Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Social Functions of Monumentality

至少在过去的一万年里，古迹通过构建人、历史和风景之间的关系，在人类社会中扮演着重要的角色。考古学家通过“纪念性”的框架来探索这些关系。从历史上看，纪念碑先验地与复杂的社会联系在一起，遵循这样一种概念，即建造纪念碑所需的劳动力必须由等级制度赋予权力的领导人固有地组织起来，并由农业剩余来支持。这个项目通过探索纪念碑在小规模社会中的作用，增加了新出现的相反例子的全球记录。在小规模社会中，几乎没有关于纪念碑建造的民族志或民族史学记录，这使得考古学成为唯一的调查领域。北美的东部林地最近在这一讨论中占据了突出的位置，但该地区最神秘的纪念碑“肖托·霍普韦尔的大型几何土方工程”尚未以有意义的方式纳入这一考虑。这项研究以肖托·霍普韦尔的纪念性为中心，并提供了一个比较框架，通过这个框架来理解其他小规模社会的纪念性。随着内战纪念碑占据了最近的头条新闻，纪念碑在社会上仍然发挥着巨大而积极的作用。这个项目将引起人们对美洲原住民纪念碑的关注，这些纪念碑在过去的两个世纪里以惊人的速度被摧毁，以努力促进这些地方的欣赏、知识和保护。密歇根大学博士生蒂莫西·埃弗哈特将研究中部肖托河流域的中伍德兰(公元1-400年)纪念碑。这一时期的肖托·霍普韦尔社团建造的纪念碑比任何其他已知的小规模社团纪念碑都更密集、更多样化。通过在俄亥俄州罗斯县的Steel Group遗址(33Ro62)进行新的挖掘，并对回收的材料进行大量基于实验室的分析，这项研究将调查导致在同一地点建造不同纪念碑形式的独特过程和实践。具体地说，它将记录纪念碑建设的历史轨迹，纪念碑的使用，以及该遗址的劳动党的组成。该项目将致力于解决俄亥俄州南部中央肖托河谷的霍普韦尔土方工程之间的差异，从而深入了解纪念碑在小规模社会中所扮演的各种角色。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Monuments have played an important role in human societies for at least the last ten millennia by structuring relationships between people, histories, and landscapes. Archaeologists explore these relationships through the framework of "monumentality." Historically, monuments were associated a priori with complex societies following a notion that the necessary labor for their construction must inherently be organized by hierarchically-empowered leaders and supported by agricultural surplus. This project adds to an emerging global record of contrary examples by exploring the role of monuments in small-scale societies. The near absence of ethnographic or ethnohistoric records of monument construction among small-scale societies leaves archaeology as the sole domain for inquiry. The Eastern Woodlands of North America have recently assumed a prominent place in this discussion, but the region's most enigmatic monuments "the large geometric earthworks of the Scioto Hopewell" have yet to enter this consideration in a meaningful way. This research centers Scioto Hopewell monumentality and provides a comparative framework through which to understand monumentality in other small-scale societies. That monuments still play a large and active role in society has been made apparent as Civil War monuments have dominated recent headlines. This project will bring attention to Native American monuments, which have been destroyed at an alarming rate over the last two centuries, in an effort to facilitate appreciation, knowledge, and conservation of these places. University of Michigan doctoral candidate Timothy Everhart will investigate Middle Woodland (AD 1-400) monumentality in the Central Scioto River Valley. Scioto Hopewell societies of this period constructed monuments of a greater density and of a greater diversity than any other known monuments of small-scale societies. By conducting new excavations at the Steel Group site (33Ro62) - a site with at least 13 earthen monuments of many designs - in Ross County, Ohio, and subjecting recovered materials to a host of laboratory-based analyses, this research will investigate the unique processes and practices of monumentality that led to the construction of different monument forms at the same location. Specifically, it will document the historical trajectory of monument construction, the use of monuments, and the composition of laboring parties at this site. This project will seek to address the range of variation among Hopewell earthworks in the Central Scioto River Valley of southern Ohio, and thus to offer insight into the various roles monuments played in small-scale societies.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.