Dissertation Research: An Assessment of Terminal Woodland Subsistence and Settlement in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, Alabama

在特里斯特拉姆·基德博士的指导下，大卫·摩根先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将在阿拉巴马州莫比尔-天锯三角洲的10个地点进行考古测试挖掘。这项研究的目的是考察居住在该地区的晚期伍德兰(公元400-1100)美洲原住民的定居和生存战略。对于鱼类和贝类等沿海资源在史前饮食中发挥重要作用的程度，人类学家意见不一。基于一项世界范围的人种学研究，一些人认为，就获取和加工此类食品所涉及的能源成本而言，回报不足以赋予此类物品很高的价值。其他人则关注这类食品的密度和可靠性，并辩称情况恰恰相反。虽然在高纬度地区有相对较好的数据，海洋哺乳动物在那里发挥了重要的饮食作用，但对人口密度更大的温带环境的了解要少得多。摩根先生的研究将提供一个与这个问题相关的重要案例研究。这项研究在区域背景下也很重要。到了伍德兰时代晚期，农业在北美广泛存在，许多群体严重依赖玉米、南瓜以及一系列不太知名的家养动物。在阿拉巴马州内陆，这样的植物遗骸经常从这个时代的遗址中被发现。然而，尚不清楚沿海人民是否将这种资源纳入他们的饮食，摩根先生收集的数据也将涉及这一问题。如果没有驯养动物，这意味着可用的野生资源是足够的。为了完成这项工作，摩根将在分布在两个环境中的10个地点进行小型试验性挖掘。陶器将允许对个体水平进行相对年代测定，发现的动物遗骸将提供对占领时间和季节的洞察。浮选分析将允许回收植物残骸，这些残骸将被分析到物种水平。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供关于研究相对较少的时间段和地理区域的信息。它还将进一步阐明史前生存适应问题，并协助培训一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Tristram Kidder, Mr. David Morgan will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological test excavations at 10 sites located in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama. The goal of the research is to examine the settlement and subsistence strategy of Late Woodland (400 -1,100 AD) Native Americans who inhabited this region. Anthropologists disagree on the extent to which coastal resources such as fish and shell fish played important roles in prehistoric diet. Based on a worldwide ethnographic study, some argue that in terms of the energetic costs involved in obtaining and processing such food, the return is not sufficient to confer high value on such items. Others have focused on the density and dependability of such foodstuffs and argued that exactly the opposite was the case. While relatively good data are available from high latitudes, where marine mammals played an important dietary role, much less is known about far more densely inhabited temperate environments. Mr. Morgan's research will provide an important case study relevant to this question. The research is also important in a regional context. By Late Woodland times, agriculture was widespread in North America and many groups depended heavily on maize, squash as well as a range of less well known domesticates. In interior Alabama such plant remains are regularly recovered from sites of this age. However it is not known whether coastal peoples incorporated such resources into their diets and the data collected by Mr. Morgan will also address this issue. If domesticates are not present, this implies that available wild resources were sufficient. To accomplish this work, Mr. Morgan will place small test excavations in 10 sites distributed across two environmental settings. Ceramics will allow the relative dating of individual levels and faunal remains recovered will provide insight into length and seasons of occupation. Floatation analysis will permit the recovery of plant remains which will be analyzed to a species level. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide information on a time period and geographical region which is relatively understudied. It will also shed additional light on prehistoric subsistence adaptation and assist in training a promising young scientist.