Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Long Term Processes Of Cultural Interaction And Change

人群之间的互动促进了文化变革，包括定居模式、生存方式和意识形态的转变。在日益全球化的世界中，这一点尤为重要，因为许多人都在努力应对与社会经济转型相关的生活方式变化。考古学为研究相互作用如何改变个人和群体的行为提供了独特的时间深度。在更广泛的社会经济变化背景下，这门学科还可以突出一些社会崩溃和一些社会持续存在的原因。这个项目提供了一个特别的视角，让我们了解边缘群体在面对大规模的经济变化时是如何与更大的文化系统进行接触的。这个项目的各个方面都为本科生提供了应用学习机会，让他们参与科学过程、人类学思维和俄亥俄州史前史。学生在暑期野外学校获得考古实地经验，以及使用挖掘组合的实验室技术指导。每个学生也被鼓励在本科研究论坛和区域会议上展示他们的发现。该项目是目前为数不多的由州立高等教育机构对俄亥俄州史前史进行的研究之一，因此代表了学术界与公众之间的独特联系。该项目调查了定居乡村生活的出现及其与农业传播的关系，这是一个持久的人类学问题。在俄亥俄州中部山谷，古代文化（约公元1000-1650年）是在密西西比酋邦的出现和传播的背景下发展起来的，以包括大型圆形村庄和玉米农业在内的生活方式而闻名。这种生活方式代表了该地区漫长的史前时期的一种新发展；以前的人群过着相对流动的生活方式，以当地的植物和动物为生。调查的重点是位于俄亥俄州辛辛那提附近的Turpin遗址，该遗址被Fort Ancient农业学家和之前的Late Woodland（约公元500-1000年）觅食者占领了一千多年。这个早期的过渡遗址提供了一个独特的视角，在密西西比发展的背景下，以农业为基础的生活方式的出现，考虑到密西西比的文物和许多非本地的个人已经在特平被发现。对Fort古代农业系统如何开始并持续了几个世纪的详细了解（与许多当代密西西比酋长领地所经历的崩溃相反）也为当前对玉米农业实践可持续性的研究提供了时间深度。在方法上，本项目提出了一个框架，通过利用地球物理调查、重点挖掘和放射性碳定年来理解复杂史前遗址的结构和年代。此外，研究史前鹿的狩猎模式以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化，可以了解特平是季节性还是全年被占领。总体而言，该项目采用了多种证据线，以最小的破坏性方式测试考古假设，最终揭示了人群之间的互动如何促进新生活方式的出现。

Interaction between groups of people fosters cultural change, including transformations in settlement patterns, subsistence, and ideology. This is particularly important in an increasingly globalized world, in which many people grapple with lifestyle changes associated with socioeconomic transitions. Archaeology provides unique time-depth into the study of how interaction can alter the practices of individuals and groups of people. This discipline can also highlight, in the broader context of socioeconomic change, the reasons that some societies collapse and some persist. This project provides particular insight into how peripheral groups negotiate contact with larger cultural systems in the face of large-scale economic change. All aspects of this project present applied learning opportunities for undergraduate students to engage with the scientific process, anthropological thinking and Ohio prehistory. Students gain archaeological field experience at a summer field school, as well as instruction in laboratory techniques using excavated assemblages. Each student is also encouraged to present their findings at an undergraduate research forum as well as at regional conferences. This project is one of the few current studies into the prehistory of Ohio by a state institute of higher education and as such represents a unique link between academia and the general public. This project investigates the emergence of sedentary village life and its relationship to the spread of agriculture, a persistent anthropological question. In the Middle Ohio Valley, Fort Ancient culture (c. AD 1000-1650) developed in the context of the emergence and spread of Mississippian chiefdoms and is notable for a lifestyle which included large circular villages and maize agriculture. This way of life represents a novel development in the long prehistory of this region; prior groups lived comparatively mobile lifestyles and subsisted on native plants and animals. Investigations focus on the Turpin site, located near Cincinnati, Ohio, which was occupied for over a millennium by Fort Ancient agriculturalists and preceding Late Woodland (c. AD 500-1000) foragers. This early transitional site provides a unique view of the emergence of an agrarian, village-based lifestyle within the context of Mississippian development, considering Mississippian artifacts and numerous non-local individuals have been identified at Turpin. Detailed understanding of how Fort Ancient agricultural systems began and persisted over centuries (as opposed to the collapses experienced by many contemporary Mississippian chiefdoms) also provides time-depth to current examinations into the sustainability of maize-based agricultural practices. Methodologically, this project presents a framework for understanding the structure and chronology of complex prehistoric sites by utilizing geophysical survey, focused excavations and radiocarbon dating. Additionally, examining prehistoric deer hunting patterns and how they changed over time allows for understanding of whether Turpin was occupied seasonally or year-round. Overall, this project employs multiple lines of evidence to test archaeological hypotheses in a minimally destructive way, ultimately shedding light on how interaction between groups of people facilitates the emergence of new ways of life.