Investigating Pueblo Bonito Mounds

调查普韦布洛博尼托土墩

• 批准号: 0710733
• 负责人: Patricia Crown
• 金额: $ 32.85万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0710733&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Pueblo; Bonito; Mounds

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Patricia L. Crown will analyze the artifacts excavated from trash deposits at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. With an estimated 600-800 rooms, Pueblo Bonito is the largest and most completely excavated site in Chaco Canyon, as well as one of the most completely documented. Archaeologists widely consider Pueblo Bonito the most important site in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Chaco Culture Park. Two major expeditions excavated most of the site, providing extensive collections largely housed at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. These excavations revealed a concentration of objects never duplicated in excavations of other large Chacoan sites. The accessibility of the collections has made them ongoing subjects of much study. What is lacking in these collections though is refuse, here defined as intentionally discarded or lost cultural material. Although the 1890s Hyde Expedition and the 1920s National Geographic Society (NGS) Expedition encountered refuse in quantities, little was kept. The whole objects kept by these early research projects likely give a biased view of the material world of Pueblo Bonito. In the 1920s, Neil Judd directed excavation of north-south oriented trenches through two mounds that sit directly south of Pueblo Bonito and a third trench between the mounds as part of the NGS excavations. Drs. W. H. Wills and Patricia L. Crown recently directed reopening of portions of the three trenches to document the stratigraphy and collect geological, pollen, ostracod and macrobotanical samples from all strata. All trench fill was screened, revealing a high density of refuse. Preservation in these trenches is good, so the material recovered includes a quantity of charred corn cobs, a basketry fragment, along with large numbers of sherds, chipped stone materials, ground stone fragments, and faunal remains and tools. Ceramics reveal that mound deposits represent a relatively brief period of time (ca. A.D. 1050-1125) coinciding with the major construction of Pueblo Bonito. The high frequency of material makes this an excellent collection to explore the nature of Pueblo Bonito refuse. The current study will characterize the refuse from the mounds at Pueblo Bonito, particularly focusing on the evidence for production, exchange, use, and discard of the material. Comparisons will be made to the published data on refuse from the contemporaneous Pueblo Alto and a small site to examine discard patterns between two great house sites and great house versus small house sites. Finally, comparisons between the two mounds will evaluate possible group differences associated with material deposited in each mound. Intellectual merits include examination of issues of continuing importance to southwestern archaeologists that have broader implications for issues of emergent complexity worldwide. A comprehensive laboratory methodology will generate an invaluable database upon which to build future research on the production, exchange, use and discard of artifacts in Chaco. The research will be the first comprehensive study of refuse from Pueblo Bonito. Broader impacts of this research include dissemination to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, where the knowledge generated by this project will enhance interpretation to over 85,000 annual visitors. There is considerable pressure to complete this project as rapidly as possible, because some descendant tribal groups have requested that all artifacts be reburied after analysis, and the NPS has not yet made a decision about this request. Finally, the project will provide professional training to a group of young undergraduate and graduate scientists in the context of research.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Patricia L. Crown博士将分析从新墨西哥州查科峡谷普韦布洛博尼托的垃圾沉积物中挖掘出来的文物。据估计，普韦布洛博尼托有600-800个房间，是查科峡谷中最大、挖掘最完整的遗址，也是记录最完整的遗址之一。考古学家普遍认为普韦布洛博尼托是联合国教科文组织世界遗产查科文化公园中最重要的遗址。两个主要的探险队挖掘了大部分的遗址，提供了大量的收藏品，大部分收藏在史密森学会和美国自然历史博物馆。这些挖掘揭示了在其他大型查科遗址的挖掘中从未重复过的物体的集中。这些藏品的可访问性使它们成为许多研究的持续主题。然而，这些藏品中缺少的是垃圾，这里的定义是故意丢弃或丢失的文化材料。尽管19世纪90年代的海德探险队和20世纪20年代的国家地理学会（NGS）探险队遇到了大量的垃圾，但很少被保留下来。这些早期的研究项目所保存的全部物品很可能对普韦布洛博尼托的物质世界有偏见。在20世纪20年代，尼尔·贾德（Neil Judd）指导了南北走向的沟渠的挖掘，这些沟渠穿过位于普韦布洛·博尼托（Pueblo Bonito）正南的两个土丘，以及位于土丘之间的第三个沟渠，这是NGS挖掘的一部分。Drs。w·h·威尔斯（W. H. Wills）和帕特里夏·l·克朗（Patricia L. Crown）最近指示重新开放三个海沟的部分区域，以记录地层，并从所有地层收集地质、花粉、介形虫和大型植物样本。所有的壕沟填充物都被筛过，显示出高密度的垃圾。这些战壕保存得很好，因此发现的材料包括大量烧焦的玉米芯，一个篮子碎片，以及大量的碎片，碎石，磨碎的石头碎片，动物遗骸和工具。陶器显示，土丘沉积物代表了一个相对较短的时期（约公元1050-1125年），与普韦布洛·博尼托的主要建设相吻合。材料的高频率使这是一个极好的收集探索普韦布洛博尼托垃圾的性质。目前的研究将对普韦布洛博尼托土丘的垃圾进行特征描述，特别关注这些材料的生产、交换、使用和丢弃的证据。将会对同期的普韦布洛阿尔托和一个小地点公布的垃圾数据进行比较，以检查两个大房子和大房子与小房子之间的丢弃模式。最后，两个土丘之间的比较将评估与每个土丘沉积的物质相关的可能的群体差异。知识价值包括对西南考古学家持续重要的问题的研究，这些问题对世界范围内出现的复杂性问题具有更广泛的影响。一个全面的实验室方法将产生一个宝贵的数据库，在此基础上建立关于查科文物的生产、交换、使用和丢弃的未来研究。这项研究将是第一次对普韦布洛博尼托的垃圾进行全面研究。这项研究的广泛影响包括传播到查科峡谷国家历史公园，该项目产生的知识将为每年超过85,000名游客提供更好的解释。一些后代部落要求在分析后重新埋葬所有的文物，而国民年金还没有做出决定，因此尽快完成这项工作的压力相当大。最后，该项目将为一批年轻的本科生和研究生科学家提供研究方面的专业培训。