Paleoethnobotany of the Bonneville Basin, western North America

北美西部邦纳维尔盆地的古民族植物学

• 批准号: 0312252
• 负责人: David Rhode
• 金额: $ 8.26万
• 依托单位: Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2005-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0312252&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Paleoethnobotany; Bonneville; Basin; western; North

The Bonneville Basin of Utah and Nevada is well known for cave sites having deep stratified archaeological records of human occupation spanning the last 12,000 years. These archaeological sites contain abundant well-preserved remains of plants that were mainstays of the diet of hunter-gatherers living in this arid region. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. David Rhode will carry out an analysis of plant remains from several archaeological sites in the Bonneville Basin. These collections include those already obtained from Danger Cave, Floating Island Cave, and Camelsback Cave, as well as new collections that will be made at Bonneville Estates Shelter, a cavern in eastern Nevada currently undergoing excavations and having a detailed archaeological sequence extending through the Holocene. Dr. Rhode will integrate data from these individual sites to create a regional record of changing plant-oriented subsistence strategies, and use this record to document how people changed their subsistence strategies in relation to long-term climate-driven changes in available plant resources. This research addresses four main research issues. First, archaeologists have long thought that the earliest inhabitants of the Bonneville Basin adopted small seeds as a dietary staple during the very early Holocene, much earlier than elsewhere in the intermountain West. This hypothesis will be re-examined using new evidence from Danger Cave and Bonneville Estates Shelter. Second, the regional record of plant use will show how foraging societies responded to widespread aridification and a decline of abundance of key food resources that began 8000 years ago, and which foreshadowed the development of foraging strategies that characterized many Great Basin native groups since then up until European contact. Third, a period of 'Neoglacial' climatic amelioration 4000-3000 years ago is expected to have strongly affected subsistence resource abundance and subsistence strategies, potentially resulting in dietary specialization toward high-return resources or, alternatively, retaining dietary generality but allowing a broad expansion of population. The regional record will allow tests among these alternatives of adaptive flexibility to resource abundance vs. adaptive integrity and population growth. Finally, cultural developments and subsistence shifts that occurred within the last 1500 years, including the expansion of Fremont farming societies and the subsequent return to foraging by Gosiute peoples, will allow a test of the tradeoffs between foraging and farming strategies and social integration in the context of regional environmental change in dryland environments. The record of prehistoric plant use developed for the Bonneville Basin will rank among the longest and most detailed available from North America and as good as any such sequence known worldwide. It will be compared with an equally well-dated and detailed paleoenvironmental record, to address important issues of regional prehistory and of adaptations of foraging societies to changing climates and resource distributions in drylands. Dr. Rhode will train undergraduate and graduate students, as well as interested members of local archaeological groups, in paleoethnobotanical techniques, and the research will be used to develop public displays at Utah's Danger Cave State Park, enhancing greater public enjoyment and appreciation of the value of archaeological resources in understanding of our past.

犹他州和内华达州的邦纳维尔盆地以洞穴遗址而闻名，这些洞穴遗址具有过去12,000年人类居住的深层考古记录。 这些考古遗址包含了大量保存完好的植物遗迹，这些植物是生活在这个干旱地区的狩猎采集者的主要饮食。 在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，大卫罗德博士将对博内维尔盆地几个考古遗址的植物遗骸进行分析。 这些收藏品包括那些已经从危险洞穴，浮岛洞穴和骆驼洞穴，以及新的收藏品，将在博内维尔庄园庇护所，一个洞穴在东部内华达州目前正在进行挖掘，并有一个详细的考古序列延伸到全新世。 Rhode博士将整合这些站点的数据，以创建一个以植物为导向的生存策略变化的区域记录，并使用此记录来记录人们如何改变与长期气候驱动的可用植物资源变化有关的生存策略。 本研究涉及四个主要研究问题。 首先，考古学家长期以来一直认为，邦纳维尔盆地最早的居民在全新世早期就将小种子作为主食，比山间西部的其他地方要早得多。 这一假设将使用来自危险洞穴和邦纳维尔庄园避难所的新证据进行重新检验。 其次，植物使用的区域记录将显示觅食社会如何应对8000年前开始的广泛干旱化和关键食物资源丰富度的下降，这预示着觅食策略的发展，这些策略是许多大盆地土著群体的特征，直到欧洲人接触。 第三，预计4000-3000年前的“新冰期”气候改善时期将强烈影响生存资源丰度和生存策略，可能导致饮食专业化，转向高回报资源，或者，保留饮食普遍性，但允许人口广泛扩张。 该区域的记录将允许测试这些替代方案之间的适应灵活性资源丰富与适应完整性和人口增长。 最后，在过去的1500年里发生的文化发展和生计的转变，包括弗里蒙特农业社会的扩张和随后的回归觅食的Gosiute人，将允许在旱地环境的区域环境变化的背景下，觅食和农业战略和社会融合之间的权衡测试。 为邦纳维尔盆地开发的史前植物使用记录将跻身北美最长和最详细的记录之列，并与世界上已知的任何此类序列一样好。 它将与同样年代久远和详细的古环境记录进行比较，以解决区域史前史和觅食社会适应干旱地区不断变化的气候和资源分布的重要问题。 罗德将培训本科生和研究生，以及当地考古团体感兴趣的成员，在古民族植物学技术，研究将用于开发公共显示在犹他州的危险洞穴国家公园，提高公众更大的享受和了解我们的过去考古资源的价值升值。