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

在国家科学基金会的支持下，特德·格贝尔博士和他的同事们将继续对位于内华达州东北部埃尔科县的邦纳维尔庄园岩石掩体进行考古发掘。他们在2003年的工作将集中在岩石庇护所的最早的文化职业，从10,000年前到近7,000年前。早期的工作揭示了一个令人难以置信的丰富的记录诊断矛头和其他石器，易腐烂的文物，包括篮子，绳索，木材和骨工具的碎片，以及保存完好的植物和动物的遗骸。洞穴沉积物的丰富性，加上它们分层良好，可以安全地确定年代，使Bonneville Estates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居民的问题，以及从晚更新世到全新世人类适应的演变。2003-2004年的工作重点将是：（1）确定岩石掩蔽所最早的文化活动的年代和地质背景;（2）确定人工制品组合的特征，以解释人类的技术活动;（3）确定动物群和植物群的特征，以解释人类的生存活动;以及（4）将岩石庇护所的记录置于大盆地第一批人类居民研究的更大背景中。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供宝贵的学习经验，包括那些就读于内华达州大学考古实地学校的学生，并将使他们更好地了解人类在恶劣干旱环境中的经历。通过在古气候和古环境背景下考虑东部大盆地的考古记录，拟议的研究还将提高我们对全球变化对小规模人类社会影响的理解。

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.