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，泰德·戈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博内维尔庄园岩洞进行考古发掘。他们2003年的工作将集中在避难所最早的文化活动上，时间跨度从10,000年前到近7,000年前。早期的工作揭示了令人难以置信的丰富的诊断矛尖和其他石头文物的记录，易腐烂的文物，包括篮子、绳索和木材和骨骼工具的碎片，以及保存完好的动植物遗骸。洞穴沉积物的丰富，再加上它们分层良好，可以安全地确定年代，使博内维尔庄园可以说是大盆地东部已知的最重要的考古遗址，因为它回答了有关北美以西山间人类的居住以及从晚更新世到全新世的人类适应进化的问题。2003-2004年的工作将侧重于：(1)确定避难所最早的文化活动的时代和地质背景；(2)确定人工制品组合的特征以解释人类的技术活动；(3)确定动物和植物组合的特征以解释人类的生存活动；以及(4)将避难所的记录置于大盆地第一批人类居民研究的更大背景下。该项目将为研究生和本科生，包括那些在内华达大学考古实地学校就读的学生提供宝贵的学习经验，并将使人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的背景下考虑大盆地东部的考古记录，拟议的研究还将加强我们对全球变化对小规模人类社会的影响的理解。

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.