Land Use and Chronology and GeoPolitical Processes Among Late Prehistoric Communal Bison Hunters, Montana

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Maria Nieves Zedeño博士与Blackfeet部落历史保护办公室合作，将建立一个史前晚期野牛传动系统和杀戮地点的年表，以及位于蒙大拿州两条医学河上的相关营地。这个年表的目的是确定多个传动系统和杀戮地点是否被交互世代使用，如果是这样，这些地点和周围环境的管理是否导致季节性移动的社区野牛猎人之间形成领土。更广泛地说，这项研究将完善对大型狩猎者地缘政治及其在欧洲货物和人员抵达西北平原之前在景观中的物质印记的理解。Zedeño和团队在2009-2012年作为Kutoyis考古项目的一部分，该项目由NSF（BCS 0918081）提供部分资金。调查提供了14个野牛传动系统的规划、建造和维护的丰富证据。这些遗址是大的（9-16平方公里）漏斗状安排的表面石头功能，连接野牛聚集盆地的悬崖或“跳。“虽然有强有力的经验证据表明，这些网站是在相同的模板和建筑传统下建造的，但目前还不清楚它们的使用跨度是否重叠。拟议的研究将（1）从建筑特征中获得光学发光日期，（2）从与传动系统相关的野牛骨暴露和炉床中获得放射性碳日期，（3）建立调查区中心两个古火灾评估地点的年表，以确定是否在野牛狩猎地点的同时将火用于草原管理。 狩猎采集者的领土和领土是人类学中最持久的话题之一。拟议的年表将扩大步行大型狩猎者对土地保有权的理解，并回答有关社区野牛猎人如何在一年中的一半时间里保持对主要狩猎场的使用和占领的连续性的问题。将用于连接不同的考古，年代学和古生态学数据的空间和时间尺度以前没有应用到该地区的史前晚期，因此该项目将作为一个概念和分析模型进行测试，或有争议的，在未来。Kutoyis考古项目自成立以来，一直明确致力于将考古学服务于黑脚部落，以便他们的传统知识可以得到科学数据的补充和丰富。 该项目将有助于确定黑脚人在山谷中存在的古老性，并维护他们保护文化资源的权利。该项目仍然致力于为学生，部落准考古学家和两个医学谷的当地居民提供考古培训，并激励美洲原住民青年选择考古学作为他们未来的职业。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Maria Nieves Zedeño, in partnership with the Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Office, will build a chronology of Late Prehistoric bison driveline systems and kill sites, as well as associated campsites located on the Two Medicine River, Montana. The objective of this chronology is to ascertain whether multiple driveline systems and kill sites were used by interacting generations and, if so, whether the management of these sites and the surrounding environment led to the formation of territories among seasonally mobile communal bison hunters. More broadly, this research will refine the understanding of big-game hunter geopolitics and its material imprint in the landscape prior to the arrival of European goods and people into the northwestern Plains.The sites to be incorporated in the valley-wide chronology were surveyed and mapped by Zedeño and team in 2009-2012 as part of the Kutoyis Archaeological Project, which has been partially funded by NSF (BCS 0918081). The survey produced abundant evidence of planning, construction, and maintenance of fourteen bison driveline systems. These sites are large (9-16 km sq) funnel-like arrangements of surface stone features that connected bison gathering basins to a cliff or "jump." While there is strong empirical evidence that these sites were built under the same template and architectural tradition, it is yet unknown whether their use-span overlapped. The proposed research will (1) obtain optical lumenescence dates from architectural features, (2) obtain radiocarbon dates from bison bone exposures associated with the driveline systems and from hearths and, (3) establish the chronology of two paleo-fire assessment sites in the heart of the survey area, to determine whether fire was used in grassland management at the same time as the bison hunting sites. Hunter-gatherer territories and territoriality are among the most enduring topics in anthropology. The proposed chronology will expand the understanding of land tenure among pedestrian big game hunters, and answer questions about how communal bison hunters maintained continuity of use and occupation of their prime hunting grounds while being away one-half of the year. The spatial and temporal scales that will be used to link diverse archaeological, chronological, and paleo-ecological data have not been previously applied to the late prehistory of this region and thus this project will stand as a conceptual and analytical model to be tested, or contested, in the future. Since its inception, the Kutoyis Archaeological Project has been explicitly committed to placing archaeology at the service of the Blackfeet Tribe so that their traditional knowledge may be complemented and enriched with scientific data. This project will help to establish the antiquity of the Blackfeet's presence in the valley and to assert their rights to protect cultural resources. This project remains committed to providing archaeological training to students, tribal para-archaeologists, and local residents of the Two Medicine Valley and to inspiring Native American youth to select archaeology as their future career.