The house on the hill: A 3800-year-old upland site on Adak Island, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska

The 2011 excavation of Feature 9, a 3800 cal B.P. semisubterranean house at ADK-00237 on southwest Adak Island, is the only Neoglacial house excavated in the central Aleutian Islands and the only upland site excavation in the Aleutian Islands. House structural features, lithic debitage and tool analysis, sediment analysis, and spatial analysis are used to determine if upland household activities in Feature 9 differ from household activities in coastal Neoglacial houses. The complex hearth features at ADK-00237 are similar to those at the Amaknak Bridge (UNL-00050) site on Unalaska Island. The artifact assemblage at ADK-00237 is similar to other Margaret Bay phase sites in the eastern Aleutian Islands with the notable absence of fishing and hunting equipment and midden remains. Core and blade technology include one microblade core and two blade-like unifaces. Unifacial technology was more prevalent than bifacial technology and most tools were informal flake tools. The comparable tool assemblages suggest similar activities occurred in Feature 9 as at other Margaret Bay phase houses in the eastern Aleutian Islands. There is no evidence the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt)-like artifacts from Chaluka (SAM-00001) and Margaret Bay (UNL-00048) were identified at ADK-00237. The measurable differences in the upland site of ADK-00237 to coastal houses are that Feature 9 and the two additional houses were not stone-lined, it has a smaller assemblage size, there is a lower frequency of points within the assemblage, and no definitive fishing or hunting equipment was found. Given the available evidence, ADK-00237 was likely a lookout location, based on its proximity to a coastal village (ADK-00025) and its views and easy access to three other water bodies, Adak Strait to the west, South Arm Bay to the north, and Bay of Waterfalls to the southeast. ADK-00237 could also have been a refuge