Archeological Overview and Assessment of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve

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This project will produce Bering Land Bridge National Preserve¿s (BELA) first Archeological Overview and Assessment report since the park was established almost 40 years ago. It would be a key baseline document, and one important to the current and future management of this archeologically rich park. The report will synthesize existing information necessary to protect, manage and interpret the known archeological resources in a park with a legislated (ANILCA) purpose to ¿provide for archeological and paleontological study ¿ of the process of plant and animal migration, including man, between North America and the Asian Continent.¿ The park has an archeological record reaching back to perhaps more than 12,000 years ago. The Assessment will lay a foundation necessary to develop new projects to identify yet unknown resources. The report will review the available literature and existing archeological databases maintained by the NPS. The Archeological Overview and Assessment report will: 1) provide a comprehensive overview of the environmental setting, past and present (e.g., paleoecology, paleoclimate); 2) provide a review and summary of the known archeological resources in the Preserve to produce an updated culture history; 3) identify major themes, research problems, key sites, and data gaps; 4) document previous survey efforts detailing when and where archeological survey has been conducted in previous years and the areas never inventoried; 5) analyze the known data and research history to make informed recommendations on where to focus new management efforts including inventory and data recovery projects. The report will include a list of the known sites, site types, dated sites, a radiocarbon database, and a comprehensive bibliography.

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