Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Clovis Mobility at the Gault site, Texas: A Chert Provenance Study using LA-ICP-MS

博士论文改进补助金：德克萨斯州 Gault 站点的 Clovis Mobility：使用 LA-ICP-MS 进行的 Chert 来源研究

• 批准号: 1203464
• 负责人: Robert Hard
• 金额: $ 1.94万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-02-01 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1203464&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Clovis

Under the direction of Dr. Robert Hard, Mr. Charles Speer will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The research examines the subsistence strategies and landscape use by early inhabitants of the New World. Although the long standing view of the 13,000 year old Clovis culture is that its members were highly mobile hunters who moved from kill to kill, specializing in hunting extinct mammoth and other large mammals, mounting evidence suggests a wide array of behavior was practiced by these groups which were dispersed across the New World in a diverse host of environments. The classic model of describing Clovis behavior is based on three key elements: the discovery of Clovis stone projectile points with extinct large game, the exotic (non-local) stone with which Clovis projectile points were made, and the rapid spread of the Clovis cultural complex across the New World. This project will focus on determining the source of the flint or chert used to make Clovis period projectile points at the Gault site.Over most of the course of human existence people lived in small groups as hunters and gatherers and many scientists argue that behaviors characteristic of the species developed and are best understood within this context. Mr. Speer's research gains significance because it will provide insight into the range of likely behaviors which existed.Clovis period stone tools found at the Gault archaeological site in central Texas run counter to the traditional model. At Gault, nearly 95% of the stone tools and 80% of all Clovis projectile points are made from material within the immediate vicinity. As the visual aspects of the stone are similar to others across a wide region of central Texas, a geochemical technique is employed to determine accurate provenance. The geochemical technique, Laser Ablation - Inductively Coupled Plasma - MassSpectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), will analyze the geochemistry of chert toolstone used in the manufacture of projectile points found at the site. The Gault Clovis projectile points appear to be made of the local material and not from visually similar non-local sources. This is in direct contrast with many Clovis sites that are dominated by projectile points derived from sources that are hundreds of kilometers away. This research analyzes artifacts from an important Clovis site to further understand mobility behavior and it takes subjective postulates concerning Clovis mobility and evaluates them with objective data.The project will also help to develop a highly effective and reliable methodology for determining both intra- and inter-source variation. This dissertation suggests that the Clovis cultural complex was widespread across the New World but the behavior elicited by Clovis peoples was varied and not uniform. The Gault site artifacts demonstrate that cultural diffusion may have allowed technological aspects of Clovis culture to spread rapidly across the New World, rather than long distance movement in search of game. This suggests pre-Clovis populations might have already been in place across the New World to allow for this rapid cultural diffusion.

在Robert Hard博士的指导下，Charles Speer先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。该研究考察了新世界早期居民的生存策略和景观利用。尽管对于有着13,000年历史的克洛维斯文化的长期观点是，其成员是高度移动的猎人，他们从一个猎物移动到另一个猎物，专门猎杀灭绝的猛犸和其他大型哺乳动物，但越来越多的证据表明，这些分散在新大陆不同环境中的群体有着广泛的行为。描述克洛维斯行为的经典模型基于三个关键要素：发现克洛维斯石头抛射点与灭绝的大型游戏，异国情调的（非本地）石头与克洛维斯抛射点，以及克洛维斯文化复合体在新大陆的快速传播。这个项目将集中于确定燧石或燧石的来源，用于制作高尔特遗址的克洛维斯时期的射弹点。在人类存在的大部分时间里，人们生活在小群体中，作为猎人和采集者，许多科学家认为，该物种的特征行为发展，并在此背景下得到最好的理解。斯佩尔先生的研究意义重大，因为它将提供深入了解可能存在的行为范围。在得克萨斯州中部高尔特考古遗址发现的克洛维斯时期的石器与传统模式背道而驰。在高尔特，近95%的石器和80%的克洛维斯投射点都是由附近的材料制成的。由于这块石头的外观与德克萨斯州中部大片地区的其他石头相似，因此采用了地球化学技术来确定准确的来源。地球化学技术，激光烧蚀-电感耦合等离子体-质谱法（LA-ICP-MS），将分析在现场发现的用于制造射弹点的燧石工具石的地球化学。高尔特克洛维斯的弹头似乎是由当地材料制成的，而不是来自视觉上类似的非当地来源。这与许多克洛维斯遗址形成了直接的对比，这些遗址主要由数百公里外的发射源产生的发射点所控制。本研究分析了一个重要的克洛维斯遗址的文物，以进一步了解移动行为，它采取主观假设有关克洛维斯的流动性，并评估他们与客观数据。该项目还将有助于开发一个高效和可靠的方法来确定内部和源间的变化。本论文认为，克洛维斯文化复合体在新大陆广泛传播，但由克洛维斯人引发的行为是多样的，而不是统一的。高尔特遗址的文物表明，文化传播可能使克洛维斯文化的技术方面迅速传播到整个新大陆，而不是长距离移动寻找游戏。这表明克洛维斯之前的人口可能已经在新世界各地，以允许这种快速的文化传播。