Aug 02, 2013 03:07 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Archaeologists from Brown University discovered a village in northwestern Alaska believed to be more than 200 years old, KSKA reported.

The researchers have been digging up the village at a clearing not far from the Kobuk River. If the estimate of its age is true, it would mean the village existed about 100 years before the U.S. declared it a territory in 1912.

Dr. Doug Anderson, an expert on northwestern Alaska's ancient history, said he has never seen such a discovery in his 50 years as an Arctic archaeologist. The village appears to have several houses connected by a network of tunnels.

"In some other areas here we've found maybe two houses that are connected by tunnels, but nothing like this," Anderson said. "And in other areas those houses are really quite small compared to the houses here; these are gigantic houses."

The homes are about the size of a typical one-room cabin, but are dug about four feet into the ground, framed with spruce beams and polls. Each home also had a fire pit in the middle.

Anderson said he believed the village was a regional capital, of sorts, with a 200-person population. By means of radio carbon dating, researchers believe the village to be dated between the 1700s and 1800s, just before explorers made first contact with the region.

"They may have even been living here when the explorers first came into the Kotzebue Sound," Anderson said. "There's a little bit of metal and even some glass beads here before there was any kind of physical European contact."

Edward Cleofe, a Brown graduate student, has spent the summer working at the dig site and led a tour of the area for reporters and researchers.

"What you see here when you look down is most of the house was underground. They put posts up. You can see a post right there or a little chunk of a post," he said. "So those house posts held up the roof which was made with sod. You can actually see some of the sod posts that we've made and or recovered right over there. So these people were living here probably during the winter."

Thomas Jackson, an Inupiat Elder, said his mother told him his ancestors lived in such a village in the area. Local residents would also tell stories of Indian attacks and food shortages from that area.

"You, you're a descendant from these people. That's the first time I've heard of this as a child," Jackson said. "She says from Hunt River down to Coal Mine area. And that's where the village, the large village is at."

Many local residents are willing to volunteer their DNA to try and determine if the mysterious inhabitants of the village are their ancestors. The DNA will be compared to the remains of people found at the site. After the tests, the remains will be returned to tribal leaders for burial.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit