Dissertation Research: Dating and Analysis of the Moorehead Tradition

在道格拉斯·安德森博士的指导下，布莱恩·罗宾逊先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将从缅因州沿海地区获得与33个穆尔黑德传统墓地相关的材料的放射性碳年代。虽然这一传统的存在已经知道很多年了，而且已经确定了距今约8,500到3,700 B.P.的地点，但大多数个别事件的年代都非常糟糕。罗宾逊先生发现，许多这些遗址的材料中都含有少量的木炭；因此，AMS技术将可以确定它们的年龄。摩尔黑德传统以其精心制作的红色赭石人类墓地而闻名，这些墓地被划分为明确定义的墓地。考古学家将注意力集中在这一现象上，因为这样的精致程度在狩猎者和采集者中是罕见的，并表明在这个古老时期的人们中，社会组织的复杂程度。罗宾逊先生相信，他可以利用墓地的地理分布及其相互之间的关系和与重要自然资源的关系来重建这一传统的社会和生态方面，并确定这些方面是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。然而，为了进行这样的分析，有必要获得对个别地点的时间控制，而本研究将实现这一点。这项工作之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对处于简单文化组织水平的人民如何适应其社会和自然环境的理解。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Anderson Under the direction of Dr. Douglas Anderson, Mr. Brian Robinson will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will obtain radiocarbon dates on materials associated with 33 Moorehead burial tradition sites from coastal locations in Maine. While the existence of this tradition has been known for many years and it has been determined that sites range from ca. 8,500 to 3,700 B.P. most individual occurrences are very poorly dated. Mr. Robinson has discovered that materials at many of these sites include small amounts of charcoal; therefore the AMS technique will allow their age to be determined. The Moorehead tradition is known for its elaborate red ocher human burials which are grouped into clearly defined cemeteries. Archaeologists have focussed attention on this phenomenon because such a degree of elaboration is rare among hunters and gathers and suggests complex levels of social organization among this Archaic period people. Mr. Robinson believes that he can use the geographical distribution of cemeteries and their relationships both to each other and to important natural resources to reconstruct both social and ecological aspects of this tradition and to determine how these changed over time. However to conduct such an analysis it is necessary to obtain chronological control over individual sites and this research will accomplish this. This work is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how peoples at a simple level of cultural organization adapted to their social and natural environment. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.