BANJO LAKE: A MIDDLE HOLOCENE SITE IN THE TANANA VALLEY.

Nearly 6,000 years ago, a group of people stopped to camp on a ridge overlooking Banjo Lake in interior Alaska. Climate indicators show spruce moved into the area and a period of surface stabilization occurred just prior to the occupation of the site. The bone and stone artifacts left behind provide clues not only to camp structure and subsistence activities but also to lithic technological organization. This study uses spatial analyses, minimum nodule analyses, and individual flake analyses to determine when and how lithic raw materials and tools entered the site. The Banjo Lake assemblage is different from traditional middle Holocene assemblages in the North as it is focused on microblade technology and therefore supports expanding our notion of the Northern Archaic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]