The Bridge River Project: Evolution of Social Complexity

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，安娜·m·普伦蒂斯博士（Anna M. Prentiss）和一个由同事组成的国际团队将在布里奇河遗址（Bridge River site）进行三个季节的实地考古研究。布里奇河遗址是不列颠哥伦比亚省中南部弗雷泽峡谷（Middle Fraser Canyon）的一个大型住宅村庄。与附近的Keatley Creek遗址一样，桥河也有大量（80户）和保存完好的考古沉积物，代表了复杂的狩猎采集者进化和村庄组织的全球重要记录。最重要的是，这个遗址为记录社会经济平等主义和等级狩猎采集社会之间的转变提供了直接证据。先前对桥河村的调查记录了一些房屋的完整地板，反映了几个时期的占领。大约在1800年到1100年前，这个村庄从同时居住的不超过7间房屋增长到近30间。在高峰时期，村庄似乎被组织成两个半圆形的房屋，反映了该地区以前未认识到的复杂的社会组织模式。这项研究将侧重于更好地了解过去村庄居民之间社会关系的变化性质。这项工作将通过一项新的研究来完成，这项研究将对特定家庭内部和家庭之间的社会经济变化进行研究，以反映这一关键时期村庄占领模式的变化。潘提斯将指导多学科研究，这些研究将依靠地球物理和地质考古调查、考古发掘、放射性碳定年、动物考古学和古民族植物学分析来检验这些问题。地球物理研究将使用广泛的仪器（包括磁力计、电导率和探地雷达），以便制作与每栋房屋内烹饪和储存特征相关的潜在活动区域的详细地下地图。考古发掘将试图确定这些活动区的结构和功能。人工制品、食物残留物和特征的变化将使研究小组能够重建家庭社会经济的关键要素，重点是定义家庭内部和家庭之间的社会地位差异和群体成员的标志。这项研究将提供大量的智力价值，解决在聚集的狩猎-采集社区出现的社会经济不平等问题。它提出的问题是，不平等是资源丰富时有抱负的精英自利行为的结果，还是与高人口发展和生存资源失衡相关的历史进程的一个可能结果。该项目将在多个层面产生广泛的影响。它将直接将土著社区纳入研究过程，从而加强考古学家和美洲土著/第一民族的关系。它将为大学生和公众提供科学教育的机会。项目应产生10-20篇硕士论文和至少2篇博士论文的数据。它将提供洞察人类行为和早期全球气候变化期间生态变化之间的关系。预计这将对更广泛的太平洋西北地区的人力、文化和自然资源管理政策和做法产生最终影响。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Anna M. Prentiss and an international team of colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research at the Bridge River site, a large housepit village located in the Middle Fraser Canyon of south-central British Columbia. Like the nearby Keatley Creek site, Bridge River offers extensive (80 housepits) and well-preserved archaeological deposits representing a globally significant record of complex hunter-gatherer evolution and village organization. Most importantly, this site provides direct evidence for documenting transitions between socio-economically egalitarian and ranked hunter-gatherer societies. Previous investigations at the Bridge River village documented the presence of intact floors from houses reflecting several periods of occupation. Between about 1800 and 1100 years ago, the village grew from no more than seven simultaneously occupied houses to nearly 30. At peak size the village appears to have been organized in two semi-circular arrangements of houses reflecting a complex pattern of social organization not previously recognized in the region. This research will focus on gaining a better understanding of the changing nature of social relations among past village inhabitants. This will be accomplished through a new study of socio-economic variation within and between select housepits reflecting variability in village occupation patterns across this critical period.Dr. Prentiss will direct multidisciplinary research that will examine these issues relying upon geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations, archaeological excavation, radiocarbon dating, and zooarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical analyses. Geophysical research will employ a wide range of instruments (including magnetometry, conductivity, and ground-penetrating radar) in order to produce detailed sub-surface maps of potential activity areas associated with cooking and storage features within each house. Archaeological excavations will seek to define the structure and function of these activity areas. Variation in artifacts, food remains, and features will permit the research team to reconstruct key elements of household socio-economies with an emphasis on defining markers of social status differentiation and group membership within and between houses. The research will offer implications of substantial intellectual merit, addressing the emergence of socio-economic inequality in aggregated hunter-gatherer communities. It asks whether inequality is the consequence of self-interested behavior of aspiring elites when resources are abundant or if it is one possible result of a historical process associated with the development of high populations and subsistence resource imbalances. The project will result in broad impacts on several levels. It will directly incorporate indigenous communities in the research process thereby enhancing archaeologist and Native American/First Nations relationships. It will offer science educational opportunities to university students and the general public. The project should generate data for 10-20 Master's theses and at least two Ph.D. dissertations. It will offer insight into relationships between human behavior and ecological change during earlier periods of global climate change. This is expected to have eventual impacts on human, cultural, and natural resource management policies and practices within the broader Pacific Northwest region.