OCCUPATIONAL HIATUSES AT THE VODOPADNAYA 2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE ON SIMUSHIR ISLAND CANNOT BE CORRELATED TO LOCAL GEOLOGIC HAZARDS

Recent research in Kuril Island archaeology has concluded that occupation hiatuses are not directly associated with catastrophic geologic hazards, such as volcanic eruptions or tsunamis. The Vodopadnaya 2 site on Simushir Island was one of the first sites studied by the Kuril Biocomplexity Project to exemplify a lack of correlation between geologic hazards and site abandonment. This result is supported by intensive radiocarbon dating of the site, stratigraphic and geochemical correlation of tephra in excavations around north Simushir, and regional records of tsunami recurrence from tsunami deposits. The 47 radiocarbon dates of Vodopadnaya 2 indicate occupation from 2170-430 ¹⁴C BP, with a clear ~500-year hiatus at 945-430 ¹⁴C BP. Smaller possible hiatuses exist from 1460-1360, 1260-1110 and 1050-945 ¹⁴C BP. The smaller, <150-yr hiatuses may be artifacts of sampling; the 500-yr gap likely is not. During occupation, intermittent volcanic eruptions affected the site every ~250-500 years. Many tephra were absent from the archaeological excavation, but were found in geologic excavations meters away, suggesting habitation during and after eruptions. Only one tephra can be associated temporally with a hiatus (1260-1110 ¹⁴C BP) however this thin, limited tephra suggests a low-intensity eruption, smaller in scale than many during the occupational period. No tephra could be temporally associated with the 500-yr occupation hiatus or site abandonment. Regional analyses by M. Nakagawa (Hokkaido University) indicate that 500 years of increased volcanic activity predate the 500-yr hiatus. Additionally, regional tsunami records indicate tsunamis on Northern Simushir were common during site occupation, every ~100 years, with no apparent change in tsunami intensity during or after occupation. Combined, these observations strongly indicate that humans regularly survived hazardous events and the driving forces of settlement and abandonment were non-geological.