Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geomorphology of the Connecticut River's Alluvial Lowland as a Spatial-temporal Context for Prehistoric Settlement Patterns

在凯文·麦克布莱德博士的指导下，詹姆·格兰特女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的研究集中在大约10,000到2,700年前新英格兰的古老时期，她希望了解在这段很长的时间间隔内，康涅狄格河谷的史前居民是如何适应不断变化的环境条件的。在此期间，该地区经历了相当大的环境变化，因为上一次冰川时期的冰消退，湖泊和湿地慢慢干涸，现代形式的康涅狄格河谷出现了。虽然有大量的地质学和考古学数据，但很难解释。对于考古材料，问题是虽然已知遗址的分布可以绘制出来，但结果的模式可以用多种方式解释。不可能知道分布是否反映了人类行为或与不同遗址保护有关的因素。由于康涅狄格河在其历史上改变了航道，一些遗址可能作为这一过程的副产品被摧毁。也有可能，由于河流沉积下的不同埋藏，遗址发现存在系统性的偏见。为了解决这个问题，格兰特女士将致力于重建位于威瑟斯菲尔德和康涅狄格州哈特福德之间的硅谷的一部分的地质历史。采集的岩心样品将用于重建这一河流低地的泛滥平原演化，并将重建冲积动力学。地貌和考古数据将被整合到一个地理信息系统中，将这两个变量联系起来。有了这些信息，就有可能在很长一段时间内追踪环境变化和人类反应之间的相互作用。这项工作也很重要，因为它将进一步促进有前途的研究生的学术和智力发展。

Under the direction of Dr. Kevin McBride, Ms Jaime Grant will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Her research focuses on the Archaic Period, which dates from ca. 10,000 to 2,700 years ago in New England and she wishes to understand how, over this long time interval, prehistoric inhabitants of the Connecticut River Valley adapted to changing environmental conditions. During this period the region underwent considerable environmental change as the ice from the last glaciation retreated, lakes and wetlands slowly dried and the Connecticut River Valley in its modern form emerged. While considerable data, both geological and archaeological are available, they are difficult to interpret. For archaeological materials the problem is that while the distribution of known sites can be plotted the resultant pattern can be explained in multiple ways. It is not possible to know whether distributions reflect human behavior or factors related to differential site preservation. Because the Connecticut River has changed course over its history it is possible that some sites were destroyed as a byproduct of this process. It is also possible that site discovery is systematically biased because of differential burial under riverine deposits. To address this issue Ms Grant will work to reconstruct the geological history of one portion of the Valley between Wethersfield and Hartford Connecticut. The collection of core samples will be used to reconstruct the floodplain evolution of this riverine lowland and alluvial dynamics will be reconstructed. The geomorphological and archaeological data will be integrated into a geographic information system to relate these two variables. With this information it will then be possible to trace, over a long time interval, the interaction between environmental change and human response.This work is also important because it will further the academic and intellectual development of a promising graduate student.