Landscape structure and terrain-based hunting range models: Exploring late prehistoric land use in the Nutzotin Mountains, southcentral Alaska

Striving for better delineation of site function, land use, and settlement patterns, the data and analyses presented in this dissertation aim to explore more robust and objective avenues of inquiry for addressing the variability and distribution of surface lithic scatters using terrain-based hunting range models. Using large mammal distributions, Athabascan hunting ranges, and topography, landscape metrics, and an exploratory data analysis (EDA) framework, landscape structure is quantified and compared across much of the Alaskan Interior to identify reoccurring patterns related to hunting land use and the range characteristics of caribou, moose, and sheep. Key components of the landscape structure are contrasted with topographic matrices associated with protohistoric and late prehistoric sites via discriminant function classification models. Projectile points, scrapers and bifaces from surface scatters in the Nutzotin Mountains are examined in relationship to these models and their constituent elements. The results show that the association of certain chipped-stone tools and landscape structure are highly autocorrelated. This suggests that landscape structure models can be useful in the generation of constructive hypotheses to test ideas concerning inter-assemblage variability, site function and varied forms of land use.