Burnt Residue from Archaeological Sites: Investigations of Bone as Fuel and Chemical Idenitification of Prey Species

这项SGER提案支持对骨骼作为早期古印第安人适应北极环境的燃料来源这一问题的实验化学研究。作为夏季考古实地学校的一部分，研究人员将挖掘阿拉斯加内陆的天鹅角考古遗址，以阐明北美早期人类所处的环境和时期。该奖项不仅将支持夏季的挖掘活动，还将支持从遗址中提取的骨骼材料的实验化学分析，作为一种机制，以更好地了解它们的特性，并可能被该遗址的早期居住者用作燃料来源。利用骨骼材料作为北美北极地区早期居民的燃料来源是考古学中一个有争议的理论，这个项目有可能提供新的数据，可以阐明这一重要的理论争论。

ABSTRACTARC 0540235This SGER proposal supports experimental chemical research into the issue of bone as a fuel source for early Paleo-Indian adaptations to Arctic environment. As part of a summer archaeological field school, the researchers will be excavating the Swan Point archaeological site in the interior of Alaska in order to shed light the environment and time period occupied by early people in North America. This award will support not only the summer's excavation activities but also the experimental chemical analyses of the bone materials extracted from the site as a mechanism for gaining a better understanding their properties and possible use as a fuel source by the early occupants of the site. The utilization of bone material as a fuel source for early inhabitants of the North American Arctic is a debated theory in archaeology and this project has the potential to provide new data that can shed light on this important theoretical debate.