Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Clovis Settlement Behavior in the American Southeast: Using Lithic Artifact Analysis to Evaluate the Staging-Area Model

在Ted Goebel博士的指导下，Ashley Smallwood女士的博士研究将应用关于石器技术的现场级数据来了解美国东南部的克洛维斯人的定居行为。克洛维斯狩猎采集者是美洲有最好记录的早期居民。克洛维斯文化综合体最引人注目的方面之一是它广泛的地理分布，覆盖了威斯康星州冰盖以南的整个北美。在这个广阔的地区，考古遗址发现了克洛维斯双面凹槽投射点，其历史可追溯到距今约11,000年前的放射性碳时代。斯莫尔伍德的研究将解决关键问题，以帮助理解克洛维斯人的定居过程。Clovis技术在更新世晚期是如何组织起来的？对技术的研究可以告诉我们关于克洛维斯移动性的哪些信息？克洛维斯族群是如何分散在北美各地的？戴维·安德森开发的一个“集结区”模型预测，克洛维斯族群进入北美大陆，减缓了迁徙的速度，从而将领土范围集中在资源丰富的河谷周围。这些山谷成为人们定居的集结地，习惯性地使用当地的工具、石头和生物资源。在这种定居模式下，居住在集结区促进了人口增长，并导致群体分裂成新的次要集结区，在美洲引发了早期的文化区域化。斯莫尔伍德的研究将通过分析美国东南部三个关键地点的石器组合来评估集结区模型的有效性：托珀(SC)、威廉姆森(VA)和卡森康肖特(TN)。卡森-康涅狄格州-肖特发生在指定为主要集结区的区域内。托珀和威廉姆森落入安德森指定为后期集结地的区域，或由从主要集结区扩展的觅食者占据的次要集结区。根据安德森的说法，这些人口集中是早期地区文化传统发展的地方。了解东南部克洛维斯人聚居地的性质对于全面解释美洲人的形成至关重要。一旦集结区模型被测试，东南部的克洛维斯记录可以自信地为整个新大陆的古印度适应的更广泛研究做出贡献。最终，这项研究将解决人类如何在北美各地扩散，以及区域环境变化如何影响晚更新世期间的人类住区战略。这项深入的调查将有助于将东南部作为一个地区置于更广泛的背景下，以回答克洛维斯起源和适应的理论问题。这项研究将涉及更多的文献，探索现代人如何分散到全球各地，以及过去小规模社会如何殖民空旷的风景。在进行她的研究时，斯莫尔伍德将通过从私人和博物馆拥有的收藏品中合成有价值的信息，教育公众了解他们收藏品的重要性，并将她对美洲人的研究传播到公共舞台上，与公众接触。此外，2009年，斯莫尔伍德将继续在Topper遗址担任克洛维斯遗址主管，她将以这一身份向所有年龄段的学生和志愿者传授考古技术和文物分析。Topper的野外项目自1996年以来一直在教育公众挖掘经验，仅在2008年夏天，它就吸引了来自世界各地的150多名志愿者和游客。拟议的研究将向志愿者社区和感兴趣的公众报告Topper挖掘的结果。最后，斯莫尔伍德的研究将为她提供获得人类学博士学位所需的专业培训和资格。

Under the supervision of Dr. Ted Goebel, Ms. Ashley Smallwood's doctoral research will apply site-level data about stone tool technologies to understand Clovis settlement behavior in the American Southeast. Clovis hunter-gatherers are the best-documented early inhabitants of the Americas. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Clovis cultural complex is its extensive geographic distribution covering all of North America south of the Wisconsin ice sheets. In this vast area, Clovis bifacial fluted projectile points are found at archaeological sites dating to approximately 11,000 radiocarbon years before present. Smallwood's research will address key questions to help understand the Clovis population's settlement process. How were Clovis technologies organized during the late Pleistocene? What can studies of technology tell us about Clovis mobility? How did Clovis groups disperse across North America?A "staging area" model developed by David Anderson predicts that Clovis groups entered the continent and slowed migration to concentrate territorial ranges around resource-rich river valleys. These valleys became staging areas where groups settled-in and habitually used local tool-stone and biotic resources. Under this settlement model, residence in staging areas facilitated population growth and led to the fissioning of groups into new secondary staging areas, inciting early cultural regionalization in the Americas. Smallwood's study will evaluate the effectiveness of the staging-area model through analysis of stone tool assemblages from three key sites in the American Southeast: Topper (SC), Williamson (VA), and Carson-Conn-Short (TN). Carson-Conn-Short occurs within an area designated as a primary staging area. Topper and Williamson fall within areas Anderson designates as later concentrations, or secondary staging areas occupied by foragers expanding from a primary staging area. According to Anderson, these population concentrations are where early regional cultural traditions developed.Understanding the nature of Clovis settlement in the Southeast is essential to fully explain the peopling of the Americas. Once the staging-area model is tested, the Clovis record in the Southeast can be confidently contributed to the broader study of Paleoindian adaptations across the New World. Ultimately, this research will address how humans dispersed across North America and how regional environmental variation impacted human settlement strategies during the late Pleistocene. This intensive investigation will help place the Southeast, as a region, into an even broader context to answer theoretical problems of Clovis origins and adaptations. The research will pertain to a larger body of literature exploring how modern humans dispersed across the globe and how small-scale societies colonized empty landscapes in the past. In conducting her research, Smallwood will interface with the public by synthesizing valuable information from private and museum-owned collections, educating the public on the importance of their collections, and disseminating her research on the peopling of the Americas to the public arena. Further, Smallwood will continue as a Clovis site-supervisor at the Topper site in 2009, and in this capacity, she will instruct students and volunteers of all ages about archaeological techniques and artifact analysis. The field program at Topper has educated the public in the excavation experience since 1996, and in the summer of 2008 alone it attracted more than 150 volunteers and visitors from around the world. The proposed research will report the findings of the Topper excavation back to the volunteer community and interested public. Finally, Smallwood's research will provide her with the professional training and qualifications necessary to earn a Ph.D. in Anthropology.