Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Settlement Ecology on California's Channel Islands

在道格拉斯博士肯内特的指导下，克里斯托弗·贾兹瓦将开发和测试一个关于加州北方海峡群岛过去人类定居模式的模型。北方海峡群岛（英语：Northern Channel Islands）是一系列位于加州圣巴巴拉海岸的四个岛屿和相关小岛，从13，000年前开始一直被占领，直到最后一批居民在19世纪20年代被西班牙人带到大陆传教。该项目将利用环境变量来预测岛上永久定居点的最佳地点。通过对新的考古遗址进行调查，对高、中、低等级遗址进行有针对性的挖掘，广泛的放射性碳测年以建立占领年表，以及对加州贻贝贝壳进行氧同位素分析以重建遗址的占领季节，该项目将测试人们如何通过定居扩张来应对人口增长和环境条件变化。这对当前美国的人口结构有直接的应用。通过了解过去的人们如何通过改变环境、开发新技术或寻找新的定居点来适应过度拥挤和环境退化，人们可以更好地了解今天的选择，并从过去的决定中学习。加州的北方海峡群岛提供了一个有效的实验室来研究这一点，因为它们在空间上是有限的，有一套相对较好的理解，作为海峡群岛国家公园的一部分保存完好，有悠久的考古研究历史，并有很长的人类历史深度。肯内特和Jazwa将使用理想自由分布（IFD）模型来模拟定居决定，以应对不断变化的环境和人口条件，这是一个从人口生态学中借鉴和改编的模型。IFD是理解人类住区的有效模型，因为它可以包含不同的环境变量，并且可以用考古数据进行测试。该项目将是对考古文献的宝贵贡献，因为它将是第一个使用实地收集的数据明确测试模型的项目。肯内特和贾兹瓦将使用各种数据集来完成这一工作。对遗址的调查将更好地了解整个景观中的人口分布，挖掘将用于了解随着时间的推移而发生的变化。这些变化将通过广泛的放射性碳测年法按时间顺序进行锚定。将利用季节性研究来确定定居点是全年有人居住还是属于较大的定居点系统的一部分。这项研究的结果将发表在同行评审的期刊上，并以论文和海报的形式在专业会议上分享。这个项目也将是Jazwa专业发展的重要组成部分，并将导致他的博士学位。论文在宾夕法尼亚州立大学的本科生的协助下，将在实验室处理出土材料，帮助他们作为考古学家接受教育和发展。最后，调查和数据收集，从这个项目将部分完成，以满足海峡群岛国家公园的目标，库存我们国家的宝贵文化资源。

Under the guidance of Dr. Douglas Kennett, Christopher Jazwa will develop and test a model of past human settlement patterns on California's Northern Channel Islands. The Northern Channel Islands are a series of four islands and associated islets off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, that were occupied continuously from 13,000 years ago until the last inhabitants were brought to mainland missions by the Spanish in the 1820s. This project will use environmental variables to predict the optimal locations for permanent settlement sites on the islands. Through a program of surveying for new archaeological sites, targeted excavation of sites in high-, middle-, and low-ranked locations, extensive radiocarbon dating to establish a chronology for occupation, and oxygen isotopic analyses of California mussel shells to reconstruct season of occupation for sites, this project will test how people responded to population increase and changing environmental conditions through settlement expansion. This has direct applications for population structure in the current United States. By understanding how people in the past adapted to overcrowding and environmental degradation by modifying their environment, developing new technologies, or seeking new locations to settle, one can better understand the options available today and learn from decisions that were made in the past. California's Northern Channel Islands provide an effective laboratory to study this because they are spatially bounded, have a limited and relatively well-understood set of resources, are well-preserved as part of Channel Islands National Park, have a long history of archaeological research, and have a long time depth of human history.For this project, Kennett and Jazwa will model the settlement decisions in response to changing environmental and demographic conditions using the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD), a model borrowed and adapted from population ecology. The IFD is an effective model for understanding human settlement because it can incorporate different groups of environmental variables and it is testable with archaeological data. This project will be a valuable contribution to the archaeological literature because it will be the first to explicitly test the model using data collected in the field. Kennett and Jazwa will use a variety of data sets to do this. Survey for sites will establish a better understanding of the distribution of populations across the landscape and excavation will be used to understand changes over time. These changes will be anchored chronologically with extensive radiocarbon dating. Seasonality studies will be used to determine whether settlements were occupied year-round or were part of larger settlement systems. The results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared at professional conferences in the form of presented papers and posters. This project will also be an important part of Jazwa's professional development and will result in his Ph.D. dissertation. Laboratory processing of excavated materials will be done with the assistance of undergraduate students at Pennsylvania State University, aiding in their education and development as archaeologists. Finally, survey and data collection from this project will be done in part to satisfy the goals of Channel Islands National Park to inventory our nation's valuable cultural resources.