Adaptive Strategies During the Paleolithic-Neolithic Transition in China

在国家科学基金的支持下，罗伯特·埃尔斯顿博士和他的合作者将在中华人民共和国中国宁夏回族自治区鸽子山盆地进行为期一季的考古调查。这一地区的特点是干旱的沙漠环境，在明显的生态上与美国大盆地内的地区非常相似。该小组将对几平方公里进行系统调查，记录和绘制遗址图，进行广泛的地表收集，并在春丘和其他可能的地点进行有限的试掘。他们将利用这些数据开始重建该地区的文化史，并检查与环境特征相关的人类适应模式的变化。特别是，他们将把重点放在水资源利用上。初步证据表明，在上一个冰河时代结束时，鸽子山盆地居住着狩猎和采集群体，在后来的一段时间里发生了向农业的过渡。该团队将研究在这一转变过程中文化适应的变化。由于这项研究的一个主要目标是比较中国沙漠和美国西部的适应模式，一名中国考古学家也将前往美国，在俄勒冈州的马赫尔国家野生动物保护区进行实地研究，并分析收集到的材料。这项工作的目标是了解处于相对简单技术发展水平的人类是如何适应极端环境条件的。美国西部已经进行了大量的工作，该地区的文化历史也相当知名。考古学家试图从这些数据中得出关于人类适应的广泛结论，但如果没有至少一个可供比较的案例，就不可能知道一个地区的结论是否可以推广。埃尔斯顿博士和他的同事们计划的工作将有助于回答这个问题。这项研究也很重要，因为它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，也因为它将加强中国和美国之间的科学联系。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Robert Elston and his collaborators will conduct one season of archaeological survey in the Pigeon Mountain Basin, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Peoples Republic of China. This region is characterized by a dry desertic environment quite similar in apparent ecology to areas within the United States Great Basin. The team will conduct systematic survey of several square kilometers, record and map sites, make extensive surface collections and conduct limited test excavations in a sample of spring mounds as well as other likely localities. They will use these data to begin a reconstruction of the culture history of the region and to examine the changing pattern of human adaptation in relation to environmental features. In particular they will focus on water utilization. Preliminary evidence indicates that the Pigeon Mountain Basin was inhabited by hunter and gatherer groups at the end of the last Ice Age and that at some later time a transition to agriculture occurred. The team will examine changes in cultural adaptation over this transition. Because one major goal of the research is to compare adaptive patterns in desertic China and the Western U.S., a Chinese archaeologist will also travel to the U.S. and conduct field research in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and analyze the materials collected. The goal of this work is to understand how humans at a relatively simple level of technological development adapt to extreme environmental conditions. A great deal of work has been conducted in the Western U.S. and the culture history of this area is reasonably well known. From these data archaeologists have attempted to draw broad ranging conclusions about human adaptation, but without at least one more case for comparison, it is impossible to know whether conclusions from one region can be generalized. The work planned by Dr. Elston and his colleagues will help to answer this question. The research is als o important because it will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and because it will strengthen scientific ties between the PRC and the U.S.