Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Sedentism and Subsistence in the Late Archaic: A Study of Seasonality, Hard Clam Exploitation, and Resource Scheduling

在罗谢尔·a·马里南博士的指导下，亚历山德拉·帕森斯将分析从佛罗里达州圣奥古斯丁附近的一个考古遗址瓜纳贝壳环中挖掘出来的材料。贝壳环是圆形的垃圾堆，顾名思义，主要由贝壳组成。它们位于美国东南部海岸，大多数可以追溯到古代晚期（约公元前5000 - 2500年）。帕森斯的主要研究目标是确定人们是否全年或季节性地占用和利用瓜纳贝壳环。重要的是要了解瓜纳遗址和其他类似遗址的占领时间，因为相当大的社会变化往往与久坐和半久坐的遗址占领同时发生。例如，定居社会必须避免过度开发当地资源，而流动社会可以更充分地开发资源，然后迁移到另一个地方。此外，从季节性迁移到半定居或完全定居的生活方式的转变对社会和政治组织也有影响。为了确定人们是否全年都生活在瓜纳贝壳环，帕森斯女士将研究蛤蚌，蛤蚌是瓜纳居民的重要食物资源，在整个贝壳环中它们的数量很大。quahog的壳里有两个年轮，类似于树木的年轮。人们可以通过比较最后一个年轮的生长量和现代比较收集的夸克（已知的死亡季节）来确定考古蛤的死亡季节。在考古遗址地区进行现代收集是必要的，因为研究表明，季节性蛤蜊生长的时间存在纬度差异。帕森斯女士将为圣奥古斯丁地区创建一个新的现代比较系列，在一年的时间里，每月收集一次活的猕猴。这些收集将使她能够生成每个季节的预期生长曲线，这将用于确定瓜纳贝壳环考古蛤的死亡季节。蛤和其他脊椎动物的季节性将被用来推断瓜纳岛的居住季节。该项目直接有助于东南史前史的研究，以及更广泛的关于定居主义的人类学讨论，以及如何在考古学上观察它，特别是在沿海地区。它将为东南沿海遗址提供越来越多的季节性数据，这将有助于阐明当地和区域的定居或流动模式。帕森斯收集的季节概况和其他现代比较收集的数据将在论文中提供，并发表在同行评议的期刊上。这将为其他考古学家提供数据，以评估圣奥古斯丁地区众多史前和历史贝壳丘的蛤蜊季节性。蛤蜊收集也可以通过突出其他蛤蜊收集之间的变异性来改进蛤蜊季节性研究的方法。​最后，通过研究环内蛤蜊季节性的空间格局，研究可以增加对贝壳环如何使用的科学理解。

Under the supervision of Dr. Rochelle A. Marrinan, Alexandra Parsons will analyze material excavated from the Guana shell ring, an archaeological site near St. Augustine, Florida. Shell rings are circular piles of refuse that, as the name implies, consist primarily of shell. They are located along the coast of the southeast United States, and the majority date to the Late Archaic period (ca. 5,000-2,500 B.P.). Parsons' primary research objective is to determine whether people occupied and utilized the Guana shell ring either on a year-round basis or seasonally. It is important to understand the duration of occupation at the Guana site and others like it, as considerable social changes often coincide with sedentary and semi-sedentary site occupations. For example, sedentary societies must avoid overexploitation of local resources, whereas mobile societies can more fully exploit resources and then move to another location. Additionally, a shift from a seasonally migratory to a semi- or fully sedentary lifestyle has implications for social and political organization. In order to determine if people lived at the Guana shell ring year-round, Ms Parsons will examine quahog clams, which were an important food resource for Guana residents as evidenced by their significant numbers throughout the shell ring. Quahogs produce two annual growth rings in their shells, similar to the annual rings in trees. One can determine the season of death for archaeological clams by comparing the amount of growth in the final annual ring to quahogs in a modern comparative collection (with a known season of death). It is imperative to have modern collection located in the area of the archaeological site because studies have shown latitudinal differences in the timing of seasonal clam growth. Ms Parsons will create a new modern comparative collection for the St. Augustine area by gathering living quahogs once a month for one year. This collection will allow her to generate profiles of expected growth for each season, which will be used to determine the season of death for the archaeological clams at the Guana shell ring. Seasonality of clams and other vertebrate animals will then be used to infer seasons of occupation at Guana. The project contributes directly to the study of Southeastern prehistory as well as to the broader anthropological discussion of sedentism and how it is observed archaeologically, particularly within coastal zones. It will contribute to the growing body of seasonality data for Southeastern coastal sites, which will help elucidate local and regional patterns of sedentism or mobility. The seasonal profiles and other data from the modern comparative collection assembled by Parsons will be available in the dissertation and published in peer-reviewed journals. This will provide other archaeologists with the data to asses clam seasonality at the numerous prehistoric and historic shell middens in the St. Augustine area. The clam collection may also refine the methodology of clam seasonality studies by highlighting variability between other clam collections. The project will involve training at least one undergraduate student in the methodology of clam seasonality and its practical application to the archaeological record. Finally, by examining the spatial patterning of clam seasonality within the ring, the research may increase scientific understanding of how shell rings were used.