A Burial Cave on Kanaga Island, Aleutian Islands

The Aleut burial cave described in this report was found by the authors during field work in July, 1952. As the site was left entirely undisturbed, the information may be useful to parties programming future work in the Aleutian Islands area. Further, it may be possible on the strength of this description alone to relate the burial occurrence to known cultural traits. At the very least it will point out the existence of an intensely interesting isolated feature. The cave is located at the base of a steep sea cliff on Kanaga Island at latitude 51° 43’ 44” N. and longitude 177° 31'10” W. (All locations are from the Army Map Service map of Kanaga Island, Sheet no. 3 of 5, scale 1:25,000.) A small kitchen midden was noted a short distance south of the cave.