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一段阿库拉河航道进行考古和地质综合研究。奥西拉河中的沉没天坑提供了一些关于古印度物质文化的最丰富的信息，骨骼和象牙工具补充了更常见的石器文物。这些遗址是唯一能够解决古印度研究中正在进行的争论的地方，因为可断代的有机文物、动物群遗骸、植物遗骸和石器遗迹存在于可能完好的晚更新世背景中。其中许多遗骸以前是在河道内的水下次生环境中发现的，在邻近的柏树沼泽中进行的调查很少。许多诊断人工产物类型缺少相对或绝对日期。该项目介绍了在更新世/全新世过渡时期(大约15-10,000年前)，古印度人如何利用Aucilla河的石灰岩岩溶排水系统。哈利根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野外工作，并将这项研究与排水系统中先前挖掘的四个地点的数据结合起来。田野工作将调查两个有古印第安人文物的水下水槽，韦恩的水槽遗址(8JE1556/TA287)和斯劳斯洞遗址(8JE121)，以及它们之间的陆地景观。已经从这两个地点收集了岩心，以记录沉积物剖面并建立该地区的地质历史。将对陆地地貌进行地下调查，并将在水下和陆地上挖掘几个单元。然后，所有数据将与以前在流域不同环境中挖掘的遗址的档案数据一起进行评估，以创建遗址形成和古印第安人土地利用的模型。作为第一项专门旨在创建喀斯特河流系统遗址形成过程模型的地质考古研究，该项目将极大地增强对佛罗里达州西北部河流遗址如何、为什么以及在哪里保存的知识。该模型将有助于确定文化记录保存在哪里，曾被破坏在哪里，并有助于确定喀斯特系统如何影响考古学。对完整的物质文化的分析将有助于了解东南部的古印度人的行为，这将有助于解决更广泛的问题，如古印度人的定居、生存和文化选择。最后，这项研究将阐明受海平面上升积极影响的地区在整个全新世的地貌发展和变化。该项目将通过提供更多关于一系列重要早期遗址的年代控制和背景信息，为佛罗里达州的考古和古印第安人的研究做出贡献。通过对一个被人们很好地利用的景观进行建模，在一个可以对该主题产生多条证据的地区，将有可能理解过去至少有一个人类群体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.