Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Chemical Analysis to Determine Container Content

狩猎采集者使用陶器的情况仍然是一个引人注目的考古学话题。北美最古老的陶器的制造者和使用者在考古学的观点中占据突出地位，这些观点涉及全球狩猎采集社会如何以及为什么通过使用耐用，高度适应性的技术来应对不断变化的环境条件和新的社会状况。然而，尽管考古学家知道这些陶器是在何时、何地以及如何使用的，但他们不知道这些早期陶瓷是用来做什么的。目前还没有直接证据表明这种创新加工的食品类型。为了解决这一差距，该项目的目标是分析保存在这种陶器墙壁内的残留物。这项研究标志着第一次尝试用化学方法分析资源，以记录从移动的到定居定居的转变中食物的变化。这项研究的结果有可能阐明影响可持续土地利用的定居点做法和食物之间的联系。在地球仪各地，考古学家正在与土著社区合作，记录和恢复古老的食物通道，以帮助改善和维持粮食安全。在殖民历史上，土著人民被迫迁移，破坏了传统的土地使用和食物来源，这一潜力受到阻碍。在那些与祖先有联系的人中，有切罗基人、契卡索人和克里克人的后裔。在现有的美国原住民坟墓保护和遣返法（NAGPRA）与佛罗里达的塞米诺尔部落，溪的后裔的关系的基础上，该项目的结果将被纳入佛罗里达大学土著考古学发展研究生证书课程。在这个博士论文研究项目中，研究生正在进行从移动的到定居的过渡时期的陶器有机残留物分析。围绕这一转变，将对来自多个地点的陶瓷碎片样品进行有机残留物分析，以确定社区定居之前和之后用陶器加工的食品类型。构建有机残留物分析的假设是，容器形式的多样化在这一过渡反映了容器使用的专业化程度的提高，特别是其中加工的食品类型的变化。为了支持对考古残留物的分析，拟议的研究包括间接加热烹饪的受控实验。这些基准参考数据增强了对考古有机残留物中记录的食物通道变化的解释，当置于更广泛的背景下时，有助于全球狩猎采集陶器的生物标志物数据库的不断增长。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Circumstances surrounding the use of pottery among hunter-gatherers continues to be a compelling archaeological topic. The makers and users of North America’s oldest pottery figure prominently in archaeological perspectives on how and why hunter-gatherer societies worldwide responded to changing environmental conditions and novel social situations through the use of durable, highly adaptable technologies. However, despite knowing when, where, and how such pottery was used, archaeologists do not know what these early ceramics were used for. There is currently no direct evidence available for the types of foods processed with this innovation. To address this gap the goal of this project is to analyze the residues preserved within such pottery walls. This research marks the first attempt to chemically analyze the resources to document changes in foodways attending the shift from mobile to sedentary settlement which occurred. The results of this research have the potential to illuminate the connection between settlement practices and foodways that affect sustainable land use. In places across the globe, archaeologists are collaborating with Indigenous communities to document and revive ancient foodways to help improve and sustain food security. This potential is hampered where colonial histories of forced removal of Indigenous people disrupted traditional land use and foodways. Among those with ancestral ties are descendants of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek. Building on existing Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) relations with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, descendants of the Creek, the results of this project will be incorporated into the curriculum of a developing graduate certificate program in Indigenous Archaeology at the university of Florida. In this doctoral dissertation research project the graduate student is conducting pottery organic residue analyses spanning the transition from mobile to sedentary settlement. Focusing on this transition, organic residue analysis will be conducted on samples of ceramic sherds from multiple sites to determine the types of foods processed with pottery vessels both before and after communities were sedentary. Structuring the organic residue analysis is the hypothesis that diversification of vessel form over this transition reflects increased specialization in vessel use, notably changes in the types of foods processed therein. In support of analyses of archaeological residues, the proposed research includes controlled experiments in indirect-heat cooking. These baseline reference data enhance the interpretation of changes in foodways registered in archaeological organic residues that, when placed into broader contexts, contribute to the growing biomarker database of hunter-gatherer pottery worldwide.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.