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

在Robert Bettinger博士的监督下，Raven Garvey将在阿根廷南部门多萨省进行区域考古调查。 这项调查旨在解决门多萨人类居住记录中令人困惑的四千年空白。 气候科学家已经表明，同样是这4000年的时期，被称为全新世中期（8000年至4000年前），是世界上许多地区更热，更干燥的时期。生活在受这些大规模环境波动影响的地区的土著居民无疑受到由此产生的资源供应变化的影响。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不断恶化的环境，基本上放弃了该地区，要么他们对环境的反应方式使他们在考古学上不那么明显，给人留下了被遗弃的错误印象。正是由于这些替代可能性，对世界其他地方中全新世考古记录中观察到的类似差距的解释仍然存在争议。 在门多萨，可用于解释观察到的差距的数据太少了。 这次调查将对比以前更广泛的环境类型进行采样，以区分导致记录打破的自然因素和行为因素。门多萨是一个特别有效的“实验室”，为这类研究，因为该地区是地理和气候的北美大盆地，其中一个类似的中全新世空白已被记录。 这两个地区的比较研究允许环境设置保持相对不变，而复杂的响应资源波动被取笑分开。 了解阿根廷主要气候事件的行为反应将澄清狩猎采集者适应性变化的更大轨迹，这些变化与全球许多地区有关。 此外，更深入地了解史前解决问题的策略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国际研究人员之间的相互智力优势和健康的合作关系。 此外，将从阿根廷各大学招聘该项目的实地技术人员，为考古学学生提供实地经验和培训的机会。 最后，该项目的成果将通过在当地博物馆的正式展示、对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当地社区分享，这些演示旨在激发人们对考古学的兴趣和对文化遗产的管理意识。该奖项由NSF考古计划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.