Doctoral Dissertation Research: Folsom Settlement Organization in the Southern Rocky Mountains: An Analysis of Dwelling Space at the Mountaineer Site

在大卫梅尔策博士的指导下，布鲁克摩根将分析在11个考古发掘季节（2001年至2011年）中从科罗拉多甘尼森附近的登山者福尔松时代（约11,000至10,000 BP）营地发现的文物。登山者基地位于落基山脉的上甘尼森盆地，海拔2,630米，该地区经历了美国本土最寒冷的冬天。这种环境对生活在最后一个冰河时代末期的狩猎采集者来说是一个独特的挑战。福尔松住宅区虽然罕见，但提供了一个特殊的机会来研究广泛的行为--以及，通过扩展，适应性策略--这在其他福尔松环境中可能是不存在的。登山者遗址特别重要，因为它是一个大型福尔松营地，有多种建筑结构的证据-北美一些最古老的避难所。这个项目除了对福尔松狩猎采集者的研究做出贡献外，还有更广泛的影响。登山者遗址在更新世末期被占领，这是一个气候波动和自然资源重组的时期。福尔松觅食者的适应可能超出了现代人种学觅食者的范围。如果是这样的话，该项目将表明，考古学家在比较现代狩猎采集社会与过去的社会时，必须采取更批判性的观点。短期福尔松遗址的考古学特征是公认的，这是由于北美大平原上杀戮遗址和短暂占领的营地的普遍存在。这些遗址主要显示了活动专业化的证据（即狩猎和加工野牛），反映在有限的工具库的投射点（即矛头）及其相关的碎片。考古学的重点放在这些类型的网站和感知的重要性，弹丸点技术导致的解释福尔松适应性策略的最小变量。然而，登山者网站提供了一个机会，以扩大目前的知识，福尔松生活方式超出了高度移动的野牛猎人，特别是由于存在的庇护所，表明这一组露营了很长一段时间。摩根女士将分析登山石工具组合，并进行空间分析，以确定其福尔松居住者进行的活动。对与这些结构相关的文物的检查将提供关于登山者的福尔松狩猎采集者如何在恶劣的环境条件下生存的重要信息。此外，摩根女士将根据营地组织推断营地居住者的经济和社会关系。拟议的研究将为未来古印第安人居住地的研究和其他环境中狩猎采集者庇护所的调查提供基础。研究结果将发表在同行评审的期刊上，原始数据将以在线和表格形式作为论文附录提供。该项目有助于将摩根女士培养成为一名独立的学者和研究人员，使她能够获得专业考古学家的必要技能。摩根女士还将担任达拉斯地区大学的客座讲师，以提高公众对考古学的认识。

Under the guidance of Dr. David Meltzer, Brooke Morgan will analyze artifacts recovered during eleven seasons of archaeological excavations (2001 to 2011) from the Mountaineer Folsom-age (~11,000 to 10,000 BP) campsite near Gunnison, Colorado. Perched at 2,630 meters above sea level on Tenderfoot Mountain, the Mountaineer site is within the Upper Gunnison Basin of the Rocky Mountains, an area that experiences some of the coldest winters in the contiguous United States. This environment would have presented unique challenges for hunter-gatherers living at the end of the last ice age. Folsom residential sites, though rare, provide an exceptional opportunity to study a broad range of behaviors - and, by extension, adaptive strategies- that may be unrepresented in other Folsom contexts. The Mountaineer site is particularly important because it is a large Folsom campsite with evidence of multiple architectural structures - some of the oldest shelters in North America. This project has broader impacts beyond contributing to research of Folsom hunter-gatherers. The Mountaineer site was occupied during the Terminal Pleistocene, a time of climate fluctuation and restructuring of natural resources. It is possible that adaptations of Folsom foragers may have operated outside the range of those of modern ethnographic foragers. If this is the case, the project will demonstrate that archaeologists must take a more critical view when comparing modern hunter-gatherers societies with those of the past. The archaeological signature of short-term Folsom sites is well-established, due to the prevalence of kill sites and briefly occupied camps on the North American Great Plains. These sites primarily show evidence of activity specialization (namely, hunting and processing of bison), reflected by a limited tool repertoire of projectile points (i.e. spearheads) and their associated debris. Archaeological focus on these types of sites and the perceived importance of projectile point technology has resulted in the interpretation of Folsom adaptive strategies as minimally variable. However, the Mountaineer site provides an opportunity to expand current knowledge of Folsom lifeways beyond that of highly mobile bison hunters, especially due to the presence of shelters that suggest this group camped for an extended period of time. Ms. Morgan will analyze the Mountaineer stone tool assemblage and conduct spatial analysis to determine the activities carried out by its Folsom occupants. Examination of artifacts associated with the structures will provide important information on how Folsom hunter-gatherers at Mountaineer maintained their camp while surviving harsh environmental conditions. Further, Ms. Morgan will infer economic and social relationships of the site's occupants based on campsite organization. The proposed research will provide a foundation for future research of Paleoindian residential sites and the investigation of hunter-gatherer shelters in other settings.The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and the raw data will be accessible both online and in tabular format as dissertation appendices. This project contributes to training Ms. Morgan to be an independent scholar and researcher so that she may acquire the necessary skills of a professional archaeologist. Ms. Morgan will also serve as a guest lecturer at Dallas-area universities to raise public awareness of archaeology.