Dissertation: Iconography and Group Formation During the Late Pit Structure and Classic periods of the Mimbres Society

在帕特里夏·吉尔曼博士的指导下，瓦利·鲍威尔女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她研究的重点是新墨西哥州西南部莫戈隆地区的史前明布雷斯人。在公元9世纪，明布雷斯山谷的居民是小规模的农民，他们用野生植物和狩猎来补充农业。到了公元1000年代，人们的生计是建立在全职农业的基础上的，其中包括新的农业技术，如灌溉和检查水坝。古气候资料表明，从1,000年到约。公元1089年是一个非常有利的时间在数量和一致性的降水和在这些条件下人口增加和所有可用的耕地在山谷中的耕种。然而，在接下来的世纪，降雨量在数量和一致性上都有很大的波动，这导致了生存压力的增加。鉴于这一良好的环境记录，鲍威尔女士希望研究不断变化的明布雷斯社会战略。初步工作表明，个别村庄结成联盟，随着时间的推移，联盟的方向和范围发生了变化，以缓冲环境的不可预测性。为了实现这一目标，她将研究明布尔人生产的黑色和白色陶瓷，这些陶瓷是通过精心控制的挖掘而恢复的。她假设共享的设计元素是有意识和无意识的联盟指标，目前正在对网站之间的风格相似性进行分析。然而，结果并没有区分由于模仿的相似性和那些从陶瓷的实际运动的结果，这种区别是重要的，因为它是假设，在食品贸易缓冲差异农业生产力。在NSF的资助下，德克萨斯A M大学化学表征和分析中心将对一系列150个黑色和白色碎片进行仪器中子活化分析。&根据提供的化学成分数据，可以确定陶器的产地。这项研究很重要，原因有几个。它将提供洞察力，以一个简单的技术水平的农学家如何适应一个不可预测的波动半干旱环境。它将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并协助培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Patricia Gilman, MS Valli Powell will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The focus of her study is the prehistoric Mimbres people of the Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. During the 900s A.D. the inhabitants of the Mimbres valley were small scale farmers who supplemented agriculture with wild plants and hunted game. By the A.D. 1000s subsistence was based on full-time farming which included new agricultural technologies such as irrigation and check dams. Paleoclimaatic data indicate that the period from 1,000 to ca. 1089 A.D. was an unusually favorable time in both amount and consistency of precipitation and under these conditions population increased and all available arable land in the valley was cultivated. However in the following century rainfall fluctuated considerably in both amount and consistency and this led to increasing subsistence stress. Given this well established environmental record, MS Powell wishes to examine changing Mimbres social strategies. Preliminary work indicates that individual villages entered into alliances which changed in direction and extent over time in order to buffer environmental unpredictability. To accomplish this goal she will study the Mimbres produced black and white ceramics which have been recovered by carefully controlled excavation. Working on the assumption that shared design elements are both conscious and unconscious indicators of alliance, she is currently conducting an analysis of stylistic similarities among sites. The results however do not distinguish between similarities due to imitation and those which result from the actual movement of ceramics and this distinction is important because it is hypothesized that trade in food served to buffer differential agricultural productivity. With NSF funding the Texas A&M University Center for Chemical Characterization and Analysis will perform instrumental neutron activation analysis on a series of 150 black and white sherds. Based on the chemical composition data provided it will be possible to determine the source areas in which the pottery was produced.This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into how agriculturalists at a simple level of technology adapted to an unpredictable fluctuating semi-arid environment. It will produce data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training a promising young scientist.