Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeological Investigations into Paleoindian Adaptations at the Aucilla River, Northwest Florida

在迈克尔沃茨博士的指导下，哈利根女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。 她将对佛罗里达西北部的阿库拉河河道的一段进行考古和地质研究。Aucilla河中的下沉坑提供了一些关于古印第安物质文化的最丰富的信息，骨头和象牙工具补充了更常见的石器。这些地点是唯一能够解决正在进行的辩论在古印第安人的研究，因为日期的有机文物，动物群的遗骸，植物遗骸，石器存在于潜在的完整的晚更新世的背景。这些遗迹中有许多是以前在河道内被淹没的次级环境中发现的，在邻近的柏树沼泽中进行的调查很少。许多诊断伪影类型缺乏相对或绝对日期。该项目研究了古印第安人在更新世/全新世过渡期（PHT）（约15- 10，000年前）如何使用Aucilla河的石灰岩岩溶排水系统。Halligan女士将首先定义晚更新世和全新世的地质记录，然后创建一个在这个河流系统中的遗址形成过程的模型。她将进行水下和陆地实地考察，并将联合收割机这项研究与排水系统中四个先前挖掘地点的数据结合起来。实地考察将调查两个淹没与古印第安人的文物，韦恩的水槽网站（8 JE 1556/TA 287）和树懒洞网站（8 JE 121），以及他们之间的陆地景观。从这两个地点收集了岩芯，以记录沉积物剖面并确定该地区的地质历史。将对陆地地貌进行地下调查，并在水下和陆地上挖掘几个单位。然后，所有数据将与以前在流域不同环境中挖掘的遗址的档案数据进行评估，以创建遗址形成和古印度土地利用的模型。作为第一个专门针对创建喀斯特河流系统遗址形成过程模型的地质考古研究，该项目将大大提高对佛罗里达西北部河流遗址如何、为何以及在何处保存的认识。该模型将有助于确定文化记录在哪里保存，在哪里受到干扰，并有助于确定岩溶系统如何影响考古学。对完整的物质文化的分析将为东南部的古印第安人行为提供信息，这将有助于解决古印第安人定居，生存和文化选择的更广泛问题。最后，本研究将阐明一个受海平面上升影响的地区在整个全新世的地貌发展和变化。这个项目将有助于佛罗里达考古学和古印第安人的研究提供更多的时间控制和上下文信息的一系列重要的早期网站。通过模拟一个被人们充分利用的景观，在一个可以带来多条证据的地区，人们可以了解过去至少有一个人类群体是如何适应快速和潜在的灾难性气候变化的。

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Waters, Ms Jessi Halligan will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct a combined archaeological and geological study of the one section of the Aculla River channel in northwestern Florida. Submerged sinkholes within the Aucilla River have yielded some of the richest information available about Paleoindian material culture, with bone and ivory tools complementing more common lithic artifacts. These sites are uniquely able to address ongoing debates in Paleoindian research because dateable organic artifacts, faunal remains, botanical remains, and stone artifacts exist in potentially-intact late Pleistocene contexts. Many of these remains have previously been discovered in submerged secondary context within the river channel, and very little survey has been undertaken in the adjacent cypress swamps. Many diagnostic artifact types lack relative or absolute dates. This project addresses how Paleoindians used the limestone based karst drainage of the Aucilla River during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (PHT) (approximately 15-10,000 years ago). Ms Halligan will first define the late Pleistocene and Holocene geological record and then create a model of site formation processes in this fluvial system. She will conduct both underwater and terrestrial fieldwork and combine this research with data from four previously-excavated sites in the drainage. Fieldwork will investigate two submerged sinks with Paleoindian artifacts, the Wayne's Sink site (8JE1556/TA287) and the Sloth Hole site (8JE121), and the terrestrial landscape between them. Cores have been collected from both sites to record sediment profiles and establish the geological history of the area. Sub-surface survey of the terrestrial landforms will be performed and excavation several units underwater and on land will be conducted. All data will then be evaluated with archival data from previously-excavated sites in different settings in the drainage basin to create models of site formation and Paleoindian land use. As the first geoarchaeological study specifically aimed at creating a model of site formation processes in karst fluvial systems, this project will greatly enhance knowledge of how, why, and where sites preserve in the rivers of northwestern Florida. The model will help establish where the cultural record has preserved and where it had been disturbed and help define how karstic systems impact archaeology. The analysis of intact material culture will inform upon Paleoindian behavior in the Southeast, which will help address broader questions of Paleoindian settlement, subsistence, and cultural choices. Finally, the research will explicate landform development and change throughout the Holocene in an area actively affected by sea-level rise. This project will contribute both to Florida archaeology and to Paleoindian studies by providing more chronological control and contextual information about a series of important early sites. By modeling a landscape that was well-utilized by people in an area where multiple lines of evidence can be brought to bear upon the topic, it will be possible to understand how at least one group of humans in the past adapted to rapid and potentially-catastrophic climate change.