Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Prehistoric Upland Use in the Central Alaska Range

这是一个学位论文改进奖。 在Ted Goebel博士的监督下，John Blong先生将在阿拉斯加山脉中部进行博士研究，研究从最早的殖民到不到1,000年前人类对高地景观的利用。该项目的主要重点是解释时间，环境背景和人类殖民高地的性质，并探讨如何在史前环境和高地景观的使用变化。该项目将是对阿拉斯加中部人类高地适应性的第一次全面研究。有几种模式描述了人类对高地的利用，但一直没有集中探讨高地定居和土地利用战略。进行这项研究的研究区域是Susitna河上游流域，在那里进行了一项试点研究，发现了19个新的考古遗址，其中两个遗址已经进行了放射性碳年代测定，文化成分跨越了全新世早期到晚期。五个具体目标推动这项研究：（1）建立古环境史，（2）记录人类对苏西特纳河上游盆地高地景观的占领，（3）重建阿拉斯加山脉盆地中部高地从最初的殖民到不到1,000年前的石器技术活动，（4）解释在阿拉斯加山脉中部高地实施的技术组织战略，特别是当它们与生存/定居组织有关时，以及（5）将上苏西特纳盆地研究区置于阿拉斯加中部史前记录的更大背景下。为了实现这些目标，拟议的研究将包括重建人类活动的古环境背景下，通过花粉取芯和分析，考古调查和测试，并从野外工作和8个以前已知的考古遗址在阿拉斯加中部山脉的组合石器分析。

This is a dissertation improvement grant award. Under the supervision of Dr. Ted Goebel, Mr. John Blong will conduct his doctoral research in the central Alaska Range, undertaking a study of human use of upland landscapes from earliest colonization to less than 1,000 years ago. The primary focus of this project is to explain the timing, environmental context, and nature of human colonization of the uplands, and to explore how the environment and use of upland landscapes changed throughout prehistory. This project will be the first comprehensive study of human upland adaptations in central Alaska. There are several models describing human use of the uplands, but there has been no focused exploration of upland settlement and land-use strategies. The study area for conducting this research is the upper Susitna River basin, where a pilot study resulted in the location of 19 new archaeological sites, two of which have been radiocarbon dated, with cultural components spanning the early through late Holocene. Five specific objectives drive this research: (1) to establish the paleoenvironmental history, and (2) record of human occupation of upland landscapes of the upper Susitna River basin, (3) to reconstruct lithic technological activities carried out over time in the uplands of the central Alaska Range basin, from initial colonization to less than 1,000 years ago, (4) to interpret technological-organization strategies carried out in the uplands of the central Alaska Range, especially as they relate to subsistence/settlement organization, and (5) to put the upper Susitna basin study area in the greater context of the prehistoric record of central Alaska. To address these objectives, the proposed research will include reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental context of human activity through pollen coring and analysis, archaeological survey and testing, and lithic analysis of assemblages recovered from fieldwork and from eight previously known archaeological sites in the central Alaska Range.