Research in Undergraduate Institutions: Relationship between Area Size and Population History

Carleton College, Northfield MN

Investigators

Abstract

In this Research in Undergraduate Institutions award the principal investigator, along with colleagues will carry out archaeological fieldwork and lidar-based remote sensing research in order to understand the history of occupation and use across a number of small, currently uninhabited islands. Archaeology is uniquely positioned to investigate the history of such marginal environments, which have been largely dismissed in the recent past as unsuitable for human habitation. Previous research has already revealed a rich (if non-continuous) history of use on many such islands. The current project will provide an expanded and comprehensive study of small-island environments in order to investigate the correlation between island size and risk of settlement and exploitation, based on size, environmental diversity, and locational affordances of marginality and connectivity. Survey archaeology has traditionally focused on the history of settlement across a continuous landscape. This project provides also a history of non-settlement, of incidental use, across a particular type of maritime setting. The research will produce a series of individual cases studies and a large-scale, comparative framework analysis of cycles of use and abandonment in an under-researched type of island environment. Two seasons of fieldwork will provide systematic archaeological surveys of 30 uninhabited islands. A geomorphological study will be conducted alongside the archaeological survey, in order to provide a fully interdisciplinary analysis of individual island landscapes, as well as a new study of the dynamic human and natural history. As an RUI proposal, this project provides unique research opportunities to undergraduate students in the archaeology program (and related fields). Moreover, it provides multi-level mentoring and training that also involves international graduate students. In addition to the present research, the lidar data will be made available to other archaeologists and environmental science teams.. This will have a impact on the ability to assess and monitor areas that are uniquely vulnerable to looting and landscape degradation. 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.