Burnt Residue from Archaeological Sites: Investigations of Bone as Fuel and Chemical Idenitification of Prey Species

这项SGER提案支持对骨作为早期古印度人适应北极环境的燃料来源问题的实验化学研究。作为暑期考古野外学校的一部分，研究人员将挖掘阿拉斯加内陆的天鹅角考古遗址，以揭示北美早期人类所处的环境和时间段。该奖项不仅将支持夏季的挖掘活动，还将支持对从遗址提取的骨材料进行实验化学分析，以此作为一种机制，以更好地了解它们的特性，以及该遗址的早期居住者可能将其用作燃料来源。利用骨骼材料作为北美北极早期居民的燃料来源在考古学中是一个有争议的理论，该项目有可能提供新的数据，阐明这一重要的理论辩论。

ABSTRACTARC 0540235This SGER proposal supports experimental chemical research into the issue of bone as a fuel source for early Paleo-Indian adaptations to Arctic environment. As part of a summer archaeological field school, the researchers will be excavating the Swan Point archaeological site in the interior of Alaska in order to shed light the environment and time period occupied by early people in North America. This award will support not only the summer's excavation activities but also the experimental chemical analyses of the bone materials extracted from the site as a mechanism for gaining a better understanding their properties and possible use as a fuel source by the early occupants of the site. The utilization of bone material as a fuel source for early inhabitants of the North American Arctic is a debated theory in archaeology and this project has the potential to provide new data that can shed light on this important theoretical debate.