The Cerros De Trincheras and Defense Project

和平的人们面对恶劣环境的愿景长期以来一直主导着美国西南部和墨西哥西北部史前考古研究。 最近，许多考古学家开始质疑这一观点，并认为暴力和战争曾经存在，并推动了该地区的文化发展。 这些考古学家对那些忽视或淡化战争，而强调环境适应、气候变化和交流等因素是文化变革背后的驱动力的既定解释提出了重大挑战。 这一挑战需要我们对西南/西北史前史的解释进行重大反思。 考古学家需要问的是，在特定情况下，战争的证据是什么，它是什么时候发生的，以及它是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？ 在墨西哥的索诺拉的沙漠中，点缀着一座黑暗、孤立的火山。 沙漠中的史前居民在许多山丘的侧面建造了梯田，并在山顶建造了房间，化合物和其他建筑物，以创造Cerros de Trinchera。 西南/西北部暴力史前的拥护者将这些遗址解释为防御性质，并作为索诺拉战争的证据。其他考古学家明确质疑这些遗址的防御性质。 Cerros de Trincheras和国防项目将综合和分析该地区以前项目的信息。 它将进行为期八周的实地工作，在墨西哥索诺拉西北部的Rio Altar和Rio Magdalena流域绘制和收集Cerros de Trincheras。 该项目将使用地理信息系统分析来回答一系列问题，包括：在这些地点是否有防御的证据？如果不是，这些网站上的活动范围是什么？如果是这样，这些网站是如何防御的？什么是被保护的？防御与遗址的其他活动和方面有何关系？这些关系是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？Cerros de Trincheras和防御项目的结果将通过解决关于Cerros de Trincheras防御性质的争论来促进知识和理解。这项决议将对史前西南/西北战争的性质、程度和作用等更大的问题产生影响。 如果这些地点不是防御性的，那么它们就不能用作西南/西北地区地方病或流行病战争的证据。 如果他们是防御性的，那么知道什么是被保护的将使我们能够推断该地区战争的性质和程度。 通过在多个时间段提出这些问题，我们可以审视战争和防御不断变化的面貌。 在最广泛的范围内，我们的项目将有助于人类学对文明之前的战争的思考。该项目将把研究和教育结合起来，以促进教学、培训和学习。 这将是一个两国项目，将美国和墨西哥的学生结合在一个合作研究项目中。 它将向这些学生介绍连接北美和墨西哥北方墨西哥考古学家的现有网络。 该项目将有一个公共教育部分，将包括在美国和墨西哥的讲座和感兴趣的公共团体的实地考察。该项目将在科学媒体、流行期刊和博物馆展览中传播其结果。

Visions of peaceful people confronted by a harsh environment have long dominated archaeological studies of the prehistoric Southwest of the United States and Northwest of Mexico. Recently many archaeologists have begun to question this view and argue instead that violence and warfare were ever present and drove cultural developments in the region. These archaeologists offer a significant challenge to established interpretations that ignore or downplay warfare and that instead highlight factors such as environmental adaptation, climatic change, and exchange as the driving forces behind cultural change. This challenge necessitates a major reconsideration of our interpretations of Southwestern/Northwestern prehistory. Archaeologists need to ask what is the evidence for warfare in specific cases, when does it occur and how does it change over time? Dark, isolated, volcanic hills dot the desert landscape of Sonora, Mexico. The prehistoric inhabitants of the desert constructed terraces up the sides of many of these hills, and built rooms, compounds, and other edifices on their summits to create cerros de trincheras. Advocates of a violent prehistory for the Southwest/Northwest have interpreted these sites as being defensive in nature and as evidence for warfare in the Sonora. Other archaeologists have explicitly challenged the defensive nature of these sites. The Cerros de Trincheras and Defense Project will synthesize and analyze the information from previous projects in the region. It will conduct eight weeks of field work to map and surface collect cerros de trincheras in the Rio Altar and Rio Magdalena drainages of northwest Sonora, Mexico. The project will use Geographic Information Systems analysis to answer a series of questions including: Is there evidence for defense at these sites? If not what was the range of activities on these sites? If so, how were these sites defensive? What is being protected? How did defense relate to other activities and aspects of the sites? And how did these relations change over time? The results of the Cerros de Trincheras and Defense Project will advance knowledge and understanding by resolving the debates over the defensive nature of cerros de trincheras. This resolution will have implications for the larger issue of the nature, extent, and role of warfare in the prehistoric Southwest/Northwest. If these sites were not defensive then they cannot be used as evidence for endemic or epidemic warfare in the Southwest/Northwest. If they were defensive then knowing what was being protected will allow us to infer the nature and extent of warfare in the region. By asking these questions for multiple time periods we can examine the changing face of warfare and defense. On the broadest scale our project will contribute to anthropological considerations of war before civilization.The project will integrate research and education to promote teaching, training and learning. It will be a bi-national project that combines US and Mexican students in a cooperative research program. It will introduce these students to existing networks that link North American and Mexican archaeologists in northern Mexico. The project will have a public education component that will include lectures in the US and Mexico and field trips for interested public groups. The project will communicate its results in scientific outlets, popular journals, and museum exhibits.