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.

随着人口在以前的偏远地区的成长和定居下来，如何设法为当地人提供狩猎的长期访问而不会丧失生物多样性的问题，这变得越来越紧迫。 该项目为考古学提供了为这一重要当前问题做出贡献的机会。该项目将调查美国西南部（AD 750-1280）的人口如何适应人口密度和环境的变化，以适应动物的狩猎和饲养。研究人员将从梅萨佛得角的许多考古遗址中化学分析动物骨骼，以查看人们吃的动物来自哪里，并了解人们在喂这些动物的东西。这将使调查人员能够检查农民是否将驯养的火鸡与其他村庄交易，还是将自己的鸟类饲养为肉，无论是随着村庄的成长和食物而变得越来越困难，面对有据可查的气候波动，以及人们在大型游戏中对当地人的反应而变得越来越多的远处差异随着村庄的发展而变得更加难以生产，而随着村庄的发展变得越来越困难。在这项研究中了解人类需求与动物种群之间的平衡将提供有关在不同的空间和时间尺度上如何可持续的狩猎和饲养动物模式如何可持续的宝贵信息。因此，这些模式对现代野生动植物的管理和物种的保护具有重要意义。该项目还将包括对稳定同位素分析的研究生的支持和培训，以及重要的公共科学教育和外展工作。该项目使用锶，碳和氧同位素分析来检查动物动物的运输的程度以及动物源区域是否随着时间而变化。 对局部啮齿动物，植物和水样的分析将为大型地区建立空间诊断的同位素特征，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 - 链接动力学（在某些现代案例中狩猎可持续性的重要组成部分）是否可以在考古中进行长期访问，但仍能对人类进行大规模访问，从而可以对人类进行大规模访问。了解这些过程将为狩猎，动物提供和运输的某些模式的可持续性提供宝贵的见解。