Collaborative Research: An examination of human social and cultural adaptation through archaeological and paleoclimate data from the Aleutian Islands

合作研究：通过阿留申群岛的考古和古气候数据检查人类社会和文化适应

• 批准号: 1522972
• 负责人: Catherine West
• 金额: $ 36.93万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-15 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1522972&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; examination; human; social

Archaeologists have expended a lot of research effort trying to determine whether or not periods of past climate change had a significant effect on human populations. In the case of coastal Alaska over the past several thousand years, the available data indicate that for the most part, the answer has been "not much" - the marine ecosystem seems to have remained relatively stable, even through periods of climate change such as the Medieval Warm Period and the so-called "Little Ice Age". The one exception to this generalization is found on Unalaska Island, in the eastern Aleutians. At about 4000 years ago, ringed seals, which are an ice-adapted species, made up a significant portion of the subsistence base. This suggests that temperatures were substantially colder than they are today. However, many of the species that are common in the area today (in the absence of significant levels of sea ice) were also an important part of the subsistence economy 4000 years ago. This research aims to try to address this apparent contradiction; was it cold and icy? Or was it generally more temperate, much as it is today? To do so, the scientists will (a) study the growth patterns and shell chemistry of modern and archaeological butter clams, which will give us an indication of what the water conditions were like. They will also (b) conduct a detailed analysis of all of the species present in the archaeological midden sites, including the age composition of what was being harvested, as an indication of what the environmental conditions were like. And, finally, they will (c) conduct a detailed analysis of the artifacts associated with marine mammal hunting to determine the likelihood that hunters 4000 years ago developed a specialized toolkit for hunting in the sea ice.As coastal communities throughout the Arctic face important decisions regarding the possibility of major climate change, the research team believes that it will be important to have some "test cases" that provide information on how various communities have responded to climate change in the past. The archaeological sites on Unalaska Island provide nearly 4000 years worth of data of adaptation to past climate change; data that are directly relevant to understanding the challenges of future climate change.This project will investigate the effects of Late Holocene climate change on animal biodiversity and human foraging activity in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. This three-year, interdisciplinary study will use zooarchaeological, paleoenvironmental, biological, and oceanographic data to test the hypothesis that fluctuations in Late Holocene climate significantly affected local environments, ecosystems, and human hunting strategy in the eastern Aleutian Islands. This interdisciplinary project will apply models of human foraging behavior to research human-animal-environmental interactions in the context of climate change using three major lines of evidence: 1) growth patterns and stable oxygen isotopes in archaeological shellfish will be used to reconstruct the local paleoenvironment; 2) archaeological faunal material from several taxonomic groups will be used to test whether animal distribution and behavior have changed through time in response to changes in climate; 3) artifacts will be analyzed to look for adaptations to the marine mammal hunting toolkit in response to changes in climate and resource availability. More specifically, the research team proposes a research program that will use multiple datasets from Unalaska Island to address whether sea ice and ice-loving ("pagophilic") fauna were present in this region during the Neoglacial phase, suggesting a dramatic change in prehistoric climate. The interdisciplinary nature of archaeology makes it uniquely positioned to accomplish two things: 1) to offer truly long term data about the ecological, climate, and resource histories for the Gulf of Alaska, data that are vital to understanding both ancient and contemporary human and environmental interaction in this region and 2) to collaborate with local Native Alaskan communities and students, resource managers, and cultural resource managers to collect, interpret, and disseminate the data and findings.

考古学家花费了大量的研究工作，试图确定过去的气候变化时期是否对人类产生了重大影响。就过去几千年的阿拉斯加沿海地区而言，现有数据表明，在大多数情况下，答案“不多”——海洋生态系统似乎一直保持相对稳定，即使经历了气候变化时期，例如中世纪温暖期和所谓的“小冰河期”。这一概括的一个例外是阿留申群岛东部的乌纳拉斯卡岛。大约 4000 年前，环斑海豹是适应冰雪的物种，构成了生存基础的重要组成部分。这表明当时的气温比现在低得多。然而，今天该地区常见的许多物种（在没有大量海冰的情况下）也是 4000 年前自给经济的重要组成部分。 本研究旨在尝试解决这一明显的矛盾；天气冷吗？还是说当时的气候普遍比较温和，就像今天一样？为此，科学家们将（a）研究现代和考古黄油蛤的生长模式和壳化学，这将使我们了解水的状况。他们还将 (b) 对考古遗址中存在的所有物种进行详细分析，包括正在收获的物种的年龄构成，以表明环境条件如何。最后，他们将 (c) 对与海洋哺乳动物狩猎相关的文物进行详细分析，以确定 4000 年前的猎人开发出专门的在海冰中狩猎的工具包的可能性。 整个北极的沿海社区面临重要决策关于重大气候变化的可能性，研究小组认为，重要的是要有一些“测试案例”，提供有关各个社区过去如何应对气候变化的信息。乌纳拉斯卡岛的考古遗址提供了近 4000 年来关于过去气候变化的适应数据；与了解未来气候变化挑战直接相关的数据。该项目将调查全新世晚期气候变化对阿拉斯加阿留申群岛动物生物多样性和人类觅食活动的影响。这项为期三年的跨学科研究将利用动物考古学、古环境、生物和海洋学数据来检验全新世晚期气候波动显着影响阿留申群岛东部当地环境、生态系统和人类狩猎策略的假设。这个跨学科项目将应用人类觅食行为模型，利用三大证据来研究气候变化背景下的人类-动物-环境相互作用：1）考古贝类的生长模式和稳定氧同位素将用于重建当地的古环境; 2）来自多个分类群的考古动物材料将用于测试动物分布和行为是否随着时间的推移因气候变化而发生变化； 3）将对人工制品进行分析，以寻找海洋哺乳动物狩猎工具包针对气候和资源可用性变化的适应性。更具体地说，研究小组提出了一项研究计划，将使用乌纳拉斯卡岛的多个数据集来确定该地区在新冰川期是否存在海冰和喜冰（“pagophilic”）动物群，这表明史前气候发生了巨大变化。考古学的跨学科性质使其具有独特的优势来完成两件事：1）提供有关阿拉斯加湾生态、气候和资源历史的真正长期数据，这些数据对于了解古代和当代人类和环境至关重要2) 与当地阿拉斯加原住民社区和学生、资源管理者和文化资源管理者合作，收集、解释和传播数据和调查结果。