Expansion of the Arizona State University Teotihuacan Storage Facility

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Basin of Mexico, today home to Mexico City, has been one of the most urbanized places in the world for 2,000 years and is a key region to investigate the origins and development of states and cities. The Basin of Mexico settlement pattern survey led by Drs. Jeffrey Parsons (University of Michigan) and William T. Sanders (Penn State) stands as one of the most important regional studies of modern archaeology. The survey has served as a model for regional settlement pattern projects in other parts of Mesoamerica, including Michael Smith's survey of the Yautepec Valley in Morelos. This project will organize, conserve, and make more accessible the survey collections for future scientific research. The Basin of Mexico and Yautepec surveys together recorded over 4,500 sites, including in the core of the Aztec empire. Many of the sites have since been obscured or destroyed by urban growth and agricultural activities. The maintenance of archaeological collections is crucial as they comprise the material record of excavations and surveys and are themselves part of the archaeological record of the human past. Artifact collections and records are an on-going database for scientific studies with new methods and techniques. Analysis of collections also can conserve and help manage sites for future investigations. In Central Mexico urban growth, construction, and other land use changes have destroyed or obscured many prehispanic and Early Colonial sites, making these collections irreplaceable. Dr. Deborah Nichols, Dartmouth College and colleagues from Arizona State University will provide for the long-term access and management of the survey collections as irreplaceable scientific data by 1. Developing storage space at the ASU Teotihuacan Research Laboratory to archive the collections there for future research and education; 2. Organizing and creating a catalog of the collections of surface artifacts from the Basin of Mexico; and 3. Integrating the artifacts from the surveys with the master collections inventory of the ASU Teotihuacan Research Lab to facilitate future research.Archiving and analyzing the collections addresses several areas identified by the National Science Foundation as priorities. This project will enhance the infrastructure for research and education. The primary goal of this project is preserving and making more accessible archaeological survey collections from the Basin of Mexico and the Yautepec Valley as key scientific data for future research and education, by developing space to house them at an established institution. This project will improve the public understanding of science. These data document major historical changes in human societies of broad public interest: the adoption of agriculture and establishment of village lifeway, the formation of the first cities and states in Central Mexico, and the "rise and fall" of empires. The proposed work will also increase the participation of diverse categories of people in science. Analyses of the survey data and collections have provided numerous educational opportunities for students and early career archaeologists, including U.S., Mexican, and other foreign personnel; women and men; and many individuals with U.S. protected minority status. Information from the surveys also is used in heritage. planning, and museum exhibitions. These public outreach activities will be continued and enhanced with the better access to the collections provided by the ASU Teotihuacan Research Lab.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.