Doctoral Dissertation Research: Modeling Hunter-Gatherer Ceramic Production and Use: A Test Case From the Upper Texas Coastal Plain

博士论文研究：模拟狩猎采集陶瓷的生产和使用：来自德克萨斯州上部沿海平原的测试案例

• 批准号: 0533406
• 负责人: Ben Fitzhugh
• 金额: $ 1.16万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-15 至 2006-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0533406&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Modeling; Hunter

Larkin Hood, under the supervision of Dr. Benjamin Fitzhugh, will conduct a study of pottery made by prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups on the upper Texas coastal plain during the Late Prehistoric and Contact periods (600 A.D.-1700 A.D.). This research will clarify the role of pottery production and use among hunter-gatherers, and will provide a better understanding of the diverse roles pottery has played in prehistoric societies. Traditionally anthropologists have associated pottery production and use with the intensive food processing and storage tasks of sedentary societies who produce their own food. More recent hypotheses suggest that ceramic vessels function as tools to gain and maintain economic, social and political prestige. Archaeologists continue to document examples of pottery manufacture and use by relatively mobile groups with little social ranking who hunted and gathered wild game and plants. Yet the specific roles of ceramic containers in hunter-gatherer social and economic systems remain unclear, and previous hypotheses do not adequately explain why some hunter-gatherer societies make and use pottery. The upper Texas coastal plain is an ideal area for this study because it is home to a long-standing prehistoric record of pottery made and used by indigenous hunter-fisher-gatherers. Groups in this area appear to have maintained relatively egalitarian hunter-gatherer ways of life even as neighboring pottery-producing groups such as the Caddo began to cultivate domesticated plants, settle in villages, and create large earth monuments, and organize in social hierarchies. In order to determine the economic and social roles of pottery in upper Texas coastal plain, potsherds from three sites will be analyzed using the following methods: 1) analysis of scratches, pits, and other types of wear on over 5,000 potsherds to determine how food and other materials were processed in the vessels; 2) analysis of mineral inclusions (petrography) in the vessel bodies to detect how much people moved on the landscape; 3) analysis of organic residues absorbed in the vessel body to determine types of food resources the pots contained. In order to be certain that sites are comparable in age, potsherds will be dated using a thermoluminesence method.This research will increase our understanding of prehistoric life in the upper Texas coastal plain, an area currently supporting a dense human population which continues to significantly modify the landscape. The results of this research will be shared with the public via presentations to amateur archaeologists and school groups (e.g., Harris County Archeological Society, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science). The mission of federal and state agencies responsible for managing archaeological collections and sites (e.g., United States Army Corps of Engineers, State of Texas) will also be enhanced by information from this research about the ways prehistoric inhabitants of this region used the land and the artifacts that these agencies protect and curate. This research will not only contribute to the graduate training of the co-PI (Hood), but also to undergraduate and K-12 learning at the University of Washington, particularly in helping both college and middle school students better understand hypothesis testing, as well as to hone their laboratory analysis and scientific writing skills.

拉金·胡德在本杰明·菲茨休博士的指导下，将对史前晚期和接触时期（公元600年至1700年）德克萨斯州北部沿海平原上的史前狩猎采集者群体制作的陶器进行研究。这项研究将阐明陶器的生产和使用在狩猎采集者中的作用，并将更好地理解陶器在史前社会中所扮演的各种角色。传统上，人类学家将陶器的生产和使用与定居社会的密集食物加工和储存任务联系起来，这些社会生产自己的食物。最近的一些假设认为，陶瓷器皿是获得和维持经济、社会和政治声望的工具。考古学家继续记录了陶器制造和使用的例子，这些陶器是由相对流动的群体制造和使用的，他们几乎没有社会地位，他们狩猎和采集野生动物和植物。然而，陶瓷容器在狩猎采集者社会和经济体系中的具体作用仍不清楚，先前的假设也不能充分解释为什么一些狩猎采集者社会制造和使用陶器。德克萨斯州上海岸平原是进行这项研究的理想区域，因为它是当地狩猎-捕鱼-采集者制作和使用陶器的长期史前记录的所在地。这一地区的群体似乎保持了相对平等的狩猎采集生活方式，即使邻近的陶器生产群体，如卡多人，开始种植驯化植物，在村庄定居，建造大型土碑，并组织社会等级制度。为了确定陶器在上德克萨斯州沿海平原的经济和社会作用，将使用以下方法分析来自三个地点的陶器碎片：1)分析5000多个陶器碎片上的划痕、凹坑和其他类型的磨损，以确定食物和其他材料是如何在容器中加工的；2)分析容器体中的矿物包裹体（岩石学），以检测人类在景观上的移动程度；3)分析容器体内吸收的有机残留物，以确定容器所含食物资源的类型。为了确定这些遗址在年代上具有可比性，将使用热释光法测定陶器碎片的年代。这项研究将增加我们对上德克萨斯州沿海平原史前生活的了解，该地区目前人口密集，继续显著改变着景观。这项研究的结果将通过向业余考古学家和学校团体（如哈里斯县考古学会和休斯顿自然科学博物馆）的演讲与公众分享。负责管理考古收藏和遗址的联邦和州机构（例如，美国陆军工程兵团，德克萨斯州）的使命也将通过这项研究获得有关该地区史前居民使用土地和这些机构保护和管理的文物的方式的信息而得到加强。这项研究不仅有助于联合pi （Hood）的研究生培训，也有助于华盛顿大学的本科生和K-12学习，特别是帮助大学生和中学生更好地理解假设检验，以及磨练他们的实验室分析和科学写作技能。