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

随着人口的增长并在以前的偏远地区定居，如何才能在不损失生物多样性的情况下为当地人提供长期接触动物的机会的问题变得越来越紧迫。这个项目是考古学为当前这个重要问题做出贡献的一个机会。该项目将调查美国西南部(公元750-1280)的人类人口如何适应人口密度和环境的变化来狩猎和饲养动物。调查人员将对梅萨维德地区一些考古遗址的动物骨骼进行化学分析，以了解人们吃的动物来自哪里，并了解人们喂这些动物的是什么。这将使调查人员能够调查农民是否与其他村庄交换驯养的火鸡或饲养自己的鸟来换取肉类，饲养火鸡群的驯养玉米(玉米)的数量是否随着村庄的发展和面对有记录的气候波动而变得更难生产而发生变化，以及人们是否通过从更远的地方饲养动物来应对当地猎物数量的大幅下降。了解这项研究中人类需求和动物种群之间的平衡，将为不同的狩猎和饲养动物的模式如何在不同的空间和时间尺度上可持续提供有价值的信息。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。该项目还将包括对一名研究生进行稳定同位素分析方面的支持和培训，以及重大的公共科学教育和外展工作。在美国西南部的梅萨维德地区，从公元750年到1280年，随着人口聚集的增加和居住地的转移，当地食物资源面临越来越大的压力，这被认为导致了社会紧张局势的加剧，暴力事件的发生，以及随后的地区人口减少。该项目使用锶、碳和氧同位素分析来检查动物运输的程度，以及动物来源区域是否随着时间的推移而变化。对当地啮齿动物、植物和水样的分析将为一大片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联系起来，并评估源-汇动态(在某些现代情况下是狩猎可持续性的重要组成部分)是否从考古角度运作，从而允许可持续的长期获取大型猎物，尽管几个世纪以来人类对这些动物的局部影响。了解这些过程将为某些狩猎、动物供应和运输模式的可持续性提供有价值的见解。

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.