Settlement Systems and Sea-Level History in the Central Pacific

在国家科学基金会的支持下，杰弗里·克拉克博士和他的同事们将在美属萨摩亚的图图伊拉岛进行一个考古和地质实地研究季节。考古研究将集中在Aoa和Leone山谷，并将调查与已知遗址的挖掘相结合。收集到的数据有望使该地区的文化历史得以重建。随着时间的推移，生活方式和定居模式的变化将被研究。该项目地质部分的中心目标将是确定相对海平面是如何随时间变化的，以及人类活动是如何改变地貌的。为了实现这一目标，将对古代海岸线进行定位和绘制。地质岩心将被提取和分析，以确定地貌变化。孢粉学数据也将有助于这一过程。研究结果将推广到太平洋其他岛屿。通过整合这两个方面的研究，应该有可能重建变化的人类实践与地形之间的相互作用。近年来，考古学家开始意识到太平洋岛屿为研究复杂的人类与地形的相互作用提供了一个很好的背景。一方面，由于局部构造运动导致的相对海平面的变化改变了人类生存的景观。另一方面，由于当地居民砍伐和焚烧森林所造成的侵蚀，也产生了重大影响。在许多情况下，这些群体的反应导致了早期西方探险家所观察到的复杂酋长管辖地的兴起。然而，考古学家对具体的相互作用机制存在分歧，这项研究应该提供新的见解。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供关于海平面变化的基本地质资料，希望这些资料可以推广到该区域的其他岛屿。它应该对人类与土地的关系产生新的见解，并为文化复杂性的上升提供新的视角。最后，它将有助于加强北达科他州立大学的科学基础设施。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Jeffrey Clark and his colleagues will conduct one field season of archaeological and geological research on Tutuila Island, American Samoa. Archaeological research will focus on the 'Aoa and Leone valleys and combine survey with excavation of known sites. The data collected will, hopefully, permit the culture history of the region to be reconstructed. Changing lifestyle and settlement pattern over time will be studied. The central goals of the geological part of the project will be to determine how relative sea level changed over time and how landforms were modified by human activity. To accomplish this, ancient shorelines will be located and mapped. Geological cores will be extracted and analyzed to determine geomorphological changes. Palynological data will also assist in this process. The results will be generalized to other islands in the Pacific. Through integration of both aspects of the research, it should be possible to reconstruct the mutual interactions between changing human practices and landforms. In recent years, archaeologists have come to realize that Pacific islands provide a excellent context to study complex human- landform interactions. On the one hand, changes in relative sea level due to local tectonism altered the landscape available for human subsistence. On the other hand, the felling and burning of forests by local populations also had a major effect because of the erosion which resulted. The response by these groups in many instances led to the rise of the complex chiefdoms observed by early Western explorers. Archaeologists, however, disagree on the specific interaction mechanisms and this study should provide new insight. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide basic geological information on changing sea levels which, hopefully, can be generalized to other islands in the region. It should yield new insight into human-land relationships and shed new light on the rise of cultural complexity. Finally, it will help to strengthen the scientific infrastructure at North Dakota State University.