Ancient Hunters and the Lake Stanley Causeway: A Pilot Study

古代猎人和斯坦利湖堤道：试点研究

• 批准号: 0829324
• 负责人: John O'Shea
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 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: 2008-08-01 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0829324&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ancient; Hunters; Lake; Stanley; Causeway

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. John M. O'Shea and a team of colleagues will conduct an initial field season to investigate ancient archaeological sites located beneath Lake Huron. The team brings together students and faculty from Anthropology, Naval Engineering and Computer Science in a collaborative effort to investigate camps, settlement and caribou ambush sites that have been submerged and protected by the waters of Lake Huron. With the retreat of the continental ice sheets, the early Great Lakes experienced a series of rapid rises and drops of water level. Roughly ten thousand years ago, the lakes reached an extremely low level, perhaps 100 meters lower than modern lake levels, which is termed the Lake Stanley Phase. At that time, the basin of modern Lake Huron held two lakes, separated by a large ridge of land running northwest to southeast across the basin. The causeway was some ten miles wide and presented a mix of sandy shorelines, rocky outcrops and open stands of spruce. Given its orientation it seems likely that it would have provided an important route for the annual migrations of the caribou herds, and natural ambush points for early hunters. With the further withdrawal of the continental ice sheets and changes in lake outlets, this unique landscape disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Huron, preserving the traces of the early hunters.The survey will employ a novel layered strategy to locate ancient sites. This search strategy includes sophisticated environmental modeling, acoustic survey with side scan sonar, acoustic and visual survey using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), site inspection and sampling using remote operated vehicles (ROVs) and the potential direct examination of sites by archaeologists trained in the use of SCUBA. The Lake Stanley survey will provide important new information at both theoretical and substantive levels. The intellectual merit of the research is the potential for recovering intact sites from a time period that is very poorly known on land in the Great Lakes region. It will be the first time that submerged occupation sites of Lake Stanley age have been found in the deep waters of the Great Lakes and will allow an entire range of current models for Late Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic settlement and subsistence practices to be tested.The broader impacts of the study are that it will result in the creation of simulation models of early communities and the ancient landscape that will provide an important tool for both research and public education, and will test the utility of a search approach that may be broadly applicable to underwater archaeological searches in many parts of the world. Additionally, the research will almost certainly result in the discovery of shipwrecks, aircraft and other items of historic importance lost in the depths of Lake Huron. Finally, the research program will foster the collaborative interaction of computer scientists, naval engineers and archaeologists as they adapt existing capabilities, equipment and approaches to a novel research problem. These interdisciplinary benefits will be spread among faculty, graduate students and undergraduates in all three programs.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，John M. O'Shea博士和一支同事团队将进行初始的实地季节，调查位于休伦湖下方的古老考古遗址。 该团队汇集了人类学，海军工程和计算机科学的学生和教职员工，以调查被休伦湖水域淹没和保护的营地，定居点和驯鹿伏击地点。 随着大陆冰盖的撤退，早期的大湖经历了一系列快速上升和水位。 大约一万年前，湖泊达到了极低的水平，可能比现代湖泊低100米，该湖泊被称为斯坦利湖阶段。 当时，现代休伦湖的盆地占据了两个湖泊，被西北向西南横跨盆地东南的大山脊隔开。 堤道宽约十英里，呈现出沙质海岸线，岩石露头和开放的云杉架的混合物。 鉴于其定向，它似乎可能为驯鹿牛群的年度迁移和早期猎人的自然伏击点提供了重要的途径。 随着大陆冰盖的进一步撤离和湖泊插座的变化，这种独特的景观消失在休伦湖的水下，保留了早期猎人的痕迹。该调查将采用一种新颖的分层策略来定位古代地点。 该搜索策略包括复杂的环境建模，侧面扫描声纳的声学调查，使用自动驾驶水下车辆（AUV）的声学和视觉调查，使用远程手术车辆（ROV）的现场检查和采样，以及受过培训的Scuba训练的考古学家对现场的潜在直接检查。斯坦利湖调查将在理论和实质性水平上提供重要的新信息。 这项研究的智力优点是从大湖地区的土地上众所周知的时期中恢复完整的地点的潜力。 这将是第一次在大湖的深水中找到史丹利湖时代的淹没占领地点，并将允许测试整个最新的古印度和早期古代和古老的定居点和生存实践的当前模型，该研究的广泛影响将导致建立早期社区的模拟工具，并为远古的工具提供了一个重要的景点工具，并具有重要的景点工具，并具有重要的模拟工具，并具有重要的景点工具，并具有重要的模拟工具和重要的工具。一种可能广泛适用于世界许多地方的水下考古搜索的搜索方法。 此外，这项研究几乎可以肯定会导致在休伦湖深处发现沉船，飞机和其他历史重要性的物品。 最后，研究计划将促进计算机科学家，海军工程师和考古学家的协作互动，因为它们将现有能力，设备和方法调整为新的研究问题。 这些跨学科的福利将在所有三个计划中的教职员工，研究生和本科生之间传播。