Insight Into Clovis Faunal Utilization

新墨西哥大学的Bruce Huckell博士和他的合作者。蒂莫西·罗（德克萨斯大学）、格兰特·迈耶（新墨西哥州大学）和莱斯利·麦克法登（新墨西哥州大学）将进行一项研究，调查最新更新世北美克洛维文化建筑群的猎人对现已灭绝的大象（猛犸象、乳齿象和象鼻象）的剥削。这项研究记录了美国文化遗产的重要组成部分，并保护了与之相关的文物。尽管首次发现克洛维人与大象的联系已经过去了大约80年，但关于这些大型哺乳动物在克洛维人饮食中的重要性仍然存在分歧。一些学者认为，它们是重要的饮食资源，一旦遇到就会被杀死，而另一些人则认为，它们很少被捕获，在饮食中的排名远低于中小型猎物。支持后一种观点的研究人员认为，狩猎大象只有在被猎杀的动物被彻底屠杀的情况下才有意义；然而，另一些人提出，诸如大象的体型、营养状况和人类社会群体的规模等环境因素往往会决定不彻底的屠杀。以前出土的克洛维斯遗址的考古证据表明，许多大象被“轻微使用”。这种分歧部分是由于已知的克洛维斯大象遗址数量很少（15个），部分是由于对最近和过去狩猎采集者使用大象的不同理论观点。赫凯尔博士和他的合作者将进行高风险的研究，以验证这样一种假设：克洛维斯猎人没有彻底屠杀他们杀死的大象，他们对持续的屠宰劳动减少了肉的能量回报很敏感。最优觅食理论——特别是饮食宽度和斑块选择（猎物作为斑块）模型——是这项研究的基础。这个项目的科学价值是双重的。首先将挖掘新墨西哥州北部新发现的哈特利猛犸象，其中包含一只猛犸象的骨头，由于侵蚀而迅速暴露出来，在地表附近，有一个克洛维斯点。包括古环境研究在内的对骨头所在地区和附近地点的挖掘，将确定克洛维斯人的觅食者是否杀死了这头猛犸象，如果是的话，他们屠杀猛犸象的力度有多大。科学价值的第二个方面是，对哈特利猛犸象的调查提供了一个起点，可以回顾克洛维斯人在10个先前挖掘的遗址上屠杀猛犸象和其他大象尸体的程度。空间离散的，单个大象尸体的档案记录将被检查尸体之间的模式。每具尸体的地图将被数字化，骨头将被识别到元素、部分和侧面，动物死亡的位置、年龄和大小将被确定。相关的石器或其他器物的位置、类型和数量将被记录。这项研究的更广泛影响将包括对研究生船员的教育和培训好处，以及一名年轻女性使用该网站进行硕士学位研究。该项目将宣传加里·哈特利决定与科学家分享他的发现，这可能会鼓励其他人在未来也这样做，从而有助于提高对美国人类占领历史的了解。

Dr. Bruce Huckell, University of New Mexico, and his collaborators Drs. Timothy Rowe (University of Texas), Grant Meyer (UNM), and Leslie McFadden (UNM), will undertake research to investigate the exploitation of now-extinct elephants (mammoths, mastodons, and gomphotheres) by latest Pleistocene North American hunters of the Clovis cultural complex. The research documents a significant part of the American cultural heritage and to preserve artifacts associated with it. Despite the passage of some 80 years since discovery of the first Clovis-elephant association, disagreement remains about the significance of these large mammals in the Clovis diet. Some scholars believe that they were critical dietary resources killed whenever encountered, while others suggest that they were rarely taken and ranked much lower in the diet than small- and medium-sized game. Researchers who favor the latter perspective argue that elephant hunting only makes energetic sense if killed animals are thoroughly butchered; however, others propose that situational factors such as the size of the elephant, its nutritional condition, and the size of human social group will frequently dictate a less-than-thorough butchering. Archaeological evidence at previously excavated Clovis sites has suggested that many elephants were "lightly used." The disagreements are fueled in part by the small number (15) of known Clovis-elephant sites, and in part by divergent theoretical views on recent and past hunter-gatherer use of elephants. Dr. Huckell and his collaborators will undertake high-risk research to test the hypothesis that Clovis hunters did not thoroughly butcher the elephants they killed, and that they were sensitive to diminishing energetic returns of meat with continued butchering labor. Optimal foraging theory - and specifically the diet breadth and patch choice (prey-as-patch) models - underpin the research. The scientific merits of this project are two-fold. First will be excavation of the newly discovered Hartley Mammoth in northern New Mexico, which contains the bones of a single mammoth rapidly being exposed by erosion, and nearby on the surface, a Clovis point. Excavation - including paleoenvironmental studies - of the areas containing the bones and the nearby point will determine whether Clovis foragers killed this mammoth, and if so, how intensively they butchered it. The second aspect of scientific merit is that investigation of the Hartley Mammoth provides a point of departure to review the extent of Clovis butchering of mammoth and other elephant carcasses at 10 previously excavated sites. Archival records for spatially discrete, single elephant carcasses will be examined for patterning among the carcasses. Maps of each carcass will be digitized, bones will be identified to element, portion, and side, and the position of the animal in death, its age, and size will be determined. The positions, types, and numbers of associated lithic or other artifacts will be tallied. Broader impacts of this research will include educational and training benefits for the graduate student crew, and use of the site for master's degree research by a young woman. The project will publicize Gary Hartley's decision to share his discovery with scientists, which may encourage others to do the same in the future, thereby contributing to the enhancement of knowledge of the nation's history of human occupation.