Stable Isotope Chemistry, AMS Radiocarbon Dation and Documentation of a Four Corners Site

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，琼·布伦纳·科尔特雷恩博士和乔尔·C。Janetski将继续研究美国西南部四角地区玉米农业的时间和起源。自世纪早期美国西南部地区开始专业工作以来，该地区向粮食生产的过渡一直是学者们非常感兴趣的话题。一些研究人员认为，玉米农业是由史前农业群体迅速引入的，他们从新墨西哥州南部和亚利桑那州向北迁移。另一些人则认为，几千年来，四角地区的狩猎采集群体逐渐变得更加依赖玉米。篮子制造商遗址包含了四角地区农业依赖的最早证据，可以追溯到公元前世纪中期。 这些遗址大多数是在世纪早期挖掘的，产生了一种独特的物质文化，其特点是丝兰凉鞋、雪松皮和绳索、毛皮布、精细盘绕的编织物、编织袋和飞镖、挖掘棍、衣服兽皮以及各种珠子和吊坠，包括贝壳。 玉米棒以及一套野生食物，包括松和橡子，导致了上面提到的关于玉米在篮子制造者饮食中的起源和重要性的长期争论。除了一套丰富而精心制作的文物外，篮子制造者遗址还产生了许多保存完好的人类骨骼遗骸。 在过去的三十年中引入的骨化学技术使考古学家能够量化史前农业群体对玉米的饮食依赖。 由美国国家科学基金会提供的资金将支持胶原蛋白的纯化和分析，记录这一信息的骨蛋白，来自犹他州东南部大峡谷地区的100个篮子制造者墓葬。 还将对纯化骨胶原进行加速器放射性碳测年，为研究中的每个个体提供可靠的日期。 之前对来自四角地区的科罗拉多杜兰戈和亚利桑那州马什帕斯的篮子制造者墓葬的研究也得到了美国国家科学基金会的资助，研究表明，到公元前400年，那里的篮子制造者II人完全依赖玉米，没有证据表明这两个地区的人逐渐过渡到依赖种植玉米。目前的研究将确定是否有类似的模式是明显的大峡谷，被认为是最早和最重要的篮子制造商地区之一。 转向依赖粮食生产是人类历史上的一个关键时刻。 在世界各地，这种转变导致人口迅速膨胀，社会复杂性增加。在美国西南部，近100年前提出的基本问题仍然没有得到肯定的回答。通过利用上述技术，现在可以收集关于篮子制造者对玉米依赖的时间和程度的数据。更广泛的影响是根据NAGPRA的规定遣返美洲原住民遗骸。西南部的所有人类遗骸都有相互竞争的权利。确定抽样埋葬的时间背景将有助于管理这些遗骸的机构公平地遣返。先前的工作与埋葬从皮博迪博物馆篮子制造商收集上述确定许多人错误编目，可追溯到普韦布洛第二和第三，而不是篮子制造商时期。正确确定时间归属有可能对遣返决定产生重大影响。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Joan Brenner Coltrain and Joel C. Janetski will continue their research on the timing and origins of maize agriculture in the Four Corner region of the American Southwest. The transition to food production in the American Southwest has been a topic of great interest to scholars since the beginning of professional work in the region early in the twentieth century. Some researchers argue that maize agriculture was rapidly introduced by prehistoric farming groups, migrating north from southern New Mexico and Arizona. Others contend that hunter-gatherer groups indigenous to the Four Corners region gradually became more dependent on maize over several millennia. Basketmaker sites contain the earliest evidence for farming dependency in the Four Corners region and date to as early as the mid-first century BC. The majority of these sites were excavated early in the twentieth century and yielded a distinctive material culture characterized by sandals of yucca, cedar bark and cordage, fur cloth, finely coiled basketry, twined bags and the atlatl and dart, digging sticks, hide for clothing and assorted beads and pendants including marine shell. Maize cobs were present as well as a suite of wild foods including pinyon and acorn leading to the long-standing debate noted above regarding the origins and importance of maize in Basketmaker diets. In addition to a rich and well-crafted suite of cultural artifacts, Basketmaker sites have yielded numerous, well-preserved human skeletal remains. Bone chemistry techniques introduced over the past three decades allow archaeologists to quantify dietary reliance on maize among prehistoric farming groups. Funding provided by the National Science Foundation will support the purification and analysis of collagen, the bone protein that records this information, with 100 Basketmaker burials from the Grand Gulch region of southeastern Utah. Purified bone collagen will also be accelerator radiocarbon dated providing a reliable date on each individual in the study. Previous work with Basketmaker burials from the Durango, Colorado, and Marsh Pass, Arizona, regions of the Four Corners, also funded by the National Science Foundation, revealed that Basketmaker II people there were fully reliant on maize by 400 BC with no evidence for a gradual transition to dependence on the cultigen in either area. Current research will determine if a similar pattern is evident at Grand Gulch, thought to be one of the earliest and most important Basketmaker areas. The transition to reliance on food production is a critical juncture in human history. Throughout the world, this transition resulted in the rapid expansion of human populations and increased social complexity. In the American Southwest the fundamental question asked nearly 100 years ago still has not been answered with certainty. Gathering data regarding the timing and the degree of dependence on maize among Basketmaker people is now possible through utilization of the techniques discussed above. Broader impacts bear on the repatriation of Native American remains as mandated by NAGPRA. Competing claims exist to all southwestern human remains. Establishing the temporal context of sampled burials will assist the institutions that curate these remains in their equitable repatriation. Previous work with burials from the Peabody Museum Basketmaker collection mentioned above identified numerous individuals incorrectly catalogued, dating to the Pueblo II and III rather than Basketmaker periods. Correct assignment of temporal affiliation has the potential to strongly impact decisions regarding repatriation.