Collaborative Research: An Investigation Into Long Term Human Coastal Adaptation

乔治亚州立大学的杰弗里·格洛弗博士、西北大学的特里斯·贝德洛斯博士、海法大学的贝弗利·古德曼博士、加州大学圣地亚哥分校的多米尼克·里索罗博士、华盛顿大学的德里克·史密斯博士及其同事将对墨西哥尤卡坦半岛北海岸人类与环境的关系进行研究。海岸线无论在文化上还是在环境上都是充满活力的地方，该项目将利用地球、生物和社会科学阐明人类住区与其海岸线之间的联系，从而探索这种活力。在海岸工作时，研究人员必须考虑到不同范围的地貌、水文地球化学和生态变量。当这些变量与考古数据联系在一起时，最终结果是一种微妙的理解，阐明了人们作为数千年来动态沿海景观的一部分所面临的障碍和机会。通过专门关注沿海住区，这项研究为来自世界各地的越来越多的文献增添了一个亟需的维度，这些文献试图了解当地和全球范围内文化和环境因素之间的动态关系如何影响过去人类社会的发展轨迹。这项研究的结果可以作为更广泛地了解相互关联的变量的基础，现代和未来的群体在适应不断变化的沿海制度时将不得不与这些变量作斗争。该项目与当地社区分享其研究有着悠久的历史，并将尽一切努力通过大众媒体与更广泛的公众分享相关的研究成果。在过去的3000年里，海平面上升和气候变化极大地改变了这条溺水的海岸线的地形特征，而玛雅社会见证了神圣国王的兴衰和以市场经济为基础的经济的出现。通过将不断变化的古环境的多个方面与更广泛的社会和经济变化联系起来，研究小组将处于有利地位，揭示这些沿海民族在适应不断变化的沿海地貌时所面临的挑战和寻求的机会。邻近的古玛雅港口维斯塔、阿雷格里岛和科尼尔港是研究的重点。科尼勒和阿雷格里岛相距只有7公里，初步数据表明，在过去的三千年里，人类在沿海的居住并不是连续的，科尼勒和阿雷格里岛的职业历史也不是相互反映的。这段插曲的定居点历史为这些沿海民族的脆弱性和复原力提供了诱人的线索。该项目首先旨在调查是什么社会和环境因素制约了维斯塔、阿雷格里岛和科尼勒的居民在过去3000年中的复原力和脆弱性。它将通过沉积物取心、水盐度测绘、海岸生态调查、考古调查和挖掘以及多代理实验室分析(散装碳酸盐的点火损失[LOI]、α18Ocarb和α13Ccarb、粒度分析、微古生物学和AMS放射性碳测年)来实现这一点。有了这些收集的数据，项目成员将能够理解这些因素如何随着时间的推移而变化，并相互关联，以便研究它们之间的相互作用如何塑造过去的生活方式。

Dr. Jeffrey Glover (Georgia State University), Dr. Trish Beddows (Northwestern University), Dr. Beverly Goodman (University of Haifa), Dominique Rissolo (University of California, San Diego), Derek Smith (University of Washington), and colleagues will undertake research on the relationship between humans and the environment along the north coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Shorelines are dynamic places, both culturally and environmentally, and the project will explore this dynamism by employing earth, biological and social sciences to elucidate the linkages between human settlements and their coastline. Working on the coast, researchers must take into consideration a distinct range of geomorphological, hydrogeochemical, and ecological variables. When these variables are connected with archaeological data, the end result is a nuanced understanding that illuminates barriers and opportunities people faced as part of a dynamic coastal landscape over millennia. By focusing specifically on coastal settlements, this research adds a much needed dimension to the growing body of literature from various parts of the world that attempts to understand how the dynamic relations between cultural and environmental factors, at local and global scales, influenced the developmental trajectory of past human societies. The results of this research can serve as the foundation for a broader understanding of the interrelated variables that modern and future groups will have to contend with as they adapt to changing coastal regimes. The project has a long history of sharing its research with the local community and will make every effort to share pertinent research results with the broader public through popular media.Over the past three millennia, rising sea levels and fluctuating climatic regimes have dramatically transformed the physiographic characteristics of this drowning coastline, while Maya society witnessed the rise and fall of divine kings and the emergence of a market-based economy. By correlating multiple facets of the changing paleoenvironment with broader social and economic changes, the research team will be in a strong position to reveal the challenges faced, and opportunities pursued, by these coastal peoples as they adapted to their changing coastal landscape. The neighboring ancient Maya port sites of Vista Alegre and Conil are the focus of study. Located only 7 km apart, preliminary data indicate that human habitation along the coast was not continuous over the past three millennia, nor did the occupational histories at Conil and Vista Alegre mirror one another. This episodic settlement history provides tantalizing clues to the vulnerabilities and resilience of these coastal peoples. The project first aims to investigate what social and environmental factors conditioned the resilience and vulnerability of the inhabitants of Vista Alegre and Conil over the past 3000 years. It will do this by employing sediment coring, water salinity mapping, coastal ecological surveys, archaeological survey and excavations, and multi-proxy lab analyses (Loss on Ignition [LOI], ¦Ä18Ocarb and ¦Ä13Ccarb of bulk carbonate, grain size analysis, micropaleontology, and AMS radiocarbon dating). With these data collected, project members will be able to understand how these factors shifted through time and correlated with one another in order to examine how their interplay shaped past lifeways.