Alaska Archaeologists Seek Asylum Status for Storm-Threatened Artifacts
With another storm forecast, researchers argue that centuries-old tools and carvings deserve refugee protections and a safe resettlement plan of their own.
With a second storm season approaching, the team racing to save what remains of the dig site has taken an unusual step: filing paperwork asking that the artifacts themselves be classified as climate refugees, eligible for asylum and relocation to museums outside the storm's path.
The forms, adapted from standard immigration intake sheets, ask each object to state its country of origin, describe the conditions it is fleeing, and indicate whether it has a credible fear of returning to the eroding bluff. Several stone tools and a fragment of carved ivory have reportedly been marked as having strong claims.
"We are simply asking that these items receive the same due process as anyone displaced by conditions beyond their control," said one field researcher, carefully filling out a family-reunification section for a spear point and its broken tip.
Until the paperwork clears, the artifacts are being held in a converted tool shed pending what the team is calling credible-fear interviews, conducted by two graduate students taking turns holding a clipboard and speaking slowly.
Organizers say the backlog is growing faster than the shed can hold, but they remain hopeful that at least a few pottery shards will be resettled before the next storm arrives to make their case for them.