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

生活在非北极环境中的现代狩猎和采集群体的饮食中，植物性食物占很大一部分。因此，与采集和利用植物有关的决定和活动是他们追求生存的重要方面。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活动的影响，人们知之甚少。在C. Margaret Scarry博士的指导下，Kandace Detwiler将通过分析位于阿拉巴马州西北部的五个岩洞遗址中发现的植物的碳化残留物来解决这个问题。这些岩石掩体包含了距今8000到10500年前的考古沉积物。这些沉积物因其保存完好的动植物遗骸而值得注意，这些遗骸通常不会从东南部的露天遗址中恢复。通过对植物遗骸的分析，Detwiler将确定这些早期狩猎和采集群体的目标是哪些植物物种。然后，她将检查与使用这些植物物种相关的调度和劳动力需求。这些信息将从植物学数据中获得，这些数据涉及这些物种的首选生态和结果习性，以及人种志描述和当代狩猎和采集群体的采集努力和决定的历史记录。Detwiler随后将根据在每个遗址发现的动物遗骸、石器和火的残留物来研究这些关于植物在其他生存活动中的使用的信息。在更广泛的区域层面上，她将探索岩石庇护所和其他营地的位置与景观中植物、动物和石头资源的分布之间的关系。这将借助地理信息系统（GIS）来完成。利用这些信息，Detwiler将根据早期狩猎和采集群体如何最有效地利用可能在时间和空间上不同的资源的决定，构建一个生存策略和该地区早期狩猎和采集群体运动的模型。这项研究有几个重要的原因。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，它可以用来建议将采集纳入早期狩猎采集群体模型的方法，这些群体往往强调狩猎对流动性和生存策略的影响。第三，它将把以妇女、儿童和老人为主的采集者的活动和决定置于这些模型的前台。最后，这项研究将使几名本科生助理和作者有机会获得上述分析方法的培训。研究结果将以论文的形式以及在评审期刊和专业通讯上的出版物的形式提供给科学界。

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.