STORM WASHES AWAY HISTORY IN ALASKAN VILLAGE

Remnants of Typhoon Halong destroyed a swath of shoreline where the world's most significant Yup'ik artifacts were found

- BY BECKY BOHRER

RICK KNECHT

TOOLS, utensils and other artifacts of Yup'ik life in Quinhagak, Alaska, were retrieved after a storm scattered them last month.

A fragment of a mask that was preserved for hundreds of years in permafrost sat in the muck of a low tide in the western Alaska community of Quinhagak. Wooden spoons, toys, a fishing lure and other artifacts were strewn, in some cases for miles, along the beach.

The Yup'ik community near the edge of the Bering Sea was spared the widespread devastation wrought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong on its neighbors farther west earlier last month. But it suffered a different kind of blow: The lashing winds and storm surge devoured dozens of feet of shoreline, disrupting a culturally significant archaeological site and washing away possibly thousands of unearthed artifacts.

About 1,000 pieces, including wooden masks and tools, were recovered in Quinhagak after the storm ravaged parts of southwest Alaska on Oct. 11 and 12. But many more pieces perhaps up to 100,000 were left scattered, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist who has worked on the Nunalleq, or old village, project for 17 years. That's roughly the number of pieces previously recovered from the archaeological site.