Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Strontium Isotopic Investigation of Population Movement during the Middle Woodland in the Midwestern United States

在巴里·刘易斯博士的指导下，Dana Beehr将研究北美中部林地时期的人口流动。北美中西部的中森林时期从公元前150年持续到公元400年，以一种被称为霍普韦尔互动圈(HIS)的文化现象为特征。HIS是一个广泛的贸易和交换地位和礼仪物品的网络，横跨北美中西部的大部分地区，震中位于俄亥俄州和伊利诺伊州。长期以来，HIS的确切性质一直存在争议，一些研究人员声称，它主要是一个意识形态网络，而另一些人则专注于商品贸易。现在人们认识到，HIS可能不是一个集中的现象。贸易发生在个人层面，涉及各种小规模的过程，如朝圣或远见探索。然而，这些进程的规模和方向尚不清楚。最近的线粒体DNA(MtDNA)研究表明，基因流动，因此人口流动，从俄亥俄州到伊利诺伊州，与传统的以俄亥俄州为中心的HIS解释相反。这个项目将试图通过锶同位素分析来确定他的人口迁移的方向。锶同位素分析是一种应用于人类骨骼遗骸的技术，以确定一个人的终身迁移史。拟议的研究很重要，因为人口迁移是一种强大的人口统计力量，长期以来在对森林中部的研究中被忽视。鉴于HIS的广泛性质，各地区之间肯定发生了某种形式的人口流动，本项目提供了探索这种流动的性质和方向的机会。该项目将集中在霍普韦尔现象的两个震中，伊利诺伊州和俄亥俄州，并将检查来自几个地点的数据，包括霍普韦尔遗址本身，这被认为是HIS网站中最大和最有影响力的。了解这两个地区之间的关系将有助于理解His现象的本质，并有助于评估俄亥俄地区在中部林地期间的主导程度。这项研究的更广泛影响将包括加强对林地中期的了解。这也将是锶同位素分析在北美中西部的第一次大规模使用，并将提供一个关于中部森林地区锶值的数据库，供其他研究人员在他们的调查中使用。这项研究的结果和即将发表的论文的副本将被提供给批准其收藏纳入该项目的机构，包括俄亥俄州历史学会和芝加哥田野博物馆，以便他们可以将研究结果纳入他们向公众提供的信息中。最后，这项研究的资金将帮助培训作者和几名本科生助理进行锶同位素分析技术的培训，这是一项复杂而有价值的新技术，在当今考古学领域变得越来越重要。

Under the supervision of Dr. Barry Lewis, Dana Beehr will study population movement during the North American Middle Woodland time period. The Middle Woodland period lasted from 150 BC to AD 400 in Midwestern North America, and was characterized by a cultural phenomenon known as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere (HIS). A widespread network of trade and exchange of status and ritual goods, the HIS spanned most of Midwestern North America with epicenters in Ohio and Illinois. The exact nature of the HIS was controversial for a long time, with some researchers claiming it was primarily an ideological network while others focused on trade in goods. It is now recognized that the HIS was probably not a centralized phenomenon. Trade happened on the individual level and involved a variety of small-scale processes such as pilgrimages or vision questing. However the scale and direction of these processes are unclear. Recent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) work has suggested that gene flow, and hence population movement, proceeded from Ohio to Illinois, in opposition to traditional Ohio-centric interpretations of the HIS. This project will attempt to identify the direction of HIS population movements through strontium isotopic analysis, a technique that is applied to human skeletal remains to determine an individual's lifetime migration history.The proposed research is important because population movement is a powerful demographic force that has long been neglected in the study of the Middle Woodland. Given the wide-reaching nature of the HIS, some form of population movement must have been occurring among regions, and this project offers the chance to explore the nature and direction of such movement. The project will concentrate on the two epicenters of the Hopewell phenomenon, Illinois and Ohio, and will examine data from several sites, including the Hopewell site itself, which is believed to be the largest and most influential HIS site. Understanding the relationship between these two regions will contribute to an understanding of the nature of the HIS phenomenon, and may help to evaluate the extent to which the Ohio region was dominant during the Middle Woodland. Broader impacts of this study will include an enhanced understanding of the Middle Woodland period. This will also be the first wide-scale use of strontium isotopic analysis in Midwestern North America, and will provide a database of Middle Woodland strontium values on which other researchers can draw for use in their investigations. The results of the study and a copy of the forthcoming dissertation will be provided to the agencies that have given permission for their collections to be included in this project, including the Ohio Historical Society and the Chicago Field Museum, so that they may incorporate the findings into the information they provide the public. Finally, the funding of this study will assist in training the author and several undergraduate assistants in the technique of strontium isotopic analysis, a complex and valuable new technique that is becoming increasingly important in the field of archaeology today.