The Akmak site is located in Alaska and is a part of the Onion Portage Site. The finding of Akmak was credited to Dr. J. L. Giddings. He had originally started digging at the site but died in 1964 before the Akmak culture was found. Another scientist, Douglas D. Anderson, carried on his expedition. About one year after Gidding's death, the Akmak Culture was uncovered.
The Akmak Culture represents the earliest culture at the Onion Portage Site dating from 8500 BP to 8000 BP. The site is found on four different major topographic areas. These areas consist of a deeply stratified portion, a high long levee, a gully and a hillside. What makes this site significant is that the majority of tool types from the Akmak assemblage do not belong to other known Arctic functional types. This makes the culture unique.
The word Akmak is originally the Alaskan word for hard chert. Chert was most commonly used for tools by this culture. However the most distinctive artifact of the culture is the large core bifaces. The mean of the large core bifaces found was 8.5cm long and 2.9 cm wide. These were used as tools and to manufacture blades.
A second type of artifact found at the site was the polyhedral core. There were three types of polyhedral cores found. These included blade cores with parallel facets on one or both sides, blade cores with parallel facets on one or two edges, and microcores. Sizes for these cores ranged from 5.9 cm to 8.0 cm long and from 2.2cm to2.9cm thick. These cores were used mainly for cutting.
Anderson, Douglas D. Akmak. Denmark: Arktisk Institute, 1970.