Economic Organization of Prehistoric Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (850 - 1140 CE)

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，亚当·沃森博士和一个跨学科的研究小组将完成一项为期三年的调查，研究位于今天新墨西哥州西北部查科峡谷地区的祖先普韦布洛社会的社会和经济组织。该团队包括考古学和机械工程专家，探索工艺生产趋势、制造技术和不同生产过程中使用的微观磨损痕迹之间的关系。在博尼托时期（公元850-1140年），查科峡谷及其周围许多分散的农业社区的合并和转变是前哥伦布时期北美政治复杂社会出现的最广泛引用的例子之一。社会分层的发展，查科意识形态的区域传播，伟大的房屋建设和繁荣的长途贸易网络是与Bonito阶段相关的主要变化。然而，尽管对峡谷进行了一个多世纪的考古研究，这些社会、政治和经济的发展在多大程度上导致了社会经济组织的相应变化仍然不清楚。尽管先前的研究表明，大量的陶瓷和原材料从外围地区流入峡谷，但直到最近，几乎没有迹象表明当地可能生产了什么并提供了交换。虽然在考古学上看不见，但易腐的手工业，如编织、纺织和皮革加工，代表了查科经济的主要部门。该项目通过对来自普韦布洛博尼托（Pueblo Bonito）的未分析的骨制品收藏的研究，调查了工艺生产的空间组织和规模的变化，这一组合在规模和多样性方面都非常引人注目。工具制造和使用的总体趋势可以根据原材料的选择和使用这些工具的篮子、纺织品和皮革制造的相对强度来评估。例如，使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）对骨制品进行研究，可以探索微磨损模式，然后可以用来区分正在制造的工艺品的类型。最初为机械工程应用而开发的纹理分析技术的引入允许识别使用磨损变化的可量化参数。在这些数据的基础上，研究将评估这样一个假设，即在查科社会发展中明显的社会政治变化是与以工艺专业化形式增加的经济复杂性并行的。这项研究的影响是深远的，超越了正在进行的区域辩论，具有推进政治经济学、等级制度、工艺专业化、史前骨骼产业和微磨损分析研究的潜力。利用表面计量学和机械工程领域的最新进展，本研究应用新的科学方法来解决长期存在的考古问题。建立一个基于网络的数据库，记录微磨损的变化，是减少观察者之间的错误、提高可重复性和解决使用磨损分析中的关键争论的关键步骤。通过美国自然历史博物馆科学研究指导计划和伍斯特理工学院，高中生、本科生和研究生将参与数据收集和实验室分析。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Adam Watson and an interdisciplinary team of researchers will complete a three-year investigation of the social and economic organization of Ancestral Pueblo society in the Chaco Canyon region of present-day northwestern New Mexico. The team includes specialists in archaeology and mechanical engineering to explore the relationship between trends in craft production, manufacturing techniques, and microscopic wear-traces artifacts employed in different production processes.The coalescence and transformation of many dispersed farming communities in and around Chaco Canyon during the Bonito phase (850-1140 CE) is one of the most widely cited examples of the emergence of politically complex society in pre-Columbian North America. The development of social stratification, the regional propagation of Chacoan ideology, great house construction, and thriving long-distance trade networks are among the principal changes associated with the Bonito phase. Despite more than a century of archaeological research in the canyon, however, the extent to which these social, political, and economic developments entailed corresponding shifts in the economic organization of the society remains unclear. Although previous studies have shown that large quantities of ceramics and raw materials flowed into the canyon from outlying regions, until recently there was little indication of what may have been produced locally and provided in exchange. Though largely invisible archaeologically, perishable craft industries such as basketry, textiles, and hide-working represented a major sector of the Chacoan economy.This project investigates changes in the spatial organization and scale of craft production through the study of the previously unanalyzed collection of bone artifacts from Pueblo Bonito, an assemblage remarkable for both its size and diversity. Overall trends in tool manufacture and use can be assessed in terms of raw material choice and the relative intensity of basketry, textile, and hide manufacturing in which these tools were utilized. The study of bone artifacts using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), for example, permits the exploration of microwear patterns that can then be used to differentiate the types of crafts being manufactured. The introduction of texture analysis techniques originally developed for applications in mechanical engineering allows the identification of quantifiable parameters of variation in use-wear. On the basis of these data, the study will evaluate the hypothesis that the sociopolitical changes evident in Chacoan societal development was paralleled by increasing economic complexity in the form of craft specialization.The implications of this study are far-reaching and extend beyond the ongoing regional debates with the potential to advance studies of political economy, hierarchy, craft specialization, prehistoric bone industries, and microwear analysis. Drawing upon recent advances in the fields of surface metrology and mechanical engineering this research applies new scientific methods to address longstanding archaeological questions. The creation of a web-based database that documents variation in microwear is a critical step for reducing inter-observer error, improving repeatability, and resolving key debates in the analysis of use-wear. Through the American Museum of Natural History Science Research Mentoring Program and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, high school, undergraduate, and graduate students will participate in data collection and laboratory analysis.