Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Effect of Environment Change in Settlement Occupation and Abandonment

该奖项允许博士论文学生进行环境考古研究，以了解人们如何在湿地环境中与当地环境相互作用。以前的研究往往将社会的兴衰与气候模式的改善和恶化联系起来。了解这些问题至关重要，因为气候变化在现代影响着世界各国。然而，由于缺乏本地化的细粒度数据，这些研究往往低估了人类和社会对气候和环境变化的适应能力。在这方面，环境考古学特别具有启发性，因为它涉及收集和解释与考古发现（地理上和时间上）非常接近的环境数据。在湿地等敏感和脆弱的环境中，气候变化甚至会通过降水和温度的微小波动来重塑景观。从考古学的长期角度来看，人们通过技术创新和食物多样化来适应新的环境。人类的这种适应也会造成环境后果。该项目揭示了人类适应，环境后果和人类与环境相互作用的长期可持续性之间的复杂反馈回路。研究人员旨在促进他们与当今居民之间的知识交流，加深他们对管理当地环境和促进环境可持续性的理解。学生调查人类行为和定居点如何随着环境的变化而演变，特别是在一个研究区域波动的湖泊水位。考古遗址位于高原湖泊的边缘，是该地区最早的人类定居点之一。该遗址被持续占据了一千多年，约3600和2300 cal. BP之间，提供了一个独特的机会来探索人类占领之前，期间和之后的环境变化。由于研究区沉积作用和构造活动的活跃，考古学沉积物深埋于地下。为了重建环境条件，研究人员使用取芯技术从过去取回土壤样本，并在实验室中进行分析。通过将环境数据与遗址内的发现进行比较，研究人员可以区分变化是否由人类或气候事件引起，以及这些变化是否足以使遗址无法居住。这项研究填补了世界这一地区环境考古学的差距。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award permits a doctoral dissertation student conduct environmental archaeological research to understand how people interacted with their local environments in a wetland setting. Previous studies have often linked the rise and fall of societies to improvements and deterioration in climatic patterns. Understanding these issues is critical as climate change affects countries worldwide in modern times. However, these studies tend to underestimate human and social resilience to climatic and environmental changes due to the lack of localized, fine-grained data. In this regard, environmental archaeology is particularly enlightening since it involves the collection and interpretation of environmental data in close proximity (both geographically and temporally) to archaeological discoveries. In sensitive and fragile environments such as wetlands, climate change reshapes the landscape even by a small fluctuation of precipitation and temperature. From the long-term perspective of archaeology, people adapted to the new environments through technological innovation and food diversification. This human adaptation also causes environmental consequences. This project sheds light on the complex feedback loop between human adaptation, environmental consequences, and the long-term sustainability of human-environmental interactions. The researchers aim to facilitate knowledge exchange between themselves and today's residents, deepening their understanding of managing the local environments and promoting environmental sustainability. The student investigates how human behavior and settlements evolved with changing environments, particularly the fluctuating lake levels in one study area. The archaeological site is located on the edge of a highland lake, and it is one of the earliest human settlements in the region. The site was continuously occupied for over a millennium, between ~3600 and 2300 cal. BP, providing a unique opportunity to explore environmental changes before, during, and after human occupation. Due to active sedimentation and tectonic activities in the study area, archaeological deposits are buried deeply underground. To reconstruct the environmental conditions, the researchers use coring to retrieve soil samples from the past and analyze them in the laboratory. By comparing the environmental data with findings within the site, the researchers can distinguish whether changes were induced by human or climatic events and whether the changes were significant enough to render the site uninhabitable. This research fills in the gap of environmental archaeology in this part of the world.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.