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

在罗伯特·贝廷格博士的监督下，瑞文·加维将在阿根廷门多萨省南部进行区域考古调查。这项调查旨在解决门多萨人类占领记录中令人费解的4000年差距。气候科学家已经证明，在这个被称为全新世中期(距今8000年到4000年前)的四千年期间，世界上许多地区的气候条件更炎热、更干燥。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资源供应变化的影响。门多萨记录的明显打破意味着，生活在那里的人要么无法适应日益恶化的环境，基本上抛弃了这个地区，要么他们对此的反应方式让他们在考古上不那么显眼，给人一种被遗弃的错觉。在世界其他地方的中期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，因为正是由于这些替代可能性。在门多萨，可用的数据实在太少了，无法解释观察到的差距。这项调查将对比以前抽样更广泛的环境类型进行抽样，以区分导致打破纪录的自然因素和行为因素。门多萨是这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，在那里已经记录了类似的中期全新世缺口。对这两个地区的比较研究可以使环境背景保持相对恒定，而对资源波动的复杂反应则被梳理出来。了解阿根廷主要气候事件的行为反应将澄清与世界许多地区相关的狩猎-采集适应变化的更大轨迹。此外，对史前问题解决策略的更深入理解有助于理解现代人的崛起。除了对人类学中的实证和理论问题做出贡献外，这个项目还将对知识分子和当地东道主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互惠的智力利益和国际研究人员之间的健康合作关系。此外，将从阿根廷大学招聘该项目的实地技术人员，为考古学学生提供实地体验和培训的机会。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讲来与东道主社区分享，这些演讲旨在激发人们对考古的兴奋和对文化遗产的管理感。该奖项由NSF的考古计划和国际科学与工程办公室联合资助。

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.