Late Quaternary Paleoecology and Archeology of Alaska's Alexander Archipelago

阿拉斯加亚历山大群岛晚第四纪古生态学和考古学

• 批准号: 9722858
• 负责人: E. James Dixon
• 金额: $ 11万
• 依托单位: Denver Museum of Nature and Science
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-07-01 至 2000-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9722858&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Late; Quaternary; Paleoecology; Archeology; Alaska

With National Science Foundation support Dr. James Dixon and his collaborators will conduct one season of archaeological excavation and associated survey at the site of PET-408 which is located on the Prince of Wales Island on the West Coast of Alaska. In 1996 human remains and artifacts were discovered in this remote cave as a result of paleontological excavations. Two radiocarbon dates on the human bone have yielded ages in excess of 9,000 years and make the skeleton the oldest reliably dated human in Alaska or western Canada. A series of additional dates demonstrate that the cave deposits span the past ca. 40,000 years. While clearly of great potential significance, work at PET-408 to date has been limited and it is not known how the skeleton is associated with the surrounding deposits. Until this is determined is unclear how much further excavation is required. With one season of support Dr. Dixon and his collaborators will conduct further evaluation of the site and survey surrounding areas for other such occurrences. Human remains dating to the end of the last Ice age are extremely rare in North America. Organic artifacts of this age are virtually unknown from Southeast Alaska. PET-408 provides the first opportunity to understand and describe the physical characteristics of early Northwest Coast peoples and their material culture. It will also help to trace the path of the original inhabitants from Asia into the New World. Two alternative hypotheses have been proposed. Many archaeologists believe that humans moved south through central western Canada after the melting of continental glaciers. Others have suggested that the earliest human migration may have occurred with the use of watercraft along the southern margin of Beringia and the southward along the Northwest Coast of North America. This may have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to melting of the continental glaciers. It is important to address these hypotheses because each requires a different type of cultural adaptation by the New World founding population and the nature of this adaptation set the stage for subsequent New World cultural development. The caves of Prince of Wales Island are ideally suited for evaluating the coastal migration theory because they were ice free during the late Pleistocene, they were the foci of human activity, and they contain preserved datable organic remains.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，James狄克逊博士和他的合作者将在位于阿拉斯加西海岸威尔士王子岛的PET-408遗址进行一个考古发掘季节和相关调查。1996年，在这个偏远的洞穴中发现了人类遗骸和人工制品，这是古生物学挖掘的结果。两个放射性碳年代测定显示，人类骨骼的年龄超过9,000年，使该骨骼成为阿拉斯加或加拿大西部最古老的可靠年代测定的人类。一系列额外的日期表明，洞穴沉积物跨越过去的约。四万年。虽然PET-408具有很大的潜在意义，但迄今为止的工作仍然有限，并且不知道骨架如何与周围的沉积物相关联。在确定这一点之前，尚不清楚需要进行多少进一步的挖掘。在一个赛季的支持下，狄克逊博士和他的合作者将对该地点进行进一步的评估，并调查周围地区的其他此类事件。 人类遗骸可追溯到最后一个冰河时代结束是非常罕见的在北美。这个时代的有机文物在阿拉斯加东南部几乎是未知的。PET-408提供了第一次了解和描述早期西北海岸人民的身体特征及其物质文化的机会。它还将有助于追踪原始居民从亚洲到新世界的路径。已经提出了两个备选假设。许多考古学家认为，在大陆冰川融化后，人类通过加拿大中西部向南迁移。其他人则认为，最早的人类迁徙可能是通过使用船只沿着白令海峡南缘和沿着北美西北海岸向南迁移而发生的。这可能使人类能够在大陆冰川融化之前进入美洲南部地区。解决这些假设是很重要的，因为每一个假设都需要新世界创始人口进行不同类型的文化适应，而这种适应的性质为随后的新世界文化发展奠定了基础。威尔士王子岛的洞穴非常适合评估沿海迁移理论，因为它们在更新世晚期没有冰，它们是人类活动的焦点，并且它们包含保存的可确定年代的有机遗迹。