Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: MISSISSIPPIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

当第一批欧洲人深入到今天的美国南部腹地时，他们在几个美洲原住民群体中旅行并与之互动，这些美洲原住民分享着考古学家所说的“密西西比人”的文化。大约500年前，在伊利诺伊州西南部的美国底部地区，密西西比河靠近圣路易斯市的一片肥沃的泛滥平原，密西西比文化最早在那里发展。美国海底是著名的考古遗址卡霍基亚的所在地，卡霍基亚是美国国家历史地标和联合国教科文组织世界遗产。在公元11世纪和12世纪之间，卡霍基亚发展成为前哥伦布时代最大、最复杂的城镇，位于现在的美国。在很大程度上，由于对玉米农业的经济关注日益增加，卡霍金人及其邻居的行动带来了新形式的社会、政治和经济复杂性，这将有助于塑造美国中西部和南部土著群体未来几个世纪的历史。在罗宾·贝克博士的指导下，博士生凯西·巴里尔将继续研究，提供有关密西西比州早期美国底层发展的新信息。巴尔在伊利诺伊州门罗县瓦斯豪森考古遗址的工作证明，该遗址的居民建造了该地区最早的密西西比州城镇之一。瓦肖森镇位于卡霍基亚以南约24英里处，建于公元10世纪和11世纪。与卡霍基亚不同，瓦斯豪森只被占领了几代人。正因为如此，保存在遗址上的考古遗迹提供了一个独特的历史快照，描绘了密西西比州最初文化发展的关键时期当地的生活方式。巴尔在瓦斯豪森的研究整合了高科技、地球物理测量方法和考古发掘，产生的数据显示了不同的居民区、公共庭院、中央公共广场和不朽的土丘的位置。在这些发掘期间，本科生和研究生都能够接受当前考古领域方法论的培训。这项研究将允许巴里尔继续与科学专家合作，提供有关密西西比最早社会的新信息。瓦斯豪森的发掘工作产生了保存完好的考古遗迹，将对其进行分析，以解决以下研究问题：新形式的社会和政治经济关系、居民区的构成、对玉米农业和当地可获得的动植物食品的依赖、大型公共节日的历史重要性，以及瓦斯豪森与他们的考霍金邻居的互动。具体地说，古植物学、动物考古学和土壤微形态分析将为这一地点和地区产生丰富的比较数据集。再加上从安全的考古沉积物中恢复的有机遗骸的放射性碳年代测定提供了更好的年代学控制，这些分析将为了解美洲最早的密西西比城镇之一发生的历史变化提供重要的新见解。这篇论文的研究结果将在随后的出版物中公布，并将对其他密西西比州的研究人员以及致力于其他世界地区复杂社会类似研究问题的学者具有重要意义。这些成果还将在学术会议上向观众公开展示，也将在公众讲座上公开展示。BARK将继续在实验室培训本科生，并为他们提供与其他科学专家合作的机会。

When the first Europeans explored deep into the interior of the present-day American South, they traveled among and interacted with several groups of Native Americans who shared a culture that archaeologists refer to as "Mississippian." It was roughly 500 years earlier in the American Bottom region of southwestern Illinois, a rich stretch of floodplain of the Mississippi River near the city of Saint Louis, where Mississippian culture first developed. The American Bottom is home to the famous archaeological site of Cahokia, a U.S. National Historic Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Between the 11th- and 12th-centuries AD Cahokia grew into the largest and most complex pre-Columbian town in what is now the United States. Supported in large part by an increasing economic focus on maize agriculture, the actions of Cahokians and their neighbors ushered in new forms of social, political, and economic complexity that would help shape the histories of Native groups in the U.S. Midwest and South for centuries to come. Under the direction Dr. Robin Beck, PhD candidate Casey Barrier will continue research that provides new information about early Mississippian developments in the American Bottom. Barrier's work at the archaeological site of Washausen in Monroe County, Illinois, has demonstrated that the inhabitants of this site constructed one of the earliest Mississippian towns in the region. Located approximately 24 miles south of Cahokia, the town of Washausen was constructed during the 10th- and 11th-centuries AD. Unlike Cahokia, Washausen was occupied for only a handful of generations. Because of this, the archaeological remains preserved at the site provide a unique historical "snapshot" in time that portrays local ways of life during the critical period of initial Mississippian cultural developments. Barrier's research at Washausen has integrated high-tech, geophysical survey methodologies and archaeological excavations that has produced data showing the locations of distinct residential neighborhoods, public courtyards, and a central public plaza and monumental earthen mounds. During these excavations, both undergraduate and graduate students were able to be trained in current archaeological field methodologies. This research will allow Barrier to continue collaborations with scientific specialists to provide new information about the earliest Mississippian societies. Excavations at Washausen produced well-preserved archaeological remains that will be analyzed to address research questions about new forms of social and political-economic relations, the composition of residential neighborhoods, the reliance on maize agriculture and locally available animal and plant foods, the historical importance of large-scale public festivals, and Washausen's interactions with their Cahokian neighbors. Specifically, paleobotanical, zooarchaeological, and soil mircomorphological analyses will produce rich, comparative datasets for this site and region. Coupled with better chronological controls afforded by radiocarbon dating of recovered organic remains from secure archaeological deposits, these analyses will provide significant new insights about the historical transformations that took place at one of the earliest Mississippian towns in the Americas. The results of this dissertation research will be presented in subsequent publications, and will be of significance to other Mississippian researchers, as well as scholars working on similar research questions about complex societies in other world regions. These results will also be presented publicly to audiences at academic conferences, but also at lectures for the public. Barrier will continue training undergraduate students in the laboratory, and provide them opportunities to collaborate with other scientific specialists.