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

在Keith Kintigh博士的指导下，Nancy Mahoney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印第安人是如何实现考古记录中所体现的高度社会复杂性的。在公元第二个千年早期的鼎盛时期，查科文化覆盖了科罗拉多高原上超过12万平方公里的面积。从考古学的角度来看，这个系统是由一个独特的建筑风格定义的，表面上形成了一个三层的定居点层次结构。在查科峡谷的中心，几座巨大的“大房子”有四层楼高，包含600多个房间。几何平面和独特的砌筑技术表明，它们需要大量的规划、劳动和技能来建造。令人惊讶的是，尽管经过几十年的研究，仍然无法确定它们的功能。在第二层，较小的大房子分布在更广阔的查科地区，与每个地区相关联的是一系列小的普韦布洛住宅。建筑风格、材料遗迹以及连接大房子的古代道路的相似之处表明，这是一种复杂的文化，将大量人口以某种形式的等级社会结构融合在一起。然而，考古学家并不了解中央集权存在的程度，它是如何维持的，以及它的实际目的是什么。一些人认为，“查科现象”本质上主要是一种仪式，个体的小房子本质上是独立的，查科峡谷最大的房子只是偶尔用于宗教活动。另一些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，该地区的降雨量每年和各地都有明显的不可预测的变化。马奥尼女士注意到，很少有研究对二级豪宅进行过研究。她认为，通过分析单个大宅院和相关普韦布洛人的行为，然后比较大宅院和普韦布洛人系统，将有可能重建更广泛的社会组织的基本方面。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，她将研究两个大型房屋-村庄建筑群的数据，并在第三个继续挖掘，以收集可比较的材料。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它将为史前印第安人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.