ANCHORAGE, ALASKA—Outdoor Life reports that a 54-inch wooden hunting bow was discovered in southwestern Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park and Preserve by National Park Service (NPS) employees. The bow, found under two feet of water, has been radiocarbon dated to between 1506 and 1660. Priscilla Morris of the U.S. Forest Service examined the bow with a hand lens and thinks it may be made of spruce or birch. The park includes ancestral lands of the Dena’ina people, but Dena’ina Elders and National Park researchers suggest the bow is more similar in style to bows made by the neighboring Yup’ik or Alutiq peoples, who were trade partners with the Dena’ina, along with the Tanana, Tlingit, Ahtna, and Deg Hit’an. Archaeologist Jason Rogers said that the NPS plans to study the rare bow while keeping it intact. “It’s very rare for us to come across material like this,” he explained. To read about excavations near a Yup'ik village in Alaska, go to "Cultural Revival."
