Dissertation Research: The Political Dynamics of Decentralization and Decline in the Black Warrior River Valley of West - Central Alabama.

在卡梅隆·韦森博士的指导下，马克·里斯先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将在福斯特登陆地和希尔斯金恩登陆地进行考古发掘，这两个地点都位于阿拉巴马州的黑战士谷。这项研究的目的是了解导致社会复杂性退化的过程。这两个遗址都可以追溯到公元第二个千年早期，与蒙德维尔有关，蒙德维尔是北美最大、最令人印象深刻的史前事件之一。蒙德维尔，顾名思义，包含大量的土丘或土方工程，需要动员大量的劳动力来生产。精心制作的墓葬和精心制作的墓具证明了高度分化的社会组织的集中化形式。然而，公元1400年后，中心遗址被遗弃，土丘建设停止。虽然有明确的记录，但位于山谷邻近地区的二级村庄继续蓬勃发展，里斯先生将把注意力集中在这些地方。他希望了解权力是否从蒙德维尔转移到这些次要地点，如果是这样的话，了解其中的过程。为了实现这一目标，他将对这些地点进行螺旋钻调查，并进行受控的表面收集，以确定物质密度最大的区域。然后进行广泛的横向挖掘。随着陶瓷和其他遗迹的获得，他将能够研究精英功能转移到这些次要地点的程度，他们相互竞争的程度以及所采用的生存策略。虽然许多考古学的注意力都集中在社会复杂性的上升上，但相对较少的注意力集中在相反的或进化过程上。在北美，大多数土著居民在欧洲人出现在新大陆之前就达到了政治集中化的高度，而在许多地区，权力下放发生在哥伦布之前。里斯先生提出了一种一般模式，其中涉及到派别主义的增加以及生存和社会组织模式的改变。这个项目将提供数据来检验这些想法。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的资料，并有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Cameron Wesson, Mr. Mark Rees will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological excavation at the sites of Fosters Landing and Hills Gin landing, both located in the Black Warrior Valley of Alabama. The goal of the research is to understand the processes which lead to the devolution of social complexity. Both sites date to the early second millennium AD and are associated with Moundville, one of the largest and most impressive prehistoric occurrences in North America. Moundville, as its name implies contains large mounds or earthworks which required the mobilization of large amounts of labor to produce. Elaborate burials with finely crafted grave goods attest to a centralized form of social organization with a high degree of social differentiation. After 1,400 AD however the central site was abandoned and mound construction ceased. While a collapse is clearly documented, secondary villages located in adjacent areas of the Valley continued to thrive and Mr. Rees will focus his attention on these. He wishes to learn whether power shifted from Moundville to such secondary sites and, if such is the case, to understand the processes involved. To accomplish this goal he will conduct an auger survey of the sites and make controlled surface collection to determine areas of densest materials. Extensive lateral excavations shall then be conducted. With the ceramics and other remains obtained, he will be able to examine the degree to which elite functions shifted to these secondary sites, the extent to which they competed with each other and the subsistence strategies employed. While much archaeological attention has focused on the rise of social complexity, relatively little has been directed to the opposite or devolutionary process. In North America, most aboriginal peoples reached a height of political centralization well before the appearance of Europeans in the New World and in many regions devolution occurred in pre-Columbus times. Mr. Rees has proposed a general model which involves increases in factionalism and changed patterns in subsistence and social organization. This project will provide data to test these ideas. It will yield data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training a promising young scientist.