Collaborative Research: Isotopic Signatures of Social Transformations in the US Southwest

合作研究：美国西南部社会转型的同位素特征

• 批准号: 1460436
• 负责人: Jeffrey Ferguson
• 金额: $ 16.02万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1460436&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Isotopic; Signatures; Social

As human populations grow and settle in formerly remote regions, questions about how hunting can be managed to provide long-term access to animals for local people without loss of biodiversity are becoming increasingly urgent. This project is an opportunity for archaeology to contribute to this important current issue. The project will investigate how human populations in the US Southwest (AD 750-1280) adapted their hunting and raising of animals in response to changes in population density and the environment. The investigators will chemically analyze animal bones from a number of archaeological sites in the Mesa Verde area to see where the animals that people ate came from and to understand what people were feeding those animals. This will allow the investigators to examine whether farmers traded domesticated turkeys with other villages or raised their own birds for meat, whether the amount of domesticated maize (corn) people fed their turkey flocks changed as villages grew and as food became harder to produce in the face of documented climate fluctuations, and whether people responded to local declines in large game abundance by getting animals from more distant places. Understanding the balance between human demands and animal populations in this study will provide valuable information about how different patterns of hunting and raising animals are sustainable at different spatial and temporal scales. These patterns therefore have important implications for modern-day wildlife management and conservation of species. The project will also include support and training of a graduate student in stable isotope analysis and significant public science education and outreach efforts.In the Mesa Verde region of the US Southwest, increasing human population aggregation and shifting settlement locations from AD 750 through 1280 were accompanied by growing pressure on local food resources that are thought to have led to heightened social tensions, episodes of violence, and subsequent regional depopulation. This project uses strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope analysis to examine the extent to which transport of fauna took place and whether animal source areas changed over time. The analysis of local rodents, plants, and water samples will establish spatially diagnostic isotopic signatures for a large region that will allow archaeological faunal samples to be linked with likely procurement regions and assessment of whether source-sink dynamics (an important component of hunting sustainability in some modern cases) operated archaeologically, allowing sustainable long-term access to large game despite centuries of localized human impacts on these animals. Understanding these processes will provide valuable insights into the sustainability of certain patterns of hunting, animal provisioning, and transport.

随着人口增长并在以前的偏远地区定居，如何管理狩猎，为当地人提供长期接触动物的机会，同时又不丧失生物多样性，这一问题变得越来越紧迫。 这个项目是考古学为当前这一重要问题做出贡献的机会。该项目将调查美国西南部（公元 750-1280 年）的人类如何适应狩猎和饲养动物以应对人口密度和环境的变化。研究人员将对梅萨维德地区多个考古遗址的动物骨骼进行化学分析，以了解人们食用的动物来自哪里，并了解人们用什么喂养这些动物。这将使调查人员能够检查农民是否与其他村庄进行驯养火鸡交易或自己饲养火鸡作为肉类，人们饲养火鸡群的驯化玉米数量是否随着村庄的发展和食物生产变得更加困难而变化。面对记录在案的气候波动，以及人们是否通过从更远的地方获取动物来应对当地大型动物数量的下降。在这项研究中了解人类需求和动物种群之间的平衡将为了解不同的狩猎和饲养动物模式如何在不同的空间和时间尺度上可持续提供有价值的信息。因此，这些模式对现代野生动物管理和物种保护具有重要意义。该项目还将包括对稳定同位素分析方面的研究生的支持和培训以及重要的公共科学教育和推广工作。在美国西南部的梅萨维德地区，伴随着公元 750 年至 1280 年人口聚集的增加和定居点的转移当地粮食资源面临的压力越来越大，这被认为导致了社会紧张局势加剧、暴力事件以及随后的区域人口减少。该项目利用锶、碳和氧同位素分析来检查动物群运输发生的程度以及动物来源地区是否随时间变化。 对当地啮齿动物、植物和水样本的分析将为一个大区域建立空间诊断同位素特征，这将使考古动物样本与可能的采购区域联系起来，并评估源-汇动态（狩猎可持续性的重要组成部分）是否存在。尽管几个世纪以来人类对这些动物产生了局部影响，但考古学上的运作使得人们能够长期可持续地接触大型动物。了解这些过程将为了解某些狩猎、动物供应和运输模式的可持续性提供有价值的见解。