Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Testing Colonization Models in New England

在罗伯特·凯利博士的指导下，纳撒尼尔·奇切尔先生将通过对该地区第一批定居者用来制造工具的石头的检查，来研究北美东北部最早的人类活动。在这项研究中产生的数据将提供一个更好的理解在东北部和整个美洲更新世末期的大规模定居过程。这项研究将解决景观学习和定居模式的问题，以探索第一批人类群体是如何在大陆冰川消退后进入以前空旷的地区的。利用非破坏性x射线荧光（XRF）技术对史前人类用来制造工具的细粒石头进行地球化学查找，将增强以前对这些原材料的视觉识别。这种技术在仅凭视觉手段难以识别的情况下尤其有利。尽管经过了一个多世纪的研究，人们对美洲人定居的时间和过程仍然知之甚少。许多相互竞争的模型都描述了更新世期间新大陆的第一次定居。尽管这些模型在细节上各不相同，但它们都倾向于分为两类；快速和慢速模型。这些模型类型还对这些第一批人如何与他们的技术、景观和环境相互作用做出了具体的预测。然而，这些模型也从“克洛维斯”考古或早期凹槽点考古的观察中得出了许多预测。虽然这些巨大而独特的石头抛射点的使用者曾经被认为是美洲最早的人类居住地，但最近的发现表明情况可能并非如此。这项研究将通过对最近冰川消融的东北地区的景观学习和定居实践的调查，避免第一批人类何时到达新大陆的问题，从而控制该地区更早定居的可能性。这些数据将用于评估美洲的殖民模型，从而更好地了解现代人类群体是如何进入新世界的，以及澳大利亚等其他大片无人居住的地区。本项目所产生的数据也将产生超出本研究直接目标的影响。通过这个项目的过程，将创建一个化学“指纹”库，其中包含了至少七个史前东北地区用于制造工具的石头来源。这些数据可以被其他研究人员用来调查这些资源在该地区整个史前时期的运动。原始数据将在网上分发，使所有生成的数据可供公众使用。该项目还将通过与新罕布什尔州保护救援考古计划（SCRAP）以及怀俄明州考古学会在怀俄明大学的公开演讲进行演讲和宣传，吸引公众参与。Kitchel先生还将通过非技术出版物向公众展示这项研究的发现，并在佛蒙特州圣约翰伯里的费尔班克斯博物馆向公众发表演讲。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Kelly, Mr. Nathaniel Kitchel will examine the earliest human occupations of northeastern North America through an examination of the stone used by the first settlers of this region to produce tools. The data produced during this study will provide a better understanding of large scale settlement processes at the end of the Pleistocene both in the Northeast and throughout the Americas. This research will address questions of landscape learning and settlement patterns to explore how the first human groups moved into previously empty regions following the retreat of continental glaciers. Geochemical sourcing using nondestructive X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) technology of the fine grained stone used by prehistoric people to produce their tools will augment previous visual identifications of these raw materials. This technique will be particularly advantageous in the case of stone that is difficult, if not impossible, to identify by visual means alone.Despite more than a century of research the timing and process of the peopling of the Americas remains poorly understood. Many competing models that describe the first settlement of the New World during the Pleistocene exist. Though these models vary in detail, each tends to fall into two categories; rapid and less rapid models. These model types also make specific predictions about how these first peoples interacted with their technology, landscape, and environment. These models also however, derive many of their predictions from observations of the archaeology of "Clovis" or early fluted point archaeology. While users of these large distinctive stone projectile points were once thought to represent the first human occupation in the Americas recent discoveries indicate this may not be the case. This study will avoid questions of when the first humans arrived in the New World through an investigation of landscape learning and settlement practices in the recently deglaciated Northeast thereby controlling for the possibility of an earlier settlement in the region. These data will be used to evaluate colonization models of the Americas providing a greater understanding of how modern human groups moved into the New World, as well as other large uninhabited landscapes such as Australia.The data produced by this project will also have impacts beyond the immediate goals of this study. Through the course of this project a library of chemical "fingerprints" for at least seven stone sources used to manufacture tools in the far northeast throughout prehistory will be created. These data can be used by other researchers to investigate the movements of these resources throughout the prehistory of the region. The raw data will be distributed online making all data produced available for public use. This project will also engage the public through presentations and outreach with the New Hampshire State Conservation Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP) as well as public presentations at the University of Wyoming for the Wyoming Archaeological Society. Mr. Kitchel will also present the findings of this study to the public through non-technical publications and talks to the public at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.