Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: MISSISSIPPIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

当第一批欧洲人深入探索今天美国南部的内陆时，他们在几个印第安人群体中旅行并与他们互动，这些印第安人分享了考古学家称之为“密西西比”的文化。大约500年前，在伊利诺斯州西南部的美国底部地区，密西西比河在圣路易斯市附近的一片富饶的泛滥平原上，密西西比文化首先发展起来。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世纪到12世纪之间，卡霍基亚发展成为现在美国最大、最复杂的前哥伦布城镇。卡霍基亚人和他们的邻居的行动，在很大程度上受到玉米农业日益增长的经济关注的支持，开创了社会、政治和经济复杂性的新形式，这将有助于塑造未来几个世纪美国中西部和南部土著群体的历史。在Robin Beck博士的指导下，博士候选人Casey Barrier将继续研究，为早期密西西比在美国海底的发展提供新的信息。Barrier在伊利诺斯州门罗县Washausen考古遗址的工作表明，该遗址的居民建造了该地区最早的密西西比城镇之一。瓦豪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，沃斯豪森只居住了几代人。正因为如此，保存在该遗址的考古遗迹提供了一个独特的历史“快照”，及时描绘了密西西比文化发展初期关键时期当地的生活方式。Barrier在Washausen的研究整合了高科技、地球物理调查方法和考古发掘，这些数据显示了不同居民区、公共庭院、中央公共广场和纪念性土丘的位置。在这些发掘过程中，本科生和研究生都能够接受当前考古领域方法的培训。这项研究将允许屏障继续与科学专家合作，提供有关最早的密西西比社会的新信息。在沃斯豪森的挖掘工作中产生了保存完好的考古遗迹，这些考古遗迹将被分析，以解决有关社会和政治经济关系的新形式、居民区的组成、对玉米农业和当地可获得的动植物食物的依赖、大型公共节日的历史重要性以及沃斯豪森人与卡霍肯邻居的互动等研究问题。具体来说，古植物学、动物考古学和土壤微观形态分析将为该地点和地区提供丰富的、可比较的数据集。再加上从安全的考古沉积物中回收的有机遗骸的放射性碳定年法所提供的更好的时间控制，这些分析将为美洲最早的密西西比城镇之一发生的历史转变提供重要的新见解。本论文的研究结果将在随后的出版物中发表，对密西西比的其他研究人员以及在世界其他地区从事类似复杂社会研究问题的学者具有重要意义。这些结果也将在学术会议上向公众展示，也会在公众讲座上展示。屏障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.