Human Adaptation to New Environments

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

University of Wyoming Professor Todd Surovell and colleagues will examine aspects of the subsistence practices and social organization of Ice Age inhabitants of North America. How would the first humans to inhabit a region make a living? How would they organize themselves socially? In a place and time where there are few constraints on how people might behave other than those imposed by the natural environment, what would human societies look like? The first Americans, entered ecosystems that were home to mammoths, mastodons, horses, camels, and ground sloths. Since no similar environments remain today, archaeology is the only field that provides a window into human lives in such contexts. Although similar stories played out through prehistory as the human species expanded across the globe, this research will provide insight into human social organization in one such case, the colonization of North America. The researchers will contribute to ongoing debates concerning the subsistence practices of the first Americans. Did early Paleoindians preferentially target large mammal species, or did they have a broad diet breadth? They will also examine aspects of cooperation in butchery of megafauna as well as questions aggregation and dispersal of hunter-gatherer households. These opportunities are afforded by additional excavation of the La Prele Mammoth site in Converse County, Wyoming. This site preserves the remains of a killed or scavenged subadult Columbian mammoth and an associated camp occupied during butchery. Multiple hearth-centered activity areas associated with and encircling the mammoth provide the opportunity to examine aspects of social organization using detailed lithic, faunal, and spatial analysis. This work will not only provide opportunities to train and support graduate and undergraduate students, but it will provide opportunities to train members of the Northern Arapaho tribe in archaeological field methods. During excavations avocational archaeological groups and members of the public will be welcomed to visit the site to learn about archaeological research and promote awareness of cultural resources. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.