Grounding Creolization: Ecology and Economy in Colonial New Orleans

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，香农·李·道迪博士将带领一个由研究生和当地志愿者组成的团队，在新奥尔良杰克逊广场上圣路易斯大教堂周围的中心历史建筑群内进行挖掘。大教堂后面的花园场地是一个灵活的绿色空间，在过去的300年里，城市居民将其用作临时住所、园艺、营销和娱乐。通过检查这些活动的材料遗迹和应用高分辨率的实验室分析，这项研究旨在提高我们对非洲、美洲原住民和欧洲居民如何交换关于园艺、医药、食品和家庭技术的想法的理解。一个更广泛的目标是发展对克里奥尔化的考古理解，或者从多样化的殖民地人口中创造出一种新文化。2008年在该遗址（被称为圣安东尼花园）进行的挖掘发现了保存非常完好的沉积物，这些沉积物与两座早期法国时期的建筑有关，其中一座比街道网格更早，可能代表了一个拓荒者在土地清理阶段建立的早期小屋。该遗址还以丰富的文物沉积物和可追溯到18世纪早期的可识别特征为特征。这些人工制品表明，美洲原住民在美国建国初期所扮演的角色比之前所认识到的要重要得多。扩大挖掘和详细的人工制品分析将澄清这些沉积物的性质。这项研究的知识价值既有理论价值，也有实质性的价值。为什么以及如何在新奥尔良早期发生克里奥尔化，以至于到1740年代当地人被认定为独特的“克里奥尔人”，而不是法国人、印第安人或非洲人？异族通婚在路易斯安那州并不比其他法国和西班牙殖民地更普遍，传教活动也不强烈。虽然路易斯安那州经常被认为是克里奥尔文化的一个民族志例子，但对为什么克里奥尔化发生在某些环境而不是其他环境的理论解释却缺乏。该项目试图验证这样一种假设，即克里奥奥尔化是在通过协作劳动促进物质知识和技术交流的条件下产生的，这似乎是早期路易斯安那州以自给农业、走私和鹿皮贸易为基础的经济体系的一个显著特征。该项目是该市首个综合考古研究项目的重要组成部分。它将为法国殖民地新奥尔良建立陶瓷、考古学和动物学数据的比较基线。此外，这将是第一次将植物岩（类似于植物细胞化石）的分析应用于该地区任何类型的遗址。该项目更广泛的影响包括重要的公共宣传工作，包括现场解说和参观这个访问量很大的地标，公共讲座，以及为永久博物馆展览做准备。研究结果将通过网站、技术报告、学术会议报告和出版物进行传播。来自芝加哥和新奥尔良的学生将接受考古培训，并邀请当地志愿者参加这个社区项目。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Shannon Lee Dawdy will lead a team of graduate students and local volunteers in excavations to take place within New Orleans's central historic complex surrounding St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square. The garden site behind the Cathedral has been a flexible green space used by city residents for temporary shelter, gardening, marketing, and recreation over the last 300 years. By examining the material remains of these activities and applying high-resolution laboratory analyses, the study aims to improve our understanding of how African, Native American, and European residents were exchanging ideas about gardening, medicine, food, and domestic technologies. A broader goal is to develop an archaeological understanding of creolization, or the creation of a new culture out of a diverse colonial population.Excavations in 2008 at the site (called St. Anthony's Garden) exposed remarkably well-preserved deposits associated with two early French period structures, one of which predates the street grid and may represent an early hut established by a pioneer during the land-clearing phase. The site is also characterized by rich deposits of artifacts and identifiable features dating from the early 1700s. The artifactual remains suggest that Native Americans played a much more prominent role in the early founding years than has been previously appreciated. Expanded excavations and detailed artifact analysis will clarify the nature of these deposits. The study's intellectual merits are both theoretical and substantive. Why and how did creolization take place in early New Orleans such that by the 1740s locals were identified as uniquely 'creole,' rather than French, Indian, or African? Intermarriage was no more common in Louisiana than in other French and Spanish colonies and missionary efforts were not intense. While Louisiana is often held up as an ethnographic example of creole culture, theoretical explanations for why creolization occurs in some settings and not others are lacking. This project seeks to test the hypothesis that creolization arises under conditions that foster the exchange of material knowledge and technique through collaborative labor, which seems to have been a distinctive characteristic of early Louisiana's economic system based on subsistence agriculture, smuggling, and the deer skin trade. This project is a key component of the city's first comprehensive archaeological research program. It will establish comparative baselines of ceramic, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data for French colonial New Orleans. In addition, this will be the first time that analysis of phytoliths (akin to fossilized plant cells) will be applied to any type of site in the region. The broader impacts of the project include a significant public outreach effort, consisting of on-site interpretation and tours of this heavily-visited landmark, public lectures, and preparation for a permanent museum exhibit. Results will be disseminated through a web site, technical reports, and scholarly conference presentations and publications. Students from Chicago and New Orleans will receive archaeological training and local volunteers are invited to participate in this community project.