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考古（7500-5000 BP）的特征。然而，尽管经过了几十年的研究，人们仍然不清楚狩猎采集者是如何适应当时日益干旱的环境的。在这个项目中解决的主要问题是为了理解史前人类/生态系统的广泛关系。这些问题包括：全新世中期气候变化对当地生态系统的影响；早期平原古代狩猎采集者如何利用动物资源来应对这些变化；野牛在早期平原古代生存策略中扮演了什么角色？在美国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古代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成分洛根溪遗址。动物考古学分析将描绘全新世中期狩猎采集者生存系统的各个方面，包括饮食宽度、屠宰强度、胴体加工轨迹和季节性资源利用。这个项目也将严重依赖于同位素分析。这些分析将对上述组合中的材料（牙釉质、骨骼和土壤）进行，并将通过对单个野牛磨牙的多同位素分析构建一个细粒度的、季节性校准的古环境数据序列。锶同位素数据（87Sr/86Sr）将与其他稳定同位素（d13C和d18O）相结合，以检查野牛放牧模式的季节和地理变化。综上所述，这些分析将为研究全新世中期人类狩猎策略提供环境背景。这些清晰的数据集将用于开发7500至5000年前北美草原半岛人类生存的模型。这些模型的基本要素将解决野牛利用的本质，建立野牛的可用性和野牛狩猎策略的效率，提供对饮食广度的估计，并量化非野牛资源的使用。这些信息对于评估早期平原古代环境下的觅食模式至关重要。此外，该项目还将研究草原生态系统中重要物种野牛的史前放牧行为。虽然这个物种近年来有了戏剧性的回归，但其史前行为的许多方面仍不清楚。本研究的主要目标之一是检查野牛生态位内可归因于地理变化的变异性程度。这些知识将有助于保护生物学家和野生动物管理者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，温暖和干燥的环境占主导地位，生物群落相应地进行调整。通过对过去生态系统变化的研究，我们也许可以更好地理解现代变化的动态，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.