Modeling Mid-Latitude Littoral Hunter-Gatherers: Inter-Disciplinary Investigations at San Elijo Lagoon, Southern California

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Brian Byrd博士和他的同事将在圣地亚哥以北20英里的San Elijo保护区县公园进行两个季节的考古和古环境研究，该公园是该地区最大和保存最完好的沿海湿地之一。丰富的自然资源包括潮汐通道和泥滩，六种植物群落和各种脊椎动物，无脊椎动物和鸟类。一项允许重建过去环境的沉积物取芯试验计划表明，河口沉积物可以追溯到近8000年前。考古学研究揭示了该地区丰富的考古遗产，尽管位于圣埃利霍保护区外的许多遗址已被城市发展摧毁，但公园内记录的16个史前贝壳垃圾场遗址几乎每千年都有记录，从8,000年到900年前。伯德博士的研究目标是全面了解这片湿地在8000年期间的环境变化，并对随着时间的推移不断变化的人类住区模式和生存策略进行规划。在项目的第一年，将收集独立的环境数据，并将在12个贝冢地点进行试掘，以确定占据时间范围，并确定哪些地点可以提供最丰富的生存数据来源。在第二阶段，将在适当地点进行大规模挖掘。将特别强调收集大量有代表性的动物、植物和贝壳遗骸样本，以重建觅食模式。初步数据表明，随着时间的推移，资源丰富的河口逐渐变得淤塞和贫困的海平面上升。以前聚集在一起的人口仍然留在该地区，但在景观上分布得更稀疏，使食物的使用更昂贵，更难以获得。在此背景下，研究小组将充实初步的考古记录，并利用收集到的数据来测试各种来自最佳觅食理论的理论。从这个理论基础上，可以做出一些预测，这些预测集中在最节能的资源利用方法上。他们提出了在资源日益减少的情况下，人们如何能够最有效地在食物带之间移动和利用食物带，以及他们饮食的广度可能会发生怎样的变化。近年来，考古学家逐渐认识到，资源丰富的沿海地区为狩猎和采集民族提供了一个重要的生态位，在世界许多地方的这些地区，出现了相对定居的社会。这项研究将揭示这些沿海居民如何应对往往迅速和极端的环境变化以及他们所采用的基本策略。该项目将在一个有14至16名学生的暑期实地学校的范围内进行，因此也将发挥宝贵的教育作用。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Brian Byrd and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological and paleonenvironmental research in the San Elijo Reserve County Park situated 20 miles north of San Diego in one of the regions largest and best preserved coastal wetlands. The rich natural resources include tidal channels and mud flats, six plant communities and a wide range of vertebrates, invertebrates and bird species. A pilot program of sediment coring which permits reconstruction of past environments indicates estuary deposits dating back to almost 8000 years ago. Archeological research has revealed a rich archaeological heritage in this region and although many sites which lie outside the san Elijo Reserve have been destroyed by urban development, sixteen prehistoric shell midden sites recorded within the park document occupation in almost every millennium from almost 8,000 to 900 years ago. The goal of Dr. Byrd's research is to build up a comprehensive picture of environmental change within this wetland over an eight millennium period, and plot against this changing human settlement patterns and subsistence strategies over time. During the first year of the project independent environmental data will be collected and test excavations will be conducted at 12 shell midden sites to refine occupation time ranges and determine which sites can provide the richest sources of subsistence data. In a second phase, large-scale excavation will be conducted at appropriate sites. Special emphasis will be placed on the collection of large representative samples of animal, plant and shell remains to reconstruct foraging patterns. Preliminary data indicates that over time resource rich estuaries gradually became silted up and impoverished as sea level rose. Formerly aggregated human populations remained in the region but spread more thinly over the landscape to make use of foods more costly in effort and more difficult to procure. Against this background the research team will flesh out the tentative archaeological record and use the data collected to test a variety of theories derived from optimum foraging theory. From this theoretical base a number of predictions can be made and these center on the most energy efficient approaches to resource utilization. They suggest how, in the face of decreasing resources, people can most effectively move between and utilize food patches and how the breadth of their diet may change.In recent years archaeologists have come to realize that resource rich coastal regions provided an important niche for hunting and gathering peoples and that in such areas in many parts of the world, relatively sedentary societies emerged. This research will shed new light on how such coastal dwellers responded to often rapid and extreme environmental change and the basic strategies they employed. The project will be conducted in the context of a summer field school which includes 14 to 16 students and thus will also serve a valuable educational function.