Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Human Behavioral Responses to Middle Holocene Climate Changes: A Pilot Study in Mendoza Province, Argentina

在罗伯特·贝廷格博士的指导下，雷文·加维将在阿根廷南部门多萨省进行一项区域考古调查。这项调查的目的是解决人类在门多萨居住的四千年的令人困惑的差距。气候科学家已经证明，同样是这4000年，被称为全新世中期（8000年至4000年前），在世界范围内的许多地区都是一个更热、更干燥的时期。生活在受这些大规模环境波动影响地区的土著居民无疑受到可利用资源变化的影响。门多萨记录的明显中断意味着，生活在那里的人们要么无法适应日益恶化的环境，基本上放弃了该地区，要么他们以不太显眼的方式回应，给人一种被遗弃的错误印象。在世界其他地方的中全新世考古记录中观察到的类似缺口的解释仍然存在争议，正是由于这些替代的可能性。在门多萨，可用的数据太少，无法解释观察到的差距。这项调查将对比以前更广泛的环境类型进行抽样，以区分导致记录打破的自然因素和行为因素。门多萨是进行此类研究的一个特别有效的“实验室”，因为该地区在地理和气候上与北美大盆地相当，而北美大盆地也有类似的全新世中期缺口。对这两个地区的比较研究使环境设置保持相对恒定，而对资源波动的复杂反应则被分开。了解阿根廷对重大气候事件的行为反应将阐明与全球许多地区相关的狩猎采集者适应性变化的更大轨迹。此外，对史前问题解决策略的更深入了解有助于理解现代人类的崛起。除了对人类学的经验和理论问题做出贡献外，该项目还将对知识分子和当地社区产生更广泛的影响。来自美国和阿根廷机构的跨学科科学家之间的密切磋商将导致相互智力利益和国际研究人员之间的健康合作关系。此外，该项目的实地技术人员将从阿根廷各大学征聘，使考古学学生有机会获得实地经验和训练。最后，这个项目的成果将通过在当地博物馆的正式展示，向公众开放的模拟考古挖掘，以及一系列适合年龄的课堂演示，与东道国社区分享，旨在产生对考古的兴奋和对文化遗产的管理意识。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会考古项目和国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Bettinger, Raven Garvey will perform a regional archaeological survey in southern Mendoza Province, Argentina. The survey is designed to address a puzzling four thousand year gap in the record of human occupation in Mendoza. Climate scientists have shown that this same four thousand year period, referred to as the middle Holocene (between 8000 and 4000 years ago), was a time of hotter, drier conditions in a number of regions worldwide. Indigenous populations living in areas affected by these large-scale environmental fluctuations were undoubtedly impacted by the resultant changes in resource availability. The apparent break in the Mendoza record implies that the people living there were either incapable of adapting to a deteriorating environment and largely abandoned the region, or that they responded to it in ways that made them less visible archaeologically, giving the misimpression of abandonment. Interpretations of similar gaps observed in middle Holocene archaeological records elsewhere in the world remain controversial due to precisely these alternative possibilities. In Mendoza, there are simply too few data available to interpret the observed gap. This survey will sample a broader range of environment types than have been sampled previously to distinguish natural from behavioral factors contributing to the break in the record. Mendoza is a particularly effective "laboratory" for a study of this kind because the region is geographically and climatically comparable to the Great Basin of North America where an analogous middle Holocene gap has been documented. A comparative study of these two regions allows environmental setting to be held relatively constant while complex responses to resource fluctuations are teased apart. Understanding behavioral responses to major climatic events in Argentina will clarify larger trajectories of hunter-gatherer adaptive change that are relevant to many regions worldwide. Moreover, a deeper appreciation of prehistoric problem-solving strategies contributes to an understanding of the rise of modern humans.In addition to its contributions to empirical and theoretical issues in anthropology, this project will have broader impacts for both the intellectual and the local host communities. Close consultation among interdisciplinary scientists from US and Argentine institutions will result in both mutual intellectual benefit and a healthy collaborative relationship between international researchers. Furthermore, field technicians for this project will be recruited from Argentine universities, providing students of archaeology the opportunity for field experience and training. Finally, the results of this project will be shared with the host community through a formal display at a local museum, a mock archaeological dig, open to public participation, and a series of age-appropriate classroom presentations designed to generate both excitement about archaeology and a sense of stewardship towards cultural heritage.This award has been jointly funded by NSF's Archaeology Program and Office of International Science and Engineering.