Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Why Pointed Pots? An Examination of the Relationship Between Ceramic Form, Subsistence, and Mobility

在Patricia Crown博士的指导下，凯瑟琳·赫尔顿将研究陶瓷形态、功能和烹饪器皿性能之间的关系。带有尖底的陶器被发现与一些流动的或半坐着的人有关，他们实行的是狩猎-采集经济。该项目将测试尖顶底座如何影响容器的强度、加热性能和可运输性。为此，将对来自美国西南部的纳瓦霍和杰梅兹两组船只进行记录，并根据船只测量制作这两种形式的复制品，并用于测试冲击强度、抗热震性和热效率。纳瓦霍和杰梅兹器皿是这项研究的理想选择，因为这两组人烹饪器皿的形状不同，而且地理上彼此接近。这项研究具有广泛的人类学意义，部分原因是它对世界其他地区随着时间的推移而产生的陶器的影响。这项拟议的研究的智力价值包括阐明狩猎-采集者、陶瓷和流动性之间的关系。在方法上，这项研究寻求多条证据，以了解陶瓷形态、烹饪策略和饮食以及热特征之间是如何相互联系的，以及这种关系如何被用来解释考古记录。这项研究在人类学圈子之外的更广泛的影响有三个方面。第一个影响是，拟议的研究将为年轻学者提供专业培训。第二个影响是，这项研究将有助于土著陶工对他们的祖先在建造陶器时所做的选择的技术理解。这项研究的第三个影响是它对社会的贡献。这项研究的结果可以用于博物馆的陈列，教育公众陶瓷器皿之所以是这样制作的可能原因。通过理解过去人们为什么做出这样的选择，我们可以更好地理解经济决策是如何影响技术变革的。

Under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Crown, Kathleen Helton will examine the relationship between ceramic form, function, and performance in cooking vessels. Pottery vessels with pointed bases are found in association with some mobile to semi-sedentary populations practicing a hunter-gatherer economy. This project will test how pointed bases affect the strength, heating properties, and transportability of a vessel. In order to do this, vessels from two groups: the Navajo and the Jemez from the Southwestern United States, will be documented, and reproductions of both forms will be made from vessel measurements and used to test impact strength, thermal shock resistance, and thermal efficiency. Navajo and Jemez vessels are ideal for this study due to the variation in cooking vessel form between the two groups as well as their geographic proximity to one another. This study is of broad anthropological interest due in part to its implications for ceramics from other parts of the world over time. The intellectual merit of the proposed research includes elucidating the relationship among hunter-gatherers, ceramics, and mobility. Methodologically, this research pursues multiple lines of evidence to understand how ceramic form, cooking strategy and diet, and thermal features relate to each other and how this relationship can be used in explaining the archaeological record. The broader impacts of this research outside of the anthropological community are three fold. The first impact is that the proposed study will provide a young scholar with professional training. A second impact is that this research will contribute to Native potters' technological understanding of the choices that their ancestors made in constructing ceramic vessels. A third impact of this study is in its contribution to society. The results of this study can be used in museum displays to educate the public on the possible reasons that ceramic vessels were made the way they were. In understanding why people in the past made the choices that they did, we can better understand how economic decision making affects technological change.