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

博士论文改进补助金：美国中西部中部林地人口运动的锶同位素调查

• 批准号: 0840123
• 负责人: R. Barry Lewis
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-01-15 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0840123&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Strontium

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.

在巴里·刘易斯博士的指导下，达纳·比尔将研究北美中部林地时期的人口流动。北美中西部的中部林地时期从公元前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。一个广泛的贸易和交换地位和仪式物品的网络，HIS跨越了北美中西部的大部分地区，以俄亥俄州和伊利诺伊州为中心。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，而另一些研究人员则专注于商品贸易。现在人们认识到，卫生系统可能不是一个集中的现象。贸易发生在个人层面，涉及各种小规模的过程，如朝圣或视觉探索。然而，这些过程的规模和方向尚不清楚。最近的线粒体DNA （mtDNA）研究表明，基因流动和人口流动是从俄亥俄州到伊利诺伊州进行的，这与传统的以俄亥俄州为中心的HIS解释相反。该项目将试图通过锶同位素分析确定HIS人口流动的方向，锶同位素分析是一种应用于人类骨骼遗骸的技术，以确定个人的终身迁移历史。人口流动是一种强大的人口动力，长期以来在中部林地研究中被忽视，因此本研究具有重要意义。鉴于人口普查的广泛影响性质，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。该项目将集中在霍普韦尔现象的两个震中，伊利诺伊州和俄亥俄州，并将检查来自几个站点的数据，包括霍普韦尔站点本身，它被认为是最大和最有影响力的HIS站点。了解这两个地区之间的关系将有助于理解HIS现象的本质，并有助于评估俄亥俄州地区在中部林地时期的主导程度。这项研究的更广泛的影响将包括加强对中期林地时期的理解。这也将是在北美中西部首次大规模使用锶同位素分析，并将提供一个中部林地锶值的数据库，其他研究人员可以在其调查中使用。研究结果和即将发表的论文副本将提供给已批准将其藏品纳入本项目的机构，包括俄亥俄州历史学会和芝加哥菲尔德博物馆，以便他们将研究结果纳入向公众提供的信息中。最后，这项研究的资助将有助于培训作者和几名本科生助理掌握锶同位素分析技术，这是一项复杂而有价值的新技术，在今天的考古领域变得越来越重要。