Ancient Hunters of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge: Archaeological Investigations beneath Lake Huron

在国家科学基金会的支持下，约翰·奥谢博士和密歇根大学的同事们将在五大湖现代休伦湖水下的阿尔佩纳-安伯利山脊进行为期三个季节的考古野外工作。该小组汇集了遥控潜水器(ROV)和自动水下潜航器(AUV)、水下考古和计算机科学方面的专家，努力确定与早期狩猎群体有关的考古遗址，这些遗址曾在斯坦利湖枯水期居住在阿尔佩纳-安伯利山脊地区。在大约9000年前的这个时候，山脊作为一条旱地走廊存在，从密歇根州的普雷斯克岛延伸到安大略省南部的点克拉克地区。这项研究建立在之前国家科学基金会支持的一项研究的基础上，该研究确定了一系列石头结构，这些结构与北极历史上用来猎杀驯鹿的狩猎结构有很大的相似之处。目前研究工作的目标是确认这些建筑的人类起源，并开始识别和描述古代人类遗址和相关文物的过程。阿尔佩纳-安伯利山脊拥有与早期占领五大湖有关的潜在信息宝库。与该地区的其他任何地方不同，这片古老的景观仍然与最初的居住者留下的大致相同。没有开发、土地清理或耕作来摧毁遗址，也没有掠夺来移走重要或有吸引力的文物。它不仅提供了从陆地上鲜为人知的时期确定遗址的机会，还提供了保存完整遗址、石头建筑和大湖区很少保存的动植物遗骸的潜力。它还将提供一个实验室，在其中研究五大湖早期居民的生活方式，特别是从古印第安人到古代模式系统的转变。被淹没遗址的保存布局和分布也可能提供对这些早期猎人的文化和组织的洞察，这种类型的猎人在陆地上很少被保存下来。除了这项工作的非凡人类学潜力之外，这项研究还有望带来许多更广泛的好处。这项工作将提供斯坦利湖时代地形和休伦湖湖底的详细景观，并将从这一重要时期获得重要的地质、环境、植物学和动物学证据。它还将提供关于中湖环境现状的数据，特别是入侵物种的影响。最后，这项工作汇集了来自广泛部门和机构的研究人员和学生，如密歇根大学的海军建筑和海洋工程系和人类学博物馆，韦恩州立大学的计算机科学，以及来自桑德贝国家海洋保护区的考古学家和教育工作者。这项研究工作代表了现有设备、能力和专业知识的创造性组合，以解决一系列新的问题。这项研究的“交叉培训”好处不仅在高级研究人员之间分享，而且由参与研究的研究生和本科生组成的跨学科小组也分享。

With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. John O'Shea and a team of colleagues from the University of Michigan will conduct three seasons of archaeological field work on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, beneath the waters of modern Lake Huron in the Great Lakes. The team brings together specialists in the use of remote operated vehicles (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), underwater archaeology, and computer science in an effort to identify archaeological sites associated with early hunting groups that once inhabited the Alpena-Amberley Ridge area during the Lake Stanley low water stage. At this time, some nine thousand years ago, the ridge existed as a corridor of dry land extending from Presque Isle in Michigan to the Point Clarke region of southern Ontario. The research builds on a prior National Science Foundation supported study that identified a series of stone structures which bear a strong resemblance to hunting structured used historically in the Arctic in the pursuit of caribou. The goal of the current research effort is to confirm the human origin of these structures and to begin the process of identifying and describing the ancient human sites and associated artifacts.The Alpena-Amberley ridge holds a potential treasure trove of information relating to the early occupation of the Great Lakes. Unlike anywhere else in the region, the ancient landscape remains much as the original occupants left it. There has been no development, land clearance or farming to destroy sites, and no looting to remove important or attractive artifacts. Not only does it provide the opportunity to identify sites from a time period that is poorly known on land, it also offers the potential for the preservation of intact sites, stone constructions, and plant and animal remains that rarely are preserved in the Great Lakes region. It also will provide a laboratory in which to investigate the life ways of the early inhabitants to the Great Lakes, and particularly the transition from Paleo-Indian to Archaic patterns systems. The preserved layout and distribution of inundated sites may also provide insights into the culture and organization of these early hunters of a kind that is only rarely preserved on land.Apart for the extraordinary anthropological potential of the work, the research promises a number of broader benefits. The work will provide a detailed view of the Lake Stanley era terrain and the Lake Huron lake bottom, and will yield important geological, environmental, botanical and faunal evidence from this important time period. It will also provide data on the current conditions of the mid-Lake environment, and particularly the impact of invasive species. Finally, the work brings together researchers and students from a wide range of departments and institutions, such as the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Computer Science at Wayne State University, and archaeologists and educators from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The research effort represents the creative combination of existing equipment, capabilities, and expertise to address a novel new range of problems. The "cross-training" benefits of the research are shared not only among the senior investigators, but by the interdisciplinary group of graduate and undergraduate students that participate in the research.