The Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project: Continuing Research

摘要：OPP-0091875由考古学家、生态学家、动物学家、古民族植物学家和地貌学家组成的国际团队(美国、法国和俄罗斯)开展的阿留申西部考古和古生物项目，提供了关于近岛的殖民、近岛聚落的规模、近岛群体之间的交流和史前人口的生存策略的新信息。该项目有两个主要目标：1)研究西部阿留申文化的性质和特点，以评估其特殊性以及与政治和文化上独立的邻近阿留申亚群的文化交流程度；2)记录贝林贾全新世的环境变化，并确定这些变化对史前人类社区的影响程度。该项目过去的贡献包括广泛的文件、绘图、采样和分析，以提供一个年代学和人种学框架。在新阶段，国际考古队将返回阿图岛的奥斯汀湾，在那里考古学家/生态学家将挖掘不同的特征，包括：1)酋长的房子，2)非精英住宅，3)俄罗斯时期的房子，4)不同类型的存储特征，以了解导致复杂性增加的文化变化的时机，并研究影响这种变化的环境变量。通过对该地区全新世环境变化的了解，应该可以为史前阿留申人如何适应他们的海洋世界提供线索。此外，一些最戏剧性的社会和政治变化发生在俄罗斯/阿留申接触期间。对俄罗斯时期房屋特征的挖掘应该提供关于这种文化融合所导致的社会/经济变化的信息。

ABSTRACT: OPP-0091875The Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project, conducted by an international team (U.S.A., France, and Russia) of archaeologists, ecologists, zoologists, paleoethnobotanists, and geomorphologists, provides new information about the colonization of the Near Islands, sizes of Near Island settlements, communication between Near Island groups, and subsistence strategies of prehistoric populations. The project has two primary goals: 1) to examine thenature and characteristics of the western Aleutian culture in order to assess its particularities and the degree of cultural exchange with politically and culturally independent neighboring Aleut subgroups, and 2) to document Holocene environmental change in Beringia and determine,to what extent, these changes impacted prehistoric human communities. The project's past contributions include extensive documentation, mapping, sampling, and analysis to provide a chronological and ethnographic framework. During the new phase, The international team will return to Austin Cove, Attu Island, where archaeologists/ecologists will excavate different featuresincluding: 1) a "chief's house, 2) a non-elite dwelling, 3) a Russian Period house, and 4) different types of storage features, to understand the timing of cultural changes which resulted in increasing complexity and study the environmental variables bracketing such changes. Athorough understanding of Holocene environmental change in the region should provide clues in how prehistoric Aleuts adapted to their maritime world. Additionally, some of the most dramatic social and political changes occurred during the Russian/Aleut contact period. The excavationof the Russian period house feature should provide information on social/ economic changes which resulted from this cultural integration.