Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Initial Landscape Peopling

博士论文改进奖：初始景观人口

• 批准号: 2204658
• 负责人: David Meltzer
• 金额: $ 2.13万
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2204658&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Initial

Little is known of the adaptive strategies used by modern humans who initially populated early unfamiliar landscapes, or how much variation existed in these strategies – processes that can be revealed through archaeology. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate the strategies used by the first people to settle such a region. It was covered in glacial ice, meaning the early sites here are likely not far removed from the first expansion of people into the area, making it an ideal region in which to study adaptations to an unknown land. The results of this study will help illuminate the adaptive processes used by pioneering groups in the Americas and will have relevance to other peopling processes in human history. This project will contribute as well by using previously excavated archaeological collections: many archaeological sites are excavated but then never thoroughly analyzed, leading to a loss of research potential and money spent excavating and housing site collections, especially as available museum storage space declines. The use of museum collections is especially important in this case, as they may include rare examples of a fundamental process of human history. To investigate the adaptive strategies of the early populations in this region, research will focus on six sites found across the study area. These sites are part of a group of unique, large basecamp sites with complex spatial patterning that occur throughout the region. While these base camps must have been occupied soon after the region was populated, their exact relationship to the broader peopling process is still unclear. Stone tool raw material source representation and procurement patterns, as inferred from macroscopic source analyses and geochemical source analyses, will provide information on landscape familiarity and mobility patterns. Stone tool technological analyses, including tool and projectile point morphology, tool diversity, and tool use diversity, will be used to infer mobility patterns, site activities, and technological strategies meant to mitigate risk, with the assumption that risk minimization strategies will be more pronounced at sites in which people were less familiar with the surrounding landscape. By examining patterns and variation among these six sites, the researchers will be able to investigate the adaptive strategies of populations in a new landscape.This 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.

我们对最初居住在早期陌生环境中的现代人所使用的适应性策略知之甚少，也不知道这些策略中存在多少变化--这些过程可以通过考古学来揭示。这个博士论文项目将调查第一批人在这样一个地区定居所使用的策略。它被冰川冰覆盖，这意味着这里的早期遗址可能距离人类首次扩张到该地区不远，使其成为研究适应未知土地的理想地区。这项研究的结果将有助于阐明美洲先驱群体所使用的适应过程，并与人类历史上的其他人口过程相关。该项目也将通过使用之前挖掘的考古藏品做出贡献：许多考古遗址被挖掘，但从未进行彻底分析，导致研究潜力和挖掘和存放遗址藏品所花费的资金损失，特别是在可用博物馆存储空间减少的情况下。在这种情况下，博物馆藏品的使用尤其重要，因为它们可能包括人类历史基本进程的罕见例子。 为了研究该地区早期种群的适应策略，研究将集中在整个研究区域发现的六个地点。这些地点是一组独特的大型基地营地的一部分，在整个地区都有复杂的空间格局。虽然这些大本营肯定是在该地区有人居住后不久被占领的，但它们与更广泛的定居进程的确切关系仍不清楚。石工具原材料的来源表示和采购模式，从宏观源分析和地球化学源分析推断，将提供景观熟悉和流动模式的信息。石工具技术分析，包括工具和弹丸点形态，工具的多样性，和工具使用的多样性，将被用来推断流动模式，网站的活动，和技术策略，以减轻风险，假设风险最小化战略将更加明显的网站，在人们不太熟悉周围的景观。通过研究这六个地点之间的模式和变化，研究人员将能够调查种群在新景观中的适应策略。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。