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

古代贝丘的消亡：距今 3500 年中部草原区域废弃的生态环境

• 批准号: 0212228
• 负责人: Kenneth Sassaman
• 金额: $ 10.03万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-06-01 至 2004-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0212228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Demise; Shell; Mound; Archaic; Ecological

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.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Kenneth E. Sassaman 博士及其同事将调查公元前四千年斯托林斯文化对萨凡纳河流域中部（佐治亚州和南卡罗来纳州）的废弃情况。作为贝丘古风的一部分，斯托林斯文化经历了几个世纪的发展，包括固定的河流定居点、集约化的、以水生为基础的自给经济以及众多的技术创新，包括北美的第一个陶器。 大约 3500 年前，随着人们分散到邻近的高地以恢复流动的生活方式，主要的居住地被废弃。 对采集者的考古研究表明，当地资源丰富如何导致社会政治复杂性，但我们对这些机构相对于其生态条件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使用对当地环境的影响以及这些影响在多大程度上导致了区域废弃。 在过去的十年中，对萨凡纳中部地区的四个斯托林斯居住地进行的挖掘工作已经产生了大量的古生态和人工数据，涵盖了当地斯托林斯社区的兴起、繁荣和消亡。 对这些遗址的动植物遗骸、木炭、蜗牛和物质文化的分析旨在检验五个假设：（1）斯托林斯史前时期的自给经济多样化； (2) 高级资源收益递减导致的多元化； (3) 斯托林斯社区过度开发导致高级资源收益递减； （四）因永久利用当地环境而造成的过度开发； (5)技术创新加剧而非缓解了经济压力。 所有分析都将由研究生研究助理在考古植物学、动物考古学、男性生态学和史前技术领域的教师顾问的监督下进行。 拟议工作的相关性是多方面的。 斯托林斯的史前史代表了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。 尽管考古学家非常关注从采集到农业的转变以及国家的崛起，但实际上没有进行任何研究来检验日益集约化的采集经济和社会“进化”的失败。 一个相关的问题是人类生态观念的改变。 民族志采集者长期以来一直被认为是进化的理想，其流动性、食物共享和简单技术的模式是对前农业条件的敏锐适应。越来越多的证据表明，一些古代造假者所从事的土地使用实践不可逆转地改变了整个生态系统和历史轨迹。 这反过来又与现代环境恢复政策相关。正如在民族志中可以说不存在可以用来模拟前西方社会的“原始”觅食者一样，在人类历史进程中也可以说不存在可以用来模拟环境恢复工作的“原始”生态系统。 准确描述生态系统和文化多样性需要深厚的历史背景，斯托林斯考古记录提供了无与伦比的机会来收集详细的生态历史，以便在人类学、保护和环境政策方面进行比较。