Dissertation: Iconography and Group Formation During the Late Pit Structure and Classic periods of the Mimbres Society

在Dr. Patricia Gilman的指导下，MS Valli Powell将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的研究重点是新墨西哥州西南部莫高伦地区的史前米布雷斯人。在公元900年代，米姆布雷斯山谷的居民是小规模的农民，他们以野生植物和狩猎来补充农业。到了公元1000年代，人们的生计建立在全职农业的基础上，其中包括灌溉和水坝等新的农业技术。古气候资料表明，公元1000年至公元1089年是降水数量和一致性异常有利的时期，在这种条件下，人口增加，谷地所有可用耕地都得到耕种。然而，在接下来的一个世纪里，降雨量在数量和一致性方面波动很大，这导致了生存压力的增加。鉴于这一良好的环境记录，鲍威尔女士希望研究一下不断变化的米姆布雷人的社会策略。初步工作表明，个别村庄结成的联盟随着时间的推移在方向和范围上发生了变化，以缓冲环境的不可预测性。为了实现这一目标，她将研究米姆布雷人生产的黑白陶瓷，这些陶瓷是通过精心控制的挖掘而恢复的。她假设共享的设计元素是联盟的有意识和无意识的指标，目前正在对网站之间的风格相似性进行分析。然而，研究结果并没有区分由于模仿而产生的相似性和由于陶瓷的实际运动而产生的相似性，这种区分很重要，因为人们假设食品贸易有助于缓冲农业生产率的差异。在美国国家科学基金会的资助下，德克萨斯农工大学化学表征与分析中心将对150块黑白碎片进行仪器中子活化分析。根据所提供的化学成分数据，将有可能确定陶器的产地。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将深入了解农业工作者如何以简单的技术水平适应不可预测的波动半干旱环境。它将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并帮助培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Patricia Gilman, MS Valli Powell will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The focus of her study is the prehistoric Mimbres people of the Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. During the 900s A.D. the inhabitants of the Mimbres valley were small scale farmers who supplemented agriculture with wild plants and hunted game. By the A.D. 1000s subsistence was based on full-time farming which included new agricultural technologies such as irrigation and check dams. Paleoclimaatic data indicate that the period from 1,000 to ca. 1089 A.D. was an unusually favorable time in both amount and consistency of precipitation and under these conditions population increased and all available arable land in the valley was cultivated. However in the following century rainfall fluctuated considerably in both amount and consistency and this led to increasing subsistence stress. Given this well established environmental record, MS Powell wishes to examine changing Mimbres social strategies. Preliminary work indicates that individual villages entered into alliances which changed in direction and extent over time in order to buffer environmental unpredictability. To accomplish this goal she will study the Mimbres produced black and white ceramics which have been recovered by carefully controlled excavation. Working on the assumption that shared design elements are both conscious and unconscious indicators of alliance, she is currently conducting an analysis of stylistic similarities among sites. The results however do not distinguish between similarities due to imitation and those which result from the actual movement of ceramics and this distinction is important because it is hypothesized that trade in food served to buffer differential agricultural productivity. With NSF funding the Texas A&M University Center for Chemical Characterization and Analysis will perform instrumental neutron activation analysis on a series of 150 black and white sherds. Based on the chemical composition data provided it will be possible to determine the source areas in which the pottery was produced.This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into how agriculturalists at a simple level of technology adapted to an unpredictable fluctuating semi-arid environment. It will produce data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training a promising young scientist.