Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Awards: Recursive Human - Environmental Interaction In An Estuary Setting

加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究生詹姆斯·丹尼尔斯将研究人类对环境压力的适应，以及随后环境对这些适应的反应。这种共同进化关系可以通过考古记录的研究，结合记录过去环境变化的自然沉积物和土壤剖面的研究来调查。对人类适应和人类对环境影响的综合研究可以深入了解环境如何对人类活动作出反应，以及这些反应对人类是有利还是有害。研究这些过程还可能提供对当前和未来人类影响的洞察，以及为环境和人类子孙后代带来最有利结果的人类适应类型。该项目的重点是向新大陆热带海岸定居的乡村生活的转变。丹尼尔斯先生将通过重点研究大约5000至3000年前在墨西哥恰帕斯南部太平洋海岸积累的考古和沉积记录，来研究这种背景下人类与环境之间的递归关系。这种湿地环境位于宽阔的屏障海滩后面，由红树林和泻湖组成，其中有丰富的考古记录，记录了古代和早期的形成时期。该项目将揭示古代和早期形成的居住者通过土地清理、种植和其他活动对环境的操纵如何影响河口-泻湖系统的稳定，并可能为定居村庄生活的出现创造条件。将探索的主要假设是，在古老的和最初的早期形成时期，内陆土地清理的增加促进了红树林河口的扩张，从而为早期形成的人创造了一个机会，以开发新的丰富的湿地资源，并最终制定更多的定居生存策略。调查将结合对红树林内小土丘的挖掘和对土丘下游障碍滩形成历史的研究。对这两个环境变化的准确年表将有助于重建环境最初被人类殖民时的样子，以及环境如何对最初和随后的人类影响做出反应。

James Daniels, a graduate student at the University of California San Diego, will examine human adaptations to environmental pressures and the subsequent environmental responses to those adaptations. This co-evolutionary relationship can be investigated via study of the archaeological record in conjunction with study of natural sediment and soil profiles that record changes in past environments. The combined study of human adaptation and human impacts on the environment can provide insight into how environments respond to human activities and whether those responses are beneficial or detrimental to humans. Studying these processes may also provide insight into current and future human impacts and the kinds of human adaptation that produce the most favorable outcomes for both the environment and future generations of humans. The project focuses on the shift to settled village life on tropical coasts of the New World. Mr. Daniels will investigate the recursive relationship between humans and their environment in this setting by focusing on the archaeological and sedimentary records that accumulated between approximately 5000 and 3000 years ago on the Pacific coast of southern Chiapas, Mexico. This wetland environment lies behind wide barrier beaches and consists of mangrove forests and lagoons within which there is a rich archaeological record of the Archaic and Early Formative periods. The project will unravel how Archaic and Early Formative occupants' manipulation of the environment through land clearance, planting, and other activities affected the stability of the estuary-lagoon system and may have created conditions conducive for the emergence of settled village life. The main hypothesis that will be explored is that increased inland land clearance during the Archaic and initial Early Formative periods contributed to the expansion of the mangrove estuary, thus creating an opportunity for Early Formative people to exploit a new abundance of wetland resources and ultimately to develop more sedentary subsistence strategies. The investigation will combine excavations on small mounds within the mangroves with examination of the history of barrier-beach formation downstream from the mounds. A precise chronology of changes in the two settings will facilitate reconstruction of what the environment was like when it was first colonized by people and how the environment responded to initial and subsequent human impacts.