Dissertation Research: Decoupling Complexity: An Archaeological Investigation of Three Chacoan Great House Communities

在基思·金蒂格博士的指导下，南希·马奥尼女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的研究目标是了解美国查科地区的史前美洲原住民是如何实现考古记录中所显示的高度社会复杂性的。在公元二千年早期的鼎盛时期，查科文化覆盖了科罗拉多高原超过12万平方公里的面积。从考古角度来看，这个系统是由一种独特的建筑风格定义的，表面上形成了一个三层的聚落等级。在查科峡谷的中心，有几座四层楼高的不朽的“豪宅”，有600多个房间。几何的地面平面图和独特的砖石技术表明，它们需要相当大的规划、劳动力和技能来建造。令人惊讶的是，尽管经过几十年的研究，仍然不可能确定它们所起的作用。在第二层，较小的大房子分布在更广泛的查科地区，与每一座房子相关联的是一系列普韦布洛的小房子。建筑风格、材料遗存以及连接大房子的古代道路的相似之处表明，一种复杂的文化将大量的人以某种形式的等级社会结构整合在一起。然而，考古学家并不了解中央集权的存在程度，它是如何维持的，或者它起到了什么实际作用。有些人认为，“查科现象”主要是仪式性质的，个别小的大房子基本上是独立的，查科峡谷中最大的大房子本身只是零星地被用于宗教功能。其他人则假设有更大程度的集中控制，并认为该系统在沙漠地区储存和分配生存资源起到了作用，在沙漠地区，降雨量每年和地点之间都有显着且不可预测的变化。马奥尼女士指出，在第二大豪宅中进行的研究非常少。她认为，通过对个别大家族及其相关群体的行为的分析，然后对大家族-大群体系统进行比较，将有可能重建更广泛的社会组织的本质方面。在国家科学基金会的支持下，她将研究来自两个伟大的豪宅-普韦布洛建筑群的数据，并在第三个建筑群继续挖掘，以收集类似的材料。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它将为史前美洲原住民令人印象深刻的成就提供新的线索，并将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Keith Kintigh, MS Nancy Mahoney will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The goal of her research is to understand how prehistoric Native Americans in the Chaco region of the US achieved the high degree of social complexity which is manifest in the archaeological record. At its height in the early second millennium AD, the Chaco culture covered an area of over 120,000 square kilometers of the Colorado Plateau. Archaeologically the system is defined by a distinctive architectural style which ostensibly forms a three-tier settlement hierarchy. At its core in Chaco Canyon, several monumental `great houses` were four stories tall and contained over 600 rooms. The geometric ground plans and distinct masonry techniques suggest they required considerable planning, labor and skill to construct. Surprisingly, despite decades of study it is still not possible to determine the functions they served. At a second level smaller great houses are distributed across the wider Chaco region and associated with each are a series of small pueblo dwellings. Similarity of architectural styles, material remains and as well as traces of ancient roads which connected great houses indicates a complex culture which integrated large numbers of people in some form of hierarchical social structure. Archaeologists however do not understand the degree to which centralized power existed, how it was maintained or what practical purpose it served. Some have argued that the `Chaco Phenomenon` was primarily ritual in nature, that individual small great houses were essentially independent and that the largest great houses in Chaco Canyon itself were occupied only sporadically for religious functions. Others have postulated a much greater degree of centralized control and believe that the system worked to store and distribute subsistence resources across a desert area in which rainfall varied markedly and unpredictably from year to year and place to place. MS Mahoney has noted that very little research has been conducted at secondary great houses. She argues that through analysis of behavior at individual great houses and associated pueblos, and then comparison among great house-pueblo systems, it will be possible to reconstruct the essential aspects of the broader social organization. With NSF support she will study data from two great house-pueblo complexes and continue excavation at a third to collect comparable material. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on the impressive achievements of prehistoric Native Americans and will assist in training a promising young scientist.