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

贫困点文化的考古研究(约公元前3800-3000年)在密西西比河下游，LMV对史前狩猎和采集社会组织的理解做出了很大贡献。在古代贫困点晚期，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精致达到了北美东部史前前所未有的规模。最近在LMV进行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(约3000-2500加州B.P.)他们被认为与贫困点文化的解体有关。然而，我们对这种特殊的狩猎-采集文化以及与其消亡相关的河流事件的理解，主要是基于在路易斯安那州东北部坦萨斯盆地内的贫困点遗址和邻近定居点和/或地区进行的研究。整个LMV缺乏来自更远社区和地区的全面数据集，限制了对贫困点社会以及密西西比河动态冲积环境与该地区史前聚落、人类行为和文化过程之间的相互作用的了解。拟议的论文研究项目将使用地质考古方法调查密西西比州中西部亚祖盆地雅克敦遗址的占领年代学、遗址内地层学以及沉积和地貌史。雅克敦是现存的第二大贫困点定居点，亚祖盆地包含了所有已知的贫困点遗址的大部分。然而，与该遗址相关的许多问题仍然没有得到回答，关于该地区晚期古代文化的许多问题仍不清楚。从雅克敦获得的现场范围的数据将是关于贫困点遗址的为数不多的全面数据集之一，并构成了扩大我们对贫困点文化的地区理解和关于动态LMV泛滥平原史前人类与景观互动的知识的第一步。考古学研究的基本目标包括解释文化过程和变化，以及调查社会、政治、经济和文化系统中变化的来源和作用。除了完善对雅克敦的了解外，通过拟议的研究获得的现场规模数据将使这些更广泛的研究问题能够在区域范围内得到解决。拟议项目的结果将有助于对雅克敦和贫困点遗址的占领历史进行比较分析，促进对贫困点互动范围内两个主要定居点的区域年表、历时发展和轨迹的了解。除了解决这些考古问题，雅克敦的研究还将产生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，并将为密西西比州贝尔佐尼当地的雅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，提供不可替代的实地调查教育经验。学生将接受考古实地方法培训，了解该地区的考古学，并了解他们所从事的研究项目。雅克敦的研究还将通过与雅克敦解释博物馆的合作以及在实地调查期间与当地社区的互动，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.