Investigating Pueblo Bonito Mounds

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Patricia L.Crown博士将分析从新墨西哥州查科峡谷Pueblo Bonito的垃圾沉积物中挖掘出来的文物。据估计，普韦布洛-博尼托有600-800个房间，是查科峡谷中最大、发掘最完整的遗址，也是有最完整记录的遗址之一。考古学家普遍认为普韦布洛·博尼托是联合国教科文组织世界遗产查科文化公园中最重要的遗址。两个主要的考察队挖掘了遗址的大部分，提供了大量的收藏品，主要存放在史密森学会和美国自然历史博物馆。这些发掘揭示了在其他大型查科遗址的挖掘中从未复制过的物品的集中度。这些藏品的可获得性使它们成为许多研究的持续主题。然而，这些收藏品中缺少的是垃圾，这里的定义是故意丢弃或丢失文化材料。虽然19世纪90年代的海德探险和20世纪20年代的国家地理学会(NGS)探险遇到了大量的垃圾，但几乎没有保存下来。这些早期研究项目保存的所有物品可能给出了对普韦布洛·博尼托物质世界的偏见观点。在20世纪20年代，作为NGS挖掘的一部分，尼尔·贾德通过位于Pueblo Bonito正南方的两个土丘和土丘之间的第三个土壕，指挥了南北走向的战壕的挖掘。W.H.Wills博士和Patricia L.Crown博士最近指示重新开放三条海沟的一部分，以记录地层学，并从所有地层收集地质、花粉、介形类和大型植物学样本。所有的沟渠填充物都经过了筛选，显示出高密度的垃圾。这些战壕保存完好，因此找到的材料包括大量烧焦的玉米棒，一个篮子碎片，以及大量的碎片，碎石材料，磨石碎片，以及动物遗骸和工具。陶器显示，丘状沉积物代表了相对较短的时间(约公元1050-1125年)，与普韦布洛·博尼托的主要建筑相吻合。材料的高频率使其成为探索Pueblo Bonito垃圾性质的极佳收集品。目前的研究将描述来自Pueblo Bonito的垃圾堆的特征，特别是关于这些材料的生产、交换、使用和丢弃的证据。我们将与同时代的Pueblo Alto和一个小遗址公布的垃圾数据进行比较，以研究两个大房子遗址以及大房子和小房子场地之间的丢弃模式。最后，两个土丘之间的比较将评估与每个土丘中沉积的物质相关的可能的群体差异。学术价值包括对西南考古学家持续重要的问题的研究，这些问题对世界范围内新出现的复杂问题具有更广泛的影响。一个全面的实验室方法将产生一个宝贵的数据库，在此基础上建立关于查科文物的生产、交换、使用和丢弃的未来研究。这项研究将是普韦布洛·博尼托垃圾的首次全面研究。这项研究的更广泛影响包括传播到查科峡谷国家历史公园，在那里，该项目产生的知识将加强对超过85,000名年度游客的解读。尽快完成这一项目面临相当大的压力，因为一些后裔部落团体要求在分析后重新埋葬所有文物，而NPS尚未就这一请求做出决定。最后，该项目将在研究背景下为一批年轻的本科生和研究生科学家提供专业培训。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Patricia L. Crown will analyze the artifacts excavated from trash deposits at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. With an estimated 600-800 rooms, Pueblo Bonito is the largest and most completely excavated site in Chaco Canyon, as well as one of the most completely documented. Archaeologists widely consider Pueblo Bonito the most important site in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Chaco Culture Park. Two major expeditions excavated most of the site, providing extensive collections largely housed at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. These excavations revealed a concentration of objects never duplicated in excavations of other large Chacoan sites. The accessibility of the collections has made them ongoing subjects of much study. What is lacking in these collections though is refuse, here defined as intentionally discarded or lost cultural material. Although the 1890s Hyde Expedition and the 1920s National Geographic Society (NGS) Expedition encountered refuse in quantities, little was kept. The whole objects kept by these early research projects likely give a biased view of the material world of Pueblo Bonito. In the 1920s, Neil Judd directed excavation of north-south oriented trenches through two mounds that sit directly south of Pueblo Bonito and a third trench between the mounds as part of the NGS excavations. Drs. W. H. Wills and Patricia L. Crown recently directed reopening of portions of the three trenches to document the stratigraphy and collect geological, pollen, ostracod and macrobotanical samples from all strata. All trench fill was screened, revealing a high density of refuse. Preservation in these trenches is good, so the material recovered includes a quantity of charred corn cobs, a basketry fragment, along with large numbers of sherds, chipped stone materials, ground stone fragments, and faunal remains and tools. Ceramics reveal that mound deposits represent a relatively brief period of time (ca. A.D. 1050-1125) coinciding with the major construction of Pueblo Bonito. The high frequency of material makes this an excellent collection to explore the nature of Pueblo Bonito refuse. The current study will characterize the refuse from the mounds at Pueblo Bonito, particularly focusing on the evidence for production, exchange, use, and discard of the material. Comparisons will be made to the published data on refuse from the contemporaneous Pueblo Alto and a small site to examine discard patterns between two great house sites and great house versus small house sites. Finally, comparisons between the two mounds will evaluate possible group differences associated with material deposited in each mound. Intellectual merits include examination of issues of continuing importance to southwestern archaeologists that have broader implications for issues of emergent complexity worldwide. A comprehensive laboratory methodology will generate an invaluable database upon which to build future research on the production, exchange, use and discard of artifacts in Chaco. The research will be the first comprehensive study of refuse from Pueblo Bonito. Broader impacts of this research include dissemination to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, where the knowledge generated by this project will enhance interpretation to over 85,000 annual visitors. There is considerable pressure to complete this project as rapidly as possible, because some descendant tribal groups have requested that all artifacts be reburied after analysis, and the NPS has not yet made a decision about this request. Finally, the project will provide professional training to a group of young undergraduate and graduate scientists in the context of research.