ORONO, Maine -- Research projects on ancient civilizations in Asia, North and South America and Europe have been funded by grants from the Foundation for Exploration and Research on Cultural Origins (FERCO) in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Daniel Sandweiss of the University of Maine Dept. of Anthropology and Institute for Quaternary Studies is president of the FERCO Scientific Committee that approved the grants last spring.
The successful proposals include studies of early maritime adaptations in Siberia, California, and Peru; the distribution of obsidian (a volcanic glass used for tools) in prehistoric sites of the Canary Islands; early hominid remains in Kazakhstan; ancient harbors in Greece; trade networks in Cambodia; and possible pre-columbian contacts between China and Mexico.
FERCO was founded by Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian scientist and author, and Fred Olsen of Fred Olsen, S.A., to further Heyerdahl’s vision of the role of archaeology in demonstrating possible relations between peoples of the past. It is located at the Pyramids of Guimar Ethnographic Park.
FERCO agreed to fund the eight projects out of a pool of 23 proposals. Altogether, the projects received about $76,000 in support.
FERCO organized the 1998 Conference on Climate and Culture in the Mid-Holocene at which archaeologists and paleoclimatologists from nine countries met to compare changes in culture and climate between about 3000 and 7000 years ago. FERCO sponsored its first grants competition in 1999.
The following projects received funding from the 2000 Foundation for Research and Exploration on Cultural Origins (FERCO) Grant Competition:
- Susan D. deFrance (University of Florida), "Quebrada Tacahuay and the Origins of Late Pleistocene Andean Coastal Populations;"
- Jon Erlandson (University of Oregon), "The Earliest Maritime Peoples of the California Coast: Chronology and Context of Early Channel Settlement;"
- Ernesto Martin (Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria), "La obsidiana en la prehistoria de Gran Canaria. Las minas de Montana de Hoarzales (San Nicolas, Gran Canaria);"
- Sandra Olsen (Carnegie Museum of Natural History), "The Earliest Incursions of Hominids into Kazakhstan;"
- Richard M. Rothaus (St. Cloud State University), "Prehistoric and Ancient Harbors in the Korinthia (Greece): A Geoarchaeological Approach for Determining Maritime Trade Patterns, Year II;"
- Miriam Stark (University of Hawaii), "Emergent trade Networks and the Origins of Complexity in Cambodia’s Mekong Delta;"
- Andrei V. Tabarev (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Novosibirsk, Russia), "Early Cultures of the Coastal Maritime Region (Russia Far East): Origins, Sequence, Pacific Adaptation;"
- Mike Xu (Texas Christian University), "Prehistoric Trans-Pacific Contacts---Shang and Olmec."
Note: Further information on FERCO is available at http://www.ferco.org or from Dan Sandweiss, dan_sandweiss@umit.maine.edu .