Doctoral Dissertation Research: Northern Innovation: Modelling Copper Technologies

博士论文研究：北方创新：铜技术建模

• 批准号: 1647105
• 负责人: Harold Cooper
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1647105&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Northern; Innovation

Technological innovation is an essential component of the human ability to adapt to environmental and social challenges. Today, technology is imagined to be cutting edge digital, biomechanical, and robotic inventions that have the potential to propel humanity into the imagined future. However, it should be recognized, that these modern advances are simply the most recent and visible examples of people manipulating materials from their environment to solve any number of engineering, physical and social problems. This project researches native copper technologies that are up to 2,000 years old, but in their time these technologies were highly innovative and represented huge technological advancements. Archaeology, with its ability to investigate the development of human societies through advanced time, has shown that technological advancements are subject to a great variety of environmental and cultural influences that innovators must navigate as they experiment with new materials and ideas. Just as contemporary IT start ups must develop new materials, create new software and navigate the world of venture capital, ancient people had to locate native copper sources, create new tool forms, and navigate trade networks over long distances that frequently were travelled on foot. The insights archaeologists gain into the relationship between the physical and social environment surrounding innovation gives us insights into the physical and social hurdles to innovation in a contemporary context. This research examines technological innovation through the lens of Indigenous metallurgy in the Pre-Columbian, North American Arctic and Subarctic. The use of geologically pure native copper by Indigenous peoples of this region spans the past 2 millennia. This includes a diverse set of cultural groups adapted to a variety of ecological zones, spanning multiple fluctuations in global and regional climate. Native copper in this context is an ideal subject to examine technological innovation. A database of native copper artifacts from across this large region has been compiled, and includes a wide range of sizes, types, and functions. Since native copper is limited to just a few reliable source regions, the investigators can quantify the amount of effort needed to acquire and transport raw material or finished goods from geological sources to archaeological sites using geospatial models. When combined with ongoing study of the production process of various objects, a complete life history can be modeled within the context of local, functional requirements for the individual craftspeople and traders who created and used these objects, including novel and innovative ways they adapted copper technology to suit their individual needs. In addition to using archaeological and museum artifacts, objects that have been collected from archaeological sites by local descendant communities, primarily Indigenous communities, in the Arctic and Subarctic will be examined and incorporated into the database. This will not only expand the database substantially by incorporating objects that are relatively inaccessible to scientific researchers, but will also engage Indigenous communities in the research process. A central goal of the research and the grant is the exchange of information between the researchers and the Indigenous communities, including knowledge about objects that are typically inaccessible in museum collections archives.

技术创新是人类适应环境和社会挑战能力的一个重要组成部分。今天，技术被认为是尖端的数字，生物力学和机器人发明，有可能推动人类进入想象中的未来。 然而，应该认识到，这些现代化的进步只是人们从他们的环境中操纵材料来解决任何数量的工程，物理和社会问题的最新和最明显的例子。 该项目研究的是有2,000年历史的自然铜技术，但在当时，这些技术具有高度创新性，代表了巨大的技术进步。 考古学能够通过先进的时间来研究人类社会的发展，已经表明技术进步受到各种环境和文化的影响，创新者必须在实验新材料和想法时进行导航。 就像当代IT初创企业必须开发新材料，创建新软件并在风险投资世界中航行一样，古代人必须找到天然铜资源，创造新的工具形式，并在经常步行的长距离贸易网络中航行。 考古学家对围绕创新的物理环境和社会环境之间关系的深入了解，使我们深入了解了当代背景下创新的物理和社会障碍。 本研究通过前哥伦布时期、北美北极和亚北极土著冶金学的透镜来考察技术创新。 该地区的土著人民使用地质纯天然铜的历史跨越了2000年。 这包括一套适应各种生态区的不同文化群体，跨越全球和区域气候的多重波动。 自然铜在这种背景下是一个理想的主题，研究技术创新。 一个来自这个大区域的自然铜文物数据库已经被编译，包括各种尺寸，类型和功能。 由于自然铜仅限于几个可靠的来源地区，研究人员可以使用地理空间模型量化从地质来源获取和运输原材料或成品到考古遗址所需的工作量。 当与正在进行的对各种物品生产过程的研究相结合时，可以在创造和使用这些物品的个体工匠和商人的当地功能要求的背景下模拟完整的生活史，包括他们采用铜技术以满足个人需求的新颖和创新方式。 除了使用考古和博物馆文物外，还将对北极和亚北极地区当地后裔社区（主要是土著社区）从考古遗址收集的物品进行审查并纳入数据库。 这不仅将通过纳入科学研究人员相对无法访问的对象来大幅扩展数据库，而且还将使土著社区参与研究过程。 研究和赠款的一个中心目标是研究人员和土著社区之间的信息交流，包括有关博物馆收藏档案中通常无法访问的对象的知识。