Collaborative Research: Cooperation and Competition at Crystal River

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Thomas Pluckhahn博士、Victor Thompson博士和Brent Weisman博士将在水晶河遗址进行考古研究，这是佛罗里达州墨西哥湾沿岸的一个丘陵建筑群，主要可以追溯到伍德兰时期(约公元前1000年至公元1000年)。水晶河长期以来一直被认为是北美最重要的遗址之一，但由于之前的调查范围有限，而且没有得到充分的报道，人们对水晶河的了解仍然很少。研究的目的是考察早期乡村社会形成过程中合作与竞争之间的动态关系。尽管人类社会的考古学理论中隐含着关于竞争和合作的概念，但这个主题很少成为协调研究的焦点。在少数几次直接讨论这一专题的情况下，重点主要放在酋长领地和国家，在这些地方，竞争和合作做法已经制度化。这项研究将评估三类物质遗迹的空间和时间变化：名牌商品、公共建筑和盛宴垃圾。目标是确定这些遗迹是否在空间上受到限制，并在时间上被打断(表明竞争更激烈)，还是开放获取并定期安排(表明更大的合作)。该项目将采用两种方法来完成对这些遗骸的细粒度研究，同时尊重遗址保护的需要：1)对以前调查的收藏品进行全面的重新分析；2)系统地、最小限度地进行新的实地工作，以纠正以前研究的偏见和有限的范围。现场调查包括地球物理调查、取心和试掘。实验室分析包括各种考古测年技术，以及确定占领季节和沉积速度的研究。这项研究有助于理解人类社会中竞争与合作之间的动态-这是社会科学中最重要的问题之一。该项目还通过对早期村庄的重点研究，促进了对社会复杂性的研究，早期村庄是更好地研究等级和分层社会的前身。最后，该项目有助于了解水晶河和墨西哥湾沿岸林地时期的相关遗址，该地区和时间段是北美史前最独特但最不被了解的物质文化综合体之一。这项拟议的研究对教育产生了更广泛的影响，无论是在学术界还是在其他领域。优先考虑本科生和研究生培训；这种培训既包括专业技术，也包括传统考古方法。与佛罗里达公共考古网络和南佛罗里达大学公共考古项目的联系为公众参与研究提供了现成的基础设施，并为研究生提供了公共考古理论和方法方面的培训框架。最后，通过拟议的研究产生的见解将用于加强现场博物馆的展示、标志和小册子，更好地向公众解释国家最重要的考古遗址之一。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Thomas Pluckhahn, Victor Thompson, and Brent Weisman will conduct archaeological research at the Crystal River site, a mound complex on the Gulf Coast of Florida dating primarily to the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000). Crystal River has long been noted as one of the most important sites in North America, but remains poorly understood due to the limited scope and under-reporting of previous investigations. The research objective is to examine the dynamic between cooperation and competition in the formation of early village societies. This topic has rarely been a focus of concerted study, although notions regarding competition and cooperation are implicit in archaeological theories of human societies. In the few instances where the topic has been directly addressed, the focus has primarily been on chiefdoms and states, where competitive and cooperative practices were already institutionalized. The study will evaluate spatial and temporal variation in three categories of material remains: prestige goods, public architecture, and feasting debris. The goal is to determine whether these remains are spatially restricted and temporally punctuated (indicating greater competition) or open-access and regularly scheduled (indicating greater cooperation.) The project will employ two methods for accomplishing a fine-grained study of these remains, while respecting the need for site conservation: 1) comprehensive reanalysis of the collections from previous investigations; and, 2) systematic, minimally invasive new field work to both correct the biases and limited scope of previous studies. The field investigations include geophysical survey, coring, and test excavations. Laboratory analyses include a variety of archaeological dating techniques, as well as studies to determine season of occupation and rate of deposition. The research contributes to the understanding of the dynamic between competition and cooperation in human societies---one of the foremost issues in the social sciences. The project also contributes to the study of social complexity through focused study of early villages, precursors to better-studied ranked and stratified societies. Finally, the project contributes to the understanding of Crystal River and related sites of the Woodland period on the Gulf Coast, an area and time period marked by one of the most distinctive, yet least understood, material culture complexes in the prehistory of North America. The proposed research has broader impacts in education, within academia and beyond. Undergraduate and graduate training are given priority; this training includes both specialized techniques and traditional archaeological methods. Affiliations with the Florida Public Archaeology Network and the Public Archaeology program at the University of South Florida provide a ready-made infrastructure for the involvement of the general public in the research, and a framework for the training of graduate students in the theory and method of public archaeology. Finally, the insights that will be generated through the proposed study will be applied to enhancing on-site museum displays, signs, and brochures, better interpreting for the general public one of the nation's most important archaeological sites.