Early Holocene Zooarchaeology of Las Vegas Occupations in Coastal Ecuador

在国家科学基金会的支持下，考古学家团队，包括纽约州宾厄姆顿大学的彼得·斯塔尔、德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的凯伦·斯托瑟特、密苏里州米尔萨普学院的马库斯·特尔坎普和巴黎自然历史博物馆的菲利普·比雷斯，将与厄瓜多尔科学家合作，分析与南美洲最早和最知名的中全新世(10,800至6600年前)考古文化之一有关的动物骨骼和贝壳标本。这些材料是从被称为拉斯维加斯占领厄瓜多尔西部圣埃琳娜半岛的五个考古遗址中发现的，应该为这些早期人如何开发当地资源，以及这与大约10,000年前南美洲全新世开始时的早期定居生活、仪式、植物操纵和区域生态之间的关系提供重要数据。相互关联的项目问题审查了在沿海环境不断变化、资源开采从早期(10,000-8,000 BP)转移到中期全新世(8,000-6,600 BP)的背景下，定居点战略是如何变化的，保存了早期葬礼仪式的证据，并提议重建过去的全新世环境。研究组合包括至少25,000个脊椎动物标本和数量不详的无脊椎动物标本，目前储存在厄瓜多尔和佛罗里达州。在厄瓜多尔，由外国和当地合作者组成的研究小组将识别和分析无脊椎动物标本，并对脊椎动物标本进行分类，为运往美国做准备。整个标本收集，包括目前储存在佛罗里达州的标本，将在纽约(非鸟类脊椎动物)、密西西比州(鸟类)和巴黎(鱼类)的不同实验室进行鉴定和分析。项目结束后，所有材料将被组装到博物馆级的存储容器中，并通过事先达成的协议，将在佛罗里达自然历史博物馆进行管理。这项合作研究将提供南美洲全新世早期考古文化中相关动物群材料的最大数据库。由于它们非常古老，这些考古背景很少被很好地保存下来。因此，重要的是要最大限度地利用那些可供研究的罕见病例的所有证据。拉斯维加斯的考古文化与西海岸其他早期全新世的文化截然不同，后者几乎完全专注于海洋资源的开发。拉斯维加斯的植物种植记录始于公元前9000年之前，似乎与秘鲁北部内陆地区、安第斯山脉西部森林覆盖的斜坡以及中美洲和哥伦比亚的早期和中期全新世文化有更多共同之处，后者将小规模的驯化植物种植与树木产品纳入早期新热带生存系统。该项目是由美国、厄瓜多尔和法国的考古学家、动物学家和在厄瓜多尔有丰富经验的生态学家共同开展的多学科和国际合作的努力。该团队为位于拉斯维加斯类型遗址上的社区博物馆和文化中心洛斯阿曼特斯·德·桑帕博物馆做出贡献，该遗址今天是具有国家和国际科学重要性的考古遗址。该小组与瓜亚基尔的厄瓜多尔国家帕特里莫尼奥文化研究所、厄瓜多尔圣埃莱纳的阿曼特斯·德桑帕博物馆以及新的圣埃莱纳半岛大学考古科(UPSE)共享资源。

With National Science Foundation support, a team of archaeologists, including Peter Stahl (Binghamton University, NY), Karen Stothert (University of Texas at San Antonio), Markus Tellkamp (Millsap College, MS), and Philippe Bearez (Natural History Museum, Paris) will collaborate with Ecuadorian scientists in the analysis of animal bone and shell specimens associated with one of the earliest and best known Early to Mid-Holocene (10,800 to 6600 BP) archaeological cultures from South America. The material was recovered from five archaeological sites of what is termed the Las Vegas occupation of Ecuador's western Santa Elena peninsula, and should provide important data for how these early people exploited local resources and how this was related to early sedentary life, ceremonialism, the manipulation of plants, and regional ecology at the onset of the South American Holocene some 10,000 years ago. Interrelated project questions examine how settlement strategies changed in the context of a changing coastal environment, shifts in resource exploitation from the Early (10,000-8000 BP) to Mid-Holocene (8000-6600 BP) occupations, preserved evidence for early mortuary ceremonialism, and proposed reconstructions of past Holocene environments. The study assemblage consists of at least 25,000 vertebrate, and an unknown number of invertebrate, specimens currently stored in Ecuador and Florida. In Ecuador, the research team of foreign and local collaborators will identify and analyze invertebrate specimens, and sort the vertebrate specimens in preparation for shipment to the United States. The entire collection, including specimens currently stored in Florida will be identified and analyzed at different laboratories in New York (non-bird vertebrates), Mississippi (birds), and Paris (fish). Upon conclusion of the project all materials will be assembled into museum quality storage containers, and through prior agreement, will be curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History. The collaborative research will provide the largest data base of associated faunal material from an archaeological culture from the earlier Holocene of South America. Due to their extreme antiquity these archaeological contexts are seldom preserved with good resolution. As a result, it is important to maximize all evidence from those rare cases that are available for study. The Las Vegas archaeological culture is quite distinct from other Early Holocene occupations of the western coast which were focused almost exclusively on the exploitation of marine resources. Las Vegas, with its record of plant cultivation beginning before 9000 B.P., appears to share more in common with inland sites of northern Peru, forested western Andean slopes, and Early and Mid-Holocene cultures of Central America and Colombia that incorporated small-scale cultivation of domesticated plants along with tree products into early neotropical subsistence systems. The project is a multidisciplinary and international collaborative effort by US, Ecuadorian, and French archaeologists, zoologists, and ecologists with considerable experience in Ecuador. The team contributes to the Museo Los Amantes de Sumpa, a community-based museum and cultural center located on the Vegas type site, which is today an archaeological site of national and international scientific importance. The team shares resources with the Ecuadorian Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural in Guayaquil, the Museum of the Amantes de Sumpa, in Santa Elena, Ecuador, and the archaeology section of the new University of the Peninsula of Santa Elena (UPSE).