Support For The University Of Arizona Laboratory Of Tree-Ring Research

支持亚利桑那大学树木年轮研究实验室

• 批准号: 1625867
• 负责人: Ronald Towner
• 金额: $ 24.53万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 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: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1625867&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Support; University; Arizona; Laboratory; Tree

The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR) at the University of Arizona is the only source of archaeological tree-ring dates in western North America. With National Science Foundation (NSF) support, the LTRR operates an analysis program for tree-ring samples collected by LTRR and other archaeologists from Alaska to Argentina and from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi River. NSF support allows the program to keep pace with the ever growing demand for archaeological tree-ring dating, and to maintain high production levels and short turnaround times. On average, more than 1,000 dates from 4,000+ archaeological tree-ring samples are produced annually. These data are integrated into relevant archaeological contexts to construct refined cultural sequences and examine important issues of past human behavior that cannot be addressed without accurate, high resolution temporal control. Among these topics are absolute site, locality, and regional chronologies, social organization structure, intergroup interaction, and cultural adaptation to physical and social environments. The program actively promotes the expansion of archaeological tree-ring dating into new regions such as the Southwestern deserts, Great Basin, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Mexico, and South America.The project has additional intellectual merits. Exact dating and chronology building are crucial to understanding human behavior, human-environment interactions, and processes of sociocultural stability, variation, change, and social evolution. Either directly or indirectly (through tree-ring dated ceramics), tree-ring dating underlies the chronology of Southwestern prehistory and many aspects of the documented history of the region. The project also generates dendroclimatic reconstructions that are combined with reconstructions produced by other paleoenvironmental disciplines such as geology, pollen analysis, volcanology, and trace element studies. In addition to illuminating past environmental processes, these integrated reconstructions provide a solid empirical foundation for examining the interrelationships between human behavior and environmental variability. Finally, the project's efforts to expand research into areas previously thought to be unsuitable for archaeological tree-ring provide absolutely dated "hinge points" for archaeological chronologies in the Sonoran Desert, the Great Basin, the western Great Plains, northern Mexico, and South America.The project has a wide range of broader impacts. Its findings are almost immediately integrated into undergraduate and graduate classes in anthropology, geosciences, and other disciplines at the University of Arizona and other academic institutions. In addition, the project interacts with K-12 programs and provides public tours of the facility; it provides instruction for visiting scholars from around the world and facilitates field and laboratory training for non-profit, governmental, private sector, and Native American programs. Students accrue particular benefits from the reduced cost of analysis, thus allowing them to conduct extensive research at lower costs. The LTRR tree-ring sample collections and data archives are unparalleled, easily accessed resources for archaeological research, and an under-construction digital database will enhance the research value of these resources. Increased understanding of long-term human adaptation to cultural and environmental variability and enhanced knowledge of past environmental processes help develop and implement environmental and social policy. Project personnel have contributed directly to formulating policy for managing cultural and natural resources by federal, local, and tribal land management agencies.

亚利桑那大学的树木研究实验室（LTRR）是北美西部考古树环日期的唯一来源。在国家科学基金会（NSF）的支持下，LTRR开展了一项分析计划，该计划针对LTRR和其他考古学家从阿拉斯加到阿根廷以及从太平洋到密西西比河收集的其他考古学家。 NSF的支持使该计划可以跟上对考古树环约会的不断增长的需求，并保持较高的产量和较短的周转时间。平均而言，每年生产4,000多个考古树环样本中的1,000多个日期。这些数据被整合到相关的考古环境中，以构建精致的文化序列，并检查过去人类行为的重要问题，而这些问题没有准确，高分辨率的时间控制就无法解决。这些主题包括绝对站点，局部和区域年表，社会组织结构，群体间的互动以及对物理和社会环境的文化适应。该计划积极地促进了考古树环的扩展，其历史可以追溯到新的地区，例如西南沙漠，大盆地，大平原，洛矶山脉，阿拉斯加，墨西哥和南美。该项目具有额外的知识分子。确切的约会和年代构建对于了解人类行为，人类环境的相互作用以及社会文化稳定，变化，变化和社会进化的过程至关重要。直接或间接地（通过树木陈旧的陶瓷），树环的日期是西南史前历史的年代和该地区历史的许多方面的基础。该项目还产生了树状气候重建，这些重建与其他古环境学科（如地质，花粉分析，火山学和痕量元素研究）相结合的重建。除了阐明过去的环境过程外，这些综合重建还为研究人类行为与环境变异性之间的相互关系提供了坚实的经验基础。最后，该项目将研究扩大到以前认为不适合考古树环的领域的努力为索诺兰沙漠，大盆地，大盆地，西部大平原，墨西哥和南美洲的考古年代学提供了绝对过时的“铰链点”。该项目具有更广泛的影响。它的发现几乎立即纳入了亚利桑那大学和其他学术机构的人类学，地球科学和其他学科的本科和研究生班。此外，该项目与K-12计划进行互动，并提供该设施的公共参观；它提供了访问来自世界各地的学者的指导，并为非营利，政府，私营部门和美洲原住民计划提供了实地和实验室培训。学生从降低的分析成本中获得特殊的收益，从而使他们能够以较低的成本进行广泛的研究。 LTRR树木样品收集和数据档案是无与伦比的，易于访问考古研究的资源，而构建型数字数据库将增强这些资源的研究价值。人们对长期对文化和环境变异性的长期适应性的了解以及对过去环境过程的知识有助于发展和实施环境和社会政策。项目人员直接为制定政策来管理联邦，地方和部落土地管理机构的文化和自然资源。