Doctoral Dissertation Research: Folsom Settlement Organization in the Southern Rocky Mountains: An Analysis of Dwelling Space at the Mountaineer Site

在David Meltzer博士的指导下，Brooke Morgan将分析在科罗拉多州甘尼森附近的登山者福尔瑟姆时代(约11,000到10,000 BP)露营地进行的11个考古发掘季节(2001至2011)中发现的文物。登山者遗址坐落在海拔2630米的坦德福特山脉上，位于落基山脉的上甘尼森盆地，该地区经历了毗邻的美国最寒冷的冬天。这种环境会给生活在上一个冰河时代末期的狩猎-采集者带来独特的挑战。福尔瑟姆住宅遗址虽然罕见，但提供了一个研究广泛行为的绝佳机会--进而研究适应性策略--这些行为在福尔索姆的其他背景下可能是不存在的。登山者遗址特别重要，因为它是一个大型的福尔摩斯露营地，有证据表明有多种建筑结构--其中一些是北美最古老的避难所。该项目除了对福尔索姆狩猎采集者的研究做出贡献外，还有更广泛的影响。登山者遗址是在更新世末期占据的，当时气候波动和自然资源重组。福尔索姆觅食者的适应可能超出了现代人种学觅食者的范围。如果是这样的话，该项目将表明，考古学家在比较现代狩猎-采集社会与过去的社会时，必须采取更具批判性的观点。由于北美大平原上普遍存在杀戮地点和短暂占领的营地，短期福尔索姆遗址的考古特征已经确立。这些遗址主要显示了活动专门化(即狩猎和加工野牛)的证据，反映在投射点(即矛头)及其相关碎片的有限工具库中。考古学对这些类型遗址的关注以及对抛射点技术的重要性的认识，导致了对Folsom适应策略的解释，认为变量最小。然而，登山者网站提供了一个机会，将目前关于福尔索姆生活方式的知识扩展到高度流动的野牛猎人之外，特别是由于避难所的存在，这表明这一群体露营了很长一段时间。摩根女士将分析登山石器工具的组合，并进行空间分析，以确定Folsom居民进行的活动。对与这些建筑相关的文物的检查将提供关于登山者的福尔索姆狩猎采集者如何在恶劣环境条件下维持他们的营地的重要信息。此外，摩根还将根据营地的组织情况，推断营地居住者的经济和社会关系。这项拟议的研究将为未来古印第安人居民点的研究和其他环境下狩猎采集避难所的调查提供基础。研究结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上，原始数据将作为论文附录在网上和表格形式提供。该项目有助于培训摩根女士成为一名独立的学者和研究人员，以便她能够获得专业考古学家所需的技能。摩根还将在达拉斯地区的大学担任客座讲师，以提高公众对考古学的认识。

Under the guidance of Dr. David Meltzer, Brooke Morgan will analyze artifacts recovered during eleven seasons of archaeological excavations (2001 to 2011) from the Mountaineer Folsom-age (~11,000 to 10,000 BP) campsite near Gunnison, Colorado. Perched at 2,630 meters above sea level on Tenderfoot Mountain, the Mountaineer site is within the Upper Gunnison Basin of the Rocky Mountains, an area that experiences some of the coldest winters in the contiguous United States. This environment would have presented unique challenges for hunter-gatherers living at the end of the last ice age. Folsom residential sites, though rare, provide an exceptional opportunity to study a broad range of behaviors - and, by extension, adaptive strategies- that may be unrepresented in other Folsom contexts. The Mountaineer site is particularly important because it is a large Folsom campsite with evidence of multiple architectural structures - some of the oldest shelters in North America. This project has broader impacts beyond contributing to research of Folsom hunter-gatherers. The Mountaineer site was occupied during the Terminal Pleistocene, a time of climate fluctuation and restructuring of natural resources. It is possible that adaptations of Folsom foragers may have operated outside the range of those of modern ethnographic foragers. If this is the case, the project will demonstrate that archaeologists must take a more critical view when comparing modern hunter-gatherers societies with those of the past. The archaeological signature of short-term Folsom sites is well-established, due to the prevalence of kill sites and briefly occupied camps on the North American Great Plains. These sites primarily show evidence of activity specialization (namely, hunting and processing of bison), reflected by a limited tool repertoire of projectile points (i.e. spearheads) and their associated debris. Archaeological focus on these types of sites and the perceived importance of projectile point technology has resulted in the interpretation of Folsom adaptive strategies as minimally variable. However, the Mountaineer site provides an opportunity to expand current knowledge of Folsom lifeways beyond that of highly mobile bison hunters, especially due to the presence of shelters that suggest this group camped for an extended period of time. Ms. Morgan will analyze the Mountaineer stone tool assemblage and conduct spatial analysis to determine the activities carried out by its Folsom occupants. Examination of artifacts associated with the structures will provide important information on how Folsom hunter-gatherers at Mountaineer maintained their camp while surviving harsh environmental conditions. Further, Ms. Morgan will infer economic and social relationships of the site's occupants based on campsite organization. The proposed research will provide a foundation for future research of Paleoindian residential sites and the investigation of hunter-gatherer shelters in other settings.The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and the raw data will be accessible both online and in tabular format as dissertation appendices. This project contributes to training Ms. Morgan to be an independent scholar and researcher so that she may acquire the necessary skills of a professional archaeologist. Ms. Morgan will also serve as a guest lecturer at Dallas-area universities to raise public awareness of archaeology.