Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Strontium Isotopic Investigation of Population Movement during the Middle Woodland in the Midwestern United States

在巴里刘易斯博士的监督下，达纳·比尔将研究北美中部林地时期的人口流动。 中林地时期在北美中西部从公元前150年持续到公元400年，其特征是一种被称为霍普韦尔互动圈（HIS）的文化现象。 作为一个广泛的贸易和地位与仪式物品交换网络，HIS跨越了北美中西部的大部分地区，震中位于俄亥俄州和伊利诺伊州。 HIS的确切性质长期以来一直存在争议，一些研究人员声称它主要是一个意识形态网络，而其他人则专注于商品贸易。 现在人们认识到，HIS可能不是一个集中的现象。 贸易发生在个人层面上，涉及各种小规模的过程，如朝圣或视觉探索。 然而，这些进程的规模和方向尚不清楚。 最近的线粒体DNA（mtDNA）研究表明，基因流动，因此人口流动，从俄亥俄州到伊利诺伊州，反对传统的俄亥俄州为中心的解释的HIS。 本项目将尝试通过锶同位素分析来确定HIS人口移动的方向，锶同位素分析是一种应用于人类骨骼遗骸的技术，可以确定个人的一生迁移历史。拟议的研究很重要，因为人口移动是一种强大的人口力量，在中林地的研究中长期被忽视。 鉴于HIS的广泛影响，区域之间一定发生了某种形式的人口流动，本项目提供了探索这种流动的性质和方向的机会。 该项目将集中在两个震中的霍普韦尔现象，伊利诺伊州和俄亥俄州，并将检查数据从几个网站，包括霍普韦尔网站本身，这被认为是最大和最有影响力的HIS网站。 了解这两个地区之间的关系将有助于理解的HIS现象的性质，并可能有助于评估在何种程度上，俄亥俄州地区是占主导地位的中林地。 这项研究的更广泛的影响将包括加强对中林地时期的理解。 这也将是北美中西部地区首次大规模使用锶同位素分析，并将提供一个中林地锶值数据库，供其他研究人员在调查中使用。 研究结果和即将发表的论文的副本将提供给那些允许他们的收藏品被包括在这个项目中的机构，包括俄亥俄州历史学会和芝加哥菲尔德博物馆，这样他们就可以将研究结果纳入他们提供给公众的信息中。 最后，这项研究的资金将有助于培训作者和几个本科生助理的锶同位素分析技术，一个复杂的和有价值的新技术，在考古学领域的今天变得越来越重要。

Under the supervision of Dr. Barry Lewis, Dana Beehr will study population movement during the North American Middle Woodland time period. The Middle Woodland period lasted from 150 BC to AD 400 in Midwestern North America, and was characterized by a cultural phenomenon known as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere (HIS). A widespread network of trade and exchange of status and ritual goods, the HIS spanned most of Midwestern North America with epicenters in Ohio and Illinois. The exact nature of the HIS was controversial for a long time, with some researchers claiming it was primarily an ideological network while others focused on trade in goods. It is now recognized that the HIS was probably not a centralized phenomenon. Trade happened on the individual level and involved a variety of small-scale processes such as pilgrimages or vision questing. However the scale and direction of these processes are unclear. Recent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) work has suggested that gene flow, and hence population movement, proceeded from Ohio to Illinois, in opposition to traditional Ohio-centric interpretations of the HIS. This project will attempt to identify the direction of HIS population movements through strontium isotopic analysis, a technique that is applied to human skeletal remains to determine an individual's lifetime migration history.The proposed research is important because population movement is a powerful demographic force that has long been neglected in the study of the Middle Woodland. Given the wide-reaching nature of the HIS, some form of population movement must have been occurring among regions, and this project offers the chance to explore the nature and direction of such movement. The project will concentrate on the two epicenters of the Hopewell phenomenon, Illinois and Ohio, and will examine data from several sites, including the Hopewell site itself, which is believed to be the largest and most influential HIS site. Understanding the relationship between these two regions will contribute to an understanding of the nature of the HIS phenomenon, and may help to evaluate the extent to which the Ohio region was dominant during the Middle Woodland. Broader impacts of this study will include an enhanced understanding of the Middle Woodland period. This will also be the first wide-scale use of strontium isotopic analysis in Midwestern North America, and will provide a database of Middle Woodland strontium values on which other researchers can draw for use in their investigations. The results of the study and a copy of the forthcoming dissertation will be provided to the agencies that have given permission for their collections to be included in this project, including the Ohio Historical Society and the Chicago Field Museum, so that they may incorporate the findings into the information they provide the public. Finally, the funding of this study will assist in training the author and several undergraduate assistants in the technique of strontium isotopic analysis, a complex and valuable new technique that is becoming increasingly important in the field of archaeology today.