Social Change, Subsistence and Sedentism in the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in the Southwest

在国家科学基金会的支持下，托马斯罗塞克博士将在位于新墨西哥州中部的邓拉普萨拉查遗址进行三个季节的考古发掘。Rocek博士的初步工作表明，该遗址的历史可以追溯到公元500至700年，并以一个约1000年为标志。300 x 400平方米的石器和陶瓷散布。小规模的挖掘已经证明了半地下坑房和储存坑的存在。通过多年的挖掘和分析计划，Rocek博士将收集更多的信息，以测试居民依赖农业而不是狩猎和采集食物的初步迹象，并重建社会组织。为了实现这些目标，他将定位并暴露足够大的建筑特征及其周围环境，以检查家庭活动的组织，并对沉积物进行更严格的时间控制，以识别住宅和存储特征之间的关联以及现场多个住宅之间的关联。将对多个放射性碳样本进行年代测定，植硅体和大型植物学分析将提供有关所消耗植物的详细信息。 当西班牙探险家在16世纪初第一次进入美国西南部时，他们发现美洲原住民生活在等级组织的社会中，人口众多，依赖农业。考古学家希望了解这种复杂的社会水平是如何发展的，他们在西南部的大部分研究都集中在这个问题上。一个关键的变化发生在公元第一个千年中期，当时典型的半地下的pithouse住宅被放弃，取而代之的是多层的普韦布洛房屋。 根据许多发掘的数据，居住类型、定居模式、对农业的依赖和社会复杂性的发展似乎密切相关，一些模型研究了这些变量之间的相互作用。在这方面，邓拉普-萨拉查遗址特别有趣，因为它挑战了这一假设。这座小山村的居民似乎高度依赖农业，但没有显示出任何其他据称相关的变化。在现场的进一步工作将评估这一假设。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将揭示导致复杂社会兴起的变量。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，而且由于许多本科生将参加实地研究，该项目将有助于培养有潜力的年轻科学家。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Thomas Rocek will conduct three seasons of archaeological excavation at the site of Dunlap-Salazar located in central New Mexico. Preliminary work by Dr. Rocek indicates that the site dates to approximately 500 to 700 A.D.and is marked by a ca. 300 by 400 meter square scatter of lithic and ceramics. Small scale excavation has demonstrated the presence of both semi-subterranean pit houses and storage pits. Through a multiyear program of excavation and analysis Dr. Rocek will collect additional information to test preliminary indications that inhabitants were dependent on agricultural rather than hunted and gathered food and to reconstruct social organization. To accomplish these goals he will locate and expose large enough areas of architectural features and their surroundings to examine the organization of domestic activities and to obtain increased chronological control over the deposits to allow identification of associations between dwellings and storage features and among the multiple dwellings on the site. Multiple radiocarbon samples will be dated and phytolith and macrobotanical analysis will provide detailed information on plants consumed. When Spanish explorers first entered the Southwestern United States in the early 1500s they found Native Americans living in large population aggregations in hierarchically organized societies and dependent on agriculture. Archaeologists wish to understand how this complex level of society developed and much of their research in the Southwest has focused on this issue. A crucial changed occurred in the mid first millennium AD when the typical semi-subterranean pithouse dwellings were abandoned in favor of multistory pueblo houses. Based on data from many excavations it appears that changes in dwelling type, settlement pattern, reliance on agriculture and the development of social complexity appear closely related and a number of models examine the interaction among these variables. In this context the Dunlap-Salazar site is particularly interesting because it challenges this assumption. The inhabitants of this pithouse village appear to have been highly dependent on agriculture but to evince none of the other supposedly related changes. Further work at the site will evaluate this hypothesis. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the variables which led to the rise of complex societies. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and because many undergraduates will participate in the field research the project will contribute to the education of potential young scientists.