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

考古学家将在阿拉斯加州西北部内陆的晚更新世雷文布拉夫遗址进行为期两年的考古调查。该遗址包含了美国北极地区最古老、保存最完好的动物遗骸，以及一组石器工具，其中包括有凹槽的抛射点。有凹槽的抛射点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，它们在东白令陆桥（阿拉斯加和育空地区未被冰川覆盖的部分）的年代还没有得到可靠的确定，这一地区对于思考美洲的殖民化至关重要，因为它被认为是北美和南美最初的定居者从亚洲家园扩张时的一个路标。由于没有可靠的约会，白令陆桥的凹槽点还没有被置于历史或生态背景下，而且人们对使用这种技术的人的行为或他们与中部大陆凹槽点用户的关系知之甚少。该项目将通过在Raven Bluff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。在雷文布拉夫，一个研究小组将：为考古沉积物建立一个年代和地层框架；重建晚更新世和全新世早期的环境背景；描述动物开发和资源利用的策略；并描述了在现场进行的石器生产和维护活动，包括凹槽点制造和修复的方法。基于我们在Raven Bluff的详细研究的见解，我们还计划重新检查阿拉斯加现有的凹槽点组合，以及来自中大陆的精选凹槽点组合的已发表数据，以评估有关凹槽点技术在白令陆桥内的传播和发展的假设，以及它在白令陆桥和中大陆之间的传播。从这项工作中得出的见解将有助于解决有关白令陆桥上的凹槽点占领时间的长期问题，以及在极端高纬度环境中制造凹槽点的人们的生存和技术适应。它还将填补我们对古印第安人在美洲分散的认识中一个主要的地理和时间空白。这些问题很重要，因为它们与世界各地人们的首次进入和适应性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。本研究更广泛的影响包括对高中生、本科生和研究生的培训和指导。通过PolarTREC项目开展的教育和推广工作将带来一个具有重大公众利益和科学重要性的问题？新大陆最早的文化发展时期是什么时候？进入全国各地的教室。

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.