Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ecological Boundaries and Cultural Frontiers in the Later Holocene Prehistory of the Central Alaska Peninsula

本论文研究了火山作用和其他古环境因素对阿拉斯加半岛晚全新世人类人口的迁移、边界行为、定居模式和年代学的影响。阿拉斯加半岛的地质切片将被取样和分析，以进行古环境重建和历史和史前火山碎屑流组成的比较。将在阿尼亚恰克国家纪念碑和保护区的太平洋海岸4.5米的地质剖面上采集花粉、微化石和其他有机物的样本，以重建全新世植被对周期性和灾难性火山作用的反应。这里的一个焦点将是植被重新殖民3400 B.P.阿尼亚恰克火山碎屑流的速度，从而允许该地区最终在文化上重新定居。花粉和其他样本将至少每隔5厘米在4.5米长的剖面上采集一次，重大火山事件后每厘米采集一次。样品将从距今3400 B.P.的Aniakchak火山碎屑流和万烟谷的Katmai火山碎屑流中回收。对这两个流量之间的变量进行比较，将确定使用Katmai PF作为Aniakchak流量的历史植被模拟的效用。表面测试以及地表和地下样本将从火山碎屑流暴露中获取，样本将比较二氧化硅的百分比、研磨性和其他变量。这项研究将有助于理解火山作用对地球其他北部和海洋地区人类古地理的影响。

ABSTRACTOPP-0116325This dissertation project examines the effects of volcanism and other paleoenvironmental factors on the movement, boundary behavior, and settlement pattern and chronology of Late Holocene human populations on the Alaska Peninsula. Geologic sections on the Alaska Peninsula will be sampled and analyzed for both paleoenvironmental reconstruction and comparison of compositions of historic and prehistoric pyroclastic flows. A 4.5m geologic profile on the Pacific coast of the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve will be sampled for pollen, microfossils, and other organics to reconstruct how Holocene vegetation reacted to both periodic and catastrophic volcanism. One focus here will be on the rate at which vegetation recolonized the 3400 B.P. Aniakchak pyroclastic flow, allowing the eventual cultural reoccupation of the region. Pollen and other samples will be taken at least every 5cm through much of the 4.5m profile, with sampling every centimeter after major volcanic events. Samples will be recovered from the 3400 B.P. Aniakchak pyroclastic flow and from the Katmai pyroclastic flow in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Comparison of variables between these two flows will determine the utility of using the Katmai PF as a historic revegetation analog for the Aniakchak flow. Surface testing and both surface and subsurface samples will be taken from the pyroclastic flow exposures, with samples compared for percent of silica, abrasiveness, and other variables. The research will contribute to the understanding of volcanism's effects on human paleogeography in other northern and maritime regions of the globe.