Household Organization during the Pithouse Period at the Harris Site, Mimbres River Valley, New Mexico

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，芭芭拉·罗斯博士将在哈里斯遗址进行两季的考古发掘，这是一个位于新墨西哥州西南部明布雷斯河谷的坑屋村。该遗址在大约公元500年至公元1000年的后期堡垒时期被占领。它最初是由著名的西南考古学家埃米尔·豪里在20世纪30年代挖掘出来的，他利用该遗址的数据将莫高伦人定义为西南地区一个独特的史前文化群体。Haury挖掘了遗址的南部，而北端未被破坏。罗斯博士的研究将集中在北部地区。她的研究目标是研究家庭是如何组织起来的，并确定家庭组织是否随着时间的推移而改变，因为居住在哈里斯的人们将更多的时间和精力投入到农业生产中，并开始永久地留在这个地方。哈里斯遗址为实现这些研究目标提供了一个独特的机会，因为它是米姆布雷斯河谷中唯一一个没有在其上建造后期古典时期的村庄。迄今为止，罗斯博士在该遗址的工作已经确定了两个空间上截然不同的洞穴群，根据建筑和其中发现的文物的差异，它们似乎具有不同的社会特征。额外的田野调查和对所有回收材料的分析将进一步调查这些集群，看看它们是否代表随着时间的推移而迁移的自治家庭，或者它们是否是相关家庭，类似于在后来的普韦布洛遗址发现的大家庭。家庭在建筑或人工制品内容方面的差异也可以用来确定这些集群之间是否存在财富、地位或劳动组织的差异。这项研究将通过在这两个集群和基地东端可能的第三个集群中挖掘额外的坑穴来完成，并通过挖掘房屋之间的坑穴来确定与之相关的任何特征，如室外壁炉或储存坑。对从房屋和相关特征中恢复的文物进行分析，并仔细确定所有特征的年代，将有助于解决家庭是如何组织的，以及这种组织是否会随着时间的推移而变化。这个项目的学术价值在于它有可能增强我们对西南地区碉堡职业的理解，并有助于更广泛地理解史前家庭组织的作用。这项研究的更广泛的影响在于为学生的培训和研究提供机会，并传播研究成果，特别是向公众传播。本科生和研究生将参与项目的所有阶段，包括实地工作、数据分析和出版。也许更重要的是，该项目为米布雷斯地区的公众宣传提供了机会，该地区以制作精美的黑白陶器而闻名，因此也以抢劫而闻名。公共宣传仍然是教育人们反对抢劫的有力工具，因此将利用一切提供公共教育的机会。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Barbara Roth will conduct two seasons of archaeological excavations at the Harris Site, a pit house village located in the Mimbres River Valley of southwestern New Mexico. The site was occupied during the Late Pithouse period from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1000. It was originally excavated in the 1930s by renowned Southwestern archaeologist Emil Haury, who used data from the site in defining the Mogollon as a distinct prehistoric cultural group in the Southwest. Haury excavated the southern portion of the site, leaving the north end untouched. Dr. Roth's research will focus on this northern portion. The goals of her research are to examine how households were organized and to determine if household organization changed over time as the people living at Harris devoted more of their time and efforts to agricultural production and began to stay permanently at the site. The Harris Site provides a unique opportunity to address these research goals because it is the only pithouse village of its size in the Mimbres River Valley that does not have a later Classic period pueblo built over it. Dr. Roth's work at the site to date has identified two spatially distinct clusters of pithouses that appear to be socially distinct based on differences in architecture and artifacts found within them. Additional fieldwork and the analysis of all of the recovered materials will further investigate these clusters to see if they represent autonomous households that moved residences over time or if they are related households, akin to extended family groups found at later pueblo sites. Variation in households in terms of architecture or artifact content can also be used to determine if differences in wealth, status, or labor organization existed between these clusters. This research will be accomplished by excavating additional pithouses within these two clusters and a possible third cluster on the east end of the site, and by excavating between houses to identify any features such as outdoor hearths or storage pits associated with them. The analysis of artifacts recovered from the houses and associated features and careful dating of all features will be instrumental in addressing how households were organized and whether this changed over time. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its potential to enhance our understanding of pithouse occupations in the Southwest and to contribute to a broader understanding of the role of household organization in prehistory.The broader impacts of this research lie in providing opportunities for student training and research and in the dissemination of the research results, especially to the public. Undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in all phases of the project, including field work, data analysis, and publication. Perhaps more importantly, the project provides an opportunity for public outreach in the Mimbres area, an area known for its elaborate black-on-white pottery and consequently, looting. Public outreach remains a powerful tool for educating people against looting so every opportunity to provide public education will be taken.