Households and Great Houses: Practice and Action within Chaco-era (AD 1050-1150) Great House Communities of the Southern Cibola Region, West-central New Mexico

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，安德鲁·达夫（Andrew Duff）博士和华盛顿州立大学（Washington State University）的一组研究人员和学生将进行为期三个季节的考古和实验室研究，探索“查科现象”的各个方面。“查科现象”是接触前美国西南部更有趣的发展之一。查科峡谷，现在是新墨西哥州西北部的一个国家历史公园，是几个11世纪和12世纪“大房子”的所在地，令人印象深刻的砖石建筑，规模和重要性无与伦比。那些居住在查科峡谷的人开始控制或影响整个四角地区的定居点，这是现在美国最大的史前社会发展之一。大房子经常激发和吸引冒险的游客到公园，促使他们问以下问题：“为什么他们建造这些巨大的建筑？为什么在这里?如此神奇的文明是如何在这片荒芜的沙漠中发展起来的？它是如何运作的呢？”一个世纪以来，考古学家一直在问同样的问题，达夫的研究项目旨在帮助提供答案。然而，他不会在查科峡谷本身工作，而是通过观察位于查科峡谷以南约120英里处的考古遗址来实现这一目标，这些遗址是“查科现象”的一部分。尽管查科峡谷有着悠久的研究历史，但考古学家们对偏远的大房子及其相关社区的案例研究仍然相对较少，尽管查科峡谷作为“区域系统”中心的基本理论暗示了峡谷与这些遥远社区之间的联系。Duff和他的研究小组将调查查科地区南部边境的一组Great House社区，提供用于建立对定居点年代史、社区规模、环境条件和社区互动的合理理解的数据。研究内容包括：对两座大宅及其相关社区进行考古调查和系统发掘；对项目区域内所有已报告的豪宅进行参观和绘制地图的计划；通过分析文物和植物遗迹来调查大宅的功能；考察当地、区域和跨区域的陶瓷和黑曜石贸易，以监测交换关系。这项创新的跨学科研究不仅将提供与了解查科系统相关的新数据，而且还将有助于促进对印第安人接触前历史的欣赏，因为查科峡谷是北美考古学课程、教科书、大众媒体和视频中的一个案例研究。查科恩的研究经常得到地区和国家媒体的报道。项目成果将通过课堂教学、出版和推广等方式传播，并有可能通过大众媒体和查科峡谷国家历史公园的参观活动传播给更广泛的公众。一些本科生和研究生将接受实践培训和指导，同时直接参与项目现场工作和现场后分析。从广义上讲，这项工作将接触到感兴趣的公众，同时有助于促进对考古资源、它们的保存以及创造它们的美国原住民的欣赏。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Andrew Duff and a team of researchers and students from Washington State University will conduct three seasons of archaeological and laboratory research exploring aspects of the "Chaco Phenomenon," one of the more intriguing developments in the precontact American Southwest. Chaco Canyon, now a National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico, is home to several 11th and 12th century "Great Houses," impressive masonry buildings of unparalleled size and importance. Those who resided in Chaco Canyon came to control or influence settlements located throughout the Four Corners area, one of the largest prehistoric social developments in what is now the United States. Great Houses regularly inspire and fascinate adventurous visitors to the park, prompting them to ask the following: "Why did they build these tremendous buildings? Why here? How could such a fantastic civilization develop in this harsh desert? And how did it work?" Archaeologists have been asking these same questions for about a century and Duff's research project is designed to help provide answers. However, he will do so not by working in Chaco Canyon itself, but by looking at archaeological sites located some 120 miles south of Chaco Canyon that were part of the "Chaco Phenomenon."Although Chaco Canyon has a long history of research, archaeologists still have relatively few case studies from outlying Great Houses and their associated communities despite the fact that the rationale for Chaco Canyon having been the center of a "regional system" implies links between the canyon and these distant communities. Duff and his research team will investigate a group of Great House communities on the southern frontier of Chaco's reach, providing data used to build a sound understanding of settlement chronology, community size, environmental conditions, and community interactions. The research includes: archaeological survey around, and systematic excavations at two Great Houses and their associated communities; a program of visitation and mapping of all reported Great Houses in the project region; investigation of Great House function through analysis of artifacts and botanical remains; and examination of local, regional, and inter-regional trade of ceramics and obsidian used to monitor exchange relationships. This innovative and interdisciplinary research will not only provide new data relevant to understanding the Chacoan system, but also serve to promote appreciation for the precontact history of Native Americans because Chaco Canyon serves as a case study in North American archaeology courses, in textbooks, in the popular press and videos. Chacoan research regularly receives regional and national media coverage. Project results will be disseminated through class instruction, publication, and outreach, and they have the potential to reach the broader public via popular press and visitation to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park. Several undergraduate and graduate students will receive hands-on training and mentoring while being directly involved with project field work and post-field analyses. Broadly conceived this work will reach the interested public while helping to promote an appreciation for archaeological resources, their preservation, and for the Native Americans who created them.