Disseratation Research: Time, Settlement and Ceramic Variation at Mississippian Sites

有关不同地区密西西比文化序列（公元900-1540年）的考古记录是开发和测试酋长级社会变化和稳定模型的实验室。最近，密西西比研究的主要重点是将文化理解为一种适应性系统，并解释几百年来明显的戏剧性组织变化。为了更有效地做到这一点，需要更紧凑的时间表。该项目有两个具体目标：建立一个理论模型来解释美国东南部肯特时期密西西比文化遗址的遗址变异性；并开发和校准一个区域陶瓷年表，这将允许对密西西比时期的人口趋势和定居模式变化进行更复杂的测量。这名学生将在阿肯色州东部挖掘克莱山和肯特遗址这两个分层的丘。确定密西西比晚期社会的发展是考古学中的一个重要问题，一个在区域层面上最有效地解决的问题。

The archaeological record pertaining to various regional Mississippian culture sequences (A.D. 900-1540) is a laboratory for developing and testing models of change and stability in chiefdom-level societies. Recently, the major thrust of Mississippian research has been to understand the culture as an adaptive system and account for the dramatic organizational changes evident over several hundred years. In order to do this more effectly, tighter chronologies are needed. This project has two specific objectives: to develop a theoretical model to explain site variability in Kent phase, Mississippian culture sites in the southeastern United States; and to develop and calibrate a regional ceramic chronology which will permit more sophisticated measuring of population trends and settlement pattern changes during the Mississippian period. The student will excavate two stratified middens, Clay Hill and the Kent Site, in eastern Arkansas. Determining the development of late Mississippian society is an important question in archaeology, one addressed most effectively at a regional level.