Collaborative Research: Taphonomic Correlation for Past Events

这个项目将开发新的方法来估计过去的人口数量，以便更准确地重建过去的人口动态。准确重建过去的人口动态对于解决关于人类过去的许多关键问题至关重要，这些问题包括现代行为的起源、农业的出现和国家的发展。尽管对过去人口数量的估计被广泛使用，但目前的考古方法难以充分解释这样一个事实，即现有的过去人类居住记录受到当地地质过程的偏见，这些过程保留了一些时代的遗址，同时摧毁了另一些时代的遗址。这可能导致对过去人口估计的系统性偏差，对过去人口动态的错误重建，以及对社会过程的错误解释。该项目开发了一种新的方法，以波纳维尔盆地(犹他州和内华达州)为测试案例，分析考古遗址相对于不同年龄地貌的当地频率。通过提供一种能够更准确地描述过去人口的方法，该项目将能够改进对过去人类对环境变化的反应以及人类人口对过去环境的潜在影响的分析。考古学家越来越多地将放射性碳测年组合作为过去人口规模的衡量标准。通过考虑景观随时间的变化来提高这项技术的准确性，将使我们能够探索博内维尔盆地过去人口动态的驱动因素，特别是人类人口、生存适应、土地利用和环境变化之间的相互作用。通过开发一种新的方法来解决放射性碳测年组合中的偏差问题，通过大盆地案例研究说明该方法的潜力，并传播其他研究人员可以用来复制该方法的工具，该项目将在重建过去的人口动态方面打开新的可能性。此外，通过标准化方法和提供计算工具，将考古放射性碳记录和地貌年代中记录的当地景观历史结合起来，这项工作将使进一步的研究能够解决引人注目的问题，包括人口动态在人类世的开始，以及在诸如农业和城市化的开始等社会变革中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will develop new methods estimating past population sizes, in order to more accurately reconstruct past population dynamics. Accurately reconstructing past population dynamics is critical for addressing many key questions about the human past, including the origins of modern behavior, the emergence of agriculture, and the development of states. Although estimates of past population size are widely employed, current archaeological methods struggle to adequately account for the fact that the available records of past human habitation are biased by local geologic processes, which preserve sites of some ages while destroying others. This can lead to systematic bias in estimates of past population, erroneous reconstructions of past population dynamics, and mistaken interpretations of social processes. This project develops a novel approach that analyzes ages of archaeological sites relative to local frequencies of landforms of varying ages, using the Bonneville Basin (Utah and Nevada) as a test case. By providing a method that is capable of more accurately describing past populations, this project will enable improved analysis of past human responses to environmental changes as well as the potential impacts of human populations on past environments. Archaeologists increasingly turn to assemblages of radiocarbon dates as measures of past population sizes. Improving the accuracy of this technique by accounting for landscape change over time will allow us to explore the drivers of past population dynamics in the Bonneville Basin, especially the interactions between human demography, subsistence adaptations, land use, and environmental change. By developing a new methodology for addressing biases in assemblages of radiocarbon dates, illustrating the potential of the method through this Great Basin case study, and disseminating the tools that other researchers can use to replicate the approach, this project will open new possibilities in reconstructing past population dynamics. In addition, by standardizing an approach and providing computational tools for coupling the archaeological radiocarbon record and local landscape history recorded in landform ages, this work will enable further research that addresses compelling questions including the role of population dynamics in long-term sustainability and resilience, in the onset of the Anthropocene, and in such social transformations as the beginnings of agriculture and urbanismThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.