Publication Preparation for Archaeological Materials

这笔拨款允许格雷森博士为美国自然历史博物馆出版的专著准备插图。本卷报告了在美国大盆地北半部挖掘的三个深层分层岩石避难所和洞穴的动物材料分析结果：危险洞穴，最后的晚餐洞穴和悬挂岩石避难所。所有这些遗址都有相当大的脊椎动物群，它们跨越了1万多年，来自哺乳动物历史和史前人类与动物群落之间相互作用的信息很少的地区。这本专著的意义在于三个原因。首先，它提供了关于美国西部不断变化的环境的信息，以及不同种类的动物如何对环境做出反应。这有助于解释我们今天看到的小型哺乳动物的分布。其次，该研究揭示了史前人类如何利用这一环境并从中获得生存。最后，格雷森博士和他的同事们一直致力于测试和开发分析动物材料的新方法。这些技术应该对大量的研究人员有用。这项资助很重要，因为它将允许这项NSF支持的研究全面发表。这样的作品只有在广泛传播的情况下才能获得充分的价值，而美国博物馆的出版物将使这成为可能。

This grant allows Dr. Grayson to prepare illustrations for inclusion in a monograph to be published by The American Museum of Natural History. This volume reports results of analysis of faunal materials from three deep stratified rockshelters and caves excavated in the northern half of the U.S. Great Basin: Danger Cave, Last Supper Cave and Hanging Rock Shelter. All these sites contain sizeable vertebrate faunas which span over 10,000 years and which come from areas for which little information on mammalian history and on interactions between prehistoric peoples and animal communities are available. The monograph is of significance for three reasons. First it provides information on the changing environments in the American West and how different species of animals responded to it. This helps to explain the distributions of small mammals which one sees today. Secondly, the research sheds light on how prehistoric peoples used this environment and obtained their subsistence from it. Finally, Dr. Grayson and his colleagues have worked to test and develop new methods for analyzing faunal materials. These techniques should be useful to a large number of reseachers. This grant is important because it will allow full publication of this NSF supported research. Such work only gains full value if it is widely disseminated and the American Museum publication will make this possible.