ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND—More than 50,000 artifacts recovered from a site on the southwestern coast of Alaska will be sent back to the area after having been preserved by archaeologists at the University of Aberdeen, according to a report from BBC News. The artifacts, most made of wood and other organic materials, were in danger of degrading due to melting permafrost and coastal erosion at the site, known as Nunalleq. The materials date back hundreds of years and include extraordinarily well-preserved wooden masks used by the local Yup’ik people in dance rituals. The team, led by archaeologist Rick Knecht, spent seven years unearthing and preserving the artifacts. Once they are returned to Alaska, they will be displayed at a new culture and archaeology center. According to Knecht, the collection is among the largest ever to have been recovered from a single site in Alaska—and perhaps the Arctic as a whole. To read in-depth about the excavation at Nunalleq, go to “Cultural Revival.”
