Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Spring 9-5-2017 GIS Spatial Analysis of Arctic Settlement Patterns: A Case Study in Northwest Alaska Justin Andrew Junge Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Geographic Information Sciences Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Junge, Justin Andrew, "GIS Spatial Analysis of Arctic Settlement Patterns: A Case Study in Northwest Alaska" (2017). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3878. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5766 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. GIS Spatial Analysis of Arctic Settlement Patterns: A Case Study in Northwest Alaska by Justin Andrew Junge A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Anthropology Thesis Committee: Shelby L. Anderson, Chair Kenneth M. Ames David Banis Portland State University 2017 © 2017 Justin Andrew Junge Abstract Archaeologists have been interested in relationship between environmental variability and cultural change for the last six decades. By understanding how, when, and why humans adapt to environmental change, archaeologists and anthropologists can better understand the development and complexity of human cultures. In northwest Alaska, archaeologists hypothesize that environmental variability was a major factor in both growing coastal population density, with large aggregated villages and large houses, between 1000 and 500 years ago (ya), and subsequent decreasing population density between 500 ya and the contact era.