Doctoral Dissertation: Folsom Adaptive Systems in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado

在大卫·J·梅尔策博士的监督下，布莱恩·安德鲁斯将分析从甘尼森盆地的五个福尔松时期遗址收集的数据。福尔塞姆时期可以追溯到大约10,800到10,000年前，通常以相对较小的高度流动的野牛狩猎民族为特征。这一描述是基于几十年来专注于大平原大型野牛捕杀地点的工作。最近在落基山脉的几个地区，包括甘尼森盆地的研究表明，并不是所有的福尔索姆人群体都实践过这种高度流动性的生活方式。这个项目将试图了解传统平原环境和多山的甘尼森盆地之间的福尔索姆行为之间的差异。福尔索姆人在山区的流动性很高，还是他们在一个地方呆的时间更长？他们是专注于在盆地狩猎野牛和其他大型猎物，还是他们的饮食包括更多种类的食物？他们是在盆地里生活了一整年，还是季节性地进进出出？对盆地中的洞穴遗址的分析将有助于回答这些问题。大部分研究将集中在位于高台顶的登山遗址发现的文物上。这个遗址比典型的福尔瑟姆遗址要大得多，而且可能被多次占用。有建筑结构的证据表明，它可能被占用的时间比其他福尔瑟姆遗址长得多。石器文物表明，占领期间发生了广泛的活动，包括食物和兽皮加工以及工具制造。该地点似乎也被用来监控下面山谷中的猎物的移动。其他将被检查的遗址比登山者小得多，很可能代表了执行特定任务的较小群体的活动，如狩猎动物、采集植物或获取用于制造石器的原材料。该项目的最终目标是描述福尔索姆群体如何在北美冰河时代末期甘尼森盆地有时恶劣的气候中生活。这项研究将更全面地了解覆盖北美西部大部分地区的考古“文化”中存在的多样性，并将提供关于人们如何以多种方式适应不同和具有挑战性的气候和环境环境的总体洞察。本科生、初中生和高中生以及当地的业余考古学家团体参与了登山遗址的挖掘和分析，确保了史前人类适应与目前截然不同的条件的洞察力和经验教训将与广大观众分享。

Under the supervision of Dr. David J. Meltzer, Brian Andrews will analyze data gathered from five Folsom period sites located in the Gunnison Basin. The Folsom period dates from approximately 10,800 to 10,000 years ago, and is most often characterized by relatively small groups of highly mobile bison hunting peoples. This characterization is based on decades of work that focused on large bison kill sites in the Great Plains. Recent work in several areas of the Rocky Mountains, including the Gunnison Basin, suggest that not all groups of Folsom people may have practiced this highly mobile lifestyle. This project will seek to understand the differences between Folsom behavior seen between the traditional Plains setting and the mountainous Gunnison Basin. Were Folsom people as highly mobile in the mountains, or did they stay in one place for longer periods of time? Did they focus on hunting bison and other large game in the Basin, or did their diet consist of a wider variety of foods? Did they spend all year living in the Basin, or did they move in and out seasonally? Analysis of Folsom sites in the Basin will help answer these questions.Much of the research will focus on the artifacts recovered from the Mountaineer site, located atop a high mesa. This site is much larger than typical Folsom occurrances, and was likely occupied on multiple occasions. Evidence of a structure suggests that it may have been occupied for much longer periods at a time than were other Folsom sites. Stone artifacts suggest that a wide range of activities took place during occupation, including food and hide processing and tool manufacture. It also appears that the site was used to monitor the movement of game in the valley below. Other sites that will be examined are much smaller than Mountaineer, and likely represent the activities of smaller groups of people performing specific tasks, such as hunting animals, gathering plants, or acquiring raw materials used to make stone tools. The ultimate goal of the project is to describe how Folsom groups lived in the sometimes harsh climate of the Gunnison Basin at the end of the Ice Age in North America. This research will provide a more complete understanding of the variability present in an archaeological 'culture' that covered much of western North America, and will offer general insight into how people adapted in multiple ways to different and challenging climatic and environmental settings. The involvement of undergraduate, junior high and high school students, and local amateur archaeologist groups in the excavation and analysis of the Mountaineer site ensures that the insight gained and lessons learned of prehistoric human adaptation to dramatically different conditions than at present will be shared with a wide audience.