Enter the Countryside: A Regional Approach to Settlement Systems in Southern Bénin, West Africa

在Adria LaViolette博士的指导下，Neil Norman将对西非贝宁Savi遗址周围的社区进行区域考古调查和测试发掘。从公元17世纪末到18世纪初，萨维是回达王国的首都中心，也是被俘虏的非洲人跨大西洋奴隶贸易的中心。此前在萨维宫殿区内的发掘表明，这里是一个人口稠密的中心，吸引了国际贸易。然而，人们对宫殿周围的社区以及将宫殿与边远地区联系在一起的政治和经济关系(如果有的话)知之甚少。根据该区域已确定的一系列定居点系统类型，萨维人有可能嵌套在城市系统中，或被从区域政治和经济网络中移除。为了解决这些问题，该项目建议通过将研究重点放在这些当代农村遗址上，在区域交流和政治权威系统内重新设置萨维的时间和空间背景。专门针对这些非精英地区以及可能的农村社区的研究很重要，因为它提供了该地区未被研究的人口大多数的数据。通过解决边远社区相对于宫殿中心的空间、时间和经济变化，可以评估通常假设的宫殿聚落系统的都市性。这就是说，可以确定宫廷中心是否为农村提供了政治、经济或社会方面的考虑，并期望得到其他考虑作为回报。检测不同场地类型的生产活动和人工制品类型的变化将有助于理解社会分化和专业化生产活动。同样，这些数据也可以用来评估地区政治和交流网络中边远地区的整合情况。作为社会科学家感兴趣的研究问题，该项目将随着科学技术的指导和项目数据的呈现，在地方层面产生广泛的影响。根据与贝宁国立大学(UNB)达成的协议，UNB的学生将参加该项目的所有阶段，并受益于正式和非正式培训。此外，项目成员将努力更新乌伊达历史博物馆的保留藏品和公开展示，该博物馆每年吸引数千名国际游客。项目网站的建成将提高项目的知名度，建立一个可上网的数据库将使西非研究人员能够查阅所有项目数据。此外，项目数据将通过在专业会议、时事通讯和参考期刊上的陈述来传播。通过以合作和协作的方式解决该项目，不同研究团队的见解将有助于SAVI的科学研究，并加强对项目数据的解释。

Under the direction of Dr. Adria LaViolette, Neil Norman will conduct a regional archaeological survey and test excavations on communities surrounding the site of Savi in Benin, West Africa. Savi was the capital center of the Hueda Kingdom and a focal point of the trade in captured Africans bound for trans-Atlantic slavery from the late17th to early 18th century AD. Previous excavations within the palace zone at Savi indicate a densely settled center that attracted international trade. However, little is known of the communities that surrounded the palace and what (if any) political and economic relations connected the palace to outlying areas. With the range of settlement systems types that have been identified in the region, it is possible that Savi was nested within an urban system or removed from regional political and economic networks. In order to address such questions, the project proposes to recontextualize Savi in time and space within regional systems of exchange and political authority by focusing research on these contemporary countryside sites. Research that specifically addresses these non-elite areas and possibly rural communities is important because it provides data for the unstudied demographic majority of the region. Through addressing the spatial, chronological, and economic changes of outlying communities vis-a-vis the palace center, the often assumed urbanity of palace settlement systems can be evaluated. That is to say, it will be possible to determine if the palace center provided political, economic, or social considerations to a rural countryside with the expectation of other considerations in return. Detecting variation in production activity and artifact type at differing site types will contribute to an understanding of social differentiation and specialized production activity. Likewise, this data can be used to evaluate the integration of outlying sites in regional political and exchange networks.Beyond research questions of interest to social scientists, this project will have a broad impact at the local level with the instruction of scientific techniques and the presentation of project data. By agreement with the Universite Nationale du Benin (UNB), UNB students will participate in all phases of the project and benefit from formal and informal training. Also, project members will work to update the reserve collection and public displays at the Ouidah Museum of History, which annually attracts thousands of international visitors. The completion of a project website will increase visibility for the project and the creation of a web-accessible database will allow West African researchers to access all project data. Also, project data will be disseminated through presentations at professional conferences, newsletters, and refereed journals. Through addressing the project in a co-operative and collaborative manner, insights of the diverse research team will benefit scientific research at Savi, as well as strengthen interpretations of project data.