Collaborative Research: Sourcing Interaction in the Woodland Period Southeast U.S.: Integrated Approaches to Swift Creek Ceramics

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，尼尔·沃利斯博士和托马斯·普拉卡恩博士将使用一种独特的陶器形式来识别美国东南部“深南”在中期和晚期林地时期（约公元200年至800年）的社会互动模式。它被称为“斯威夫特河复杂的印花陶器”，并与斯威夫特河和威登岛的考古文化联系在一起，它有可能为史前社会组织提供意想不到的见解。在干燥和烧制之前，这些器皿要用木浆雕刻的印痕来装饰。400多个单独的木刻桨的独特“指纹”已经在复杂的刻印船只的印痕中被识别出来，而相同的桨印可以在分布在多个地点的船只上被识别出来，有时相隔数百公里。这些地点之间的“划桨匹配”为社会联系提供了详细的时间和空间分辨率。这项研究对目前有限的关于前殖民世界中无等级、觅食或部落社会之间的社会互动和交流的人类学知识做出了重大贡献。它在界定可能与重要趋势相关的相互作用模式方面也很重要，如村庄聚集、土墩建设、殡葬活动和长途交流。该项目整合了五种分析方法：(1)仪器中子激活分析（INAA），(2)岩石学分析，(3)桨叶图章设计的数字成像，作为确定船只制造地点的补充方法；(4)技术分析，以确定容器是如何制造和使用的；(5)放射性碳定年法，以制定设计和划桨比赛的年表。研究了分布在佛罗里达州北部和佐治亚州南部9个地区的24个地点的收集数据，这些数据将用于区分不同形式的互动。更广泛的影响包括促进未来的合作研究，并以公开和及时的方式展示结果。艰苦的研究已经确定了数百种Swift Creek桨的设计，但这些数据的研究潜力受到随意数据管理的限制。该项目将开发一个可搜索的数据库，将设计的高分辨率图像与其他船舶属性数据和绝对日期联系起来。该数据库将集成多个数据集，并为集成不断增长的数据体提供协同基础，这些数据体可以丰富许多其他研究项目，特别是以区域为重点的论文和学位论文。该研究数据库的部分内容将与佛罗里达自然历史博物馆的馆藏数据库进行维护和整合，并向公众开放。该数据库的网络可访问版本将为公众提供一个合作论坛，并提供对当前研究结果的解释性综合。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Neill Wallis and Dr. Thomas Pluckhahn will use a unique form of pottery to identify patterns of social interaction across the "Deep South" of the southeastern U.S. during the late Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. AD 200 to 800). Termed "Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery" and associated with the Swift Creek and Weeden Island archaeological cultures it has the potential to provide an unexpected insight into prehistoric social organization. Before drying and firing, the vessels were decorated with impressions from a carved wooden paddle. The unique "fingerprints" of more than 400 individual carved wooden paddles have been recognized in the impressions on complicated stamped vessels, and the same paddle stamp can be identified on vessels distributed across multiple sites, sometimes hundreds of kilometers apart. These "paddle matches" between sites lend detailed temporal and spatial resolution to social connections. This research makes a significant contribution to the currently limited body of anthropological knowledge of social interaction and exchange among non-hierarchical, foraging, or tribal societies in a precolonial world. It is also important in delimiting patterns of interaction that may be correlated with important trends such as village aggregation, mound-building, mortuary practice, and long-distance exchange. The project integrates five methods of analysis: (1) Instrumental Neutron Actication Analysis (INAA), (2) petrographic analysis, and (3) digital imaging of paddle stamp designs as complementary methods for determining where vessels were made; (4) technological analysis to identify how vessels were made and used; and (5) radiocarbon dating to develop a chronology of designs and paddle matches. Examining collections from 24 sites distributed across nine regions in northern Florida and southern Georgia, these data will be used to distinguish between alternative forms of interaction. Broader impacts include facilitating future collaborative research and presenting results in a public and timely fashion. Painstaking research has resulted in the identification of hundreds of Swift Creek paddle designs, but the research potential of these data has been limited by haphazard data management. The project will develop a searchable database that links high-resolution images of designs with other vessel attribute data and absolute dates. This database will integrate multiple datasets and provide the synergistic foundation for integrating a growing body of data that can enrich many other research projects, especially regionally-focused theses and dissertations. Maintained and integrated with the collections database at the Florida Museum of Natural History, portions of the research database will also be publicly accessible. The web accessible version of the database will provide a collaborative forum for the public and an interpretive synthesis of current research results.