Disseratation Research: Time, Settlement and Ceramic Variation at Mississippian Sites

与密西西比州不同地区文化序列有关的考古记录(公元900-1540年)是一个实验室，用于开发和测试酋长级别社会的变化和稳定模型。最近，密西西比州研究的主要目的是将文化理解为一种适应性系统，并解释数百年来明显的组织变化。为了更有效地做到这一点，需要更严密的年表。该项目有两个具体目标：开发一个理论模型来解释美国东南部密西西比州文化遗址肯特阶段的遗址变异性；以及开发和校准区域陶瓷年表，该年表将允许更复杂地测量密西西比州时期的人口趋势和聚落格局变化。这名学生将挖掘阿肯色州东部的克雷山和肯特遗址这两个分层的侏儒。确定密西西比晚期社会的发展是考古学中的一个重要问题，也是一个在地区层面上最有效地解决的问题。

The archaeological record pertaining to various regional Mississippian culture sequences (A.D. 900-1540) is a laboratory for developing and testing models of change and stability in chiefdom-level societies. Recently, the major thrust of Mississippian research has been to understand the culture as an adaptive system and account for the dramatic organizational changes evident over several hundred years. In order to do this more effectly, tighter chronologies are needed. This project has two specific objectives: to develop a theoretical model to explain site variability in Kent phase, Mississippian culture sites in the southeastern United States; and to develop and calibrate a regional ceramic chronology which will permit more sophisticated measuring of population trends and settlement pattern changes during the Mississippian period. The student will excavate two stratified middens, Clay Hill and the Kent Site, in eastern Arkansas. Determining the development of late Mississippian society is an important question in archaeology, one addressed most effectively at a regional level.