Collaborative Research at Cerro Portezuelo: Spanning the Classic to Postclassic at a Teotihuacan Regional Center

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，乔治·考吉尔博士（亚利桑那州立大学）和黛博拉·尼科尔斯博士（达特茅斯学院）将分析来自Cerro Portezuelo重要遗址的大量文物和现场记录，以更好地了解早期城市和州的发展，并对当前的城市问题产生影响。该研究小组包括来自美国、墨西哥和加拿大的考古学家和其他科学家，他们在石器、陶瓷、地球化学来源分析以及人类骨骼生物学和化学方面具有专业知识。位于墨西哥中部高地的伟大古城特奥蒂瓦坎已经得到了广泛的研究，但即使在今天，人们对墨西哥盆地其他与特奥蒂瓦坎有关的定居点的了解也少得惊人。Cerro Portezuelo距离特奥蒂瓦坎约40公里，是盆地中仅有的两个主要特奥蒂瓦坎区域中心之一。Cerro Portezuelo在公元650年特奥蒂瓦坎（Teotihuacan）陷落后发展起来，在随后的epic古典时期和早期后古典时期，它是一个独立城邦的首都。这个遗址具有特殊的战略意义，因为它提供了特奥蒂瓦坎与其核心区域内的附属中心如何互动的信息，因为它提供了特奥蒂瓦坎国家衰落和崩溃以及随后在墨西哥盆地发展的文化，政治，经济，宗教和可能的种族变化的记录。人们对这一转变的理解甚少，并且引起了许多争议。1954年至1955年，加州大学洛杉矶分校的考古学家乔治·布雷纳德（George Brainerd）在Cerro Portezuelo进行了大量挖掘工作，但该项目因他于1956年英年早逝而中断，从那时起，材料和现场记录一直保存在加州大学洛杉矶分校，很少被研究，而且大部分未发表。调查人员将仔细研究和分类所有的文物，并利用Cerro Portezuelo现场记录中的详细数据。利用仪器中子活化分析，研究人员将确定石器和陶器的来源。将对出土墓葬中人类骨骼遗骸的氧同位素进行分析，以确定其地理身份。有了这些信息，团队将调查(1)特奥蒂瓦坎与其附近腹地的关系(2)特奥蒂瓦坎地区国家到后古典时期非常不同的城邦的变化。研究人员将寻找有关Cerro Portezuelo工艺生产的证据，从特奥蒂瓦坎进口的不同陶瓷类型的程度，与特奥蒂瓦坎在财富和居民地位上的差异，以及这些模式在特奥蒂瓦坎衰落时如何变化的证据。向伊古纪的过渡主要是由墨西哥盆地内的政治、宗教和经济变化引起的，还是有证据表明外国移民的大量入侵？该项目将为Cerro Portezuelo创建一个电子数据库，使美国、墨西哥和其他地方的考古学家可以使用这些数据。该项目将有助于美国和墨西哥之间在考古方面的持续科学合作，墨西哥已经借出了Cerro Portezuelo收藏品进行研究。该项目为研究生和本科生提供了一个获得人工制品分析方法实践经验的机会，这对未来在墨西哥中部的考古调查至关重要。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. George Cowgill (Arizona State University) and Dr. Deborah Nichols (Dartmouth College) will analyze a large collection of artifacts and field records from the important site of Cerro Portezuelo to better understand the development of early cities and states, with implications for current urban issues. The research team includes archaeologists and other scientists from the U.S, Mexico, and Canada with expertise in stone tools, ceramics, geo-chemical source analysis, and human skeletal biology and chemistry. The great ancient city of Teotihuacan, in highland central Mexico, has been extensively studied, but even today surprisingly little is known about other Teotihuacan-related settlements in the Basin of Mexico. Cerro Portezuelo, about 40 km from Teotihuacan, is one of only two major Teotihuacan regional centers in the Basin. Cerro Portezuelo grew after the fall of Teotihuacan ca. A.D. 650 and in the subsequent Epiclassic and Early Postclassic periods it was the capital of an independent city-state. This site is exceptionally strategic because it offers information on how Teotihuacan interacted with subordinate centers within its core area, and because it provides a record of the cultural, political, economic, religious, and possibly ethnic changes involved in the decline and collapse of the Teotihuacan state and ensuing developments in the Basin of Mexico. This transition is poorly understood and is the subject of much controversy.In 1954-55 UCLA archaeologist George Brainerd conducted substantial excavations at Cerro Portezuelo, but the project was interrupted by his untimely death in 1956, and since then the materials and field records have remained at UCLA, little studied and largely unpublished. The investigators will carefully study and classify all the artifacts, and make use of the detailed data in the Cerro Portezuelo field records. Using instrumental neutron activation analysis the investigators will identify the sources of stone tools and pottery. Analysis of oxygen isotopes of human skeletal remains from excavated burials will be undertaken to determine their geographic identities. With this information the team will investigate (1) Teotihuacan's relations with its nearby hinterland and (2) the change from the Teotihuacan regional state to the very different city-states of the Postclassic. The researchers will seek evidence concerning craft production at Cerro Portezuelo, the extent to which different ceramic types were imported from Teotihuacan, differences from Teotihuacan in wealth and status of residents, and how these patterns changed as Teotihuacan declined. Was the transition to the Epiclassic primarily caused by political, religious, and economic changes within the Basin of Mexico, or does the evidence point also toward significant incursions of foreign migrants?The project will create an electronic database for Cerro Portezuelo to make the data available to archaeologists in the U.S., Mexico, and elsewhere. The project will contribute to continued scientific cooperation in archaeology between the U.S. and Mexico, who has loaned the Cerro Portezuelo collection for study. The project provides graduate and undergraduate students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in methods of artifact analysis that are essential for future archaeological investigations in Central Mexico.