Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Establishment of Long Term Group Interaction Relationships

作为参与不同文化的人们之间互动程度异常高的地区，边疆一直是许多学科的学者感兴趣的领域。然而，大多数研究都集中在边界已经定义和存在的情况，以及至少涉及一个国家或帝国的互动。这一研究趋势留下了几个鲜为人知的问题，包括：已经存在的互动形式和背景对边界发展的影响，边境人的角色，以及通过接触区域的互动而使社会群体纠缠在一起。该项目利用考古学在很长一段时间内对人类活动数据的独特访问，来研究随着社会互动规模的变化，边界的流动创造和解构。通过关注国家之前的背景，这个项目突出了社会科学中什么是边界和什么不是边界之间的概念紧张，鼓励人们反思当今严格边界的世界中的跨境互动。该项目的结果与附近现代社区的居民以及国际学术界共享，为重新考虑我们对长期边界互动的理解提供了必要的重要数据。在这个博士论文项目中，研究团队调查了社会互动的交集以及在一个互动持续了几个世纪的地区边界的形成和解构。边界将一直持续到当前时间。然而，两个地区物质文化装饰技术和风格的共享表明，跨界互动一定是有一定频率的。该项目研究了最近出土的公共建筑、陶瓷和非本地材料，以测试边界创造和维护以及跨界互动之间的交叉点模型。多标量、多学科的方法强调考古专业知识和专门分析的结合：该项目结合了对陶瓷和建筑的风格和技术分析；陶瓷的岩石学和化学来源；骆驼遗骸的DNA和同位素分析；有机遗骸的放射性碳测年；以及其他非当地材料的化学和栖息地来源，以澄清边界的存在或不存在和特征，以及在其首次出现时在当地范围内的表现。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。

As areas with an unusually high degree of interaction between peoples participating in different cultures, borderlands have been of interest to scholars of many disciplines. However, most research has focused on situations in which borders are already defined and present, as well as interactions involving at least one state or empire. This research trend leaves several issues poorly understood, including: the influence of already existing forms and contexts of interaction on the development of a border, the role of borderlanders, and the entanglement of social groups through interaction in zones of contact. This project leverages archaeology’s unique access to data on human actions over long periods of time to investigate the fluid creation and deconstruction of borders as scales of social interaction change. By focusing on a pre-state context, this project highlights conceptual tension in the social sciences between what is and is not a border, encouraging reflection on cross-border interactions in the strictly bordered world of today. The results of the project are shared with inhabitants of the nearby modern communities as well as the international academic community, providing the vital data needed to reconsider our understanding of long-term borderland interactions.In this doctoral dissertation project the research team investigates the intersection of social interaction and the formation and deconstruction of borders in in a region in which interaction has persisted for centuries. The boundary persists until the current time. However the sharing of technologies and styles of decoration of material culture, across both regions suggests cross-border interactions must have occurred with some frequency. This project examines recently excavated public architecture, ceramics, and non-local materials to test models of the intersection between the creation and maintenance of borderlands and cross-border interaction. The multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary approach emphasizes the union of archaeological expertise and specialized analysis: the project weaves together stylistic and technological analysis of ceramics and architecture; petrographic and chemical sourcing of ceramics; aDNA and isotopic analysis of camelid remains; radiocarbon dating of organic remains; and chemical and habitat sourcing of other non-local materials to clarify the presence or absence and characteristics of the border as well as its manifestation at a local scale during its first supposed appearance.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.