Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Middle Holocene Bison-Use and Paleoecology in the North American Prairie-Peninsula

文化和气候的剧烈变化是全新世中期大平原（7500-5000 BP）考古学的特征。然而，尽管经过几十年的研究，仍然不清楚狩猎采集者如何适应这一时期日益干旱的条件。在这个项目中解决的主要问题是针对了解史前人类/生态系统的广泛关系。这些问题包括：中全新世气候变化对当地生态系统的影响是什么？2早期平原游牧狩猎采集者如何利用动物资源来应对这些变化？3野牛在早期平原游牧生存策略中扮演什么角色？在国家科学基金会的支持下，在杰克·霍夫曼博士的监督下，克里斯·威德加将通过对四个早期平原考古组合的分析来解决这些问题：明尼苏达州中部的伊塔斯卡野牛杀戮，爱荷华州西部的西蒙森和希尔遗址，以及内布拉斯加州东北部的多组分洛根溪遗址。这些藏品的动物考古学分析将描绘中全新世狩猎采集生存系统的各个方面，包括饮食广度，屠宰强度，尸体加工轨迹，和季节性资源利用。该项目还将在很大程度上依赖同位素分析。这些分析将进行上述组合的材料（釉质，骨和土壤），并通过多同位素分析的个别野牛臼齿的细粒，季节性校准序列的古环境数据将构建。锶同位素数据（87 Sr/86 Sr）将与其他稳定同位素（d13 C和d18 O）相结合，以研究野牛放牧模式的季节性和地理变异性。两者合计，这些分析将提供环境背景调查人类狩猎策略在中全新世。这些阐明数据集将被用来开发模型的人类生存在北美大草原半岛之间的7500和5000 BP。这些模型的基本要素将解决野牛使用的性质，建立野牛的可用性和野牛狩猎策略的效率，提供饮食宽度的估计，并量化非野牛资源的使用。这些信息是必不可少的评估觅食模型在早期平原草原环境。此外，这个项目将研究草原生态系统中的关键物种野牛的史前放牧行为。虽然这个物种近年来戏剧性地卷土重来，但其史前行为的许多方面仍然不清楚。本研究的主要目标之一是研究野牛生态位内的变异程度，可以归因于地理变异。这些知识将有助于保护生物学家和野生动物管理人员有效地管理草原生态系统。在整个史前时期，草原生态系统对气候变化非常敏感。在中全新世，温暖和干燥的条件占主导地位，生物群落进行了相应的调整。通过对过去生态系统变化的研究，我们或许可以更好地理解现代变化的动力，并调整土地利用模式，以反映生态系统特定的可持续性标准。

Drastic changes in culture and climate characterize the archaeology of the middle Holocene Great Plains (7500-5000 BP). However, despite decades of research, it is still unclear how hunter-gatherers adjusted to the increasingly arid conditions of this time. The primary questions addressed in this project are directed towards understanding broad human/ecosystem relations in prehistory. These questions include: what was the impact of middle Holocene climate change on local ecosystems; how did early Plains Archaic hunter-gatherers utilize faunal resources in response to these changes; and what was the role of bison in early Plains Archaic subsistence strategies? With support from the National Science Foundation and under the supervision of Dr. Jack Hofman, Chris Widga will address these issues through the analysis of four early Plains Archaic archaeological assemblages: the Itasca bison kill in central Minnesota, the Simonsen and Hill sites in western Iowa, and the multi-component Logan Creek site in northeastern Nebraska. Zooarchaeological analyses of these collections will delineate aspects of middle Holocene hunter-gatherer subsistence systems, including diet breadth, butchering intensity, carcass processing trajectories, and seasonal resource use. This project will also rely heavily on isotopic analyses. These analyses will be carried out on materials (enamel, bone and soil) from the above assemblages, and a fine-grained, seasonally-calibrated sequence of paleoenvironmental data will be constructed through multi-isotope analyses of individual bison molars. Strontium isotope data (87Sr/86Sr) will be combined with other stable isotopes (d13C and d18O) to examine seasonal and geographic variability in bison grazing patterns. Taken together, these analyses will provide the environmental context for investigating human hunting strategies during the middle Holocene.These articulating datasets will be used to develop models of human subsistence in the North American Prairie-Peninsula between 7500 and 5000 BP. Essential elements of these models will address the nature of bison use, establish the availability of bison and the efficiency of bison hunting strategies, provide estimates of diet-breadth, and quantify the use of non-bison resources. This information is essential for evaluating foraging models in early Plains Archaic contexts. Additionally, this project will examine the prehistoric grazing behavior of a keystone species in grassland ecosystems, bison. While this species has made a dramatic comeback in recent years, many aspects of its prehistoric behavior remain unclear. One of the primary goals of this study is to examine the degree of variability within the bison ecological niche that can be attributed to geographic variation. This knowledge will assist conservation biologists and wildlife managers in administering grassland ecosystems effectively.Throughout prehistory, grassland ecosystems have been very sensitive to climate change. During the Middle Holocene, warm and dry conditions prevailed and biological communities adjusted accordingly. Through the study ecosystem changes in the past, we can perhaps better understand the dynamics of modern change, and adjust landuse patterns to reflect ecosystem-specific standards of sustainability.