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Vitus Jonassen Bering

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The museum of the North in Fairbanks Alaska holds one of the largest collections of ancient people in North America that consists of over 5,000 accessions, representing more than 750,000 cataloged artifacts. The collections represent the entire archaeological record of Alaska from the earliest sites dating from 14,000+ BP to 20th century historic sites. The collections span the entire geographic area of Alaska from Barrow to Ketchikan and from Eagle to St. Lawrence Island, providing an internationally recognized resource for research into the entire range of human occupation of the Arctic.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is the primary repository for archaeological collections from the State of Alaska
History of Archeology in Alaska
The earliest archaeological sites of the historic period in Alaska date to the mid-to-late 1700s, when Alaska was part of Russia following its "discovery" by Vitus Bering in 1741. Vitus Jonassen Bering also known as “Ivan Ivanovich Bering” was a Danish born (August 5, 1681) explorer in the Russian service, has the credit for being the first European to discover Alaska. Thus giving the name between Russia and Alaska the “Bering Straight.” Most stories focus on the summer of 1741 when he discovered Alaska. Relatively few archaeological sites are known from the Russian-America period that ended in 1867 with the …show more content…

Dozens more are over 8,000 years old. Some of these sites are shown on this map with dots, and eight are highlighted with photos and text. They are among the oldest of more than 15,000 reported archaeological sites in Alaska and many are still being discoverd. Many reachers believe that there thousands of sites that have been passed up or still even to be found. Most recently, ancient sites have been discovered along coastal areas that challenge the assumption that the first people came only by

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