Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Political Economy and the Creation of an Intensive Agricultural Landscape in the Northern Basin of Mexico

在伊丽莎白·布鲁姆菲尔博士的监督下，克里斯托弗·莫尔哈特将进行考古挖掘，研究萨尔托坎遗址周围的密集农业景观。萨尔托坎位于墨西哥北部盆地，墨西哥城东北约30公里处，位于萨尔托坎湖的一个岛屿上。萨尔托坎在公元10世纪建立，在三个世纪内成为一个强大的政治中心。该遗址于公元1395年被征服，该地区最终被并入不断扩大的阿兹特克帝国。萨尔托坎周围的景观被设计成在中心东南部建立一个水力密集型、隆起的农田农业系统。这个被称为“Chinampas”的农业系统在地面上不再可见，但在航拍照片和高分辨率卫星图像中都能看到。遥感数据显示，奇纳帕斯群岛是一个由田野和运河组成的复杂网络。莫尔哈特的研究将重建中国农业的时间、范围和组织，这与萨尔托加的兴衰有关。以农业系统为目标的研究意义重大，因为农业生产是社会、经济和政治互动的基本组成部分。将农业生产与政治中心的发展和衰落联系起来，将阐明农民和国家在农业景观的创造、维护和持续方面的关系。夏尔托坎的Chinampa系统提供了一个前所未有的机会，可以研究随着政治制度的变化，对土地的控制和自治程度如何随着时间和空间的变化而变化。该项目将侧重于对Chinampa地区的调查，以找到可能存在农舍的证据。对潜在房屋的挖掘将产生数据，说明随着萨尔托干的发展、衰落以及该地区被并入不同的政治制度，农户之间的活动范围是如何变化的。在Chinampa带内的系统挖掘将产生地层、放射性碳和陶瓷数据，以重建农业系统本身的时空组织。来自田野和家庭的考古植物学数据将揭示种植的作物类型。与萨尔托坎中部的数据进行比较，将解决农业生产和农产品流通之间的联系，特别是农民之间以及农民和非农民之间的关系。这个项目最广泛的意义是它对在公众和学生中传播科学知识的影响。在当地，该项目将通过培训和雇用考古研究的居民，以及在社区博物馆开发关于该镇农业历史的展览，为萨尔托坎的现代社区做出贡献。与社区成员合作将促进正在快速发展的地区的文化资源保护。美国和墨西哥的学生将接受分析培训，特别是考古植物学方面的培训，该项目将提供莫尔哈特在分析和解释多行考古数据方面的培训。最后，在报告、参考期刊、书籍章节和会议上传播这一项目的成果，将确保分发数据供科学界评估。

Under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Brumfiel, Christopher Morehart will conduct archaeological excavations to study the intensive agricultural landscape surrounding the site of Xaltocan. Xaltocan is located in the northern Basin of Mexico, approximately 30 km northeast of Mexico City, on what was formerly an island in Lake Xaltocan. Xaltocan was settled by the tenth century A.D., and it had emerged as a powerful political center within three centuries. The site was conquered in A.D. 1395, and the area was eventually incorporated into the expanding Aztec empire. The landscape surrounding Xaltocan was engineered to create a hydraulically intensive, raised field agricultural system southeast of the center. The agricultural system, known as "chinampas," is no longer visible on the ground but is visible in aerial photos and in high resolution satellite imagery. Remote sensing data display the chinampas as a complex network of fields and canals. Morehart's research will reconstruct the timing, extent, and organization of chinampa agriculture in relation to the rise and fall of Xaltocan.Research that targets farming systems is significant as agricultural production constitutes a fundamental component underlying social, economic, and political interaction. Connecting agricultural production to the development and decline of a political center will illuminate the relationship between farmers and the state in the creation, maintenance, and persistence of an agricultural landscape. The chinampa system at Xaltocan provides an unprecedented opportunity to study how levels of control and autonomy over land vary through time and space as political institutions change. This project will focus on the survey of the chinampa zone to locate evidence of possible farming houses. Excavations in potential houses will yield data on how the range of activities between farming households varied as Xaltocan developed, as it declined, and as the area became incorporated into different political systems. Systematic excavations within the chinampa zone will yield stratigraphic, radiocarbon, and ceramic data to reconstruct the spatial and temporal organization of the agricultural system itself. Archaeobotanical data from fields and households will reveal the types of crops cultivated. Comparisons with data from central Xaltocan will address the association between agricultural production and the circulation of produce, particularly the relationships among farmers and between farmers and non-farmers. This project's broadest significance is its impact for expanding scientific knowledge among the public and students. Locally, this project will contribute to the modern community of Xaltocan by training and employing residents in archaeological research and by developing an exhibit in the community museum on the town's agricultural history. Collaborating with community members will promote the protection of cultural resources in an area undergoing rapid development. Students in the US and Mexico will receive analytical training, especially in archaeobotany, and this project will offer Morehart training in the analysis and interpretation of multiple lines of archaeological data. Lastly, the dissemination of this project's results in reports, refereed journals, book chapters, and at conferences will ensure that the data are distributed for assessment by the scientific community.