Gateway to the Americas II

本项目是PI James E.狄克逊继续在阿拉斯加东南部进行水下古环境建模和考古调查，作为多年努力的一部分，以确定大陆架上的古代考古遗迹，其年代可追溯到晚更新世，约12000 - 16000年。 这是海平面较低的时期，由于冰盖覆盖了北美的大部分地区。 在此期间，海岸线有可能支持人类的占领，长期以来一直假设这是早期人类从亚洲迁移到北美的路线之一。 随着后更新世海平面上升而发生的洪水之后，这些早期移民的证据，以考古遗址的形式，将被覆盖，现在占据了当代海底。 上一个项目，美国门户I，是通过北极社会科学计划的探索性研究小额赠款支持的。在该试点项目期间，在海底地区发现了两个异常现象;一个类似于石制捕鱼堰，另一个是矩形和圆形凹陷，可能是文化起源。 该项目将继续试点项目中开始的调查，方法是：1）记录和测试2010年观察到的异常情况，2）在地理信息系统建模和实地观察的指导下进行更多的水下调查和测试。 该项目有可能为北美考古学几十年来的争论带来经验证据：人们何时以及通过什么路线从亚洲迁移到北美？

This project will continue the research by PI James E. Dixon to continue underwater paleoenvironmental modeling and archaeological survey in Southeast Alaska as part of a multi-year effort to identify ancient archaeological remains on the continental shelf dating to the late Pleistocene, ca 12,000-16,000 y.a. This is the time period when sea level was lower, due to the ice sheets covering large parts of North America. During this time period, the coastline had the potential for supporting human occupation and it has long been hypothesized that this was one of the routes of early human migration from Asia to North America. Following the flooding that occurred with the post-Pleistocene sea level rise, evidence of these early migrations,in the form of archeological sites, would have been covered and now occupying the contemporary sea floor. The previous project, Gateway to America I, was supported though a Small Grant for Exploratory Research through the Arctic Social Sciences Program. During that pilot project, two anomalies in the undersea area were discovered; one resembling a stone fishing weir, the other a rectangular and circular shaped depresses that could be of cultural origin. This project would continue the investigation started in the pilot project by 1) documenting and testing the anomalies observed in 2010, and 2) conducting additional underwater survey and testing guided by GIS modeling and field observations. The project has the potential to bring empirical evidence to a decades old debate in North American archaeology: when and by what route did people migrate into North America from Asia?