Dissertation Research: Archaeological Investigation of Pacific Agriculture

在Michael Graves博士的指导下，David Addision先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将在位于马尔科桑群岛链中的努库希瓦岛进行考古、民族史学和民族志研究。之前在该岛上的研究表明，大约2000年前，波利尼西亚人原始殖民。这些居民的后代今天仍然占据着这个地区。努库希瓦群岛的面积和栖息地多种多样，从干旱的高地到地势较低的大山谷，都有永久的水源，可以灌溉。Addison先生希望追踪农业随时间的发展，并将其变化与环境特征和社会组织的变化联系起来。为了实现这一点，他将绘制农业梯田和其他特征，如灌溉系统，这些在今天的景观中是突出的。他还将挖掘其中选定的部分，以确定建筑特征和序列，并收集放射性碳测年材料。他将查阅描述欧洲接触时农业实践的历史记录，并将对当今的居民进行广泛的采访。由于岛屿是受限制和明确界定的区域，它们提供了一个很好的背景来审查人与环境的关系。太平洋的波利尼西亚地区也提供了一个重要的研究区域，因为它的岛屿在大小和地理上差异很大，而且几乎在同一时间居住着一群人。因此，进行对照比较研究是可能的。这些岛屿最初是由小群体殖民的，随着时间的推移，人口和人口压力增加。因此，在Nuku Hiva这样的案例中，人们可以研究人口压力、环境变化和人类反应之间的关系。这项研究很重要，因为它将为人类与环境的相互作用提供新的线索。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并进一步培训一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Graves, Mr. David Addision will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic research on the island of Nuku Hiva, located in the Marquesan island chain. Previous work on the island indicates an original colonization by Polynesian people about 2,000 years ago. Descendants of these inhabitants still occupy the region today. Nuku Hiva is typical of the Marquesan islands in its size and it habitat variation which ranges from drier uplands to lower-lying large valleys with permanent water sources which permit irrigation. Mr. Addison wishes to trace the development of agriculture over time and to relate variations in this to environmental characteristics and to changes in social organization. To accomplish this, he will map agricultural terraces and other features such as irrigation systems which are prominent on the landscape today. He will also excavate selected portions of them to determine construction features and sequence and to collect material for radiocarbon dating. He will consult historic records which describe agricultural practices at the time of European contact and will conduct extensive interviews with present day inhabitants. Because islands are constrained and clearly circumscribed areas they provide an excellent context to examine human-environment relationships. The Polynesian region of the Pacific also provides an important study region because it islands vary widely in size and geography and they were inhabited by a single stock of people at roughly the same time. Therefore it is possible to conduct controlled comparison studies. Such islands were originally colonized by small groups and over time population and population pressure increased. In cases such as Nuku Hiva therefore one can examine the relationships between population pressure, environmental variation and human response. This research is important because it will shed new light on human-environmental interactions. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and further the training of a promising young scientist.