The Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project: An Archaeological Investigation of Seasonal Changes in Spatial Behavior among Nomadic Herders in Mongolia.

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project is to develop theoretical and methodological tools to aid in the interpretation of the archaeological record. The researchers are concerned with human use of space in a nomadic context to understand how people decide where to do what they do, and how such decisions are manifested spatially in the archaeological record. Within that framework, the project is interested in how the spatial distribution of human behavior changes seasonally in the campsites of Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop methods for determining the season of occupation of archaeological sites. Accordingly, the researchers will generate detailed maps of human locations in interior and exterior spaces that can be related to age, gender, activity, weather, time of day, and other factors. The project has the potential to inform the reconstruction of season of occupation for dozens if not hundreds of archaeological sites around the world, which in turn will provide greater understanding of how season affected many aspects of human behavior in prehistory and potentially provide new insights into changing seasonal behavior among contemporary Arctic peoples. Season is a major factor affecting variation in human behavior. Particularly at high latitudes and altitudes, human lifeways change dramatically from summer to winter. It would surprise no anthropologist observing the same people during summer and winter if he or she were to see two very different ways of living. That anthropologist might see, for instance, changes in subsistence, mobility, activity performance, group size, site location, clothing, shelter, time allocation, and maybe even ideology or ritual practice. What may be surprising, however, is that although no one would doubt that seasonality is a very important factor affecting human behavior, season of occupation is a variable that is notoriously difficult to control in archaeological contexts. Most if not all direct measures of seasonality are dependent upon the preservation of organic or osseous remains. This research is a two-year ethnoarchaeological study of Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia for the purpose of developing new methods of determining the season of occupation at archaeological sites using variation in the spatial distributions of artifacts. The Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, initiated during the summer of 2012, differs from prior spatial ethnoarchaeological research in that the research team has shifted the empirical focus from the mapping of material refuse to the direct mapping of human behavior. The scientists propose to examine the relationship between season and the spatial distribution of activity performance in the interior and exterior spaces of Dukha campsites, from which they will be able to build models of artifact accumulation potentially allowing them to link the spatial distribution of behavior in an ethnographic case to its potential archaeological correlates.