Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Awards: Recursive Human - Environmental Interaction In An Estuary Setting

加州圣地亚哥大学的研究生詹姆斯·丹尼尔斯将研究人类对环境压力的适应以及随后的环境对这些适应的反应。这种共同进化的关系可以通过研究考古记录，结合研究自然沉积物和土壤剖面，记录过去的环境变化进行调查。对人类适应和人类对环境影响的综合研究可以深入了解环境如何对人类活动作出反应，以及这些反应对人类是有利还是有害。研究这些过程还可以深入了解当前和未来的人类影响，以及为环境和子孙后代产生最有利结果的人类适应类型。该项目的重点是向新世界热带海岸定居村庄生活的转变。丹尼尔斯先生将研究人类与环境之间的递归关系，在这种情况下，通过集中在大约5000和3000年前在墨西哥恰帕斯州南部的太平洋沿岸积累的考古和沉积记录。这片湿地环境位于宽阔的障壁海滩后面，由红树林和泻湖组成，其中有丰富的考古记录，记录了史前时期和早期形成时期。该项目将揭示早期形成居住者通过土地清理、种植和其他活动对环境的操纵如何影响河口泻湖系统的稳定性，并可能为定居村庄生活的出现创造了有利条件。将探讨的主要假设是，增加内陆土地清除在干旱和最初的早期形成时期的红树林河口的扩张，从而创造了一个机会，早期形成的人利用一个新的丰富的湿地资源，并最终发展更多的定居生存策略。调查工作将把对红树林内小土丘的联合收割机挖掘与对土丘下游的障壁海滩形成历史的研究结合起来。对这两种环境变化的精确年表将有助于重建人类首次殖民时的环境状况，以及环境如何对最初和随后的人类影响作出反应。

James Daniels, a graduate student at the University of California San Diego, will examine human adaptations to environmental pressures and the subsequent environmental responses to those adaptations. This co-evolutionary relationship can be investigated via study of the archaeological record in conjunction with study of natural sediment and soil profiles that record changes in past environments. The combined study of human adaptation and human impacts on the environment can provide insight into how environments respond to human activities and whether those responses are beneficial or detrimental to humans. Studying these processes may also provide insight into current and future human impacts and the kinds of human adaptation that produce the most favorable outcomes for both the environment and future generations of humans. The project focuses on the shift to settled village life on tropical coasts of the New World. Mr. Daniels will investigate the recursive relationship between humans and their environment in this setting by focusing on the archaeological and sedimentary records that accumulated between approximately 5000 and 3000 years ago on the Pacific coast of southern Chiapas, Mexico. This wetland environment lies behind wide barrier beaches and consists of mangrove forests and lagoons within which there is a rich archaeological record of the Archaic and Early Formative periods. The project will unravel how Archaic and Early Formative occupants' manipulation of the environment through land clearance, planting, and other activities affected the stability of the estuary-lagoon system and may have created conditions conducive for the emergence of settled village life. The main hypothesis that will be explored is that increased inland land clearance during the Archaic and initial Early Formative periods contributed to the expansion of the mangrove estuary, thus creating an opportunity for Early Formative people to exploit a new abundance of wetland resources and ultimately to develop more sedentary subsistence strategies. The investigation will combine excavations on small mounds within the mangroves with examination of the history of barrier-beach formation downstream from the mounds. A precise chronology of changes in the two settings will facilitate reconstruction of what the environment was like when it was first colonized by people and how the environment responded to initial and subsequent human impacts.