REU Site: Bioarchaeology of Bronze Age Social Systems

该项目由社会、行为和经济科学局(SBE)的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。它兼具科学和社会效益，它将研究和教育融为一体。青铜时代社会系统的生物考古学REU计划支持国家招收的本科生的多样化，他们从事从假设形成到数据收集、分析、公共宣传和出版的整个研究过程。学生团队与充满活力的科学家和专业人员组成的跨学科小组合作，同时对两个青铜时代的骨骼收藏进行原创研究，研究在日益全球化的青铜时代，社会复杂性的替代途径如何体现在人类骨骼中，并反映在太平间实践中。这些生物考古方法中的许多也适用于法医人类学，通过说明它们的实用性和准确性，学生们可能有助于推动在涉及混合遗骸的当代刑事案件中使用更准确的人口统计学技术。学生还接受关于如何有效地向学者和更广泛的公众传播他们的研究成果的培训，同时参与有关处理人类遗骸的道德问题的讨论。参与者同样通过客座科学家和在南阿拉巴马大学设立的夏季本科生研究研讨会获得专业发展方面的指导。在会议演示之前，学生与当地社区成员互动，使用每周博客、社交媒体帖子、海报和数字故事来分享他们的项目成果。这个项目主要关注公元前2700-2000年的两个大型骨骼收藏。这些青铜时代的社区并没有发展高度分层的社会制度，而是维持着以部落为基础、以亲属为基础的社会组织制度。随后，对这些骨架的分析为深入研究所谓的边缘人口抵制分层、适应环境变化和谈判自己的身份的社会经济、政治和环境环境提供了一个独特的机会。学生们与顶尖学者合作，使用创新的技术，很好地适应与混合收藏工作的挑战，以回答关于该地区不断变化的殡葬做法和人类生活方式的问题，并更广泛地将这些社会轨迹与其他地方的复杂路径进行比较。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). It has both scientific and societal benefits, and it integrates research and education. The Bioarchaeology of Bronze Age Social Systems REU program supports a diverse pool of nationally recruited undergraduates engaged in the entire research process from hypothesis formation to data collection, analysis, public outreach, and publication. Teams of students collaborate with an interdisciplinary group of dynamic scientists and professionals while conducting original research on two Bronze Age skeletal collections, examining how alternative pathways to social complexity during an increasingly globalized Bronze Age were embodied in the human skeleton and reflected in mortuary practices. Many of these bioarchaeological methods have applications to forensic anthropology as well, and by illustrating their utility and accuracy, students may contribute to advancing the use of more accurate demographic techniques in contemporary criminal cases involving commingled remains. Students also receive training on how to effectively disseminate their research results to both academics and the broader public all while engaging in discussions surrounding the ethics of working with human remains. Participants similarly receive mentorship in professional development via guest scientists and with established summer undergraduate research workshops at the University of South Alabama. Prior to conference presentations, students engage with members of the local community to share their project findings using weekly blogs, social media posts, posters, and digital stories. This project focuses on two large skeletal collections dating to 2700-2000 BCE. These Bronze Age communities did not develop highly stratified social systems, but instead maintained tribal, kin-based systems of social organization. Subsequently, an analysis of these skeletons presents a unique opportunity for an in-depth examination of the socioeconomic, political, and environmental circumstances in which so-called peripheral populations resisted stratification, adapted to environmental change, and negotiated their own identities. Students collaborate with top scholars and use innovative techniques well-suited to the challenges of working with commingled collections to answer questions about changing mortuary practices and human lifeways in this region, but also to more broadly compare these social trajectories to paths of complexity taken elsewhere.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.