Doctoral Dissertation Research: Seasonal Projectile Point Use in Eastern Beringia During the late Pleistocene/early Holocene: An Experimental Approach

无论何时何地，人类迁徙到新领地都与人们息息相关。在较低的人口密度中，人们是如何生存的？他们如何适应新的环境和生存资源？阿拉斯加代表着大约14,000年前第一批来到西半球的人的入口点，阿拉斯加考古学成为了解这些适应行为的天然实验室。这项调查通过对阿拉斯加第一批居民使用的考古和实验工具包的分析，审查了适应战略。在这个项目的更广泛的背景下，通过独特的实验考古学方法，研究了阿拉斯加的人口和殖民化及其工具包的高度灵活性的性质，这些工具包在很长一段时间里一直存在。研究这些个体如何以及以何种方式能够适应这一严酷的边界，对于理解人类探索和利用新景观的灵活、复杂的性质是非常有兴趣的。根据人工制品的形式和组合结构，一些研究人员推测，在更新世晚期/全新世早期，可能存在不同的文化综合体。然而，考古遗址中的某些文物真的可以代表不同的文化情结吗？阿拉斯加的不同移民会有不同的工具包，这可行吗？这些解释似乎限制了人类对不同情况的适应能力，而不是看待整个考古系统。似乎很有可能是多个方面(例如，情景任务、猎物类型、季节性和其他)影响了过去狩猎-采集者的聚集结构，每个方面都需要按照自己的条件进行探索。在这个项目中，将进行实验考古，以检查不同的射弹技术在不同温度下的表现方式，基于季节性。该项目将从当前的季节性数据、具有季节性证据的考古遗址、人种学记录以及巩固阿拉斯加在更新世晚期/全新世早期的季节性影响的实验方法中调查季节性。例如，如果某些工具石在受控环境中推进时变得易碎并以特定方式断裂，则可能检查断裂情况，并将其与没有季节性数据的考古遗址进行比较，并指定季节性职业，阐明史前狩猎-采集生活方式。这一办法将根据情况因素、射弹技术的断裂模式、不同射弹系统的性能以及不同类型的工具石对寒冷天气的敏感性，采用不同的适应战略，解决不同人群在地形或单一群体方面的问题。通过这项研究产生的数据将作为一种新的方法来解释占领阿拉斯加地貌的早期时期的人类行为以及整个狩猎-采集研究。

Human migration into new territories is relevant for people in all times and places. How do people exist in lower population densities? How do they adapt to new contexts and subsistence resources? With Alaska representing an entrance point for some of the first people coming to the Western Hemisphere, approximately 14,000 years ago, Alaskan archaeology becomes a natural laboratory for understanding these adaptive behaviors. This investigations examines adaptive strategies through the analysis of archaeological and experimental tools kits used by the first inhabitants of Alaska. Within the broader context of this project implications regarding the peopling, and colonization, of Alaska and the highly flexible nature of their toolkits that persisted through much of time are examined through a unique experimental archaeology approach. Examining how, and by what means, these individuals were able to adapt to this harsh frontier is of keen interest to understand the flexible, and complex nature of humans exploring and utilizing a new landscape.Based on artifact form and assemblage structure it has been inferred by some researchers that different cultural complexes may have existed during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. However, can an examination of certain artifacts at archaeological sites really be indicative of different cultural complexes? Is it feasible that different migrations of people into Alaska would have different toolkits? These interpretations seem to limit the adaptable nature of humans to different situations and not view the entire archaeological system. It seems highly likely that multiple facets (e.g., situational tasks, prey type, seasonality, and others) impacted the assemblage structure of hunter-gatherers in the past and each needs to be explored on its own terms. Within this project experimental archaeology will be implemented to examine the way that different projectile technologies fare in different temperatures, based on seasonality. The project will investigate seasonality from current seasonal data, archaeological sites that have seasonal evidence, the ethnographic record, and an experimental approach to solidify seasonal implications for Alaska during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. For instance if certain tool stone becomes brittle and fractures in a specific way when propelled in a controlled context it may be possible to examine the breakage and compare it back to an archaeological site with no seasonal data and assign a seasonal occupation, elucidating hunter-gatherer lifeways in prehistory. This approach will address questions regarding the aspects of different groups of people on the landscape or a single group using different adaptive strategies based on situational factors, fracture patterns of projectile technologies, the performance of different projectile systems, and the susceptibility of different types of tool stone to cold weather. Data generated through this study will serve as a novel approach to interpreting human behavior during the earliest periods of occupation on the landscape of Alaska and hunter-gatherer studies as a whole.