Doctoral Dissertation Research: Prehistoric Ceramic Traditions of the Southern Coastal Plain of North Carolina

在他的博士论文研究中，PI将为北卡罗来纳州的沿海平原开发一个考古陶瓷序列。虽然发掘表明该地区有美洲原住民占领的悠久历史，并记录了早期的狩猎和采集以及后来的农业生活方式，但由于缺乏文化年表，研究受到严重阻碍。许多站点包含在松散固结的沙质土壤中，这导致了材料的垂直运动。因此，详细的地层重建往往是困难的。由于这些土壤的化学成分，有机物质很少被保存下来，放射性碳测年也不太可能。PI希望通过构建详细的陶瓷年表来纠正这种情况，该年表通过热释光定年法在时间上锚定。这项技术测量了单个陶器碎片中随时间变化的辐射损伤，初步分析产生了内部一致和考古学上合理的结果。一系列来自地层安全环境的碎片将被研究。通过岩石学和成分分析确定的制造方法随时间的变化，以及风格属性将被描述，所得序列将与热释光日期锚定。一旦完成这项工作，从地表和受干扰的地点收集的材料就可以被纳入其中，PI就可以绘制空间分布来描绘史前文化群体，并确定它们是如何随时间变化的。北卡罗莱纳沿海平原具有考古意义，因为尽管当地居民在玉米种植可行时将玉米农业纳入了他们的狩猎和采集生活方式，但与大多数其他美洲原住民群体相比，他们显然没有采用固定的村庄生活方式，而是继续了一种高度流动的生活方式。对于许多对文化复杂性的发展和通常伴随的定居化感兴趣的考古学家来说，该地区提供了一个重要的研究案例。然而，缺乏可靠的年代序列严重限制了研究。PI的工作应该有助于纠正这种情况

For his doctoral dissertation research the PI will develop an archaeological ceramic sequence for the coastal plain of North Carolina. While excavations indicate that this region has a long history of Native American occupation and document both an earlier hunting and gathering and later agricultural way of life, research has been severely hindered by lack of a cultural chronology. Many sites are contained within loosely consolidated sandy soil which results in vertical movement in material. Thus detailed stratigraphic reconstruction is often difficult. Because of the chemical composition of such soils, organic material is rarely preserved and radiocarbon dating is rarely possible. The PI wishes to remedy this situation through the construction of a detailed ceramic chronology which is anchored in time by thermolumenescence dating. This technique measures time dependent radiation damage within individual potsherds and preliminary analysis has produced internally consistent and archaeologically reasonable results. A series of sherds from stratigraphically secure contexts will be studied. Changes through time in method of manufacture, as determined through petrographic and compositonal analysis, as well as stylistic attributes will be described and the resultant sequence will be anchored with thermolumenescence dates. Once this is accomplished, materials from surface and disturbed sites can be incorporated and the PI can then plot spatial distributions to delineate prehistoric cultural groupings and determine how they changed over time. The coastal North Carolina plain is of archaeological interest because although its inhabitants incorporated maize agriculture into their hunting and gathering way of life when this cultigen became available, in contrast to most other Native American groups they apparantly did not adopt a settled village way of life but continued a highly mobile lifestyle. For the many archaeologist interested in the development of cultural complexity and the sedentization which usually accompanies this, the region provides an important study case. However lack of a securely dated sequence severely limits research. The PI's work should help to remedy this situation