Faunal Resource Depression and Intensification in the North American Southwest: Digital Data and Regional Synthesis

在国家科学基金会的支持下，凯瑟琳斯皮尔曼博士将领导一个由考古学家和软件开发人员组成的跨学科团队，分析导致公元1200年至1500年间美国西南部过度狩猎大型猎物（主要是羚羊和鹿）的因素。这一时期的特点是大规模的移民，以及人们聚集到500-1000居民的城镇。在此期间，一些考古动物骨骼组合表明大型游戏的可用性下降。目前还没有一个区域范围的了解的因素，促进过度狩猎，在一些地区，但不是在其他地区。需要调查的两个主要因素是1）种群规模、浓度和景观持久性，以及2）环境变化。然后，研究小组将调查人们选择加强火鸡饲养的背景，以应对从野味中获得肉类的机会减少。虽然在公元500年，美国西南部就已经有了驯化的火鸡，但直到11世纪，它们主要是为了羽毛而饲养的。在此之后，一些人加强了火鸡的生产以供消费，而另一些人则没有。为什么会出现这种变化是该项目的目标。 从这个角度来看，该项目是重要的，因为它将提供一个相对“简单”的社会和生存组织水平的社会与其存在的环境之间的长期相互作用的洞察力。研究结果将推广到世界上许多其他文化和地区。该项目在规模上具有创新性，将来自美国西南部各种史前村庄遗址的动物骨骼数据整合在一起，以解决人类对环境的影响问题。虽然在过去的研究人员进行了较小规模的综合分析，这些通常使用的动物骨数据在已发表的文献中的总结形式。这些综合研究将依靠对原始动物群数据集的综合分析，而不是依靠已公布的数据。PI使用原始数据集进行综合的方法是通过使用tDAR（数字考古记录; http://tdar.org），这是一个数字考古数据库。 该项目的西南动物工作组成员正在将其数据集上传到tDAR。然后，软件开发小组将与动物工作组合作，简化tDAR的突破性分析工具，该工具允许整合不同调查人员使用不一致的分析协议记录的数据集（或电子表格）。这种整合将动物骨骼数据纳入一个单一的分类方案中，从而使研究团队能够以一种前所未有的方式来分析动物群数据集。该项目的智力价值在于展示大规模数据集共享和整合的科学价值，以解决人类学问题的多样性。该项目将大大提高人类学对人与环境之间长期相互作用的理解，并将改进利用考古动物骨骼数据的研究。该项目的更广泛影响包括通过实习和研究助理培训本科生和研究生，以及为文化资源管理界举办关于tDAR的讲习班。此外，其他领域的科学家将能够访问这些考古数据，并使用该项目的工具和协议来解决更广泛的生物多样性和环境变化问题。

With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. Katherine Spielmann will lead an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and software developers in the analysis of the factors that led to the over-hunting of large game (principally antelope and deer) in the American Southwest between A.D. 1200 and 1500. This period of time is characterized by large-scale migrations, and aggregation of people into towns of 500-1000 residents. During this time some archaeological animal bone assemblages indicate a decline in the availability of large game. There is currently no regional-scale understanding of the factors that promoted over-hunting in some areas but not in others. The two primary factors to be investigated are 1) population size, concentration, and persistence on the landscape, and 2) environmental variation. The team will then investigate the contexts in which people chose to intensify turkey husbandry in response to declining access to meat from wild game. Although domesticated turkeys are known from the Southwest by A.D. 500, until the 1100s they were largely raised for feathers. After that time some populations intensified turkey production for consumption, while others did not. Why this variation existed is a target of the project. From this perspective the project is important because it will provide insight into long term interactions between a society at a relatively "simple" level of social and subsistence organization and the environment within which it existed. The results will be generalizable to many other cultures and regions of the world.The project is innovative in the scale at which animal bone data from a diversity of prehistoric village sites across the Southwestern US will be integrated to address the issue of human impacts on the environment. Although in the past researchers have undertaken synthetic analyses at smaller scales, these have generally used animal bone data presented in summary form in the published literature. Rather than depend on published data, these syntheses will rely on analyses of an integrated composite of original faunal datasets. The PI's approach to synthesis using the original datasets is made possible through use of tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record; http://tdar.org), a repository for digital archaeological data. Members of the project's Southwestern Faunal Working Group are uploading their datasets into tDAR. The software development team will then work with the Faunal Working Group to streamline tDAR's groundbreaking analytical tool that allows the integration of datasets (or spreadsheets) that were recorded by different investigators using inconsistent analytical protocols. This integration brings the animal bone data into a single classificatory scheme, thus making it possible to analyze faunal datasets in a manner that allows the research team to address anthropological questions in ways that have not heretofore been possible.The intellectual merits of the project lie in demonstrating the scientific value of large-scale dataset sharing and integration for addressing a diversity of anthropological questions. The project will significantly enhance the anthropological understanding of long-term interaction between people and their environment, and will improve research using archaeological animal bone data. The broader impacts of the project include training of undergraduate and graduate students through internships and research assistantships, and workshops on tDAR for cultural resource management communities. In addition, scientists in other fields will be able to access these archaeological data and use this project's tools and protocols to address broader issues of biodiversity and environmental change.