Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeological Investigation of the Jaketown Site: A Late Archaic Poverty Point Settlement in the Lower Mississippi Valley

贫困点文化（Poverty Point Culture）3800-3000 Cal B.P.）在下密西西比河谷（LMV）的发现对了解史前狩猎和采集者的社会组织做出了很大贡献。在史前贫困点晚期，纪念性建筑的建造，广泛的长途贸易，技术发展和宝石艺术的制作达到了北美东部史前史上前所未有的规模。最近在LMV的考古和地质调查已经确定了灾难性洪水和随之而来的河流重组的证据。3000-2500 Cal B.P.）被认为与贫困点文化的消亡有关然而，我们对这种特殊的狩猎采集文化和与其消亡时间相关的河流事件的理解主要是基于在贫困点遗址和路易斯安那州东北部坦萨斯盆地内的邻近定居点和/或地区进行的研究。缺乏全面的数据集，从更遥远的社区和整个LMV地区的贫困点社会和密西西比河的动态冲积环境和史前定居，人类行为之间的相互作用的了解有限，和文化进程在该地区。拟议的论文研究项目将采用地质考古学方法，调查占领年表，内部网站地层，以及密西西比中西部亚祖盆地杰克镇遗址的沉积和地貌历史。杰克敦是现存的第二大贫困点定居点，亚祖盆地包含了大多数已知的贫困点遗址。然而，与该遗址有关的许多问题仍然没有答案，该地区的晚白垩世文化仍不清楚。从Jaketown获得的现场规模的数据将代表一个贫困点网站的几个全面的数据集之一，并构成了第一步，扩大我们的区域了解贫困点文化和知识的史前人类景观的相互作用，在动态LMV洪泛区。考古学研究的基本目标包括解释文化过程和转变，以及调查社会，政治，经济和文化系统中变化的来源和作用。除了完善对杰克敦的理解，通过拟议的研究获得的现场规模的数据将允许这些更广泛的研究问题在区域范围内得到解决。拟议项目的结果将允许对杰克敦和贫困点的占领历史进行比较分析，促进对区域年表，历时发展和贫困点互动领域内两个主要定居点的轨迹的理解。 除了解决这些考古问题，在杰克敦的研究将有几个更广泛的有益影响。该项目的成果将广泛传播给学术界和公众社区，并将为密西西比贝尔佐尼的当地杰克敦解释博物馆提供最新的考古信息、地图和照片。实地调查将整合本科生的参与，提供基于实地研究的不可替代的教育经验。学生将接受考古领域方法的培训，将了解该地区的考古学，并将充分了解他们所从事的研究项目。在Jaketown的研究还将通过与Jaketown解释性博物馆的合作以及在实地调查期间与当地社区的互动来促进公众对考古学的兴趣和教育。

Archaeological research of the Poverty Point culture (ca. 3800-3000 Cal B.P.) in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) has contributed much to the understanding of prehistoric hunter and gatherer social organization. During the Late Archaic Poverty Point Period, construction of monumental architecture, extensive long-distance trade, technological developments, and elaboration of lapidary arts reached scales unprecedented in the prehistory of eastern North America. Recent archaeological and geologic investigations in the LMV have identified evidence of catastrophic flooding and attendant fluvial reorganization (ca. 3000-2500 Cal B.P.) that are thought to be implicated in the dissolution of the Poverty Point culture. However, our understanding of this exceptional hunter-gatherer culture and the fluvial events temporally correlated with its demise are primarily based on research conducted at the Poverty Point site and proximate settlements and/or regions within the Tensas Basin of northeast Louisiana. The lack of comprehensive data sets from more distant communities and regions throughout the LMV has limited understanding of Poverty Point society and the interplay between the dynamic alluvial environment of the Mississippi River and prehistoric settlement, human behavior, and cultural processes in the region.The proposed dissertation research project will employ geoarchaeological methods to investigate the occupation chronology, intra-site stratigraphy, and the depositional and geomorphologic history of the Jaketown site in the Yazoo Basin of west-central Mississippi. Jaketown is the second largest extant Poverty Point settlement and the Yazoo Basin contains the majority of all known Poverty Point sites. However, many questions related to the site remain unanswered and much about the Late Archaic culture in the region remains unclear. The site-scale data acquired from Jaketown will represent one of the few comprehensive data sets on a Poverty Point site and constitute a first step towards expanding our regional understanding of Poverty Point culture and knowledge of prehistoric human-landscape interactions in the dynamic LMV floodplain. Fundamental goals of archaeological research include the explanation of cultural processes and transformations as well as the investigation of sources and roles of change within social, political, economic, and cultural systems. In addition to refining understanding of Jaketown, the site-scale data acquired through the proposed research will allow these broader research issues to be addressed on a regional scale. Results of the proposed project will permit comparative analysis of the occupation histories of Jaketown and the Poverty Point site, advancing understanding of the regional chronology, diachronic development, and trajectory of the two principal settlements within the Poverty Point interaction sphere. In addition to addressing these archaeological issues, the research at Jaketown will have several broader beneficial impacts. Results of the project will be widely disseminated to the academic and public communities and will provide updated archaeological information, maps, and photographs for the local Jaketown interpretive museum in Belzoni, Mississippi. Field investigations will integrate undergraduate student participation, providing the irreplaceable educational experience of field-based research. Students will receive training in archaeological field methods, will learn about the archaeology of the region, and will be well-informed of the research project in which they are engaged. The research at Jaketown will also promote public interest and education in archaeology through collaboration with the Jaketown interpretive museum and through interaction with the local community during field investigations.