Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeological Investigation of the Jaketown Site: A Late Archaic Poverty Point Settlement in the Lower Mississippi Valley

博士论文改进补助金：杰克敦遗址的地质考古调查：密西西比河谷下游的一个晚期古代贫困点定居点

• 批准号: 0827097
• 负责人: Tristram Kidder
• 金额: $ 1.12万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0827097&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Geoarchaeological

Archaeological research of the Poverty Point culture (ca. 3800-3000 Cal B.P.) in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) has contributed much to the understanding of prehistoric hunter and gatherer social organization. During the Late Archaic Poverty Point Period, construction of monumental architecture, extensive long-distance trade, technological developments, and elaboration of lapidary arts reached scales unprecedented in the prehistory of eastern North America. Recent archaeological and geologic investigations in the LMV have identified evidence of catastrophic flooding and attendant fluvial reorganization (ca. 3000-2500 Cal B.P.) that are thought to be implicated in the dissolution of the Poverty Point culture. However, our understanding of this exceptional hunter-gatherer culture and the fluvial events temporally correlated with its demise are primarily based on research conducted at the Poverty Point site and proximate settlements and/or regions within the Tensas Basin of northeast Louisiana. The lack of comprehensive data sets from more distant communities and regions throughout the LMV has limited understanding of Poverty Point society and the interplay between the dynamic alluvial environment of the Mississippi River and prehistoric settlement, human behavior, and cultural processes in the region.The proposed dissertation research project will employ geoarchaeological methods to investigate the occupation chronology, intra-site stratigraphy, and the depositional and geomorphologic history of the Jaketown site in the Yazoo Basin of west-central Mississippi. Jaketown is the second largest extant Poverty Point settlement and the Yazoo Basin contains the majority of all known Poverty Point sites. However, many questions related to the site remain unanswered and much about the Late Archaic culture in the region remains unclear. The site-scale data acquired from Jaketown will represent one of the few comprehensive data sets on a Poverty Point site and constitute a first step towards expanding our regional understanding of Poverty Point culture and knowledge of prehistoric human-landscape interactions in the dynamic LMV floodplain. Fundamental goals of archaeological research include the explanation of cultural processes and transformations as well as the investigation of sources and roles of change within social, political, economic, and cultural systems. In addition to refining understanding of Jaketown, the site-scale data acquired through the proposed research will allow these broader research issues to be addressed on a regional scale. Results of the proposed project will permit comparative analysis of the occupation histories of Jaketown and the Poverty Point site, advancing understanding of the regional chronology, diachronic development, and trajectory of the two principal settlements within the Poverty Point interaction sphere. In addition to addressing these archaeological issues, the research at Jaketown will have several broader beneficial impacts. Results of the project will be widely disseminated to the academic and public communities and will provide updated archaeological information, maps, and photographs for the local Jaketown interpretive museum in Belzoni, Mississippi. Field investigations will integrate undergraduate student participation, providing the irreplaceable educational experience of field-based research. Students will receive training in archaeological field methods, will learn about the archaeology of the region, and will be well-informed of the research project in which they are engaged. The research at Jaketown will also promote public interest and education in archaeology through collaboration with the Jaketown interpretive museum and through interaction with the local community during field investigations.

密西西比州山谷（LMV）的贫困点文化的考古研究（约3800-3000 Cal B.P.）为理解史前猎人和收集者社会组织做出了很大的贡献。在古老的贫困点期间，建造纪念性建筑，广泛的长途贸易，技术发展和阐述的lapidartart艺术，在北美东部的史前历史上达到了前所未有的规模。 LMV中最近进行的考古和地质研究已经确定了灾难性洪水和随之而来的河流重组（约3000-2500 Cal B.P.）的证据，这些证据被认为与贫困点文化的消散有关。但是，我们对这种特殊的狩猎 - 采集者文化的理解和河流事件在时间上与其灭亡相关，主要是基于在路易斯安那州东北东部盆地内的贫困点和近端定居点和/或地区进行的研究。整个LMV中缺乏来自更遥远的社区和地区的全面数据集，对贫困点社会以及密西西比河的动态冲积环境与史前的冲积环境之间的相互作用有限密西西比州中西部Yazoo盆地的Jaketown遗址。贾克敦（Jaketown）是第二大现有的贫困点定居点，Yazoo盆地包含所有已知贫困点的大多数。但是，许多与该网站有关的问题仍然没有得到答复，并且关于该地区晚期的古老文化的很多问题尚不清楚。从Jaketown获得的场地尺度数据将代表贫困点站点上为数不多的综合数据集之一，并构成了扩大我们对贫困点文化的区域理解和对动态LMV洪水中史前人类景观相互作用的了解的第一步。考古研究的基本目标包括解释文化过程和转型，以及对社会，政治，经济和文化体系中变化的来源和角色的调查。除了完善对Jaketown的了解外，通过拟议的研究获得的场地尺度数据还将允许在区域范围内解决这些更广泛的研究问题。拟议项目的结果将允许对贾克敦（Jaketown）和贫困点部位的职业历史进行比较分析，以促进对贫困点相互作用领域中两个主要定居点的区域年表，历时性发展和轨迹的理解。 除了解决这些考古问题外，Jaketown的研究还将产生一些更广泛的有益影响。该项目的结果将被广泛传播到学术和公共社区，并将为密西西比州贝尔佐尼当地的Jaketown解释博物馆提供更新的考古信息，地图和照片。现场调查将整合本科生的参与，从而提供基于现场研究的不可替代的教育经验。学生将接受考古领域方法的培训，将了解该地区的考古学，并对他们参与的研究项目有很好的信息。 Jaketown的研究还将通过与Jaketown解释博物馆的合作以及在现场调查期间与当地社区的互动来促进考古学的公共利益和教育。