The Nenana Valley of central Alaska is the site of one of the earliest archaeological occupations in the North American continent. The sites date between about 12,000 and 11,000 years ago, and may be ancestral to Clovis, although there have been no Clovis or Clovis-like projectile points found there.
The Nenana complex is characterized by the presence of Chindadn projectile points, which are small and tear drop-shaped to triangular in outline. The sites do not contain the microblades seen in later sites such as those belonging to the Denali complex.
Related complex: Broken Mammoth (Broken Mammoth, Swan Point, Mead site, Shaw Creek, all dated the same but with slightly different kinds of points.
Sources
See Norm Easton's website at Yukon College for a larger bibliography and more information about the Nenana complex.
Bever, M. R. 2001 An Overview of Alaskan Late Pleistocene Archaeology: Historical Themes and Current Perspectives. Journal of World Prehistory 15(2):125-191.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
