Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Gathering in the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Periods in the Middle Tennessee River Valley, Northwest Alabama

植物性食物是生活在非北极环境中的现代狩猎和采集群体饮食的重要组成部分。因此，与采集和利用植物有关的决定和活动是它们生存追求的重要方面。然而，关于植物性食物对生活在美国东南部的早期狩猎-采集者的生存策略和迁移的影响，人们知之甚少。在C.玛格丽特·斯凯利博士的指导下，坎迪斯·德特威勒将通过分析从阿拉巴马州西北部五个避难所发现的碳化植物遗骸来解决这个问题。这些岩石掩体包含了8000到10500年前的考古沉积物。这些沉积物值得注意的是，它们很好地保存了动植物遗骸，这些遗骸通常不是从东南部的露天地点找到的。通过对植物残骸的分析，德特威勒将确定这些早期狩猎和采集小组的目标植物物种。然后，她将研究与这些植物物种的使用相关的日程安排和劳动力需求。这些信息将从有关这些物种偏爱的生态和结实习性的植物学数据，以及当代狩猎和采集群体的采集努力和决定的民族志描述和历史记述中获得。然后，德特威勒将根据动物遗骸、石器和在这些地点发现的火灾残留物，检查每个地点与其他生存活动有关的植物使用情况。在更广泛的区域层面上，她将探索避难所和其他露营地的位置与景观上植物、动物和石头资源分布的关系。这将在地理信息系统(地理信息系统)的帮助下完成。利用这些信息，德特威勒将根据早期狩猎和采集群体关于如何最有效地利用在时间和空间上可能不同的资源的决定，为该区域内的生存战略和行动建立一个模型。这项研究之所以意义重大，有几个原因。首先，它将提供目前缺乏的关于占领东南部早期使用的植物范围的基线数据。其次，它可以用来建议如何将采集纳入早期狩猎和采集群体的模型中，这些模型倾向于强调狩猎对流动性和生存战略的影响。第三，它将把以妇女、儿童和老年人为主的采集者的活动和决定带到这种模式的前台。最后，这项研究将使几名本科生助理以及作者有机会接受上述分析方法的培训。科学界将以论文以及在参考期刊和专业通讯上发表的出版物的形式获得研究结果。

Plant foods comprise a significant portion of the diet of modern hunting-and-gathering groups living in non-arctic environments. Accordingly, the decisions and activities associated with the gathering and use of plants are important aspects of their subsistence pursuits. Little is known, however, about the impact of plant foods on the subsistence strategies and movements of early hunter-gatherers living in the southeastern United States. Under the guidance of Dr. C. Margaret Scarry, Kandace Detwiler will address this issue by analyzing the carbonized remains of plants recovered from five rockshelter sites located in northwest Alabama. The rockshelters contain archaeological deposits dating between 8000 and 10,500 years ago. These deposits are noteworthy for their excellent preservation of animal and plant remains, which are not commonly recovered from open-air sites in the Southeast. Through the analysis of the plant remains, Detwiler will determine which plant species these early hunting-and-gathering groups were targeting. She will then examine the scheduling and labor demands associated with the use of these plant species. This information will be obtained from botanical data regarding the preferred ecology and the fruiting habits of these species, as well as ethnographic descriptions and historic accounts of the gathering efforts and decisions of contemporary hunting-and-gathering groups. Detwiler will then examine this information about the use of plants with respect to other subsistence activities at each site, suggested by the animal remains, stone tools, and residues of fires recovered at the sites. At a broader regional level, she will explore the relationship of the location of the rockshelters and other campsites to the distribution of plant, animal, and stone resources on the landscape. This will be done with the aid of a geographic information system (GIS). Using this information, Detwiler will construct a model of subsistence strategies and movements within this region for early hunting-and-gathering groups, based on their decisions of how to most effectively utilize resources that may differ in their availability in both time and space. This research is significant for several reasons. First, it will provide baseline data, which is currently lacking, regarding the range of plants used during these early periods of occupation of the Southeast. Second, it can be used to suggest ways in which gathering can be incorporated into models for early hunting-and-gathering groups that tend to emphasize the influence of hunting on mobility and subsistence strategies. Third, it will bring the activities and decisions of gatherers, who are predominantly women, children, and the elderly, to the foreground of such models. Finally, this research will allow the opportunity for several undergraduate assistants, as well as the author, to gain training in the analytical methods mentioned above. The results of the research will be accessible to the scientific community both in the form of a dissertation as well as publications in refereed journals and professional newsletters.