Collaborative Research: Isotopic Signatures of Social Transformations in the US Southwest

合作研究：美国西南部社会转型的同位素特征

• 批准号: 1460385
• 负责人: Karen Schollmeyer
• 金额: $ 2.13万
• 依托单位: Archaeology Southwest
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2019-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1460385&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Isotopic; Signatures; Social

As human populations grow and settle in formerly remote regions, questions about how hunting can be managed to provide long-term access to animals for local people without loss of biodiversity are becoming increasingly urgent. This project is an opportunity for archaeology to contribute to this important current issue. The project will investigate how human populations in the US Southwest (AD 750-1280) adapted their hunting and raising of animals in response to changes in population density and the environment. The investigators will chemically analyze animal bones from a number of archaeological sites in the Mesa Verde area to see where the animals that people ate came from and to understand what people were feeding those animals. This will allow the investigators to examine whether farmers traded domesticated turkeys with other villages or raised their own birds for meat, whether the amount of domesticated maize (corn) people fed their turkey flocks changed as villages grew and as food became harder to produce in the face of documented climate fluctuations, and whether people responded to local declines in large game abundance by getting animals from more distant places. Understanding the balance between human demands and animal populations in this study will provide valuable information about how different patterns of hunting and raising animals are sustainable at different spatial and temporal scales. These patterns therefore have important implications for modern-day wildlife management and conservation of species. The project will also include support and training of a graduate student in stable isotope analysis and significant public science education and outreach efforts.In the Mesa Verde region of the US Southwest, increasing human population aggregation and shifting settlement locations from AD 750 through 1280 were accompanied by growing pressure on local food resources that are thought to have led to heightened social tensions, episodes of violence, and subsequent regional depopulation. This project uses strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope analysis to examine the extent to which transport of fauna took place and whether animal source areas changed over time. The analysis of local rodents, plants, and water samples will establish spatially diagnostic isotopic signatures for a large region that will allow archaeological faunal samples to be linked with likely procurement regions and assessment of whether source-sink dynamics (an important component of hunting sustainability in some modern cases) operated archaeologically, allowing sustainable long-term access to large game despite centuries of localized human impacts on these animals. Understanding these processes will provide valuable insights into the sustainability of certain patterns of hunting, animal provisioning, and transport.

随着人口的增长和定居在以前的偏远地区，如何管理狩猎，为当地人提供长期接触动物而不丧失生物多样性的问题变得越来越紧迫。 这个项目是考古学为这一重要的当前问题做出贡献的机会。该项目将调查美国西南部（公元750-1280年）的人口如何适应他们的狩猎和饲养动物，以应对人口密度和环境的变化。调查人员将对来自梅萨维德地区多个考古遗址的动物骨骼进行化学分析，以了解人们食用的动物来自哪里，并了解人们用什么喂养这些动物。这将使调查人员能够检查农民是否与其他村庄交易驯养的火鸡或饲养自己的家禽以获取肉类，是否随着村庄的发展以及面对记录的气候波动，食物变得更难生产，人们喂养火鸡群的驯化玉米（玉米）数量是否发生变化，以及人们是否通过从更远的地方获得动物来应对当地大型游戏丰度的下降。在这项研究中，了解人类需求和动物种群之间的平衡将提供有关不同的狩猎和饲养动物模式如何在不同的空间和时间尺度上可持续发展的有价值的信息。因此，这些模式对现代野生动物管理和物种保护具有重要意义。该项目还将包括支持和培训一名稳定同位素分析研究生，以及重要的公共科学教育和外联工作。在美国西南部的梅萨维德地区，从公元750年到1280年，人口聚集和定居点位置的不断增加伴随着对当地粮食资源的日益增长的压力，这被认为导致了社会紧张局势的加剧，暴力事件，以及随后的区域人口减少。该项目使用锶、碳和氧同位素分析来研究动物群迁移的程度以及动物来源地是否随时间而变化。 对当地啮齿动物、植物和水样本的分析将为一个大区域建立空间诊断同位素特征，这将使考古动物群样本与可能的采购区域联系起来，并评估源-汇动态是否（在某些现代情况下，狩猎可持续性的重要组成部分）在考古学上运作，允许可持续的长期访问大型游戏，尽管几个世纪的本地人类对这些动物的影响。了解这些过程将提供有价值的见解，某些模式的狩猎，动物供应和运输的可持续性。