Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examining Changes in Ecology and Bifacial Flake Reduction Patterns during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

与1万年前一样，人类对环境变化的反应在今天仍然具有重要意义。我们可以选择调整我们的技术，改变我们的生存方式，迁移到新的地点，或者寻找其他替代环境变化的方法。这项研究考察了阿拉斯加在更新世-全新世过渡和年轻的仙女座降温事件期间生态波动与人类群体的关系。我们特别关注人类如何使他们的技术适应突然环境变化造成的压力。使用以前出土的博物馆藏品中的石器的三维图像，我们试图通过研究新大陆最初殖民后阿拉斯加存在的三个人工产物复合体来解决与生态变化和人类对这些变化的技术反应有关的问题。这项研究具有重要意义，因为该项目中用于古环境重建和技术三维成像的方法论方法有可能被量身定做，以解决与世界不同地区和不同时期有关的具体问题，使我们能够更好地理解人类与不断变化的环境之间的复杂关系。这项研究的重点是年轻仙女木气候扰动开始的生态反应~12,800卡/年BP，作为阿拉斯加北极和亚北极地区技术变化的促成因素。了解生态波动如何在更新世-全新世过渡期间影响阿拉斯加的文化群体，可以深入了解石器技术组织中看到的变化，以及生产涅纳纳、德纳利微刀片和北古印度人工制品复合体的人之间的关系。第一步是重建这段时间内的生态变化和植物生物群边界之间的分布。通过确定灌木和草本植物苔原群落之间现代界线的最具预测性的变量(S)，由判别函数分析定义的相关性可以用来检验这些界线在更新世-全新世过渡期间的位置。这将为我的研究的第二部分奠定基础，即考察年轻仙女座开始时位于东贝林尼亚的涅纳纳人、德纳利人和北古印度人手工艺品复合体的文化群体之间的关系。在假设拍击策略和知识是社会传播的假设下，该项目将应用来自双面工具三维图像的新分析，从经验上确定早期文化群体之间的关系，这些群体来自双面上的鳞片疤痕图案。这些数据将被用来确定考古记录中看到的技术变化是原地适应的结果，还是由于年轻仙女座开始时生态变化而导致的新民族迁入的结果。虽然三维图像有可能进行许多分析，但这项研究主要关注双面制作的最后阶段造成的片状疤痕。这一分析有可能帮助研究石器技术的考古学家了解不同人类文化之间的关系，不仅是在阿拉斯加，而且是跨越新旧世界。

Human response to environmental change is as relevant today as it was 10,000 years ago. We can choose to adapt our technology, change our subsistence practices, migrate to new locations, or seek other alternatives to environmental shifts. This study examines the relationship between ecological fluctuations and human groups in Alaska during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition and the Younger Dryas cooling event. We look specifically at how humans adapted their technology to stresses created by abrupt environmental change. Using three-dimensional imagery of stone tools from previously excavated museum collections we attempt to address questions related to ecological changes and human technological responses to those changes by examining three artifact complexes present in Alaska after initial colonization of the New World. This research is significant as the methodological approaches used in this project for paleoenvironmental reconstruction and three-dimensional imagery of technology have the potential to be tailored to address specific questions relevant to different areas of the world and for different time periods, allowing us to better understand the complex relationship between humans and a changing environment. This research focuses on ecological responses to the onset of the Younger Dryas climatic perturbation ~12,800 cal yr BP as an enabling factor in technological change seen in the Arctic and subarctic of Alaska. Understanding how ecological fluctuations affected the cultural groups of Alaska during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition can provide insight into the shifts seen in the lithic technological organization and the relationships between the people who produced the Nenana, Denali microblade, and Northern Paleoindian artifact complexes. The first step is to reconstruct the ecological shifts during this time period and the distributions between plant biome boundaries. By identifying the most predictive variable(s) for modern boundaries between shrub and herb tundra communities correlations defined by discriminant function analysis can be used to examine where these boundaries were located during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition. This will lay the foundation for the second part of my research, which is to examine the relationship between the culture groups of the Nenana, Denali, and Northern Paleoindian artifact complexes located in Eastern Beringia at the onset of the Younger Dryas. Under the assumption that flintknapping strategies and knowledge are socially transmitted, this project will apply new analyses from three-dimensional imagery of bifacial tools to empirically ascertain the relationships between early culture groups from the flake scar patterning on bifaces. These data will be used to determine whether changes in technology seen in the archaeological record are the result of in situ adaptation, or immigration of new peoples due to ecological changes at the onset of the Younger Dryas. While three-dimensional imagery holds the potential for a number of analyses, this study focuses on flake scars resulting from the final stages of bifacial production. This analysis has the potential to help archaeologists examining lithic technologies understand the relationships among different human cultures not only in Alaska but also across the New and Old World.