Collaborative Research: Cooperation and Competition at Crystal River

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。Thomas Pluckhahn， Victor Thompson和Brent Weisman将在水晶河遗址进行考古研究，这是一个位于佛罗里达海湾沿岸的土堆建筑群，主要可以追溯到林地时期（约公元前1000年至公元1000年）。水晶河一直被认为是北美最重要的地点之一，但由于以前的调查范围有限和报告不足，人们对它的了解仍然很少。研究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。尽管关于竞争与合作的概念隐含在人类社会的考古理论中，但这个主题很少成为一致研究的焦点。在直接讨论这一主题的少数情况下，重点主要放在酋长管辖地和国家，在这些地方，竞争与合作的做法已经制度化。该研究将评估三种材料遗迹的时空变化：贵重物品、公共建筑和宴会残骸。目标是确定这些遗迹是否受到空间限制和时间间断（表明更激烈的竞争）或开放获取和定期安排（表明更大的合作）。该项目将采用两种方法来完成对这些遗迹的细致研究，同时尊重遗址保护的需要：1)全面重新分析以前调查收集的藏品；2)系统的、微创的新领域工作，以纠正先前研究的偏见和有限的范围。野外调查包括地球物理调查、取芯和试验挖掘。实验室分析包括各种考古年代测定技术，以及确定占领季节和沉积速率的研究。这项研究有助于理解人类社会中竞争与合作之间的动态关系——这是社会科学的首要问题之一。该项目还通过集中研究早期村庄（更好地研究等级和分层社会的先驱），促进了社会复杂性的研究。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，这一地区和时期以北美史前时期最具特色但最不为人所知的物质文化综合体之一为标志。拟议的研究在学术界内外的教育领域具有更广泛的影响。优先培养本科生和研究生；这种训练包括专业技术和传统的考古方法。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，并为公共考古理论和方法的研究生培训提供了框架。最后，通过提出的研究将产生的见解将应用于增强现场博物馆展示，标志和小册子，更好地为公众解释这个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.