A Test Of Seasonal Models Of Early Holocene Subsistence And Settlement Strategies

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. John O'Shea, of the University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, and an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, computer scientists, and ecologists will investigate the early occupation of the Great Lakes region as preserved on landscapes that are now submerged. The withdrawal of the continental ice sheets resulted in large fluctuations in the water levels of the newly formed Great Lakes. While archaeological sites associated with high water levels are preserved on land, those associated with low water stages are hidden beneath the Great Lakes. With NSF support it has been shown that sites associated with the primary low water stand (Lake Stanley stage, 9900- 7500 years ago) are preserved underwater and provide a unique record of the early human occupation during a time that is very poorly known on land. This research will provide a view of the early settlement and subsistence that is unattainable on land, and fill a critical gap in the understanding of how human societies adjusted to changing environmental circumstances at the end of the Ice Age. The research will provide important comparative data on prehistoric caribou populations and procurement that will complement accounts from historical and ethnographic sources, and provide a detailed environmental and ecological record of this important transition time in the Great Lakes. The research will create synergistic interactions among a broad range of academic disciplines, promote international collaboration among American and Canadian scholars, and provide international research experience for American graduate and undergraduate students. It will also contribute to the development of innovative and cost-effective approaches to underwater research. The results of the investigation will be disseminated broadly to contemporary scholars concerned with the changing environments of the Great Lakes, and to the general public via museum exhibitions, workshops, and public lectures. Dr. O'Shea and the research team will investigate the Alpena-Amberley Ridge (AAR), a submerged feature beneath Lake Huron, which was a dry land corridor linking northern Michigan with southern Ontario during the most extreme low water stage. The unique setting of the AAR will be used to evaluate a series of questions concerning the seasonal and organizational character of the human occupation in light of more recent examples of caribou hunting adaptations in northern circumpolar regions. The research will also investigate how these early Holocene strategies become transformed into the broad spectrum economies that characterize the later Archaic period in the Great Lakes. The field investigations couple fine grained remote mapping of archaeological sites within a series of four micro-regions on the lake bottom using sonars and remote operated vehicles (ROVs) with the testing and excavation of preserved sites by SCUBA-trained archaeologists.