Collaborative Research: Exploring Subsistence Economies, Technological Organization, and Site Structure in Eastern Beringia

该奖项资助了对阿拉斯加中部破碎猛犸象遗址中发现的材料的科学分析。这个遗址在关于美洲人类的争论中占有重要地位，并发现了大量的人工制品和被屠宰的动物骨头——比其他早期白令陆桥遗址的种类和数量要多得多。这些材料提供了了解人类在从上一个冰河时代向现代环境过渡期间适应环境的线索。研究小组将通过对遗址收集的分析，探索觅食生态和季节性土地利用策略的变化，重建生存经济，并研究遗址活动的时间变化。更广泛的影响包括向科学界提供现场资料和原始数据，支持几名学生和一名博士后研究员，为土著青年提供教育机会，以及与地区部落领导人举行文化遗产峰会。在阿拉斯加中部的Broken Mammoth（1989-2010）进行的调查揭示了一个深埋的遗址，其中有13310年至2250年前的多种职业，包括两个罕见的居住营地。该站点在开发广谱觅食模式方面具有重要影响，并且以物种丰富度和已识别标本数量计算，该站点产生了白令陆桥最大的动物群落。然而，没有进行详细的人工制品、动物或空间分析。项目团队将整理和分析这一庞大的收集，以重建从最初的人类住区到最近的人力资源和风险管理战略。该团队将采用动物考古学，生物分子（蛋白质组学和遗传物种鉴定）和岩石技术分析。目标包括随着时间的推移重建现场生存经济（包括饮食宽度和季节性土地使用策略）；调查原材料的使用和采购；并通过植物大化石、空间生化分析和壁炉生化分析，确定遗址结构和活动模式。这种综合分析策略将使研究小组能够记录人类行为随时间的变化，并将人类适应与区域环境动态联系起来。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 award funds the scientific analysis of materials recovered from the site of Broken Mammoth in central Alaska. This site has figured heavily in debates about the peopling of the Americas and yielded a vast collection of artifacts and butchered animal bones--far more diverse and numerous than from other early Beringian sites. These materials hold clues to understanding human adaptations during the transition from the last Ice Age to the modern environment. Through analysis of the site collection, the research team will explore changes in foraging ecology and seasonal land use strategies, reconstruct subsistence economies, and investigate changes in site activities through time. Broader impacts include making site materials and primary data available to the scientific community, support for several students and a post-doctoral researcher, educational opportunities for Indigenous youth, and a cultural heritage summit with regional Tribal leadership. Investigations at Broken Mammoth (1989–2010) in central Alaska revealed a deeply buried site with multiple occupations dating from 13,310 to 2250 years ago, including two rare residential camps. The site has been highly influential in developing broad spectrum foraging models and has yielded the largest faunal assemblage in Beringia by species richness and count of identified specimens. However, no detailed artifact, faunal, or spatial analyses have been conducted. The project team will curate and analyze this large collection in order to reconstruct human resource and risk management strategies from initial human settlement to the recent past. The team will employ zooarchaeological, biomolecular (proteomic and genetic species identifications), and lithic technological analyses. Objectives include reconstructing site subsistence economies through time (including diet breadth and seasonal land use strategies); investigating raw material use and procurement; and identifying site structure and activity patterns through plant macrofossil, spatial and hearth biochemical analyses. This integrated analytical strategy will enable the research team to document changes in human behavior through time and link human adaptations to regional environmental dynamics.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.