Collaborative Research: Urbanism, Neighborhood Organization, and Domestic Economy at the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan, Mexico.

对早期城市化的考古为日益城市化的世界提供了深刻的历史背景。David M.Carbalo博士和Kenneth G.Hirth博士将在墨西哥古城特奥蒂瓦坎领导一个由跨学科研究人员组成的国际团队参与的一个为期三年的合作项目。在公元1世纪初的鼎盛时期，特奥蒂瓦坎是美洲最大的城市，也是世界上最大的城市之一。今天，作为联合国教科文组织的世界遗产和美洲参观人数最多的遗址，特奥蒂瓦坎引起了广大观众的极大兴趣。尽管特奥蒂瓦坎以其高水平的城市规划、国际化的人口和广泛的经济影响而闻名，但这些问题需要在城市未被研究的部分进行更深入的调查。对该项目的调查主要集中在特奥蒂瓦坎以南的特拉金加区，这是特奥蒂瓦坎以南的一群社区，居住着该市较低的社会经济阶层，是密集的功利主义手工艺品生产的地点，被城市中央动脉的终点处一分为二，后来的阿兹特克人将其命名为死亡之街。特拉金加地区为研究社会和行为科学广泛关注的问题提供了一个合适的环境，代表着城市中探索最少的部分，其考古记录受到大墨西哥城周围当代城市化的威胁。到目前为止，大约90个公寓楼中只有一个--特奥蒂瓦坎的多户住宅区--被挖掘。项目规模的研究目标从家庭层面到城市整体城市化水平。一项特别令人感兴趣的家庭活动是在一个院落中生产黑玉刀片--那个时期的实用切割工具--及其对市场组织和区域间交流的影响。该化合物将被挖掘，并将从技术和地球化学角度分析黑铁矿的获取、生产和分配系统。在地区层面，将研究一个由广场周围可能的寺庙组成的建筑群，以更好地了解行政和宗教活动，这些活动将社区连接起来，并将它们与这个多民族城市的城市结构联系起来。而在整个城市的层面上，对未被开发的死亡南街的挖掘将解决它何时建立以及这一重大城市规划行动所涉及的集中化程度。该项目的研究方法包括在三个院落和南死街沿线进行两个季节的水平挖掘；结合地面化学分析和微形态研究对活动区进行分析；详细的材料分析，包括黑铁矿刀片生产的技术序列；骨骼的同位素分析和文物的地球化学分析；以及广泛的地表测绘和用于邻里尺度空间分析的遥感方案。该项目涉及来自美国和墨西哥的研究人员之间的密切合作，以及这两个国家的本科生和研究生的培训。

The archaeology of early urbanism provides deep historical context for an increasingly urbanized world. Dr. David M. Carballo and Dr. Kenneth G. Hirth will direct a collaborative three-year project involving an international team of interdisciplinary researchers at the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico. During its height in the early first millennium AD Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Americas and one of the largest in the world. Today, being a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited ruins in the Americas, Teotihuacan is of great interest to a broad audience. Though Teotihuacan is famed for its high-level of civic planning, cosmopolitan populace, and broad economic reach, such issues require more intensive investigations within understudied portions of the city. Investigations of this project focus on the Tlajinga district, a cluster of neighborhoods to the south of Teotihuacan that was inhabited by a lower socioeconomic stratum of the city's populace, was the locus of intensive utilitarian craft production, and is bisected by the terminus of the city's central artery named the Street of the Dead by the later Aztecs. The Tlajinga district provides an opportune setting for examining issues of broad interest to social and behavioral sciences and represents a minimally explored portion of the city whose archaeological record is threatened by contemporary urbanization surrounding greater Mexico City. To date, only one of approximately 90 apartment compounds - the multi-family residential complexes of Teotihuacan - has been excavated. Research goals of the project scale from the level of the household to the level of the urbanization of the city as a whole. One household activity of particular interest is the production of obsidian blades - the utilitarian cutting implement of the period - in one compound, and its implications for the organization of markets and interregional exchange. This compound will be excavated and the obsidian acquisition, production, and distribution system will be analyzed technologically and geochemically. At the district level, a complex consisting of likely temples around a plaza will be studied for a better understanding of administrative and religious activities that connected neighborhoods and articulated them with the urban fabric of the multi-ethnic city. And at the level of the entire city, excavations at the unexplored southern Street of the Dead will address when it was established and the degree of centralization involved in this major act of urban planning. Research methods of the project include two seasons of horizontal excavations at three compounds and along the southern Street of the Dead; analysis of activity areas coupling floor-chemistry analyses and micromorphological studies; detailed materials analyses, including the technological sequence of obsidian-blade production; isotopic analysis of bones and geochemical analyses of artifacts; and extensive surface mapping and remote-sensing programs for neighborhood-scale spatial analyses. The project involves close collaboration between researchers from the US and Mexico as well as the training of undergraduate and graduate students from these two countries.