Mobility and Sedentism at Southwestern Pit Structure Sites

帕特里夏·吉尔曼博士将在位于亚利桑那州东南部的圣西蒙流域进行一季的考古发掘。她将专注于大约公元500-1050年的坑结构时期，并挖掘一系列不同大小的居住结构。整个建筑物及其周边地区将完全开放，以提供完整的定居模式。将分析范围广泛的回收材料，以确定年代、生存习惯和流动程度。还将尝试确定每个场地被占用的季节。这个项目的目标是重建坑屋时期的定居和流动模式。几十年来，考古学家一直在研究给这一时期命名的大型坑屋结构。这些半埋的房屋被解释为“永久性”结构，并暗示着一种定居的生活方式。然而，吉尔曼博士注意到，在世界其他地区，类似的结构是基于季节而使用的，她假设在美国西南部也是如此。这一观点得到以下观察结果的支持：同一时期在该区域也发现了较小的遗址，这些遗址可能代表季节循环的不同部分。计划中的挖掘和分析就是为了检验这种可能性。在美国西南部，考古学家追溯了史前群体从小规模狩猎和采集社会向大型政治社会的转变，这些社会全年都有定居点和中央集权的政治组织。然而，导致这种变化的过程并没有得到很好的理解。越来越多的定居主义可能发挥了作用，但究竟是什么还不确定。这项研究应该有助于解决这个问题。它还将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。

Dr. Patricia Gilman will conduct one season of archaeological excavation in the San Simon drainage, located in Southeastern Arizona. She will focus on the Pit Structure period which dates from ca. AD 500-1050 and excavate a series of habitation structures of varying size. Entire structures as well as immediate surrounding areas will be completely opened to provide a full picture of settlement pattern. A wide range of recovered materials will be analyzed to determine chronology, subsistence practices and degree of mobility. An attempt will also be made to determine the season when each site was occupied. The goal of this project is to reconstruct the settlement and mobility pattern during the Pit House period. For decades archaeologists have studied the large pit house structures which give this period its name. These semi-buried houses have been interpreted as "permanent" structures and taken to imply a settled way of life. Dr. Gilman, however, has noted that in other regions of the world similar structures are used on a seasonal basis and she hypothesizes that the same may hold true in the U.S. Southwest. This position is supported by the observation that smaller sites from the same time period are also found in the region and these may represent a different part of a seasonal round. The planned excavations and analyses are designed to test this possibility. In the Southwestern United States archaeologists have traced the transformation of prehistoric groups from small scale hunting and gathering societies to large polities with year round settlements and centralized political organization. However, the process which lead to this change is not well understood. Increasing sedentism probably played a role, but just what is uncertain. This research should help to resolve this question. It will also produce data of interest to many archaeologists.