Enter the Countryside: A Regional Approach to Settlement Systems in Southern Bénin, West Africa

在Adria LaViolette博士的指导下，Neil Norman将对西非贝宁萨维遗址周围的社区进行区域考古调查和测试挖掘。 萨维是胡达王国的首都中心，也是从公元世纪末到18世纪初，非洲奴隶贸易的焦点。 之前在萨维宫殿区的挖掘表明，这是一个吸引国际贸易的人口密集的中心。然而，人们对宫殿周围的社区以及宫殿与外围地区的政治和经济关系知之甚少。 根据该地区已确定的定居点系统类型，萨维有可能嵌套在城市系统中，或者从区域政治和经济网络中删除。 为了解决这些问题，该项目建议通过集中研究这些当代乡村遗址，在交换和政治权威的区域系统内重新构建萨维的时空背景。 专门针对这些非精英地区和可能的农村社区的研究很重要，因为它为该地区未研究的人口多数提供了数据。 通过解决的空间，时间和经济变化的外围社区相对于宫殿中心，往往假设的城市宫殿解决系统可以评估。 也就是说，可以确定宫殿中心是否为农村提供了政治、经济或社会考虑，并期望得到其他考虑的回报。 在不同的网站类型检测生产活动和人工制品类型的变化将有助于社会分化和专业化的生产活动的理解。 同样，这些数据也可以用来评估边远地区在区域政治和交流网络中的整合情况，除了社会科学家感兴趣的研究问题之外，该项目还将通过科学技术的指导和项目数据的介绍在地方一级产生广泛的影响。 根据与贝宁国立大学（UNB）的协议，UNB学生将参加项目的所有阶段，并从正式和非正式培训中受益。 此外，项目成员将努力更新保护区收藏和维达历史博物馆的公开展览，该博物馆每年吸引数千名国际游客。 一个项目网站的建成将提高该项目的知名度，建立一个可上网查阅的数据库将使西非研究人员能够查阅所有项目数据。 此外，项目数据将通过在专业会议上的演讲、通讯和经评审的期刊传播。 通过以合作和协作的方式解决该项目，不同研究团队的见解将有利于萨维的科学研究，并加强对项目数据的解释。

Under the direction of Dr. Adria LaViolette, Neil Norman will conduct a regional archaeological survey and test excavations on communities surrounding the site of Savi in Benin, West Africa. Savi was the capital center of the Hueda Kingdom and a focal point of the trade in captured Africans bound for trans-Atlantic slavery from the late17th to early 18th century AD. Previous excavations within the palace zone at Savi indicate a densely settled center that attracted international trade. However, little is known of the communities that surrounded the palace and what (if any) political and economic relations connected the palace to outlying areas. With the range of settlement systems types that have been identified in the region, it is possible that Savi was nested within an urban system or removed from regional political and economic networks. In order to address such questions, the project proposes to recontextualize Savi in time and space within regional systems of exchange and political authority by focusing research on these contemporary countryside sites. Research that specifically addresses these non-elite areas and possibly rural communities is important because it provides data for the unstudied demographic majority of the region. Through addressing the spatial, chronological, and economic changes of outlying communities vis-a-vis the palace center, the often assumed urbanity of palace settlement systems can be evaluated. That is to say, it will be possible to determine if the palace center provided political, economic, or social considerations to a rural countryside with the expectation of other considerations in return. Detecting variation in production activity and artifact type at differing site types will contribute to an understanding of social differentiation and specialized production activity. Likewise, this data can be used to evaluate the integration of outlying sites in regional political and exchange networks.Beyond research questions of interest to social scientists, this project will have a broad impact at the local level with the instruction of scientific techniques and the presentation of project data. By agreement with the Universite Nationale du Benin (UNB), UNB students will participate in all phases of the project and benefit from formal and informal training. Also, project members will work to update the reserve collection and public displays at the Ouidah Museum of History, which annually attracts thousands of international visitors. The completion of a project website will increase visibility for the project and the creation of a web-accessible database will allow West African researchers to access all project data. Also, project data will be disseminated through presentations at professional conferences, newsletters, and refereed journals. Through addressing the project in a co-operative and collaborative manner, insights of the diverse research team will benefit scientific research at Savi, as well as strengthen interpretations of project data.