Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeological Investigations into Paleoindian Adaptations at the Aucilla River, Northwest Florida

在Michael Waters博士的指导下，Jessi Halligan女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将对佛罗里达州西北部的阿库拉河河道的一段进行考古和地质研究。奥西拉河（Aucilla River）内被淹没的天坑提供了一些有关古印第安人物质文化的最丰富的信息，其中有骨骼和象牙工具，还有更常见的石器制品。这些遗址是唯一能够解决古印第安人研究中正在进行的争论的地方，因为可确定年代的有机文物、动物遗迹、植物遗迹和石器文物存在于可能完整的晚更新世环境中。这些遗迹中有许多以前是在河道内淹没的次要环境中发现的，而在邻近的柏树沼泽中进行的调查很少。许多诊断工件类型缺乏相对或绝对日期。该项目研究了古印第安人在更新世/全新世过渡时期（大约15-1万年前）如何利用奥西拉河的石灰岩喀斯特水系。Halligan女士将首先定义晚更新世和全新世的地质记录，然后在这个河流系统中创建一个遗址形成过程的模型。她将进行水下和陆地实地考察，并将这项研究与先前在排水系统中挖掘的四个地点的数据结合起来。野外工作将调查两个有古印第安人文物的水下水槽，Wayne's Sink遗址（8JE1556/TA287）和Sloth Hole遗址（8JE121），以及它们之间的陆地景观。从两个地点采集的岩心记录了沉积物剖面，并建立了该地区的地质历史。对陆地地貌进行地下调查，并在水下和陆地上进行若干单元的挖掘。然后，所有数据将与先前在流域不同环境中挖掘的遗址的档案数据进行评估，以创建遗址形成和古印第安人土地利用的模型。作为第一个专门针对喀斯特河流系统中遗址形成过程建立模型的地质考古研究，该项目将极大地提高对佛罗里达州西北部河流中遗址如何、为何以及在何处保存的认识。该模型将有助于确定哪些地方的文化记录得到了保存，哪些地方的文化记录受到了干扰，并有助于确定岩溶系统对考古学的影响。对完整物质文化的分析将有助于了解东南部古印第安人的行为，这将有助于解决古印第安人定居、生存和文化选择等更广泛的问题。最后，研究将阐明在一个受海平面上升积极影响的地区，整个全新世的地貌发育和变化。这个项目将通过提供更多关于一系列重要早期遗址的时间控制和背景信息，为佛罗里达考古学和古印第安人研究做出贡献。通过对一个地区的景观进行建模，在这个地区，人们可以很好地利用多种证据来承担这个主题，这将有可能理解过去至少有一群人类是如何适应快速和潜在的灾难性气候变化的。

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Waters, Ms Jessi Halligan will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct a combined archaeological and geological study of the one section of the Aculla River channel in northwestern Florida. Submerged sinkholes within the Aucilla River have yielded some of the richest information available about Paleoindian material culture, with bone and ivory tools complementing more common lithic artifacts. These sites are uniquely able to address ongoing debates in Paleoindian research because dateable organic artifacts, faunal remains, botanical remains, and stone artifacts exist in potentially-intact late Pleistocene contexts. Many of these remains have previously been discovered in submerged secondary context within the river channel, and very little survey has been undertaken in the adjacent cypress swamps. Many diagnostic artifact types lack relative or absolute dates. This project addresses how Paleoindians used the limestone based karst drainage of the Aucilla River during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (PHT) (approximately 15-10,000 years ago). Ms Halligan will first define the late Pleistocene and Holocene geological record and then create a model of site formation processes in this fluvial system. She will conduct both underwater and terrestrial fieldwork and combine this research with data from four previously-excavated sites in the drainage. Fieldwork will investigate two submerged sinks with Paleoindian artifacts, the Wayne's Sink site (8JE1556/TA287) and the Sloth Hole site (8JE121), and the terrestrial landscape between them. Cores have been collected from both sites to record sediment profiles and establish the geological history of the area. Sub-surface survey of the terrestrial landforms will be performed and excavation several units underwater and on land will be conducted. All data will then be evaluated with archival data from previously-excavated sites in different settings in the drainage basin to create models of site formation and Paleoindian land use. As the first geoarchaeological study specifically aimed at creating a model of site formation processes in karst fluvial systems, this project will greatly enhance knowledge of how, why, and where sites preserve in the rivers of northwestern Florida. The model will help establish where the cultural record has preserved and where it had been disturbed and help define how karstic systems impact archaeology. The analysis of intact material culture will inform upon Paleoindian behavior in the Southeast, which will help address broader questions of Paleoindian settlement, subsistence, and cultural choices. Finally, the research will explicate landform development and change throughout the Holocene in an area actively affected by sea-level rise. This project will contribute both to Florida archaeology and to Paleoindian studies by providing more chronological control and contextual information about a series of important early sites. By modeling a landscape that was well-utilized by people in an area where multiple lines of evidence can be brought to bear upon the topic, it will be possible to understand how at least one group of humans in the past adapted to rapid and potentially-catastrophic climate change.