Alutiiq Museum Curator of Archaeology Patrick Saltonstall will give a lecture at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center on Thursday, February 20, 2014, 12:00-1:00PM. He will be discussing the topic "Saving the Past for the Future: Archeological Site Disturbance and Documentation in the Kodiak Archipelago” and presenting photos from local archaeological sites he is helping to manage. The lecture is part of the Visitor Center’s weekly brown bag lunch series.

With over 1,000 known prehistoric sites, the Kodiak Archipelago has one of Alaska’s richest archaeological records. Coastal villages, campsites, cave sites, quarries, cairns, fish weirs, and rock art occur throughout the islands and record the 7,500-year story of the Alutiiq people. Despite the wealth of sites, many are threatened by both natural and cultural process–from erosion to digging bears and land development.

For the past 16 years, the Alutiiq Museum has been documenting Kodiak sites and tracking agents of disturbance to better understand how sites and the library of information they hold can be preserved. This presentation examines the types of disturbance recorded and patterns in their distribution. It also encourages community members to join in documenting Kodiak sites in non-invasive ways.

Patrick Saltonstall has been interested in archaeology since the age of 7, when he first visited an excavation. He pursued this interest in school, receiving a Bachelors degree from Harvard and a Master degree from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently the Curator of Archaeology at the Alutiiq Museum where he cares for collections, leads field and laboratory research, oversees historic preservation projects, and shares archaeology with the public.

The Alutiiq Museum, a non-profit organization, preserves and shares the heritage and culture of the Alutiiq, an Alaska Native tribal people. Representatives of Kodiak Alutiiq organizations govern the museum with funding from charitable contributions, memberships, grants, contracts, and sales. Our vision is to celebrate Alutiiq heritage through living culture.