Owen Mason | University of Colorado, Boulder (original) (raw)

Papers by Owen Mason

Abstract Doctoral thesis the purpose of which was to define the climatic and geologic controls ov... more Abstract Doctoral thesis the purpose of which was to define the climatic and geologic controls over dune and beach ridge formation in Kotzebue Sound, provide a chronology of northwest Alaska beach ridge history during the late Holocene, cross correlate deposits ...

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jul 24, 2014

American Antiquity, Jul 1, 1987

By comparing thin sections of basalt artifacts from three early and middle Holocene Aleutian site... more By comparing thin sections of basalt artifacts from three early and middle Holocene Aleutian sites with geological samples, we can infer the location of the artifactual rock source or sources. Contrary to the sources, the comparison shows that the basalt artifacts came from a single flow or closely related flows 15-30 km from all three sites. This finding suggests we should reassess the role of cultural continuity, trade, and exchange in the early and middle Holocene of the Aleutians.

Geografisk Tidsskrift-danish Journal of Geography, 2010

Page 1. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 110(2) 337 DANISH JO U RNAL OF GEOGRA P... more Page 1. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 110(2) 337 DANISH JO U RNAL OF GEOGRA PH Y 2010 Beach Ridge Geomorphology at Cape Grinnell, northern Greenland: A Less Icy Arctic in the Mid-Holocene ...

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Sep 1, 1998

Arctic Anthropology, 2012

ABSTRACT Ernest S. Burch reconstructed the political economy and demography of the Iñupiat of Nor... more ABSTRACT Ernest S. Burch reconstructed the political economy and demography of the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska ca. A.D. 1800 based on extensive interviews in the 1960s-1980s with Native historians, archival records, and historical accounts. Although Burch emphasized the number of small dispersed homesteads across the Noatak and Kobuk drainages, three coastal communities dominated the politics of Northwest Alaska (Barrow, Point Hope, and Wales). The region, expanded to include Chukotka, was reportedly divided into nearly 60 independent "nations" that were engaged in war on a frequent basis and routinely killed intruders. Burch hypothesized that war was so frequent as to inhibit population growth; however, the chronology of 19th-century occupation is poorly known and population estimates are problematic. The conduct of Inupiat warfare involved long-distance overland forays, often greater than 200 km, during the fall and included a wide range of tactics, ranging from formal open battles conducted with the bow and arrow to close-quarters combat with clubs and daggers. Archaeological evidence (e.g., arrow points and slat armor) should reflect the intensity of warfare and can be employed to assess the reliability of oral historical accounts. Material evidence for warfare is most unambiguous from A.D. 1400 to 1700 suggesting that Native historical accounts, which lack chronological referents, are palimpsests of diverse time periods and likely refer to the period earlier than the 19th century.

The Arctic region in the northern hemisphere presented humans with dietary and temperature challe... more The Arctic region in the northern hemisphere presented humans with dietary and temperature challenges and required a maritime sea mammal hunting or sea-ice adaptation. The colonization of this frigid and florally restricted environment occurred earlier than suspected, during the late Pleistocene c .27 000 years ago in northern Eurasia. In geographic terms, only northern Greenland, the coastal margins of Scandinavia, the Taymyr, and Alaska lie beyond the Arctic Circle. By contrast, sustained settlement of the North American High Arctic and Greenland did not occur until late in the Holocene, c .5000 years ago. Complex whaling societies developed in Bering Strait by 2000 years ago. For the most part, Arctic archaeology is synonymous with a single Mongoloid population, the Inuit (formerly Eskimo) who still dominate the region from Alaska to Greenland. A brief incursion between AD 900 and 1400 by the European Norse was renewed by Danish colonists in the early eighteenth century and continues to the present.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 3, 2016

Dependent on whaling, a series of complex, sedentary societies termed Old Bering Sea arose around... more Dependent on whaling, a series of complex, sedentary societies termed Old Bering Sea arose around Bering Strait at proximity to resource hot spots, ca. 250 B.C. to A.D. 400, thrived between A.D. 600 and 800 and with influences as late as A.D. 1300. Old Bering Sea developed adjacent to walrus haul-outs and was associated with the most elaborate aesthetic system known in the Arctic. Virtually every artifact was overlain with formalized motifs, as figural representations were crafted, of both animals and humans. This breakthrough was due either to internal societal dynamics or, alternatively, was an artifact of taphonomic factors, such as fortuitous site preservation. The origins of the culture remain obscure, as does its fate; its technology is related to subsequent Punuk and Thule cultures.

Arctic and alpine research, Nov 1, 1991

Page 1. Arctic and Alpine Research, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1991, pp. 392-403 LATE HOLOCENE FLOOD HISTORY... more Page 1. Arctic and Alpine Research, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1991, pp. 392-403 LATE HOLOCENE FLOOD HISTORY OF THE TANANA RIVER, ALASKA, USA OWEN K. MASON Alaska Quaternary Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA JAMES E. BEGET ...

Journal of Northern studies, 1987