Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigating Behavioral practices at the Mississippian Site of Cahokia

在Timothy R博士的指导下，作者：Sarah E. Baires将对一条凸起的人行道或游行大道进行考古挖掘，并对来自Cahokia遗址的三个先前挖掘的山脊顶部墓葬的文物、笔记和地图进行分析。Cahokia是一个前哥伦布时期的美洲土著城市，位于伊利诺斯州、密西西比河和密苏里州河交汇处附近的美国底部。 Baires女士建议调查正式的埋葬习俗，新的宗教信仰和公元1050 - 1200年间卡霍基亚地区城市社会的兴起之间的关系。本研究将检验这一假设，即丧葬习俗作为一种宗教活动，在加强这个复杂社会的社会组织方面发挥着核心作用。 这一假设将通过（1）考古发掘到一个可能的上升走道连接在该网站与卡霍基亚的中央公共广场最大的脊顶土丘之一，（2）三个脊顶土墩太平间的分析。 Baires女士将参观三个博物馆，伊利诺伊州立博物馆，史密森学会和密歇根大学人类学博物馆，研究尚未分析的人类遗骸和位于卡霍基亚的三个土丘的文物收藏。卡霍基亚等网站提供了对最初产生像我们这样的复杂社会的力量的洞察，并有助于追踪潜在的发展过程。他们设定了一个广泛的社会，在更广泛的时间背景下表征现存世界。上升的走道连接公共空间和墓地，将提供有关伊利诺伊州土著人如何收集、移动和埋葬死者的新信息。 对三个脊顶坟冢的遗骸进行分析，将提供关于这些坟冢所葬者的人口数据。死亡通常与来世、祖先和宗教信仰的概念联系在一起。 宗教和死亡的这些方面似乎是人类的普遍性，是人们理解周围世界和他们在其中的地位的一种方式，也是政治家获得权威地位的一种方式。 通过使用宗教丧葬习俗的考古证据，某些人以政治上强大的方式被埋葬，Baires女士将有助于更广泛地了解宗教和政治如何相互影响。 这项研究将涉及人类学，物理，社会文化和考古学的三个子领域，不仅关注研究的科学组成部分，而且还关注复杂社会，丧葬习俗和宗教信仰之间的直接关系。 进入高架人行道，或游行大道，将发生在卡霍基亚土丘财产，从事社区成员和考古学家访问和工作的网站。 该项目将涉及感兴趣的社区成员，通过在年度公共卡霍基亚会议和伊利诺伊州考古会议促进协会，年度中西部考古会议，东南考古会议和美国考古学会年会上介绍挖掘结果。 在密尔沃基的威斯康星州大学和伊利诺斯州蒙茅斯的蒙茅斯学院举办的两次公开讲座将为社区教育和参与提供更多的途径。 最后，一本信息小册子将由Baires撰写，并通过Cahokia土丘国家历史遗址解释中心分发给感兴趣的土著和非土著社区。

Under the guidance of Dr. Timothy R. Pauketat, Sarah E. Baires will conduct archaeological excavation of a raised walkway, or processional avenue, and analysis of artifacts, notes, and maps from three previously excavated ridge-top burial mounds at the site of Cahokia a pre-Columbian Native American city located in the American Bottom near the confluence of the Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Ms. Baires proposes to investigate the relationship between formal burial practices, new religious beliefs, and the rise of an urban society in the Cahokia region between the years of AD 1050 - 1200. This research will test the hypothesis that mortuary practices, as a religious activity, play a central role in reinforcing the social organization of this complex society. This hypothesis will be tested through (1) archaeological excavations into a possible raised walkway connecting one of the largest ridge-top burial mounds at the site with Cahokia's central public plaza, and (2) the analysis of three ridge-top mound mortuaries. Ms. Baires will visit three museums, the Illinois State Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology to study the as yet unanalyzed collections of human remains and artifacts from three burial mounds located at Cahokia. Sites such as Cahokia provide insight into the forces which originally gave rise to complex societies such as our own and help to trace the underlying developmental processes. They set a wide range of societies which characterize the extant world in a broader chronological context. Excavations into the raised walkway, which connects public space to burial grounds, will provide new information on how Native persons in Illinois gathered, moved, and buried their dead. The analysis of human remains from three ridge-top burial mounds will provide demographic data on those buried in the mounds. Death is often tied to concepts of the afterworld, ancestors, and religious beliefs. These aspects of religion and death appear to be a human universal, a way in which people make sense of the world around them and their place in it, and a way in which politicians achieve positions of authority. By using the archaeological evidence of religious mortuary practices, where certain people are buried in politically powerful ways, Ms. Baires will contribute to a larger understanding of how religion and politics influence each other. This research will engage three subfields of Anthropology, physical, socio-cultural, and archaeology, focusing not only on the scientific components of the research but also on the direct relationships among complex societies, mortuary practice, and religious belief. Excavations into the raised walkway, or processional avenue, will take place on Cahokia Mounds property, engaging both community members and archaeologists visiting and working at the site. The project will involve interested community members through presentations of the excavation results at the annual public Cahokia Conference and Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology Conference, the annual Midwestern Archaeological Conference, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, and the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. Two public lectures at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois will provide additional ways for community education and participation. And finally, an informational pamphlet will be authored by Baires and distributed to interested Native and non-Native communities through the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site Interpretive Center.