Page 87 - HISTORY ANGKOR

Knecht believes the attacks were the result of the rhythm of subsistence hunting cycles, it has

climate change—a 550-year chilling of the plan- also driven Nunalleq to the brink of oblivion. In
et now known as the Little Ice Age—that coin- summer everything looks fine as the land dons
cided with Nunalleq’s occupation. The coldest its perennial robe of white-flowering yarrow and
years in Alaska, in the 1600s, must have been sprigs of cotton grass that light up
a desperate time, with raids probably launched like candles when the morning sun
to steal food. “Whenever you get rapid change, hits the tundra. The scene turns
there’s a lot of disruption in the seasonal cy- alarming come winter when the
cles of subsistence,” says Knecht. “If you get an Bering Sea hurls vicious storms at the

extreme, like a Little Ice Age—or like now— coast. If the waves get big enough, they
changes can occur faster than people can adjust.” crash across a narrow gravel beach and rip away
at the remains of the site.
Retreating Ice
For centuries, Yup’ik people on both sides of the
A WOODEN YUP’IK MASK DEPICTS AN ANIMAL WITH A SEAL
Bering Sea have made the Arctic tundra their CAUGHT IN ITS JAWS. MASKS SERVED SACRED PURPOSES
AND WERE USED TO PETITION THE GODS. 19TH CENTURY.
home, but today’s unpredictable and increas- GOODNEWS BAY, ALASKA

ingly violent weather has not only thrown off NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION