The Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project: An Archaeological Investigation of Seasonal Changes in Spatial Behavior among Nomadic Herders in Mongolia.

Dukha民族考古项目的目标是开发理论和方法工具，以帮助解释考古记录。研究人员关注的是游牧环境下人类对空间的利用，以了解人们如何决定在哪里做他们所做的事情，以及这些决定如何在考古记录中表现出来。在这个框架内，该项目对蒙古北部Dukha驯鹿牧民营地中人类行为的空间分布如何随季节变化感兴趣。该项目的最终目标是开发确定考古遗址被占领季节的方法。因此，研究人员将根据年龄、性别、活动、天气、一天中的时间和其他因素，绘制出室内外人类位置的详细地图。该项目有可能为世界各地数十个（如果不是数百个）考古遗址的占领季节重建提供信息，这反过来将使人们更好地了解季节如何影响史前人类行为的许多方面，并有可能为当代北极人的季节性行为变化提供新的见解。季节是影响人类行为变化的主要因素。特别是在高纬度和高海拔地区，从夏季到冬季，人类的生活方式发生了巨大的变化。如果人类学家在夏天和冬天观察同一个人时看到两种截然不同的生活方式，他或她不会感到惊讶。人类学家可能会看到，例如，生存、流动性、活动表现、群体规模、地点、服装、住所、时间分配，甚至意识形态或仪式实践的变化。然而，令人惊讶的是，尽管没有人会怀疑季节性是影响人类行为的一个非常重要的因素，但在考古背景下，职业季节是一个众所周知的难以控制的变量。大多数（如果不是全部的话）季节性的直接测量都依赖于有机或骨骼遗骸的保存。本研究是对蒙古北部Dukha驯鹿牧民进行的一项为期两年的民族考古研究，目的是利用文物空间分布的变化，开发确定考古遗址职业季节的新方法。Dukha民族考古项目于2012年夏天启动，不同于之前的空间民族考古研究，研究团队将经验重点从物质垃圾的测绘转移到人类行为的直接测绘。科学家们建议研究季节与Dukha营地内外空间活动表现的空间分布之间的关系，从中他们将能够建立人工物品积累的模型，从而使他们能够将民族志案例中的行为空间分布与其潜在的考古相关性联系起来。

The goal of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project is to develop theoretical and methodological tools to aid in the interpretation of the archaeological record. The researchers are concerned with human use of space in a nomadic context to understand how people decide where to do what they do, and how such decisions are manifested spatially in the archaeological record. Within that framework, the project is interested in how the spatial distribution of human behavior changes seasonally in the campsites of Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop methods for determining the season of occupation of archaeological sites. Accordingly, the researchers will generate detailed maps of human locations in interior and exterior spaces that can be related to age, gender, activity, weather, time of day, and other factors. The project has the potential to inform the reconstruction of season of occupation for dozens if not hundreds of archaeological sites around the world, which in turn will provide greater understanding of how season affected many aspects of human behavior in prehistory and potentially provide new insights into changing seasonal behavior among contemporary Arctic peoples.Season is a major factor affecting variation in human behavior. Particularly at high latitudes and altitudes, human lifeways change dramatically from summer to winter. It would surprise no anthropologist observing the same people during summer and winter if he or she were to see two very different ways of living. That anthropologist might see, for instance, changes in subsistence, mobility, activity performance, group size, site location, clothing, shelter, time allocation, and maybe even ideology or ritual practice. What may be surprising, however, is that although no one would doubt that seasonality is a very important factor affecting human behavior, season of occupation is a variable that is notoriously difficult to control in archaeological contexts. Most if not all direct measures of seasonality are dependent upon the preservation of organic or osseous remains. This research is a two-year ethnoarchaeological study of Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia for the purpose of developing new methods of determining the season of occupation at archaeological sites using variation in the spatial distributions of artifacts. The Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, initiated during the summer of 2012, differs from prior spatial ethnoarchaeological research in that the research team has shifted the empirical focus from the mapping of material refuse to the direct mapping of human behavior. The scientists propose to examine the relationship between season and the spatial distribution of activity performance in the interior and exterior spaces of Dukha campsites, from which they will be able to build models of artifact accumulation potentially allowing them to link the spatial distribution of behavior in an ethnographic case to its potential archaeological correlates.