Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Intraregional Interaction in the Mesa Verde Region, A.D. 1150-1300: Placing Emigration in its Social Context

一个世纪的研究重点是了解公元 1300 年美国西南部梅萨维德地区被完全废弃的情况。人们付出了巨大的努力来重建当时的环境条件并了解梅萨维德人的去向。然而，要充分了解这种戏剧性的废弃现象，需要了解该地区人口减少之前和期间村庄之间的关系。现有数据不足以评估这些相互作用。在这一关键时期（公元 1150-1300 年），该项目利用经济合作的证据来调查村庄之间的社会互动，这些证据可以通过村庄之间的陶器交换以及象征合作和冲突的公共和防御建筑的位置来表明。陶瓷交换数据与公共和防御建筑的分布相结合，为理解这一有据可查的废弃过程中的社会过程提供了强有力的手段。NSF 的资助将允许使用仪器中子活化分析对来自 9 个地点的另外 490 个陶瓷和粘土样本进行化学成分分析。有了这些样本，就可以使用包含来自 18 个地点的 1,041 个陶瓷样本和 60 个粘土样本的区域数据库来重建陶瓷生产和交换的模式。这笔赠款还将资助区域数据库的编制，该数据库记录了评估村庄之间合作和冲突程度所需的公共和防御建筑的地理分布。这两个数据库都将提供关键数据，可供未来的研究访问并扩展，以进一步检验有关社会动态的人类学论证。这项研究由 Donna Glowacki 女士在 Keith Kintigh 博士的监督下进行，将有助于了解干旱和暴力等压力对大规模移民之前和期间的社会关系的影响。

A century of research has focused on understanding the complete abandonment of the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest by A.D. 1300. Enormous efforts have been devoted to reconstructing the prevailing environmental conditions and to understanding where the Mesa Verde people went. However, a full understanding of this dramatic abandonment requires knowledge of the relationships among villages prior to and during the depopulation of this region. Existing data are inadequate to assess these interactions. For this critical period (A.D. 1150-1300), this project investigates social interaction among villages using evidence for economic cooperation, indicated by the exchange of pottery among villages and the locations of communal and defensive buildings signifying cooperation and conflict. The combination of ceramic exchange data and the distribution of communal and defensive architecture provides a powerful means for understanding the social processes at work during this otherwise well-documented abandonment.NSF funding will permit the chemical composition analysis of an additional 490 ceramic and clay samples from nine sites using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. With these samples, it will be possible to reconstruct patterns of ceramic production and exchange using a regional database comprising 1,041 ceramic and 60 clay samples from 18 sites. The grant would also fund the compilation of a regional database documenting the geographic distribution of communal and defensive architecture necessary for the assessment of the degree of cooperation and conflict among villages. Both of these databases will provide critical data that will be made accessible for and can be expanded by future research to further test anthropological arguments about social dynamics. This study, conducted by Ms. Donna Glowacki under the supervision of Dr. Keith Kintigh, will contribute to understanding the effects of stress, such as drought and violence, on social relationships prior to and during periods of large-scale emigration.