Late Quaternary Paleoecology and Archeology of Alaska's Alexander Archipelago

在国家科学基金会的支持下，詹姆斯·迪克森博士和他的合作者将在位于阿拉斯加西海岸威尔士亲王岛的PET-408遗址进行为期一季的考古挖掘和相关调查。1996年，由于古生物发掘，在这个偏远的洞穴中发现了人类遗骸和文物。人类骨骼上的两个放射性碳年代已经超过9000年，使这具骨骼成为阿拉斯加或加拿大西部最古老的可靠年代人类。一系列额外的年代表明，这些洞穴沉积的时间跨度约为4万年。虽然显然具有巨大的潜在意义，但到目前为止，在PET-408进行的工作有限，还不知道骨架与周围矿藏的联系。在确定这一点之前，还不清楚还需要进一步挖掘多少。在一个赛季的支持下，迪克森博士和他的合作者将对该地点进行进一步评估，并调查周围地区是否发生其他类似事件。可追溯到上一次冰河时代末期的人类遗骸在北美极为罕见。这个时代的有机文物在阿拉斯加东南部几乎是闻所未闻的。PET-408提供了第一次机会来了解和描述早期西北海岸人民的身体特征和他们的物质文化。它还将有助于追踪原始居民从亚洲进入新大陆的路径。已经提出了两种可供选择的假设。许多考古学家认为，在大陆冰川融化后，人类通过加拿大中西部向南迁移。其他人提出，最早的人类迁徙可能发生在沿着贝林贾南缘和沿北美西北海岸向南的船只的使用。这可能使人类能够在大陆冰川融化之前进入美洲南部地区。解决这些假设很重要，因为每个假设都需要新世界创始人口进行不同类型的文化适应，而这种适应的性质为随后的新世界文化发展奠定了基础。威尔士亲王岛的洞穴非常适合于评估海岸迁移理论，因为它们在晚更新世时是无冰的，它们是人类活动的焦点，它们包含保存下来的可测定日期的有机遗骸。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. James Dixon and his collaborators will conduct one season of archaeological excavation and associated survey at the site of PET-408 which is located on the Prince of Wales Island on the West Coast of Alaska. In 1996 human remains and artifacts were discovered in this remote cave as a result of paleontological excavations. Two radiocarbon dates on the human bone have yielded ages in excess of 9,000 years and make the skeleton the oldest reliably dated human in Alaska or western Canada. A series of additional dates demonstrate that the cave deposits span the past ca. 40,000 years. While clearly of great potential significance, work at PET-408 to date has been limited and it is not known how the skeleton is associated with the surrounding deposits. Until this is determined is unclear how much further excavation is required. With one season of support Dr. Dixon and his collaborators will conduct further evaluation of the site and survey surrounding areas for other such occurrences. Human remains dating to the end of the last Ice age are extremely rare in North America. Organic artifacts of this age are virtually unknown from Southeast Alaska. PET-408 provides the first opportunity to understand and describe the physical characteristics of early Northwest Coast peoples and their material culture. It will also help to trace the path of the original inhabitants from Asia into the New World. Two alternative hypotheses have been proposed. Many archaeologists believe that humans moved south through central western Canada after the melting of continental glaciers. Others have suggested that the earliest human migration may have occurred with the use of watercraft along the southern margin of Beringia and the southward along the Northwest Coast of North America. This may have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to melting of the continental glaciers. It is important to address these hypotheses because each requires a different type of cultural adaptation by the New World founding population and the nature of this adaptation set the stage for subsequent New World cultural development. The caves of Prince of Wales Island are ideally suited for evaluating the coastal migration theory because they were ice free during the late Pleistocene, they were the foci of human activity, and they contain preserved datable organic remains.