Dissertation: The Role of Cerros de Trincheras in Prehistoric Agricultural Strategies of Northern Mexico and the Southern Southwest

论文：特林彻拉斯山在墨西哥北部和西南南部史前农业战略中的作用

• 批准号: 0003715
• 负责人: Wirt Wills
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-12-15 至 2002-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0003715&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Role; Cerros; de; Trincheras

Under the direction of Drs. Wirt Wills and Robert Hard, Mr. Gerry Raymond will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. For many years archaeologists have recognized the presence of "cerros de trincheras" (terraced hillsides) in the late prehistoric Southwest. Research indicates that they served multiple functions and that people both lived on them and used the terraces as agricultural fields. Recently however similar features have been discovered in the state of Chihuahua Mexico which are significantly earlier than their northern counterparts and which date to the Archaic period, over 3,000 years ago. The discovery of fragments of maize and other domestic plants in the terrace soil demonstrates that the inhabitants were practicing agriculture at a time and place where hunting and gathering had been believed to be the sole source of subsistence. Mr. Raymond will conduct archaeological research at a newly recognized group of cerros de trincheras in Chihuahua to determine how they functioned. Because little is known about this group, he will conduct test excavations to recover cultural material as well as charcoal, faunal and botanical remains. These will permit age determination by radiocarbon dating and also provide information on the range of subsistence resources. Mr. Raymond also wishes to understand why relatively large amounts of labor were expended to build such terraces and why residents did not rely on less labor intensive flat ground farming. Based on analyses from later U.S. counterparts, he postulates that individual terraces create separate microenvironments with unique moisture characteristics based on slight differences in runoff catchment. Some terraces, he believes were better watered than others and in variable semi-arid rainfall conditions, productivity among terraces would vary from year to year based on unpredictable rainfall level. Thus terracing would serve a risk minimizing function. Using a geographic information system to display and correlate data, he will map terraces, measure their slope, catchment area and geological context and determine whether observed variation meets his prediction. He will also set the individual terraced hillsides into a larger geographic context to learn how they functioned in a broader ecological/subsistence context. The research is situated within a theoretical framework of optimum foraging theory.This work is important for several reasons. The existence of Archaic cerros de trincheras was completely unexpected and significantly changes archaeologists understanding of the development of agriculture and the shift from hunting and gathering to farming over a wide region in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico. Mr. Raymond's work will add a new set of cases to a very small and inadequate sample. The research will provide new insight into how these features functioned and provide data of interest to many scientists. It will also assist in training a promising young scientist.

在博士的指导下。格里·雷蒙德先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。多年来，考古学家已经认识到在史前晚期的西南部存在着“梯田山坡”（cerros de trincheras）。研究表明，梯田具有多种功能，人们既居住在梯田上，也将梯田用作农田。然而，最近在墨西哥奇瓦瓦州发现了类似的特征，这些特征明显早于北部的同类，可以追溯到3000多年前的远古时期。在梯田土壤中发现的玉米和其他家用植物的碎片表明，在人们认为狩猎和采集是唯一生计来源的时代和地点，居民们正在从事农业活动。雷蒙德先生将在奇瓦瓦州一个新发现的cerros de trincheras群进行考古研究，以确定它们是如何运作的。由于对这个群体知之甚少，他将进行测试挖掘，以恢复文化材料、木炭、动物和植物遗骸。这将允许用放射性碳定年法确定年龄，并提供关于生存资源范围的信息。雷蒙德先生还想了解为什么建造这样的梯田要花费相对大量的劳动力，为什么居民不依赖劳动强度较低的平地耕作。根据后来美国同行的分析，他假设单个梯田创造了具有独特湿度特征的独立微环境，这是基于径流汇流的细微差异。他认为，一些梯田比其他梯田得到了更好的灌溉，在多变的半干旱降雨条件下，梯田的生产力每年都会因不可预测的降雨量而变化。因此，梯田将起到风险最小化的作用。利用地理信息系统显示和关联数据，他将绘制梯田图，测量它们的坡度、集水区和地质背景，并确定观察到的变化是否符合他的预测。他还将把单个梯田山坡置于更大的地理环境中，以了解它们如何在更广泛的生态/生存环境中发挥作用。本研究是在最优觅食理论的理论框架下进行的。这项工作之所以重要，有几个原因。古代cerros de trincheras的存在是完全出乎意料的，它极大地改变了考古学家对美国西南部和墨西哥广阔地区农业发展的理解，以及从狩猎和采集到耕种的转变。雷蒙德先生的工作将为一个非常小而不充分的样本增加一组新的案例。这项研究将为这些特征如何发挥作用提供新的见解，并为许多科学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将帮助培训一名有前途的年轻科学家。