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

作为参与不同文化的民族之间高度互动的地区，边疆地区一直是许多学科学者感兴趣的地方。然而，大多数研究都集中在边界已经确定和存在的情况下，以及涉及至少一个国家或帝国的相互作用。这一研究趋势使人们对几个问题知之甚少，包括：已经存在的互动形式和背景对边界发展的影响、边民的作用以及通过接触区域的互动使社会群体纠缠在一起。该项目利用考古学对长期人类行为数据的独特访问，调查随着社会互动规模的变化，边界的流动创造和解构。通过关注前国家背景，该项目突出了社会科学中边界与非边界之间的概念张力，鼓励对当今严格边界世界中跨境互动的反思。该项目的成果与附近现代社区的居民以及国际学术界共享，提供了重新考虑我们对长期边界相互作用的理解所需的重要数据。在这个博士论文项目中，研究小组调查了社会互动的交叉点和边界的形成和解构，在一个互动持续了几个世纪的地区。边界将持续到当前时间。然而，这两个地区在物质文化装饰技术和风格上的共享表明，跨界互动一定发生过一定的频率。该项目考察了最近出土的公共建筑、陶瓷和非本地材料，以测试边界地区的创造和维护与跨境互动之间的交集模型。多尺度、多学科的方法强调考古专业知识和专业分析的结合：该项目将陶瓷和建筑的风格和技术分析编织在一起；陶瓷的岩石学和化学来源；骆驼遗骸的dna和同位素分析有机残留物的放射性碳定年法；以及其他非本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，以及它在第一次出现时在当地尺度上的表现。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。

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.