Zooarchaeological Analyses of Holocene Central Coastal California Archaeofaunas

在这个项目中，Diane Gifford-Gonzalez博士和学生们将对加利福尼亚州中部沿海蒙特利湾的一个大型考古遗址和大约18个较小的考古遗址的动物进行详细的分析。这项研究的目的是评估环境过程是否以及如何影响了过去6000年来生活在沿海地区的人们。今天，全球气候变化威胁着环太平洋地区人类的生计和动物物种的持续生存。考古遗址记录了过去的气候事件和人类对这些事件的反应。因此，它们是关键证据的宝库，表明在前工业化时代，海洋和陆地生产力的极端波动是如何发生的。我们知道，就像今天一样，全球气候变化影响了陆地和海洋的生命。尽管蒙特利湾地区是美国主要的农业大国，也是那些寻求丰富海洋生物的人的旅游目的地，但人们对蒙特利湾地区更深层次的历史了解甚少。在大约六年的时间里，吉福德-冈萨雷斯博士和地球科学部的同事们一直在研究海洋温度和生产力的历史，并揭示了大约1000年前加州沿海的北部毛海豹消失的情况。本项目是在美国国家科学基金会资助的一个为期三年的合作项目之后进行的，该项目表明，北方毛海豹--一种目前受到威胁的物种--已经从根本上改变了它们的繁殖和迁徙行为。它们骨骼上的放射性碳年代表明，它们的繁殖殖民地并不是同时沿着整个太平洋边缘被遗弃的。研究结果表明，加州中部的北极熊消失与海洋上升流模式的变化并不一致，这可能会影响他们的食物基础，从而加强了古人参与区域灭绝的可能性。然而，到目前为止，我们还没有详细的证据表明，人们是因为饥饿而灭绝毛海豹的，无论是中世纪气候异常时期(公元800-1350年)的严重干旱是否会影响到北极熊群体本身，或者干旱是否促使人类将这些动物赶尽杀绝。Gifford-Gonzalez，考古学研究生，以及被选中进行特殊技能发展的本科生将从地区考古遗址的动物遗骸中探索这些问题。其中一处遗址，Moss Landing遗址(CA-MNT0234)是一块用于区域考古的虚拟未开发的“罗塞塔石碑”，其部件可以追溯到8500年前的西班牙联系人。在洛马普里塔地震后，联邦应急管理局资助重建莫斯·兰丁海洋实验室期间，该遗址得到了很好的挖掘和管理。然而，合同考古的时间要求排除了该遗址应得的近距离分析，以讲述其关于气候变化、人力资源使用和动物地理的完整故事。这项研究将对前现代人类的土地利用以及随着时间的推移与食物物种的相互作用提供见解。我们关于历史人类和动物生态的数据将提供给野生动物和保护生物学家，以制定关于这些物种的管理决策。它将为研究生提供优秀的考古学专业培训，并为本科生提供非凡的现场研究机会。

In this project, Dr. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez and students will undertake detailed analysis of fauna from one large and about 18 smaller archaeological sites on the Monterey Bay, in central coastal California. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether and how environmental processes affected people living along the coast over the last 6000 years. Today, global climate change threatens the livelihoods of people and the continued survival of animal species, along the Pacific Rim. Archaeological sites contain records of past climatic events and human responses to them. They are thus repositories of crucial evidence on how extreme swings in ocean and land productivity were in pre-industrial times. We know that, just as today, global climate change affected life on both land and sea. Although a major agricultural powerhouse in the United States and a tourist destination for those seeking abundant marine life, the Monterey Bay area's deeper history is as yet poorly understood. For about six years, Dr. Gifford-Gonzalez and colleagues from the Department of Earth Sciences have been researching the history of marine temperatures and productivity, as well as shedding light on the disappearance of northern fur seals from coastal California about 1000 bp. The present project follows a three-year NSF-funded collaborative project that indicated that northern fur seals - a presently threatened species -- have radically changed their breeding and migratory behavior. Radiocarbon dates on their bones show their breeding colonies were not abandoned simultaneously along the entire Pacific margin. Research results indicate that NFS disappearance in central California did not coincide with changes in marine upwelling patterns that could have affected their food base, strengthening the odds that ancient people had a hand in their regional extirpation. However, so far, we have no detailed evidence that people were driven to wipe out fur seals due to hunger, whether the severe droughts during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (800-1350 AD) could have affected NFS colonies themselves, or whether the droughts drove people to drive these animals extinct.Dr. Gifford-Gonzalez, graduate students in archaeology, and undergraduates chosen for special skills development will explore these questions with faunal remains from regional archaeological sites. One of these sites, the Moss Landing Site (CA-MNT0234) is a virtual untapped "Rosetta Stone" for regional archaeology, with components dating from 8500 years ago to Spanish contact. This site was well excavated and curated during FEMA-funded rebuilding of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories after the Loma Prieta Earthquake. However, time demands of contract archaeology precluded the close analysis that the site deserves, to tell its full story of climate change, human resource use, and animal geography. This study will provide insights into the pre-modern human land use and interactions with food species over time. Our data on historical human and animal ecology will be available to wildlife and conservation biologists making management decisions about such species. It will provide excellent professional training for graduate students in archaeology and extraordinary, on-site research opportunities for undergraduates.