Doctoral Dissertation Research: Characterizing Poverty Point lithic networks during the Archaic Period in the Lower Mississippi River Valley through analytical chert sourcing

本博士论文项目使用燧石来源数据来评估古代时期生活在密西西比河下游河谷（LMV）的人群之间的贸易、获取和交换规模。贫穷点遗址的叙述，其丰富、深远和多样化的工具石获取网络，被认为是神秘的，没有从时间文化的角度充分测试这种模式的寿命。在过去，确定石器制品的起源依赖于主观的，经常不准确的视觉识别，但更多的分析仪器消除了许多不确定性。在比较东南中晚期古物遗址的原材料多样性时，可能会出现区域文化连续性或不妥协的模式，这些模式涉及到隐晶异域物的交换和退化的处理。利用具有重要文化意义的遗址的精心整理的组合可以最大限度地减少挖掘对文化资源的有害影响，但需要系统的采样方法，以确保考古文物组合之间的可比性。研究古代燧石资源网络是一项跨学科的工作，它依赖于考古学、地质学和矿物学领域，以及定量分析，代表着对贫困点和相关文化遗址的人们广泛但尚未得到充分研究的燧石资源获取的一项重要工作。这项研究为更广泛的公众受众做出了贡献，通过提供信息使人们参与科学和技术，这些信息将与贫困点世界遗产地的游客分享，并向公众开放。这项非破坏性研究是对LMV古代时期第一次分析燧石来源研究的延续，为其他关于原材料采购、流动性和技术组织的研究提供了模板。这项研究将有助于公众更好地了解复杂的狩猎采集者，并提供有关建立贫困点的人是否与早期文化时期占领该地区的人使用相同的chert资源网络的相关数据。这种方法可以应用于LMV古代期组合的考古调查，以及过去使用燧石资源的任何地方。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This doctoral dissertation project uses chert provenance data to assess the scale of trade, acquisition, and exchange between groups of people living in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) during the Archaic period. The narrative of the Poverty Point site, with its abundant, far-reaching, and diverse tool stone acquisition network, has been characterized as enigmatic without fully testing the longevity of this pattern from a temporal-cultural perspective. In the past, identifying the origin of lithic artifacts relied on the subjective and often inaccurate use of visual identification, but more analytical instrumentation removes much of the uncertainty. In comparing raw material diversity among southeastern Middle and Late Archaic sites, possible patterns of regional cultural continuity or intransigence through time concerning the exchange of cryptocrystalline exotics and the treatment of debitage will emerge. Utilizing curated assemblages from sites of cultural significance minimizes the detrimental effects of excavation on cultural resources but requires a systematic approach to sampling to ensure comparability among archaeological artifact assemblages.Examining Archaic chert resource networks is interdisciplinary relying on the fields of archaeology, geology, and mineralogy, as well as quantitative analyses, representing a significant undertaking into the extensive, yet under-researched, acquisition of chert resources by people at Poverty Point and related cultural sites. The research contributes to the wider public audience, engaging people with science and technology by producing information that will be shared with visitors to the Poverty Point World Heritage Site and made publicly available. This non-destructive research is a continuation of the first analytical chert provenance study of the Archaic period in the LMV, providing a template for other investigations of raw material procurement, mobility, and the organization of technology. The research will contribute to a greater public understanding of complex hunter-gatherers and provides data relevant to whether the people who built Poverty Point utilized the same chert resource networks as those who occupied the region during earlier cultural periods. This approach can be applied to archaeological investigations in the LMV Archaic period assemblages and wherever chert sources were employed in the past.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.