Paleoindian Adaptations in Eastern Beringia: Prelude or Postscript to the Early Settlement of the Americas

白令海峡东部的古印第安人适应：美洲早期定居的前奏或后记

• 批准号: 1111395
• 负责人: Jeff Rasic
• 金额: $ 14.98万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-15 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1111395&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Paleoindian; Adaptations; Eastern; Beringia; Prelude

Archaeologists will undertake a two-year program of archaeological investigations at the late Pleistocene age Raven Bluff site in interior northwestern Alaska. The site contains the oldest and best preserved collection of faunal remains from the American Arctic, and an assemblage of stone tools that includes fluted projectile points. Fluted projectile points are a type of stone weapon tip associated with the initial phase of human settlement in most regions of the New World. They have not, however, been reliably dated in eastern Beringia (Alaska and unglaciated portions of Yukon), a region of critical importance for thinking about the colonization of the Americas since it was a presumed waypoint for the initial settlers of North and South America as they expanded from their Asian homeland. In the absence of secure dating Beringian fluted points have yet to be situated in a historical or ecological context, and there is little known about the behavior of the people who used this technology or their relationship to fluted point users in the midcontinent. This project will address these issues through interdisciplinary studies at Raven Bluff and analyses of existing fluted point assemblages found in museum collections. At Raven Bluff a research team will: establish a chronological and stratigraphic framework for the archaeological deposits; reconstruct the late Pleistocene and early Holocene environmental setting; describe strategies of faunal exploitation and resource use; and characterize the stone tool production and maintenance activities conducted at the site, including methods of fluted point manufacture and repair. Building on insights from our detailed studies at Raven Bluff we also plan to reexamine existing fluted point assemblages from Alaska, as well as published data from selected fluted point assemblages from the midcontinent, in order to evaluate hypotheses about the transmission and development of fluted point technology within Beringia, and its transmission between Beringia and the midcontinent.Insights resulting from this work will help resolve longstanding questions about the timing of the fluted point occupation in Beringia, and the subsistence and technological adaptations of the people who made fluted point in an extreme, high latitude environment. It will also fill a major geographic and temporal gap in our knowledge of Paleoindian dispersals throughout the Americas. These issues are important because they are connected to the general process of first entry and adaptive radiation of people in all parts of the world, and shed light on the means by which small scale societies adapt to diverse environmental challenges. The broader impacts of this study include training and mentoring of high school, undergraduate and graduate students. Education and outreach efforts through the PolarTREC program will bring an issue of great public interest and scientific importance?the earliest period of cultural development in the New World ?into classrooms across the country.

考古学家将在阿拉斯加西北部内陆的更新世晚期乌鸦海崖遗址进行为期两年的考古调查。该遗址包含了来自美国北极地区最古老和保存最完好的动物群遗骸，以及一批石器工具，其中包括有凹槽的投射点。凹槽弹尖是一种石制武器尖端，与新世界大部分地区人类定居的初始阶段有关。然而，它们在东白令加（阿拉斯加和育空地区的未冰川化部分）的年代还没有得到可靠的确定，这是一个对思考美洲殖民化至关重要的地区，因为它是北美和南美最初定居者从亚洲家园扩张的一个假定的中途站。在没有安全的约会Beringian凹槽点还没有位于历史或生态背景下，并有很少知道的人谁使用这种技术的行为或他们的关系，以凹槽点用户在中部大陆。该项目将通过在瑞文海崖的跨学科研究和对博物馆藏品中发现的现有凹槽点组合的分析来解决这些问题。在雷文海崖，一个研究小组将：建立考古沉积物的年代和地层框架;重建更新世晚期和全新世早期的环境背景;描述动物群开发和资源利用的策略;并描述在现场进行的石器生产和维护活动的特征，包括凹槽尖端制造和修复的方法。基于我们在Raven海崖的详细研究，我们还计划重新检查阿拉斯加现有的凹槽点组合，以及来自中大陆的选定凹槽点组合的已发表数据，以评估关于白令吉亚内凹槽点技术传播和发展的假设，以及它在白令吉亚和中部大陆之间的传播。这项工作产生的见解将有助于解决长期存在的关于凹槽点占领时间的问题以及在极端的高纬度环境中制造凹槽点的人们的生存和技术适应。它还将填补我们对美洲各地古印第安人扩散知识中的一个重大地理和时间空白。这些问题之所以重要，是因为它们与世界各地人民首次进入和适应辐射的一般过程有关，并揭示了小规模社会适应各种环境挑战的手段。这项研究的更广泛影响包括对高中生、本科生和研究生的培训和指导。通过PolarTREC计划进行的教育和推广工作将带来一个具有重大公共利益和科学重要性的问题？新大陆文化发展的最早时期走进全国各地的教室