpolar Arctic. Even in relatively recent periods, climatic excursions may have posed specific challenges for hunter-gatherer groups living at latitudinal and climatic extremes, and archaeological research in Arctic North America is increasingly looking to better understand the impact of past climate change on human groups. Here, through a unique multi-proxy approach (zooarchaeology, bone technology and stable isotope analysis), we explore human subsistence strategies, adaptation and resilience at Nunalleq, a recently excavated pre-contact Yup'ik coastal site in southwest Alaska. The main phase of occupation of the site (16th-17th centuries AD) corresponds with one of the coolest periods of the Little Ice Age – a climatic interval from the early 14th century through the mid-19th associated with global and more localised cooling events. The analyses reveal a subsistence strategy centred around the exploitation of three major resources, including salmon, marine mammals and caribou, supplemented by secondary resources such as birds and medium-sized mammals. This tripartite resource base (salmon, marine mammals, caribou) is similar to that seen at other Thule-era sites in Alaska and likely permitted a flexibility in resource use in the face of changes in resource availability (and competition over resources) during the Little Ice Age. Comparison of the different datasets, however, reveals variability and nuance in the use of animals for both dietary and broader subsistence needs. While caribou represent a vital and heavily-exploited resource at Nunalleq (evident from both the zooarchaeology and the bone technology), they did not represent a key dietary resource (indicated by stable isotope data). Instead, caribou played an integral and key part as a major source of raw material, especially antler, in order to manufacture the necessary acquisition technology to exploit primary coastal resources.

Archaeoentomological research at the precontact site of Nunalleq (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD), Southwest Alaska, has identified hundreds of lice and fleas that infested both the human inhabitants of the site and their canine companions. As lice are host specific, staying attached to the host’s hair or fur during the totality of their lifecycle, they are generally considered excellent indicators of activity areas. Fleas, however, are relatively less common in archaeological contexts and, since they are mobile and able to infest several different host species, their potential use in the spatial reconstruction of activities is more limited. At Nunalleq, the study of insects from the most recent archaeological contexts produced very different spatial distribution patterns for human lice, fleas, and dog lice. This article compares these archaeoentomological data with other datasets available for the site (carrion-feeding flies, human hair, fur, coprolites, projectile points, and pieces of clothing) with the aim of establishing the phenomena that produced the distinct spatial distributions observed., À Nunalleq, un site yup’ik précontact (XVIe et XVIIe siècles après J.C.) du sud-ouest de l’Alaska, des centaines de poux et de puces ayant infesté les habitants du site ainsi que leurs chiens ont pu être identifiés. Puisque les poux sont spécifiques à leur hôte, demeurant attachés aux poils ou à la fourrure de celui-ci pendant la totalité de leur cycle de vie, ils sont généralement considérés comme d’excellents indicateurs d’aires d’activités. Les puces sont relativement plus rares en contexte archéologique. Mobiles et capables d’infester plusieurs espèces-hôtes différentes, leur potentiel dans la reconstitution spatiale des activités semble, a priori, plus limité. Or, à Nunalleq, les résultats de l’étude des insectes provenant des contextes archéologiques les plus récents ont produit des schémas de distribution spatiale très différents entre les poux et les puces de l’Homme et également les poux du chien. Cet article compare ces données archéoentomologiques avec d’autres corpus de données disponibles à Nunalleq (mouches nécrophages, cheveux humains, fourrure, coprolithes, pointes lithiques, pièces vestimentaires) dans l’objectif de reconstituer les phénomènes à l’origine de ces distributions spatiales distinctes.