The Bridge River Project: Evolution of Social Complexity

桥河项目：社会复杂性的演变

• 批准号: 0713013
• 负责人: Anna Prentiss
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Montana
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-15 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0713013&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Bridge; River; Project; Evolution; Social

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Anna M. Prentiss and an international team of colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research at the Bridge River site, a large housepit village located in the Middle Fraser Canyon of south-central British Columbia. Like the nearby Keatley Creek site, Bridge River offers extensive (80 housepits) and well-preserved archaeological deposits representing a globally significant record of complex hunter-gatherer evolution and village organization. Most importantly, this site provides direct evidence for documenting transitions between socio-economically egalitarian and ranked hunter-gatherer societies. Previous investigations at the Bridge River village documented the presence of intact floors from houses reflecting several periods of occupation. Between about 1800 and 1100 years ago, the village grew from no more than seven simultaneously occupied houses to nearly 30. At peak size the village appears to have been organized in two semi-circular arrangements of houses reflecting a complex pattern of social organization not previously recognized in the region. This research will focus on gaining a better understanding of the changing nature of social relations among past village inhabitants. This will be accomplished through a new study of socio-economic variation within and between select housepits reflecting variability in village occupation patterns across this critical period.Dr. Prentiss will direct multidisciplinary research that will examine these issues relying upon geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations, archaeological excavation, radiocarbon dating, and zooarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical analyses. Geophysical research will employ a wide range of instruments (including magnetometry, conductivity, and ground-penetrating radar) in order to produce detailed sub-surface maps of potential activity areas associated with cooking and storage features within each house. Archaeological excavations will seek to define the structure and function of these activity areas. Variation in artifacts, food remains, and features will permit the research team to reconstruct key elements of household socio-economies with an emphasis on defining markers of social status differentiation and group membership within and between houses. The research will offer implications of substantial intellectual merit, addressing the emergence of socio-economic inequality in aggregated hunter-gatherer communities. It asks whether inequality is the consequence of self-interested behavior of aspiring elites when resources are abundant or if it is one possible result of a historical process associated with the development of high populations and subsistence resource imbalances. The project will result in broad impacts on several levels. It will directly incorporate indigenous communities in the research process thereby enhancing archaeologist and Native American/First Nations relationships. It will offer science educational opportunities to university students and the general public. The project should generate data for 10-20 Master's theses and at least two Ph.D. dissertations. It will offer insight into relationships between human behavior and ecological change during earlier periods of global climate change. This is expected to have eventual impacts on human, cultural, and natural resource management policies and practices within the broader Pacific Northwest region.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，安娜M.普伦蒂斯和一个由同事组成的国际小组将在桥河遗址进行三个考古季节的实地研究，桥河遗址是一个位于不列颠哥伦比亚省中南部中弗雷泽峡谷的大型房屋坑村。像附近的Keatley Creek遗址一样，Bridge River提供了广泛的（80个房屋坑）和保存完好的考古沉积物，代表了复杂的狩猎采集进化和村庄组织的全球重要记录。 最重要的是，这个网站提供了直接的证据，记录社会经济平等主义和排名狩猎采集社会之间的过渡。 以前在桥河村进行的调查记录了房屋的完整地板，反映了几个占领时期。 在大约1800年至1100年前，这个村庄从不超过7个同时居住的房屋发展到近30个。 在高峰时期，这个村庄似乎是由两个半圆形的房屋组成的，反映了该地区以前没有认识到的复杂的社会组织模式。 这项研究将侧重于更好地了解过去村庄居民之间社会关系的变化性质。 这将通过一项新的研究，社会经济的变化内和之间选择housepits反映在整个关键时期的村庄占用模式的变化。普伦蒂斯博士将直接多学科的研究，将检查这些问题依赖于地球物理和地质考古调查，考古发掘，放射性碳测年，和动物考古和古民族植物学分析。 地球物理研究将使用各种仪器（包括磁力测量、电导率和探地雷达），以便绘制与每个房屋内的烹饪和储存特征有关的潜在活动区域的详细地下地图。 考古发掘将试图确定这些活动区的结构和功能。 文物，食物残留和功能的变化将允许研究小组重建家庭社会经济的关键要素，重点是定义家庭内部和之间的社会地位分化和群体成员的标志。 这项研究将提供实质性的知识价值的影响，解决社会经济不平等的出现在聚集的狩猎采集社区。 它提出的问题是，不平等是否是资源丰富时有抱负的精英的自利行为的结果，或者它是否是与人口增长和生存资源不平衡相关的历史过程的一个可能结果。该项目将在若干层面产生广泛影响。 它将直接将土著社区纳入研究进程，从而加强考古学家与美洲土著人/第一民族的关系。 它将为大学生和公众提供科学教育机会。 该项目应产生10-20硕士论文和至少两个博士的数据。学位论文 它将提供洞察人类行为和生态变化之间的关系在全球气候变化的早期阶段。 预计这将最终对更广泛的太平洋西北地区的人力、文化和自然资源管理政策和做法产生影响。