The Development of Maritime Adaptations on Santa Cruz Island

在国家科学基金会的支持下，迈克尔·格拉索博士将在加利福尼亚州海岸外的海峡群岛之一圣克鲁斯的一系列遗址进行考古研究。发掘表明，这一地区早在8000年前就被美洲原住民占领，并一直延续到历史时期。作为他之前研究的结果，格拉索博士已经确定了一系列遗址，这些遗址的时间间隔在6700到4500年之间，在学生的帮助下，他将在其中五个地点进行试掘。放射性碳样本将从另外三个地点收集。这项研究的目标是确定生存习惯是如何随着时间的推移而改变的，为了实现这一点，研究小组将把他们的努力集中在恢复可被识别为属和物种的动物和花卉遗骸上。他们还将收集和分析与生存相关的文物和工具制造废物的样本。海岛上盛产的文蛤和贻贝贝壳提供了关于采集它们的季节和它们生长的水温的信息。将收集大量土壤样本，并应用浮选程序来回收微型植物遗骸。根据这一证据，将有可能追踪大约2000年期间的环境变化，并确定人类人口对这些变化的反应。海峡群岛长期以来一直受到考古学的关注，因为居住在海峡群岛的人口达到了人口密度和社会复杂性的水平，这在狩猎和采集社会中是罕见的。似乎包括鱼类和贝类在内的丰富的海洋资源在某种程度上是造成这种现象的原因。古生态学家重建了这一时期水温的变化，因此为研究人类适应提供了良好的环境背景。不同种类的贝类有特定的严格控制的环境限制，通过对考古遗址中发现的物种组成的分析，有可能将个别遗址与环境条件联系起来。格拉索博士指出，圣克鲁斯的人口密度似乎在大约5500年前大幅增加，他希望了解这种变化的原因和后果。他使用源自最优觅食理论的概念，预测了这些种群如何在简单的技术水平上适应不断增加的密度，他收集的数据将使他能够测试这些想法。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供有关人类如何应对和适应环境变化的重要信息。它将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并帮助培训密切参与这项研究的学生。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael Glassow will conduct archaeological research at a series of sites located on Santa Cruz, one of the Channel Islands off California coast. Excavations indicate that this area was occupied by Native American people as early as 8,000 years ago and that habitation continued into historic times. As a result of his previous research Dr. Glassow has located a series of sites which fall within the time interval of 6700 to 4500 years before the present and with student assistance he shall conduct test excavations at five of them. Radiocarbon samples will be collected from an additional three sites. The goal of the research is to determine how subsistence practices changed over time and to accomplish this the team will focus their efforts on the recovery of faunal and floral remains which are identifiable to genus and species. They will also collect and analyze samples of subsistence-related artifacts and tool manufacturing waste. Clam and mussel valves which are abundant on island sites provide information on both the season of year in which they were collected and the water temperature in which they grew. Bulk soil samples will be collected and flotation procedures applied to recover micro-plant remains. On the basis of this evidence it will be possible to trace environmental changes over a ca. 2,000 year period and determine how the human population responded to these. The Channel Islands have long been of archaeological interest because the populations which inhabited them reached a population density and level of social complexity which was rare among hunting and gathering societies. It seems likely that abundant marine resources which include both fish and shellfish are, in some way, responsible for this phenomenon. Paleoecologists have reconstructed changes in water temperature over this period and have therefore provided an excellent environmental context in which to study human adaptation. Different species of shellfish have specific tightly controlled environmental limitations and through analysis of species compositions recovered in archaeological sites it is possible to tie individual sites with environmental conditions. Dr. Glassow has noted that population density of Santa Cruz appears to have increased significantly about 5,500 years ago and he wishes to understand both the causes and the consequences of this change. Using concepts derived from optimum foraging theory he has predicted how such groups at a simple level of technology adapted their subsistence to increased density and the data he collects will allow him to test these ideas. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide important information on how humans respond and adapt to environmental change. It will yield data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training students who are intimately involved in this research.