Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Human Adaptation to a Variable Environment

这一博士论文项目的目标是更全面地了解自晚更新世以来北部大盆地的人与环境的相互作用。古民族植物学是考古学中一个迅速发展的领域，研究过去人与植物之间的关系，该项目使用古代篮子中的古民族植物学遗迹来探索植物与社会之间的关系。对大盆地洞穴和岩石掩体的考古挖掘共同产生了世界上最大的纺织文物收藏品之一。研究小组将确定用于纺织品的植物材料，从晚更新世到晚全新世，以研究人们如何随着时间的推移利用植物群落，并研究植物选择如何与已知的环境条件和该地区不断变化的定居-生存模式有关。在这个地区，有关用于篮筐的本土植物的传统生态知识(TEK)正在不断演变。这项研究提供了具有重要文化意义的本土植物的重要长期数据，并支持19世纪和当代克拉马斯、莫多克和北派尤特篮子的传统编织的连续性。为了实现这一目标，该项目资助部落成员合作为俄勒冈大学自然和文化历史博物馆(MNCH)提供展览内容，为本科生提供实验室援助和纤维鉴定、放射性碳测年和考古植物分析方面的培训，并通过MNCH考古纺织品数据库在线提供项目结果。俄勒冈州东部的佩斯利洞穴考古遗址在14,000多年的时间里曾在不同时期被占领，是北美最古老的遗址之一。其中一些最重要的发现是一个纺织文物组合，编号为500个标本，其中包括精细的绳索和线，网，绳子，篮子，席子和凉鞋。几千年来，生活在大盆地北部的小群体依赖湖岸沼泽生态系统、季节性泉水和干旱的旱地草原灌木带在不同季节提供生存和纤维材料。考古和古环境数据表明，从洞穴和岩石避难所到靠近永久湖泊和池塘的露天地点的过渡与更潮湿或更干旱的气候变化有关，在整个全新世，洪涝湖岸的水位要么在不同的时间上升，要么下降。研究人员使用已识别的植物分类群来补充已知的关于不断变化的生存制度和定居组织的信息，这些已被假定为对这些气候变化的反应。选择用于纺织建设的植物也有助于人们了解湿地和高地生境的季节性使用情况。为该项目开发的纤维鉴定程序，包括偏振光和带有元素分析的扫描电子显微镜，更广泛地促进了考古植物学方法的发展。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。

The goal of this doctoral dissertation project is to understand human-environmental interactions more fully in the Northern Great Basin since the late Pleistocene era. Paleoethnobotany is a rapidly developing field within archaeology that examines the relationship between people and plants in the past, and this project uses paleoethnobotanical remains from ancient basketry to explore the relationship between plants and societies. Archaeological excavation of caves and rock shelters in the Great Basin have collectively produced one of the largest textile artifact collections in the world. The research team will identify plant materials used in textiles, spanning the late Pleistocene through late Holocene eras to examine how people utilized plant communities over time and to study how plant selection relates to known environmental conditions and changing settlement-subsistence models for this region. In this region traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) about native plants used in basketry is constantly evolving. This research provides important long-term data on culturally significant indigenous plants and supports continuity of traditional weaving evident in nineteenth century and contemporary Klamath, Modoc, and Northern Paiute basketry. To achieve this, the project funds tribal member collaboration for exhibit content for the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH), undergraduate student laboratory assistance and training in fiber identification, radiocarbon dating, and archaeobotanical analysis, with project results made available on-line through the MNCH archaeological textile database. The archaeological site of Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon has been occupied at various periods in time over a span of more than 14,000 years and is one of the oldest sites in North America. Among some of the most significant finds is a textile artifact assemblage numbering 500 specimens that includes fine cordage and thread, netting, rope, basketry, matting, and sandals. For millennia, small groups living in the Northern Great Basin relied on lakeshore marsh ecosystems, seasonal springs, and dry upland steppe shrub zones for subsistence and fiber materials during different seasons. Archaeological and paleoenvironmental data suggest transitions between cave and rock shelters to open-air locales close to permanent lakes and ponds relate to wetter or more arid climatic shifts, in which pluvial lakeshore levels either rose or fell at different times throughout the Holocene. Researchers use identified plant taxa to augment what is known about changing subsistence regimes and settlement organization which have been posited as responses to these climatic changes. Plant selection for textile construction also contributes to what is known about seasonal use of wetland and upland habitats. Fiber identification procedures developed for this project, including polarized light and scanning electron microscopy with elemental analysis, advance archaeobotanical methods more generally.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.