Investigating Pueblo Bonito Mounds

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里夏·L.皇冠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遗址，提供了大量的收藏品，主要存放在史密森学会和美国自然历史博物馆。这些发掘揭示了在其他大型查科遗址的发掘中从未重复过的物品集中。 收藏品的可获得性使它们成为许多研究的持续主题。 然而，这些收藏品中缺少的是垃圾，这里的垃圾被定义为故意丢弃或丢失的文化材料。 虽然1890年代的海德探险队和1920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。 这些早期研究项目保存的所有物品可能对普韦布洛博尼托的物质世界有偏见。 20世纪20年代，尼尔·贾德（Neil Judd）指挥挖掘南北向的战壕，穿过位于普韦布洛博尼托正南方的两个土丘和土丘之间的第三个战壕，作为NGS挖掘的一部分。 W. H.作者声明：Patricia L.皇冠最近指示重新开放部分三个战壕，以记录地层和收集地质，花粉，介形虫和大型植物样本从所有地层。所有沟渠填料都经过筛选，发现垃圾密度很高。 这些战壕保存得很好，因此发现的材料包括一些烧焦的玉米棒、一个编织物碎片，沿着有大量碎片、碎石材料、磨碎的石头碎片以及动物遗骸和工具。 陶瓷显示，土墩沉积物代表了一个相对较短的时间（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很好的收集，以探索普韦布洛博尼托垃圾的性质。 目前的研究将描述Pueblo Bonito土丘的垃圾特征，特别关注生产，交换，使用和丢弃材料的证据。 比较将发表的数据，从同时代的普韦布洛阿尔托和一个小网站，以检查丢弃模式之间的两个大房子网站和大房子与小房子网站的垃圾。 最后，两个土丘之间的比较将评估与每个土丘中沉积的物质有关的可能的群体差异。 智力价值包括对西南考古学家持续重要的问题的研究，这些问题对全球新兴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，在此基础上建立未来关于查科文物的生产、交换、使用和丢弃的研究。 这项研究将是对普韦布洛博尼托垃圾的第一次全面研究。 这一研究的更广泛影响包括传播到查科峡谷国家历史公园，在那里，这一项目产生的知识将加强对每年85 000多名游客的解释。 尽快完成这个项目的压力很大，因为一些后裔部落要求在分析后重新埋葬所有文物，而部落委员会尚未对此要求作出决定。 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。

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.