凯利克里克讲话

365滚球官网 archaeology team discovers some of the oldest evidence of human activity in the state

(首次发表于2012年5月的《365体育滚球》)
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在克利尔沃特国家森林的考古挖掘现场, a tribal elder gathers around a campfire to tell coyote stories to 365滚球官网 researchers, 谁在编织自己的故事.

在翠绿的凯利溪的背景下, a renowned fly-fishing destination in Idaho’s north-central wilderness near the Montana border, the researchers are piecing together the story of the region’s earliest indigenous tribes, told through artifacts that represent some of the state’s oldest evidence of human activity.

挖掘工作已经持续了两个夏天, with U-Idaho archaeologists and their field school students finding and cataloging about 11,000件, 包括珍贵的狩猎工具，其中一些有12件,至少有1000年的历史.

其中最引人注目的是354件器物. 它们包括铁砧石和锤石, 弹丸和矛尖, 刀片和刀具, 磨具用来磨平木制和骨制工具的磨具, 还有两个古代渔网上的石沉器.

The additional discovery of spear points shaped from non-native lava rocks – obsidian and green vitrophyre – point to the tribes’ high mobility and their trades with Native American tribes living in southern Idaho, 俄勒冈和蒙大拿.

“这真的很重要. 这并不是该州最大的挖掘，但却是最古老的挖掘之一,365滚球官网考古学家李·萨平顿说, 研究哥伦比亚高原人类历史的权威. 文学学院的人类学副教授, 艺术与社会科学, 他是这个项目的最终负责人.

最近, carbon dating of some of the uncovered relics show that aboriginal people first frequented the place some 2,比已知的早了一千年. 考古学家将这段时期称为该地区的风尘期, 第一个时间轴一直延伸到现在.

“找到这么古老的东西真的很重要. It’s places like this where we can make the most contributions to the historical record,萨平顿说, who’s played a primary role in 25 significant archaeological explorations on the Clearwater River over a 37-year career, dating back to his 1976 U-Idaho graduate studies in archaeology after the construction of the Dworshak Dam.

While dwarfed in size compared to the sprawling 1960- and 1970-era archaeological investigations required prior to dam and highway construction, 凯利·克里克的秘密也同样重要. Sappington says they’re illuminating the inaugural chapters of the region’s indigenous people.

萨平顿承认这项工作的神圣性质. He seeks approval from the tribes’ stakeholders before the first layer of dirt is ever removed.

“部落长老喜欢我们的做法，”他说. “这是一件积极的事情. 我们在帮助人们重新发现他们的历史. 我们正在发现一些没人知道的事情，并让人们意识到它们.”

在萨平顿的监督下, 劳拉龙斯达夫, 365滚球官网的研究生, 协调挖掘日常操作的许多细节. As the crew boss, she’s responsible for the integrity and accuracy of the exploration. She’s also in the process of analyzing the Kelly Creek data for her master’s thesis, 萨平顿是她的专业教授.

It’s rare for a professor to recommend that a graduate student take charge of a study of this scale. 但萨平顿表示，朗斯塔夫有能力领导这类行动.

在过去的两个学期里, she’s proven herself to be a gifted researcher and a talented mentor and teacher to scores of undergraduate students who’ve participated in excavation work.

朗斯塔夫说，当与矛尖结合时, 目前为止发现的抛射点和网沉点, Kelly Creek’s natural features elucidate its purpose: It was a seasonal hunting and fishing ground used by the ancestors of the Nez Perce, Coeur d 'Alenes和其他土著印第安部落.

They harvested its elk, deer, bison, rabbit and beaver, according to residue on some of the tools. The waters of nearby Kelly Creek would have rippled with massive steelhead trout and salmon, 萨平顿说.

直到晚春才被雪覆盖, the area would have been accessible only by foot for a few bountiful months each year. 然而几千年来, generations of American Indians trekked to this abundant and beautiful place – until the 1600s or 1700s, 当他们神秘地抛弃了这个地方, 再也不回来了.

在20世纪初，美国.S. 林务局开始对该地区进行持续管理. 今天，它是北福克游侠区的一部分. 在代理处决定在这块土地上建造新建筑之后, Sappington was hired to conduct a cultural assessment of what has proven to be a historically significant site.

A 2009 survey using ground-penetrating radar first identified potentially rich pockets of ground that the archaeologists used as starting points in their search. Working in their favor were the facts that centuries of silt deposits and a lack of agricultural activities had perfectly preserved the area, 保护其埋藏的宝藏. The team’s discovery that very first summer of a spear point from the Cascade Phase (5,000 – 8,激起了他们对未来的好奇心.

除了Windust对象之外, Kelly Creek has given up implements from every one of the region’s archaeological time periods, 从12,到大约200年前.

仍然, debitage – slivers of rock left during flint knapping and toolmaking – comprises the remainder of the collection, 说龙斯达夫. 然而，这也说明了问题. Its sheer bulk demonstrates the volume, frequency and types of tools that were being made, she says.

"Our findings at Kelly Creek will be a great contribution to science – perhaps one of the biggest for the next 10 years in terms of filling in the full record of Idaho’s archaeological discoveries on the Clearwater River’s North Fork,朗斯塔夫说。.

Despite the artifacts’ rarity, they’re a means to an end for the researchers, she says.

“They represent a whole lot of complex behavior and reasoning that went into procuring resources. 我们正在拼凑这种生活方式的证据，”她说. 在挖掘结束后, 分析和解读这些丰富的信息还需要几个月的时间.

She’ll document it all in her thesis and expects to co-author at least one journal article about Kelly Creek. 在那之后，爱达荷州立大学的工作人员阿尔弗雷德. 鲍尔斯人类学实验室将整理挖掘结果. The Idaho State Historical Society’s Archaeological Survey will manage the collection in the long term.

Sappington predicts that future archaeologists will have even more sophisticated technology and knowledge with which to one day re-examine all of Kelly Creek’s artifacts, 按比例缩小的图纸, 照片, 土壤样品, 专业笔记, 测试结果和GPS坐标.

现在，朗斯塔夫说，她渴望回到这个领域. 当她沉浸在这个地方的风景和历史中时，她是最快乐的.

“Sometimes I look around and imagine what it looked like 5,000 or 10,000 years ago. 我想象人们在某个地方摆弄工具、生火或壁炉. Maybe going down to the river to pick out a rock to process as a tool or weaving a fish net from native plants,她说。. “这些人对他们周围的世界有着如此复杂的认识，”她补充道. “我们正在缓慢但坚定地把所有这些碎片拼凑在一起, 总有一天，我们可以根据我们的发现重建事件. 我们正试图回答尽可能多的问题.”

本文作者:Paula M. 达文波特, 这里是爱达荷州