Demise of the Shell Mound Archaic: Ecological Circumstances Attending Regional Abandonment of the Middle Savannah at 3500 BP

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Kenneth E.Sassaman博士和他的同事们将调查公元前四千年斯林斯文化放弃萨凡纳河中谷(佐治亚州和南卡罗来纳州)的情况。作为古代贝壳丘的一部分，斯泰林文化经过几个世纪的发展，包括固定的河边聚居地、密集的、以水上为基础的自给自足的经济，以及许多技术创新，包括北美的第一件陶器。大约3500年前，随着群体分散到邻近的高地恢复流动的生活方式，主要的栖息地被遗弃。对觅食者的考古研究表明，当地资源丰富如何导致社会政治复杂性，但相对于使它们得以生存的生态条件，我们对这些机构的可持续性知之甚少。拟议的工作旨在确定日益集约的土地利用对当地环境造成的影响，以及这种影响在多大程度上促成了区域废弃。在过去的十年里，对萨凡纳中部四个斯滕林斯聚居地的挖掘产生了大量的古生态和人工数据，跨越了当地斯滕林斯群落的兴盛、兴盛和消亡。对这些遗址的动植物遗骸、木炭、陆地蜗牛和物质文化的分析旨在检验五个假设：(1)史前时期斯滕林斯的自给自足的经济多样化；(2)高级资源回报递减导致的多样化；(3)斯滕林斯社区过度开采导致的高级资源回报的递减；(4)长期利用当地环境造成的过度开发；(5)技术创新促进而不是缓解了经济压力。所有的分析将由研究生研究助理在考古植物学、动物考古学、畸形生态学和史前技术的教师顾问的监督下进行。拟议工作的相关性是多方面的。史前史上的斯滕林斯是世界上为数不多的社会政治复杂性不断增加的历史序列被截断的案例之一。虽然考古学家们非常关注从觅食到耕种的转变，以及由此而来的国家的崛起，但几乎没有人进行过研究，以检验日益强化的觅食经济和社会未能“进化”。一个相关的问题是改变人们对人类生态的看法。长期以来，人种学上的觅食者一直被认为是进化的理想，他们的流动性、食物共享和简单的技术模式是对农业前条件的敏锐适应。越来越多的证据表明，一些古代造假者从事了不可挽回地改变了整个生态系统和历史轨迹的土地利用做法。这反过来又与现代环境恢复政策有关。正如目前的人种学中可以说没有“原始的”觅食者来模拟前西方社会一样，在人类历史的进程中，也可以说没有“原始的”生态系统来模拟环境恢复工作。对生态系统和文化多样性的准确描述需要深刻的历史背景，而斯泰林斯的考古记录提供了一个无与伦比的机会来汇编详细的生态历史，以便在人类学、保护和环境政策中进行比较。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Kenneth E. Sassaman and colleagues will investigate the circumstances surrounding abandonment of the middle Savannah River valley (Georgia and South Carolina) by the fourth millennium BC Stallings Culture. As part of the Shell Mound Archaic, Stallings Culture developed over several centuries to include stationary riverine settlements, an intensive, aquatic-based subsistence economy, and numerous technological innovations, including the first pottery in the North America. Around 3500 years ago, major habitation sites were abandoned as groups dispersed into the adjacent uplands to resume a mobile lifestyle. Archaeological research on foragers shows how local resource abundance contributes to sociopolitical complexity, but we know comparatively little about the sustainability of such institutions relative to the ecological conditions that enabled them. The proposed work is designed to ascertain the local environmental impacts attending increasingly intensive land-use and the extent to which such impacts contributed to regional abandonment. Over the past decade, excavations at four Stallings habitation sites in the middle Savannah region have yielded a large inventory of paleoecological and artifactual data spanning the rise, florescence, and demise of local Stallings communities. Analyses of the animal and plant remains, wood charcoal, land snails, and material culture from these sites are designed to test five hypotheses: (1) subsistence economies over the course of Stallings prehistory diversified; (2) diversification resulted from diminishing returns on high-ranking resources; (3) diminishing returns on high-ranking resources resulted from overexploitation by Stallings communities; (4) overexploitation resulted from permanent use of local environments; (5) technological innovations contributed to, rather than alleviated, economic stress. All analyses will be conducted by graduate research assistants under the supervision of faculty consultants in archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, malecology, and prehistoric technology. The relevance of the proposed work is manifold. Stallings prehistory represents one of the few cases worldwide of a truncated historical sequence of increasing sociopolitical complexity. Whereas archaeologists have devoted much attention to the transition from foraging to farming, and thence the rise of the state, virtually no studies have been conducted to examine the failure of increasingly intensified forager economies and societies to "evolve." A related issue is changing perceptions of human ecology. Ethnographic foragers have long been conscripted as evolutionary ideals whose patterns of mobility, food-sharing, and simple technology were a keen adaptation to preagricultural conditions. A growing body of evidence shows that some ancient forgers engaged in land-use practices that irrevocably changed entire ecosystems and historical trajectories. This, in turn, bears relevance on modern environmental restoration policy. Just as there are arguably no "pristine" foragers in the ethnographic present to model pre-Western society, there are arguably no "pristine" ecosystems over the course of human history for which to model environmental restoration efforts. Accurate portrayal of both ecosystem and cultural diversity requires deep historical context, and the Stallings archaeological record offers an unparalleled opportunity to assemble a detailed ecological history for comparative uses in anthropology, conservation, and environmental policy.