Dendroarchaeology of the Navajo Occupation of the Southwest

在国家科学基金会的支持下，杰弗里·迪恩博士和罗纳德·塔博士将对从史前和历史上的纳瓦霍遗址收集的大量木材进行树木年代学分析。这一具有巨大潜在人类学意义的收藏品是为了回应一个涉及土地索赔的法庭案件而收集的，只进行了部分研究，该奖项将允许进行详细分析，并建立一个易于访问的数据库，这对广泛的科学家都有价值。迪恩和塔博士还将利用这些数据来解决一系列人类学问题。该项目将显着完善的事件和过程的年表重要的理解纳瓦霍适应西南部，因为树木年代学，或树轮测年，是最准确和精确的考古测年方法提供给学者感兴趣的最近的过去。虽然纳瓦霍人是美国西南部相对较晚的人，在1,200年之后到达，但他们的占领早于西班牙人的到来，因此他们适应了这一重大转变。他们还将畜牧业作为主要的生存战略。因此，考古学家可以通过研究他们的过去来深入了解文化变革和适应的过程。树木年代学数据将使人们能够解决纳瓦霍社会组织和变化的问题，并将定居模式和社会组织的变化与环境和社会变量联系起来。可以审查金属工具和马匹的引进的影响、将非纳瓦霍人纳入纳瓦霍文化的时机和机制、向畜牧业过渡的后果以及一系列其他问题。该项目还将帮助校准其他测年技术，如放射性碳、古地磁、陶瓷系列化和黑曜石水合作用。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Jeffrey Dean and Ronald Tower will conduct dendrochronological analysis on a massive collection of wood collected from both prehistoric and historic Navaho sites. Assembled in response to a court case involving land claims, this collection of great potential anthropological siginficance was only partially studied and this award will allow detailed analysis and the construction of a readily accessible data base which will be of value to a wide range of scientists.Dendrochronological information from other projects will also be standardized and included. Drs. Dean and Tower will also use the data to address a series of anthropological questions. The project will significantly refine the chronology of events and processes important for understanding the Navajo adaptation to the Southwest since dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the most accurate and precise archaeological dating method available to scholars interested in the recent past. Although the Navajo are relative latecomers to the US Southwest and arrived after 1,200 their occupation predates Spanish arrival and thus they adapted to this major transition. They also adopted pastoralism as a major subsistence strategy. Thus archaeologists can gain insight into the processes of cultural change and adaptation through the study of their past. The dendrochronological data will allow one to address questions of Navajo social organization and change and relate shifts in settlement pattern and social organization to both environmental and social variables. Impacts of the introduction of metal tools and horses, timing and mechanisms for the incorporation of non-Navajos into Navajo culture, the consequences of the transition to pastoralism and a range of other issues can be examined. The project will also aid in calibrating other dating techniques such as radiocarbon, archaeomagnetism, ceramic seriation and obsidian hydration.