Investigation into Initial Population Movement into the New World

这项研究的目的是研究冰河时期环境变化对极北地区小规模社会的影响。考古学特别适合提供相关的见解，因为它可以追溯过去人类对环境变化的长期行为反应，包括几个世纪和几千年。在这个更广泛的背景下，该项目将回答有关现代人类最初分散到白令陆桥和美洲的时间和过程的重要研究问题。到目前为止，对这一关键地区最早的考古学知之甚少。这项研究将揭示北方狩猎采集者如何定居和适应不断变化的北方生态系统。该项目还将加强研究生和本科生的教育，并为他们提供重要的实地和实验室研究机会。此外，它还将为一位年轻的女科学家提供管理一个大型研究团队的机会，她是美国古印第安人研究中一个代表性不足的群体的成员。德克萨斯A M大学的凯利·格拉夫博士&与美国、加拿大、英国和法国的同事一起研究人类何时以及如何首次抵达北美白令海，他们如何定居在该地区，以及它们如何应对从冰河时代到近代的气候变化。研究将在位于阿拉斯加中部塔纳纳河谷平原的麦克唐纳溪多组分考古遗址进行，该地区尚未得到很好的了解，地理位置在整个冰川晚期提供了一个可居住的地方。麦克唐纳溪的沉积物保存完好，因此该遗址丰富的组合将为专门的分析提供大量的机会。将采用专门的分子和微观技术相结合的方法研究沉积物、石器、骨质文物、动物和植物群。格拉夫将带领考古学家、年代测定专家、古生态学家和遗传学家组成的团队，阐明该地区从最初的殖民到最近的占领，不断变化的文化、生态和土地使用历史。这个跨学科的团队将为北方狩猎采集者的研究，第一个美国人的研究和阿拉斯加史前史产生新的比较方法。

The goal of this research is to study the impact of environmental change on small-scale society in the far north during the Ice Age. Archaeology is particularly well positioned to provide relevant insight because it can trace past human behavioral responses to environmental change over long periods of time, including centuries and millennia. Within this broader context, the project will answer important research questions regarding the timing and process of initial dispersal of modern humans to the Bering Land Bridge and the peopling of the Americas. To date, not much is known regarding the earliest archaeology in this critical region. This research will shed light on how northern hunter-gatherers settled and adapted to an ever-changing northern ecosystem. The project will also enhance the education of both graduate and undergraduate students and provide important field and lab research opportunities for them as well. Additionally it will give a young female scientist, member of an underrepresented group in American Paleoindian studies, the opportunity to manage a large research team.Dr. Kelly Graf of Texas A&M University together with colleagues in the US, Canada, Great Britain and France will examine when and how humans first arrived in North American Beringia, how they settled the region, and how they responded to changing climate from the Ice Age to the recent. Research will be conducted at the multicomponent archaeological site of McDonald Creek, located in the flats of the Tanana river valley in central Alaska, an area not well understood and geographically positioned to have provided a habitable place throughout the late glacial period. Deposits at McDonald Creek are well preserved so the site's rich assemblages will yield a plethora of opportunities for specialized analyses. A combination of specialized molecular and micro-level techniques will be applied to the study of sediment, lithic artifacts, osseous artifacts, fauna and flora. Graf will lead the team of archaeologists, dating specialists, paleoecologists, and geneticists to illuminate the region's changing cultural, ecological and land use history from initial colonization through more recent occupation. This interdisciplinary team will generate new comparative methods for the study of hunter-gatherers in northern contexts, first Americans studies, and Alaskan prehistory.