The Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project: Continuing Research

摘要：由考古学家、生态学家、动物学家、古民族植物学家和地貌学家组成的国际团队（美国、法国和俄罗斯）开展的西阿留申考古和古生物学项目，为近岛的殖民、近岛定居点的规模、近岛群体之间的交流以及史前人群的生存策略提供了新的信息。该项目有两个主要目标：1)研究西阿留申文化的性质和特征，以评估其特殊性和与政治和文化独立的邻近阿留申亚群的文化交流程度；2)记录白令陆桥全新世的环境变化，并确定这些变化对史前人类社区的影响程度。该项目过去的贡献包括大量的文献、制图、抽样和分析，以提供一个时间和人种学框架。在新的阶段，国际团队将返回阿图岛的奥斯汀湾，考古学家/生态学家将在那里挖掘不同的特征，包括：1)“酋长的房子，2)非精英住宅，3)俄罗斯时期的房子，以及4)不同类型的存储特征，以了解文化变化的时间，这导致了复杂性的增加，并研究环境变量涵盖这些变化。对该地区全新世环境变化的全面了解应该为史前阿留申人如何适应海洋世界提供线索。此外，在俄罗斯/阿留申人接触期间发生了一些最戏剧性的社会和政治变化。挖掘俄罗斯时期的房屋特征应该提供这种文化融合所导致的社会/经济变化的信息。

ABSTRACT: OPP-0091875The Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project, conducted by an international team (U.S.A., France, and Russia) of archaeologists, ecologists, zoologists, paleoethnobotanists, and geomorphologists, provides new information about the colonization of the Near Islands, sizes of Near Island settlements, communication between Near Island groups, and subsistence strategies of prehistoric populations. The project has two primary goals: 1) to examine thenature and characteristics of the western Aleutian culture in order to assess its particularities and the degree of cultural exchange with politically and culturally independent neighboring Aleut subgroups, and 2) to document Holocene environmental change in Beringia and determine,to what extent, these changes impacted prehistoric human communities. The project's past contributions include extensive documentation, mapping, sampling, and analysis to provide a chronological and ethnographic framework. During the new phase, The international team will return to Austin Cove, Attu Island, where archaeologists/ecologists will excavate different featuresincluding: 1) a "chief's house, 2) a non-elite dwelling, 3) a Russian Period house, and 4) different types of storage features, to understand the timing of cultural changes which resulted in increasing complexity and study the environmental variables bracketing such changes. Athorough understanding of Holocene environmental change in the region should provide clues in how prehistoric Aleuts adapted to their maritime world. Additionally, some of the most dramatic social and political changes occurred during the Russian/Aleut contact period. The excavationof the Russian period house feature should provide information on social/ economic changes which resulted from this cultural integration.