Modeling Mid-Latitude Littoral Hunter-Gatherers: Inter-Disciplinary Investigations at San Elijo Lagoon, Southern California

中纬度沿海狩猎采集者建模：南加州圣埃利霍泻湖的跨学科调查

• 批准号: 0004392
• 负责人: Brian Byrd
• 金额: $ 19.11万
• 依托单位: ASM Affiliates, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-04-01 至 2005-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0004392&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Modeling; Mid; Latitude; Littoral; Hunter

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Brian Byrd and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological and paleonenvironmental research in the San Elijo Reserve County Park situated 20 miles north of San Diego in one of the regions largest and best preserved coastal wetlands. The rich natural resources include tidal channels and mud flats, six plant communities and a wide range of vertebrates, invertebrates and bird species. A pilot program of sediment coring which permits reconstruction of past environments indicates estuary deposits dating back to almost 8000 years ago. Archeological research has revealed a rich archaeological heritage in this region and although many sites which lie outside the san Elijo Reserve have been destroyed by urban development, sixteen prehistoric shell midden sites recorded within the park document occupation in almost every millennium from almost 8,000 to 900 years ago. The goal of Dr. Byrd's research is to build up a comprehensive picture of environmental change within this wetland over an eight millennium period, and plot against this changing human settlement patterns and subsistence strategies over time. During the first year of the project independent environmental data will be collected and test excavations will be conducted at 12 shell midden sites to refine occupation time ranges and determine which sites can provide the richest sources of subsistence data. In a second phase, large-scale excavation will be conducted at appropriate sites. Special emphasis will be placed on the collection of large representative samples of animal, plant and shell remains to reconstruct foraging patterns. Preliminary data indicates that over time resource rich estuaries gradually became silted up and impoverished as sea level rose. Formerly aggregated human populations remained in the region but spread more thinly over the landscape to make use of foods more costly in effort and more difficult to procure. Against this background the research team will flesh out the tentative archaeological record and use the data collected to test a variety of theories derived from optimum foraging theory. From this theoretical base a number of predictions can be made and these center on the most energy efficient approaches to resource utilization. They suggest how, in the face of decreasing resources, people can most effectively move between and utilize food patches and how the breadth of their diet may change.In recent years archaeologists have come to realize that resource rich coastal regions provided an important niche for hunting and gathering peoples and that in such areas in many parts of the world, relatively sedentary societies emerged. This research will shed new light on how such coastal dwellers responded to often rapid and extreme environmental change and the basic strategies they employed. The project will be conducted in the context of a summer field school which includes 14 to 16 students and thus will also serve a valuable educational function.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，布莱恩·伯德博士和他的同事们将在圣埃利霍保护区县公园进行两个季节的考古和古环境研究。圣埃利霍保护区位于圣地亚哥以北20英里处，是该地区最大、保存最完好的沿海湿地之一。丰富的自然资源包括潮汐水道和泥滩，六个植物群落和各种脊椎动物、无脊椎动物和鸟类。一项允许重建过去环境的沉积物取心试验计划表明，河口沉积可以追溯到近8000年前。考古研究揭示了该地区丰富的考古遗产，尽管许多位于圣埃利霍保护区外的遗址已被城市发展摧毁，但公园记录的16个史前贝类中期遗址几乎记录了从近8000年到900年前的每一个千年的占领。伯德博士的研究目标是建立一幅关于这片湿地在八千年期间环境变化的全面图景，并针对这种随着时间的推移不断变化的人类居住模式和生存策略进行谋划。在项目的第一年，将收集独立的环境数据，并将在12个贝壳居民点进行试掘，以确定占用时间范围，并确定哪些地点可以提供最丰富的生计数据来源。在第二阶段，将在适当的地点进行大规模挖掘。将特别重视收集具有代表性的动物、植物和贝壳遗骸样本，以重建觅食模式。初步数据表明，随着时间的推移，随着海平面的上升，资源丰富的河口逐渐变得淤积和贫困。以前聚集的人口仍然留在该区域，但更稀疏地分布在地貌上，以利用更昂贵的努力和更难获得的食物。在此背景下，研究小组将充实试探性的考古记录，并使用收集的数据来测试从最佳觅食理论得出的各种理论。根据这一理论基础，可以做出许多预测，这些预测的重点是最有效地利用资源的方法。他们提出了在面临资源减少的情况下，人们如何最有效地在食物区之间移动和利用，以及他们的饮食广度可能如何改变。近年来，考古学家逐渐意识到，资源丰富的沿海地区为狩猎和聚集人类提供了重要的利基环境，在世界许多地区的这些地区，出现了相对久坐的社会。这项研究将为这些沿海居民如何应对往往迅速和极端的环境变化以及他们采取的基本战略提供新的线索。该项目将在有14至16名学生参加的暑期实地学校的背景下进行，因此也将起到宝贵的教育作用。