ABSTRACT

The colonisation of North America and subsequent adaptation to climate change are major research foci in the American Southeast. Here, we used the Ideal Free Distribution from Behavioural Ecology and projections of fossil pollen to generate predictions for landscape use. We tested these predictions against the distribution of previously recorded projectile points in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas and archaeological sites in the Digital Index of North American Archaeology for the Tennessee River drainage from the appearance of Clovis sites in the terminal Pleistocene though the Late Holocene (∼13,250–3,000 cal BP). We found that the distribution of points and sites were initially skewed towards lower elevations, and then spread to higher elevations over the course of the Younger Dryas into the Middle Holocene, which is consistent with predictions of the Ideal Free Distribution. However, during the Middle Holocene, sites are more clustered, which is consistent with a shift to an Ideal Free Distribution with Allee effect that was likely driven by a broader distribution of oak–hickory forests. Finally, the distribution of sites after the Middle Holocene was more dispersed, which is consistent with a shift to an Ideal Despotic Distribution.

摘要

北美的殖民化和随后对气候变化的适应是美国东南部的主要研究焦点。在这里，我们使用来自行为生态学的理想自由分布和化石花粉的预测来生成景观使用的预测。我们将这些预测与先前记录在美洲古印度数据库中的射弹点分布和北美考古数字索引中田纳西河排水系统中的考古遗址的分布进行了对比，从更新世晚期至全新世晚期克洛维斯遗址的出现来看（ ～13,250–3,000 cal BP）。我们发现点和地点的分布最初偏向低海拔地区，然后在新仙女木进入全新世中期的过程中向高海拔地区蔓延，这与理想自由分布的预测一致。然而，在中全新世期间，地点更加聚集，这与向具有 Allee 效应的理想自由分布的转变相一致，这可能是由橡树山核桃森林的更广泛分布驱动的。最后，中全新世之后的遗址分布更加分散，这与向理想专制分布的转变相一致。