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州中部沿海蒙特利湾的一个大型和大约18个较小的考古遗址的动物群进行详细的分析。 这项研究的目的是评估在过去的6000年里，环境变化是否以及如何影响了居住在沿着的人们。 今天，全球气候变化威胁着太平洋沿岸沿着人民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它们的反应。 因此，它们是前工业时代海洋和陆地生产力如何极端波动的关键证据的宝库。 我们知道，就像今天一样，全球气候变化影响到陆地和海洋上的生命。虽然蒙特雷湾是美国主要的农业生产基地，也是寻求丰富海洋生物的旅游目的地，但人们对蒙特雷湾地区更深层次的历史知之甚少。 大约六年来，Gifford-Gonzalez博士和地球科学系的同事一直在研究海洋温度和生产力的历史，并揭示了加州沿海约1000 bp处北方毛皮海豹的消失。 目前的项目遵循一个为期三年的NSF资助的合作项目，该项目表明，北方毛皮海豹-目前受到威胁的物种-已经从根本上改变了他们的繁殖和迁移行为。 它们骨头上的放射性碳年代测定显示，它们的繁殖地并不是沿着整个太平洋边缘同时被遗弃的。研究结果表明，NFS在加州中部的消失与可能影响其食物基础的海洋上升流模式的变化并不一致，这加强了古代人参与其区域灭绝的可能性。然而，到目前为止，我们还没有详细的证据表明，人们是因为饥饿而被迫消灭海狗的，无论是中世纪气候异常期间的严重干旱，（公元800-1350年）可能影响了NFS殖民地本身，或者干旱是否驱使人们将这些动物灭绝。被选中进行特殊技能开发的本科生将用来自地区考古遗址的动物遗骸来探索这些问题。 其中一个遗址，莫斯登陆遗址（CA-MNT 0234）是一个虚拟的未开发的“罗塞塔石碑”，用于区域考古学，其组成部分可以追溯到8500年前西班牙人的接触。 在洛马普列塔地震后，由FEMA资助的莫斯兰丁海洋实验室重建期间，该遗址得到了很好的挖掘和保护。然而，合同考古的时间要求排除了该网站值得仔细分析，以讲述其气候变化，人力资源使用和动物地理的完整故事。 这项研究将深入了解前现代人类的土地利用和随着时间的推移与食物物种的相互作用。 我们关于人类和动物历史生态学的数据将提供给野生动物和保护生物学家，以便对这些物种做出管理决策。 它将为考古学研究生提供出色的专业培训，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.