Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Ocampo Caves in Context: Agricultural Development in Southwestern Tamaulipas, Mexico

在盖勒·弗里茨博士的指导下，J·凯文·汉塞尔卡将在墨西哥塔毛利帕斯州西南部奥坎波附近3,600公顷的地区进行考古调查。 20世纪50年代从该地区的三个洞穴中获得的证据影响了中美洲从移动的狩猎和采集到定居农业村庄生活的主要区域模式。 洞穴居住只是更大的定居模式的一个方面，然而，几乎没有做什么来澄清奥坎波地区史前人民的非洞穴土地使用活动。 Hanselka的调查将记录洞穴附近的土地使用和资源开采。 通过对以前挖掘的大量植物遗骸进行检查，并在各个机构进行策划，将对奥坎波洞穴中的史前植物生存产生新的看法，并与调查期间发现的定居模式的同时变化进行比较。从知识的角度来看，这项研究很重要，原因有几个。 首先，它将把现有植物生存数据的所有方面纳入奥坎波洞穴植物饮食的全面重建。虽然考古学家对这些材料感兴趣已有几十年，但它们基本上没有发表，除了简短的合成文章和对玉米，豆类，南瓜和葫芦收藏的广泛概述。 这项研究将把这些数据汇总成每个挖掘层的植物内容的详细记录，以便考古界更容易获得。 这项研究还将把这些洞穴数据置于洞穴之外存在的更广泛但本地化的文化系统的背景下。 区域模型认为，中美洲的主要农作物在不同时期在广泛分散的地区被驯化，并在数千年的时间里被纳入当地的饮食，直到完全农业化的村庄建立起来。 史前史学家现在认识到，在混合的觅食-耕作系统中存在着丰富的多样性，而且觅食者-农民过渡的特点是比一般模型更复杂的局部过程。 许多过去的社会并不适合狩猎采集或农业类别，而是有区别地将各种采集的野生食物，管理的非驯化食物和/或驯化食物纳入当地饮食。 在驯化植物首次出现和第一个农业村庄之间，这种混合或低水平的粮食生产，经济在墨西哥不同的环境和文化背景下运作。 这些概念表明有必要在个案基础上审查农业发展。 本研究将澄清奥坎波低水平的粮食生产状况区域，根据当代中美洲和北美考古学，通过研究定居类型的范围和使用不同的环境设置在该地区随着时间的推移，以及如何或如果这些发展与依赖野生与驯化资源的变化相关。 随着其他地区类似案例研究的积累，可以不断完善更广泛的古代中美洲粮食生产区域模型。 由于该项目将得到博士论文改进补助金的支持，它将有助于对计划继续教育未来专业人员的研究生进行专业培训。 该项目还将对奥坎波洞穴附近社区的居民产生积极影响，因为它将扩大对当地遗产和遗产的了解，使人们更好地了解奥坎波地区在墨西哥史前史大背景下的地位。 目前，许多当地居民通过自给/小规模商业性农业谋生;这些人将认识和了解在全球化提供替代办法之前，早期居民如何遇到类似的环境条件和挑战。 研究结果将在奥坎波和该地区其他小社区内传播，以供教育之用。 此外，这项研究将促进塔毛利帕斯州和美国学者之间未来的合作努力。

Under the direction of Dr. Gayle Fritz, J. Kevin Hanselka will conduct an archaeological survey within a 3,600 ha area near Ocampo, southwestern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Evidence obtained in the 1950s from three caves in this area influenced leading regional models concerning the shift from mobile hunting and gathering to settled agricultural village life in Mesoamerica. Cave occupations represent only one aspect of a greater settlement pattern, however, and little has been done to clarify the non-cave land use activities of prehistoric peoples in the Ocampo area. Hanselka's survey will document land use and resource extraction in the vicinity of the caves. An examination of the abundant plant remains obtained from previous excavations and curated at various institutions will produce a fresh perspective on prehistoric plant subsistence in the Ocampo caves, to be compared with simultaneous changes in settlement patterns detected during the survey. From an intellectual standpoint, this research is important for several reasons. First, it will incorporate all aspects of the available plant subsistence data into a comprehensive reconstruction of plant diet in the Ocampo caves. Although archaeologists have been interested in these materials for decades, they remain largely unpublished, except in brief synthetic articles and broad overviews of the corn, bean, squash, and gourd collections. This study will draw this data together into a detailed record of the plant contents of each excavation level, to be made more readily accessible to the archaeological community. This research will also place this cave data into the context of a broader yet localized cultural system that existed outside of the caves. Regional models hold that major Mesoamerican crop plants were domesticated in widely scattered areas at different times, and were incorporated into local diets over several thousand years as they spread until fully agricultural villages were established. Prehistorians now recognize rich diversity among mixed foraging-farming systems, and that more intricate localized processes characterized the forager-farmer transition than general models address. Many past societies did not comfortably fit into the hunter-gatherer or agriculturalist categories, but instead differentially incorporated diverse gathered wild foods, managed non-domesticates, and/or domesticated foods into their local diets. Between the first appearance of domesticated plants and the first agricultural villages, such mixed, or low-level food producing, economies operated under diverse environmental and cultural contexts in Mexico. These notions demonstrate the necessity of examining agricultural development on a case-by-case basis. The present research will clarify the Ocampo low-level food production situation region in light of contemporary Mesoamerican and North American archaeology, by examining the range of settlement types and the use of diverse environmental settings in the area over time, and how or if these developments correlate with changes in dependence on wild vs. domesticated resources. As similar case studies from other localities accumulate, broader regional models of ancient Mesoamerican food production can be continuously refined.This project will also have a significance beyond anthropological research concerns. As the project will be supported by a doctoral dissertation improvement grant, it will contribute to the professional training of a graduate student who plans to go on to educate future professionals. The project will also have positive implications for the residents of communities near the Ocampo caves, as it will expand on knowledge of local heritage and patrimony, engendering a greater understanding of the Ocampo region's place in the greater context of Mexican prehistory. Much of the local populace currently earns its living through subsistence/small-scale commercial farming; these will gain an awareness and appreciation of how earlier populations met similar environmental conditions and challenges before globalization provided alternatives. The research findings will be disseminated within Ocampo and other small communities in the area for educational purposes. In addition, this research will foster future collaborative efforts between scholars in Tamaulipas and the United States.