EAGER: Upward Sun River (Xaasaa Na') Exploratory Excavation

渴望：向上太阳河 (Xaasaa Na) 探索性发掘

• 批准号: 1138811
• 负责人: Ben Potter
• 金额: $ 8.9万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-15 至 2012-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1138811&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Upward; Sun; River; Xaasaa

This project consists of excavation of a residential structure associated with a burial/cremation pit feature, well-dated to 10,000 RCYBP (~11,500 calendar years ago) found by our team last summer at Upward Sun River (Xaasaa Na?) (49XBD-298), a multi-component site in the Tanana Basin, central Alaska. The feature is in buried contexts, over 1 meter below surface, in deposits relatively undisturbed by cryoturbation. After consultation with federal, state, and Native officials (stipulated in the Section 106 MOA), all parties agreed to excavation of the feature. Four additional features (to the burial/cremation pit) have been observed to date, and all appear to be outdoor unlined firepits. This proposed excavation is designed to excavate the residential structure, and collect additional geoarchaeological samples to increase our knowledge of site formation, post-depositional disturbance, technology, and subsistence, as well as to specifically evaluate the child cremation to the rest of the structure. At present, no burials have been found in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene contexts in Eastern Beringia, so our knowledge of an entire suite of mortuary-related behaviors is essentially unknown. This excavation has the potential to contribute transformative data to our understanding of this time period in the Western Hemisphere.

该项目由与埋葬/火葬场相关的住宅结构进行发掘，该特征良好至10,000 rcybp（〜11,500年的日历前），我们的团队去年夏天在Uphard Sun River（Xaasaa na？）（49xbd-298） ），阿拉斯加中部塔纳纳盆地的多组分地点。该特征是在表面以上以上以上超过1米处的埋藏的背景下，在相对不受冷冻扰动的矿床中。在与联邦，州和本地官员协商（在第106条MOA中规定）之后，所有各方都同意对该功能进行挖掘。 迄今为止，已经观察到了另外四个功能（到埋葬/火葬场），并且所有功能似乎都是户外无衬里的壁炉。该提出的发掘旨在挖掘住宅结构，并收集其他地理学样本，以增加我们对现场形成，沉积后紊乱，技术和生存的了解，并专门评估儿童火化到其余结构。目前，在贝林西亚东部的更新世/全新世的晚期环境中尚未发现埋葬，因此我们对整个与太平间相关行为套件的了解本质上是未知的。该发掘有可能为我们对西半球这段时期的理解做出变革性数据。