United States of America
Sadie Cove

The painted rock shelter of Sadie Cove is located in south-central Alaska (USA), in the Kenai Peninsula, on the shore of a fjord that opens onto Kachemak Bay, which opens onto Cook Inlet, itself part of the Gulf of Alaska (North Pacific).

Sadie Cove’s paintings are red-coloured and mainly represent a scene with terrestrial and marine mammals. Being very damaged, they could not be associated to any archaeological context. Unfortunately, the excavation of the shelter is very difficult to imagine, the soil being swept by the high tide. Finally, the nearest known pre-European settlement site is some 4 km away.

Historical background and research axis

The first research on this site was carried out in the early 1930s by Frederica de Laguna. This anthropologist and archaeologist conducted field surveys and reproduced the paintings. She compared Sadie Cove to other rock art sites of the Cook Inlet region, but according to her, these paintings were “the most interesting from an artistic point of view”. She attributed them to the “Eskimos” and considered that they must have fulfilled a ritual function.

Later on, punctual research was conducted on the site, as well as new surveys. The remains documentation was particularly developped by the archaeologist and historian Janet Klein since the 1990s. Finally, in the 2000s, the anthropologist Melissa Baird undertook a comparative study of the pictographs in the Cook Inlet region (including Sadie Cove) and in Prince William Sound. She also led a reflection on the cultural dynamics and ritual practices that this rock art site might be reflecting.

The Sadie Cove Project was created to gather facts and develop reflections on the cultural affiliation, the period and the function of the archaeological remains, but also to record, preserve and highlight this precious and yet highly vulnerable heritage. The project is directed by Sébastien Perrot-Minnot (archaeologist for Éveha Interntional), under the authority of Alaska Office of History and Archaeology, and in collaboration with the Homer Pratt Museum.