Collaborative Research: Birnirk prehistory and the emergence of Inupiaq Culture in Northwestern Alaska, archaeological and anthropological perspectives.

该项目将在公元1世纪末探索阿拉斯加西北部因努皮亚克文化的起源问题。该项目将从埃斯彭贝格角收集的数据以及与大白令海峡和北极地区有关的数据中记录文化历史、社会互动、人口多样性和扩散以及环境变化。研究小组将与Shishmaref的社区成员合作，进行考古发掘、古生态和古代DNA研究，以更好地了解公元1000年左右谁是最早在该地区定居的人，他们来自何时何地，以及这些事件发生在什么环境条件下。同时，他们将与文化顾问和与该地区有祖先联系的Shishmaref社区成员合作，探索物质文化和景观是如何被解读为谈论过去和讲述历史的。该项目将通过在涉及的几个研究领域进行基础研究和开发新方法来促进科学和教育的进步。通过确保和促进文物的适当保护，该项目将提高人们对保护日益增长的易腐烂有机文物目录的认识和能力，这些文物因海岸侵蚀和永久冻土融化而日益暴露。通过纳入对物质文化的本土观点，这项研究将促进一种更能接受多种声音的考古学。该项目还将促进四个美国研究机构、一个法国大学(Panthéon Sorbonne大学)、一个阿拉斯加农村社区和一个地区性非营利公司之间的国内和国际合作。与该项目相关的各种举措为阿拉斯加人数不足的少数族裔、妇女以及本科生和研究生提供了研究、教育和培训机会。这一多学科研究计划的目的是探索与公元1000年的伯尼尔克考古建筑群有关的人类互动、聚落历史、气候和景观动态。经过一段时间的中断，位于埃斯彭贝格角(因纽伊涅克)的Birnirk遗址KTZ-304在阿拉斯加西北部和更大的白令海地区的一个关键的文化和环境时刻被占领，恰好在公元1000年之前和公元1300年左右因努皮亚克文化出现之前。埃斯彭贝格角是这一文化历史的关键地点，这既是因为Ipiutak、Birnik和Thule考古遗址的存在，也是今天Shishmaref基吉克塔米特的祖传土地。涉及文化和自然人类学、考古学和古生态学的相互关联和综合的分析方法将：(A)形成在KTZ-304遗址继续挖掘的框架；(B)有助于研究建筑特征、考古动物、陶瓷和人工制品，以阐明社会网络、生存系统和技术，并了解气候和资源可获得性对人类活动、决策和运动的影响；(C)通过有针对性地对迄今沙丘山脊进行抽样，指导收集古环境数据，重建陆地植被，并绘制海洋相对于遗址的位置图；(D)将古代DNA(ADNA)研究结合起来，以建立该区域及其他地区因纽特人社会更广泛的遗传关系；(E)探索Kigiqtaamiut如何解释物质文化以了解过去、叙述历史和产生知识；(F)促进就今天在Shishmaref社区内以及Kigiqtaamiut人和科学家之间的物质文化的作用进行对话，以对过去作出更自反式的解释；(G)通过编制关于聚落和景观形成、文化变迁和气候变化的高分辨率年表，增进对因纽特文化起源的理解。

This project will explore the question of the origin of Inupiaq culture in northwestern Alaska at the end of the first millennium AD. The project will document the cultural histories, social interactions, population diversity and dispersal, and environmental changes from data collected at Cape Espenberg and in relation to the greater Bering Strait and Arctic regions. The research team will work together with community members in Shishmaref to conduct archaeological excavation, paleoecology and ancient DNA research to better understand who were the people that first settled the area around AD 1000, when and from where they came, and in what environmental conditions these events took place. At the same time they will work with cultural advisers and Shishmaref community members who have ancestral ties to the area to explore how material culture and landscape is interpreted to talk about the past and tell history. The project will promote progress of science and education by conducting basic research and developing new methods in the several research fields involved. By insuring and promoting proper conservation of artifacts the project, will increase awareness and capacity to preserve the growing catalog of perishable organic artifacts, increasingly exposed due to eroding coastal and thawing permafrost. By including indigenous perspectives on material culture, the research will promote an archaeology that is more receptive to multiple voices. The project will also foster national and international collaborations between four US research institutes, a French University (U. of Panthéon Sorbonne), a rural Alaska community and a regional non-profit corporation. Associated with the project a variety of initiatives represent opportunities in research, education and training for a number of underrepresented Alaska minorities, women, and undergraduate and graduate students. The aims of this multidisciplinary program of research is to explore human interaction, settlement history, climate and landscape dynamics in relation to the Birnirk archaeological complex at ca. AD 1000. After a period of hiatus, Birnirk site KTZ-304 at Cape Espenberg (Inuigniq) was occupied at a pivotal cultural and environmental moment in Northwest Alaska and the larger Bering Sea region, just before AD 1000 and prior to the emergence of Inupiaq culture around AD 1300. Cape Espenberg is a key location for this cultural history both because of the presence of Ipiutak, Birnik and Thule archaeological sites and as ancestral land of today's Kigiqtaamiut of Shishmaref. Interrelated and integrated analytical approaches involving cultural and physical anthropology, archaeology and paleoecology will (a) form the framework for continued excavation at site KTZ-304 (b) contribute to study architectural features, archaeofauna, ceramics, and artifacts in order to elucidate social networks, subsistence systems and technology, and to understand the impact of climate and resource availability on peoples activities, decisions and movements; (c) guide the collecting of paleoenvironmental data through targeted sampling of swales and ridges to date dune ridge stabilization, reconstruct terrestrial vegetation and map the location of the ocean relative to the site; (d) integrate ancient DNA (aDNA) studies to establish the broader genetic relationships of Inuit societies in the region and beyond; (e) explore how Kigiqtaamiut interpret material culture to understand the past, narrate history and generate knowledge (f) foster a dialog on the role of material culture today in the community of Shishmaref and in between the Kigiqtaamiut and the scientists to construct more reflexive interpretations of the past, and thus (g) advance understanding of the origin of Inupiaq culture through the development of a high-resolution chronology of settlement and landscape formation, cultural shift and climate variation.