‘Nunalleq Digital Museum – An Accessible Resource for Learning about Yup’ik Pre-Contact History’ by Prof. Charlotta Hillerdal

We live in a changing world. This could not be more obvious to the Yup’ik communities that were hit by the aftermaths of Typhoon Halong on October 12^th – with disastrous consequences to people’s homes and lives. In the sorrow that follows this, it has become apparent what immediate threat climate change poses to the Yup’ik way of life.

In Quinhagak, the storm not only attacked boats and fish racks, water and sewage infrastructure, but also the ancestral site of Nunalleq, an Old Village dating back c 500 years, to a time before Europeans came to Alaska. It brought destruction to parts of the historic site, displacing thousands of artifacts on the beach.

Fig. 1. Wooden figurine on the beach, eroded from the Nunalleq site after Typhoon Halong, October 2025. Photo by Rick Knecht.

However, in Quinhagak, history has a rare kind of resilience. The site of Nunalleq has been the focus of a joint research project between the people in Quinhagak and archaeologists for the past 16 years. This means that now, after the typhoon, community members are able bring their beach finds into the local museum, and local volunteers have been working with archaeologist Rick Knecht, who flew up to Quinhagak following the event, salvaging artifacts from the beach. Each of them adds to the story of Nunalleq, and the history of Yup’ik peoples.

Nunalleq research begun in 2009, after Quinhagak, with Elders blessings, took the decision to excavate the site. The reason behind this decision was that climate change induced coastal erosion threatened the Old Village, and artifacts were found eroded out on the beach. The motivation was to reconnect younger generations with their Yup’ik heritage.

Fig. 2. Excavation at the Nunalleq site in 2018. Photo by Rick Knecht.

Archaeological excavations have revealed that Nunalleq was a coastal village that thrived for around 100 years between CE 1570 and 1675. Up until now, permafrost has preserved objects like wooden masks and figurines, hunting equipment and even grass basketry in almost pristine conditions, and the old sod houses have layer after layer of ancient house floors that help us understand Yup’ik life in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta centuries ago. The Nunalleq collection, containing over 100,000 artifacts, is by far the largest collection of pre-contact Yup’ik material in the world, and an incredible source of knowledge about the Yup’ik past. It is housed in the Nunalleq Museum in Quinhagak, that opened in 2018.

Fig. 3. The Nunalleq Museum in Quinhagak. Photo by Rick Knecht.

For those unable to travel to Quinhagak and see the collection, the Nunalleq Digital Museum and Catalogue (Nunalleq Digital Museum / nunnaleq.org) gives access to this knowledge.

Fig 4. Nunalleq Digital Museum, exhibition home page. Image by Alice Watterson.

The Digital Museum features and online museum exhibition that presents a shared story between archaeology and local knowledge, between past and present, highlighting the continuity of Yup’ik traditions and contemporary connections with the past. The exhibition displays reconstructed scenes from everyday life at the time when Nunalleq was an active village. Reconstructions are based on the archaeological finds, and centred on seasonal subsistence and other activities, but much of the story has been moved out into the wider landscape, putting the artifacts into active use. The resource also includes soundbites and photo stories from community members – hunters, artists, and other knowledge holders. For those who wish to explore archaeological artifacts further, the catalogue contains over 6,000 objects, labelled both in Yup’ik and English, displayed as photographs or 3D scanned images.

Fig. 5. Interior of the sod house, from Winter page in the Nunalleq Digital Museum. Image by Alice Watterson.

Fig 6. Hunting from the ice, from Spring page in the Nunalleq Digital Museum. Image by Alice Watterson.

For younger visitors, the Digital Museum also features the stand-alone Educational Resource Nunalleq: Stories from the Village of our Ancestors which can be downloaded from the Museum start page. This resource, codesigned by researchers and community members, was developed especially for a school-aged audience, with the aim of it being a useful resource for Alaska schools. The resource centres around the reconstruction of the excavated sod house that has been furnished by artifacts that were discovered at the site. From here it also brings its audience into the wider landscape in three different reconstructed theme pages – sea, ice and tundra. Children also get to peak into the archaeologists’ lab and get a sense of how archaeologists work. The resource uses multivocality to explore the archaeology though the voices of archaeologists, Elders, younger people, and artists.

Fig 7. The stand-alone Educational Resource Nunalleq: Stories from the Village of Our Ancestors which can be downloaded from the museum.

It is our hope that these resources will be of value for educators as well as the public and that they will contribute to spreading knowledge about the Yup’ik past, especially pertinent in a time when climate change threatens to harm the rich Yup’ik heritage.

Dr. Hillerdal lives in Aberdeen, Scotland and is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen and programme coordinator for the MScs in Archaeology and Archaeology of the North.