Households and Great Houses: Practice and Action within Chaco-era (AD 1050-1150) Great House Communities of the Southern Cibola Region, West-central New Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，安德鲁·达夫博士和华盛顿州立大学的一组研究人员和学生将进行为期三个季度的考古和实验室研究，探索“查科现象”的各个方面，这是接触前的美国西南部更有趣的发展之一。查科峡谷，现在是新墨西哥州西北部的国家历史公园，是几个11世纪和12世纪“伟大的房子”的所在地，这些令人印象深刻的砖石建筑具有无与伦比的规模和重要性。那些居住在查科峡谷的人开始控制或影响遍布四角地区的定居点，这是现在美国最大的史前社会发展之一。伟大的房屋经常激励和吸引喜欢冒险的游客来到公园，促使他们问以下问题：“他们为什么要建造这些巨大的建筑？为什么在这里？如何在这片严酷的沙漠中发展出如此奇妙的文明？它是如何运作的？”大约一个世纪以来，考古学家一直在问同样的问题，达夫的研究项目旨在帮助提供答案。然而，他不会通过在查科峡谷本身工作来做到这一点，而是通过观察查科峡谷以南约120英里处的考古遗址，这些考古遗址是“查科现象”的一部分。尽管查科峡谷有很长的研究历史，但考古学家对外围豪宅及其相关社区的案例研究仍然相对较少，尽管事实是，查科峡谷一直是“区域系统”的中心，这意味着峡谷与这些遥远的社区之间存在联系。达夫和他的研究团队将调查查科覆盖的南部边界上的一组Great House社区，提供数据以建立对定居点年表、社区规模、环境条件和社区互动的合理理解。研究包括：对两座大宅及其相关社区进行考古调查和系统发掘；对项目区域内所有报告的大宅进行参观和测绘计划；通过分析文物和植物遗骸调查大宅的功能；以及检查用于监测交换关系的当地、地区和地区间的陶瓷和黑麻岩贸易。这项创新和跨学科的研究不仅将提供与了解查科系统相关的新数据，而且还将有助于促进对美洲原住民接触前历史的欣赏，因为查科峡谷是北美考古学课程、教科书、流行媒体和视频中的案例研究。查科恩的研究经常得到区域和国家媒体的报道。项目成果将通过课堂教学、出版和推广传播，并有可能通过大众媒体和参观查科峡谷国家历史公园接触到更广泛的公众。几名本科生和研究生将接受实践培训和指导，同时直接参与项目实地工作和实地后分析。广泛地设想，这项工作将到达感兴趣的公众，同时帮助促进对考古资源、它们的保存和创造它们的美洲原住民的欣赏。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Andrew Duff and a team of researchers and students from Washington State University will conduct three seasons of archaeological and laboratory research exploring aspects of the "Chaco Phenomenon," one of the more intriguing developments in the precontact American Southwest. Chaco Canyon, now a National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico, is home to several 11th and 12th century "Great Houses," impressive masonry buildings of unparalleled size and importance. Those who resided in Chaco Canyon came to control or influence settlements located throughout the Four Corners area, one of the largest prehistoric social developments in what is now the United States. Great Houses regularly inspire and fascinate adventurous visitors to the park, prompting them to ask the following: "Why did they build these tremendous buildings? Why here? How could such a fantastic civilization develop in this harsh desert? And how did it work?" Archaeologists have been asking these same questions for about a century and Duff's research project is designed to help provide answers. However, he will do so not by working in Chaco Canyon itself, but by looking at archaeological sites located some 120 miles south of Chaco Canyon that were part of the "Chaco Phenomenon."Although Chaco Canyon has a long history of research, archaeologists still have relatively few case studies from outlying Great Houses and their associated communities despite the fact that the rationale for Chaco Canyon having been the center of a "regional system" implies links between the canyon and these distant communities. Duff and his research team will investigate a group of Great House communities on the southern frontier of Chaco's reach, providing data used to build a sound understanding of settlement chronology, community size, environmental conditions, and community interactions. The research includes: archaeological survey around, and systematic excavations at two Great Houses and their associated communities; a program of visitation and mapping of all reported Great Houses in the project region; investigation of Great House function through analysis of artifacts and botanical remains; and examination of local, regional, and inter-regional trade of ceramics and obsidian used to monitor exchange relationships. This innovative and interdisciplinary research will not only provide new data relevant to understanding the Chacoan system, but also serve to promote appreciation for the precontact history of Native Americans because Chaco Canyon serves as a case study in North American archaeology courses, in textbooks, in the popular press and videos. Chacoan research regularly receives regional and national media coverage. Project results will be disseminated through class instruction, publication, and outreach, and they have the potential to reach the broader public via popular press and visitation to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park. Several undergraduate and graduate students will receive hands-on training and mentoring while being directly involved with project field work and post-field analyses. Broadly conceived this work will reach the interested public while helping to promote an appreciation for archaeological resources, their preservation, and for the Native Americans who created them.