Gilsen research topics/questions
1) What are the impacts of Oregon's unique geology (90% igneous, 20% sedimentary) as well as volcanism and obsidian sources on human adaptive systems, economics and trade?
2) What are the impacts of the five continental ecozones (NW Coast, Columbia Plateau, Inter-Mountain, Great Basin, and California Chaparral) on human adaptive systems, economics and trade networks?
3) What are the impacts of the Columbia River on human adaptive systems, economic and trade networks?
4) What were the impacts to coastal groups from sea level rise (differential preservation, population movements, etc.)?
5) What are the impacts of anadromous fish runs on cultural ecology?
6) What are the kinds of technological change that occur in the archaeological record and what were their effects?
7) What were the cause and effects of plant and animal management practices (i.e. - pyroculture - burning to reduce climax vegetation and increase valued plant and animal habitat)?
8) What were the causes and effects of semi-sedentism and sedentism on human ecology?
9) What were the impacts to populations and human ecology from great subduction earthquakes and tsunamis? Are there patterns in land use change after a quake and how long do they continue in the archaeological record?
10) What are the dated landforms in drainages?
11) What were the paleo-environments like through pollen profiles?
12) What was the impact of ownership of resource types (i.e. - tarweed patches, camas patches)?
13) What were the impacts to cultural change of Oregon's rich and diverse ecotones as compared to changes in the core areas?
14) Is there a fundamental difference between Paleoindian and Early Archaic adaptations other than the presence of Plesitocene animals? What is the time depth for gathering, rabbit drives, camas ovens, houses, etc.?
15) What are the actual samples from professionally excavated sites for each period and phase in each major drainage (i.e. - hard numbers and data gaps)?
16) Is there any way to reduce the size of chronological groupings of data?
17) Are there centers of cultural fluorescence (i.e. - my core area maps)?
18) Can drawdown zones on reservoirs (where waves erode out buried sites) be used to model hidden site densities in riverine environments (i.e. - what is the difference between original surface surveys and long-term post reservoir densities)?
19) What are the impacts of sampling on how archaeologist view the archaeological record (i.e. - quantity and quality of the data, surveys, land ownership bias, etc.)?
20) What were the impacts of ceramics on Oregon groups?