Early Humans in the Eastern Great Basin: The View from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada

东部大盆地的早期人类：内华达州 Rockshelter Bonneville Estates 的景观

• 批准号: 0313813
• 负责人: Frank Goebel
• 金额: $ 5.43万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 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: 2003-06-01 至 2004-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0313813&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Early; Humans; Eastern; Great; Basin

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Ted Goebel and his colleagues will continue archaeological excavations of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, located in Elko County, northeastern Nevada. Their work in 2003 will focus on the rockshelter's earliest cultural occupations that span from before 10,000 to nearly 7,000 years ago. Earlier work has revealed an incredibly rich record of diagnostic spear points and other stone artifacts, perishable artifacts including fragments of baskets, cordage, and wood and bone tools, as well as well-preserved remains of plants and animals. The richness of the cave's deposits, coupled with the fact that they are well-stratified and can be securely dated, make Bonneville Estates arguably the most important archaeological site known in the eastern Great Basin for answering questions about the peopling of the intermountain west of North America and the evolution of human adaptations from the late Pleistocene into the Holocene. Work in 2003-2004 will focus on (1) firmly establishing the age and geologic context of the rockshelter's earliest cultural occupations, (2) characterizing artifact assemblages to explain human technological activities, (3) characterizing faunal and floral assemblages to explain human subsistence activities, and (4) placing the rockshelter's record into the greater context of the study of the Great Basin's first human inhabitants. The project will provide invaluable learning experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students, including those enrolled in the University of Nevada archaeological field school, and will lead to greater appreciation of the human experience in harsh arid environments. By considering the archaeological record of the eastern Great Basin within a paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental context, the proposed study will also enhance our understanding of the impacts of global change on small-scale human societies.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Ted Goebel博士和他的同事将继续对位于内华达州东北部埃尔科县的Bonneville Estates Rockshelter进行考古发掘。他们在2003年的工作将集中在岩石避难所最早的文化活动上，从10000年前到近7000年前。早期的工作已经揭示了令人难以置信的丰富记录，包括诊断矛尖和其他石器制品，易腐文物，包括篮子碎片，绳索，木头和骨头工具，以及保存完好的植物和动物遗骸。洞穴沉积物的丰富性，加上它们分层良好，可以可靠地确定年代的事实，使博纳维尔庄园可以说是大盆地东部已知的最重要的考古遗址，可以回答有关北美西部山间的人类和人类从晚更新世到全新世的适应进化的问题。2003-2004年的工作将集中在：(1)确定岩洞最早文化活动的年龄和地质背景；(2)确定人工制品组合的特征，以解释人类的技术活动；(3)确定动物和植物组合的特征，以解释人类的生存活动；(4)将岩洞的记录置于研究大盆地第一批人类居民的更大背景中。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供宝贵的学习经验，包括内华达大学考古现场学校的学生，并将使他们更好地了解恶劣干旱环境下的人类经验。通过在古气候和古环境背景下考虑东大盆地的考古记录，本研究也将增强我们对全球变化对小规模人类社会影响的理解。