Material Transformation and Community Creation at the Etowah Site, Georgia

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，亚当·金（Adam King）博士及其同事试图探索埃托瓦遗址建筑环境的变化，以及这些变化如何反映社区组织和社区形成过程本身。虽然这项研究牢固地建立在物质文化、建筑和空间利用的基础上，但其目的是将通过遥感产生的数据作为解释的主要来源。传统上，通过梯度测量法、探地雷达和电阻等技术产生的数据只被用作挖掘的指导，以评估思想和了解过去。在某种程度上，强调遥感是一种有意识的努力，以减少（挖掘）对埃托瓦考古记录的影响——这对一些人来说是宝贵的资源，对另一些人来说是神圣的。此外，强调遥感数据是为了突破这些数据的解释极限。这个项目通过建筑环境来探索生活在Etowah的社会群体的形成，将有助于继续努力理解密西西比时期复杂的，通常是多民族社区的形成。因为社区物理空间的建立和创造是人类共同的，从这些努力中学到的东西将有助于更广泛的尝试，跨越时间和地理，探索利用空间和建筑创造社会。在方法上，该项目试图通过询问传统上只询问挖掘数据的地球物理数据来突破非侵入性调查的极限。这些结果可能使研究史前社区的发展成为可能，比如埃托瓦，仅使用地球物理数据和来自非常有限和有针对性的挖掘的信息。今天，埃托瓦遗址是一个州立公园和一个史前考古遗址，以在南部腹地建造的一些最大的土丘而闻名，并生产了一些在东南部发现的最令人印象深刻的艺术品。在过去，它是一个繁荣的印第安人社区和一个更大的政体的首都：在过去印第安人的密西西比时期，它扮演了大约550年的角色。埃托瓦的考古记录不仅记录了这些社区的结构，还包含了这些埃托瓦社区形成过程的痕迹。社区是一群人的集合，他们通过各种方式将自己锻造成一个具有共同认同感、历史和社区实践的社会单位。社区创造是一个复杂而持续的过程，是人类普遍经验的一部分，它被编码到空间、建筑和物质文化的使用中。本项目使用遥感数据和有限的考古发掘来探索埃托瓦的建筑环境和相关的物质文化是如何随着埃托瓦社区的每一个新化身而转变的，并反过来审视社区创造的过程。这个项目通过建筑环境来探索生活在Etowah的社会群体的形成，将有助于继续努力理解密西西比时期复杂的，通常是多民族社区的形成。因为社区物理空间的建立和创造是人类共同的，从这些努力中学到的东西将有助于更广泛的尝试，跨越时间和地理，探索利用空间和建筑创造社会。在方法上，该项目试图通过询问传统上只询问挖掘数据的地球物理数据来突破非侵入性调查的极限。这些结果可能使研究史前社区的发展成为可能，比如埃托瓦，仅使用地球物理数据和来自非常有限和有针对性的挖掘的信息。该项目还具有重要的教学功能。考古数据将由实地学校的学生在学习考古过程中收集，所产生的地球物理和考古数据将构成研究生论文的基础。它还旨在让后代社区参与探索和解释他们的历史。文化上隶属的克里克和切罗基社区的成员将被邀请参与数据收集、结果解释和从这些解释中学习。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Adam King and colleagues seek to explore changes in the built environment of the Etowah site and how those changes reflect community organization and the community formation process itself. While this study is firmly grounded in material culture, architecture, and the use of space the intent is to use data generated through remote sensing as a primary source for interpretation. Traditionally, the data generated through techniques such as gradiometry, ground-penetrating radar, and electrical resistance have only been used as guides for where to excavate to evaluate ideas and learn about the past. In part the emphasis on remote sensing is a conscious effort to reduce the impacts (of excavation) on the archaeological record of Etowah -- a precious resource to some and sacred to others. Additionally, the emphasis on remote sensing data is intended to push the interpretive limits of those data.This project to explore the creation of the social groups living at Etowah through the built environment will contribute to continuing efforts to understand the formation of complex, often multi-ethnic communities of the Mississippian period. Because the establishment and creation of the physical space of a community is a human universal, what is learned from these efforts will contribute to broader attempts, spanning time and geography, to explore the creation of society using space and architecture. Methodologically, this project attempts to push the limits of non-invasive investigations by asking questions of geophysical data that traditionally have been asked only of excavated data. The results may make it possible to study the development of prehistoric communities like Etowah using only geophysical data and information from very limited and targeted excavations.Today the Etowah site is a state park and a prehistoric archaeological site famous for having some of the largest earthen platform mounds built in the Deep South, and producing some of the most impressive art objects ever found in the Southeast. In the past it was a thriving Native American community and capital of a larger polity: a role it played for some 550 years during the Mississippian period of the Native American past. Etowah's archaeological record not only captures the structure of those communities, but it also contains traces of the process through which those Etowah communities were formed. Communities are collections of people who, through various means, forge themselves into a social unit with a shared sense of identity, history, and community practice. Community creation is a complex and ongoing process that is part of the universal human experience, and it is encoded into the use of space, architecture, and material culture. This project uses remote sensing data and limited archaeological excavation to explore how Etowah's built environment and associated material culture were transformed with each new incarnation of the Etowah community and in turn examine the process of community creation.This project to explore the creation of the social groups living at Etowah through the built environment will contribute to continuing efforts to understand the formation of complex, often multi-ethnic communities of the Mississippian period. Because the establishment and creation of the physical space of a community is a human universal, what is learned from these efforts will contribute to broader attempts, spanning time and geography, to explore the creation of society using space and architecture. Methodologically, this project attempts to push the limits of non-invasive investigations by asking questions of geophysical data that traditionally have been asked only of excavated data. The results may make it possible to study the development of prehistoric communities like Etowah using only geophysical data and information from very limited and targeted excavations.This project will also serve an important teaching function. The archaeological data will be collected by field school students as they learn the process of archaeology, and the geophysical and archaeological data produced will form the basis for a graduate student theses. It is also designed to involve descendant communities in the exploration and interpretation of their history. Members of culturally affiliated Creek and Cherokee communities will be invited to participate in the data collection, the interpretation of the results and in learning from those interpretations.