Doctoral Dissertation Research: Characterizing Poverty Point lithic networks during the Archaic Period in the Lower Mississippi River Valley through analytical chert sourcing

这个博士论文项目使用Chert起源数据来评估远古时期生活在密西西比河下游(LMV)的人群之间的贸易、收购和交换的规模。贫困点遗址拥有丰富、深远和多样化的工具石获取网络，其叙事被描述为神秘，但没有从时间-文化的角度充分检验这种模式的持久性。在过去，识别石器文物的来源依赖于主观且往往不准确的视觉识别，但更多的分析仪器消除了很大程度的不确定性。在比较东南部中晚期古遗址的原材料多样性时，可能会出现区域文化的连续性或随着时间的推移对隐晶外来物质的交换和对碎屑的处理不妥协的模式。利用具有文化意义的遗址的精选集合体可以最大限度地减少挖掘对文化资源的不利影响，但需要系统的采样方法，以确保考古文物集合体之间的可比性。研究古代硅质岩资源网络是一项跨学科的工作，依赖于考古学、地质学和矿物学领域以及定量分析，这是对贫困点和相关文化遗址的人们获取广泛但未被充分研究的硅质岩资源的一项重大任务。这项研究有助于更广泛的公众受众，通过制作将与贫困点世界遗产遗址的游客分享并公开提供的信息，让人们与科学和技术接触。这项非破坏性研究是对LMV中古老时期的第一个分析性硅质岩来源研究的继续，为其他关于原材料采购、流动性和技术组织的调查提供了一个模板。这项研究将有助于公众更好地了解复杂的狩猎-采集者，并提供有关数据，说明建造贫困点的人是否与早期文化时期占领该地区的人利用相同的硅石资源网络。这种方法可以应用于LMV古生代组合中的考古调查，以及过去使用硅质岩来源的地方。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 doctoral dissertation project uses chert provenance data to assess the scale of trade, acquisition, and exchange between groups of people living in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) during the Archaic period. The narrative of the Poverty Point site, with its abundant, far-reaching, and diverse tool stone acquisition network, has been characterized as enigmatic without fully testing the longevity of this pattern from a temporal-cultural perspective. In the past, identifying the origin of lithic artifacts relied on the subjective and often inaccurate use of visual identification, but more analytical instrumentation removes much of the uncertainty. In comparing raw material diversity among southeastern Middle and Late Archaic sites, possible patterns of regional cultural continuity or intransigence through time concerning the exchange of cryptocrystalline exotics and the treatment of debitage will emerge. Utilizing curated assemblages from sites of cultural significance minimizes the detrimental effects of excavation on cultural resources but requires a systematic approach to sampling to ensure comparability among archaeological artifact assemblages.Examining Archaic chert resource networks is interdisciplinary relying on the fields of archaeology, geology, and mineralogy, as well as quantitative analyses, representing a significant undertaking into the extensive, yet under-researched, acquisition of chert resources by people at Poverty Point and related cultural sites. The research contributes to the wider public audience, engaging people with science and technology by producing information that will be shared with visitors to the Poverty Point World Heritage Site and made publicly available. This non-destructive research is a continuation of the first analytical chert provenance study of the Archaic period in the LMV, providing a template for other investigations of raw material procurement, mobility, and the organization of technology. The research will contribute to a greater public understanding of complex hunter-gatherers and provides data relevant to whether the people who built Poverty Point utilized the same chert resource networks as those who occupied the region during earlier cultural periods. This approach can be applied to archaeological investigations in the LMV Archaic period assemblages and wherever chert sources were employed in the past.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.