Collaborative Research: Chronological Modeling and Pictograph Stratigraphy

该项目将研究德克萨斯州西南部彩绘壁画的年代，这是美洲最古老、最复杂的艺术形式之一。在这些以美国为基地的壁画中描绘的狩猎采集者的信仰体系与后来中美洲农业学家的神话和宇宙学之间存在着强烈的相似之处。这些相似之处暗示了远古时代的起源。尽管研究人员坚持认为，复杂的概念跨越时间、文化、语言和地理界限而持续存在，但他们缺乏年代久远的考古证据来支持他们的论点。该项目将利用放射性碳定年法在这个假设的古代核心系统的背景下确定佩科斯河风格生产的年龄。研究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、劳工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和精确的材料测年，并将其置于物质文化、社会经济重组、气候变化、人口密度波动和区域外影响的背景下。研究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造进行地层研究，确定油漆应用顺序，并使用GIS检查空间模式。基于这些数据，他们将从10幅壁画中收集60个油漆样本，用于等离子体氧化和加速器质谱放射性碳定年。结果将为研究这种风格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，这些概念也出现在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的问题，这些问题往往被关注社会组织、技术和生存的研究所忽视。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.