Collaborative Research: Chronological Modeling and Pictograph Stratigraphy

合作研究：年代模型和象形地层学

• 批准号: 2113866
• 负责人: Carolyn Boyd
• 金额: $ 5.97万
• 依托单位: Texas State University - San Marcos
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2113866&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Chronological; Modeling; Pictograph

This project will study the chronology of painted murals in southwest Texas, one of the oldest and most complex art forms in the Americas. Strong parallels exist between the hunter-gatherer belief systems portrayed in these U.S.-based murals and the myths and cosmologies of later Mesoamerican agriculturalists. These parallels suggest deep prehistoric origins. Although researchers maintain that complex concepts persisted across time and across cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries, they lack well-dated archaeological evidence to support their argument. This project will utilize radiocarbon dating to establish the age of Pecos River style production in the context of this hypothesized Archaic core system. The investigators will examine changes over time in these murals, including iconography, mural production, and geographic distribution. This study will add significantly to an understanding of how past cultures managed social identity, territory, mobility, labor organization, and graphic communication. The project will train graduate students, college interns, and high school students in chemistry and new technologies used in archaeology, addressing a national need for providing students with experience in interdisciplinary research, STEM, and team-based projects. Newly developed scientific dating methods can now provide the accuracy and precision to date the material and place it within the context of material culture, socioeconomic reorganization, climate change, fluctuating population densities, and extra-regional influences. The investigators will conduct a formal analysis to document and describe diagnostic pictographs, determine paint application order through a stratigraphic study using digital microscopy and the construction of Harris matrices, and examine spatial patterning using GIS. Based on these data, they will collect 60 paint samples from 10 murals for plasma oxidation and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating. Results will inform research into possible drivers for the emergence and decline of the style. The investigators will use the results to model the timing of the introduction and development of complex l concepts which also are present in later Mesoamerican traditions. This will address a cognitive aspect of hunter-gatherer complexity often overlooked by studies focusing on social organization, technology, and subsistence.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.

该项目将研究德克萨斯州西南部的壁画年表，这是美洲最古老，最复杂的艺术形式之一。在这些美国-基于壁画和神话和后来的中美洲农学家的宇宙论。这些相似之处暗示了史前的深层起源。虽然研究人员认为，复杂的概念跨越时间和文化，语言和地理边界持续存在，但他们缺乏过时的考古证据来支持他们的论点。该项目将利用放射性碳测年法，在这一假设的岩石核心系统的背景下，确定佩科斯河风格生产的时代。调查人员将研究这些壁画随时间的变化，包括图像，壁画制作和地理分布。这项研究将大大增加对过去文化如何管理社会身份，领土，流动性，劳动组织和图形通信的理解。该项目将对研究生、大学实习生和高中生进行化学和考古学新技术方面的培训，以满足国家对为学生提供跨学科研究、STEM和团队项目经验的需求。新开发的科学测年方法现在可以提供准确性和精确性来确定材料的日期，并将其置于物质文化，社会经济重组，气候变化，波动的人口密度和区域外影响的背景下。调查人员将进行正式分析，以记录和描述诊断象形文字，通过使用数字显微镜和哈里斯矩阵的构建进行地层研究来确定油漆应用顺序，并使用GIS检查空间模式。根据这些数据，他们将从10幅壁画中收集60个油漆样本，进行等离子体氧化和加速器质谱放射性碳测年。结果将为研究这种风格的出现和衰落的可能驱动因素提供信息。研究人员将利用这些结果来模拟复杂概念的引入和发展的时间，这些概念也存在于后来的中美洲传统中。这将解决狩猎采集者复杂性的认知方面，而这一点往往被关注社会组织、技术和生存的研究所忽视。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。