Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Interaction of Long Term Canal Irrigation and Wetland Development

对美洲土著传统农业技术的考古研究对于评估长期土地使用至关重要，因为它可以在测试可持续性所需的时间尺度上检查环境变化。索诺兰沙漠洪泛平原上最早的农民为了农业目的，在大规模重新配置自然环境方面进行了精心的规划，小组合作和实验。这些早期农业社区的规模和复杂性的多样性，需要审查有利于景观改造的重大投资的具体因素，以了解这些做法的发展。对当地环境条件及其与农业实践时间的关系的研究是理解早期土制灌溉渠的区域发展和消亡的关键。这一信息将有助于不断增长的可持续土地灌溉系统知识，这是当今干旱环境中常用的农业技术。这项跨学科研究的成果在地球科学、考古学和可持续农业方面具有国际影响。该项目支持为妇女和代表性不足的群体提供实地考察、研究和专门实验室技术方面的学生培训，是亚利桑那大学与墨西哥国家人类学和历史研究所之间20年合作的一个组成部分。本论文研究将调查美国西南部/墨西哥西北部地区最早的农业技术，并评估对当地环境的影响，以确定何时以及为什么这种技术被开发和随后被放弃。来自亚利桑那大学的万斯霍利迪博士和雷切尔·卡吉加斯将使用高精度测年技术结合环境数据来确定早期农业实践的时间以及与墨西哥索诺拉拉普拉亚遗址洪泛区条件的关系。该遗址对了解农业技术的发展具有重要意义，因为它是最大的早期农业时期（公元前2100年-公元前2100年）。公元50年）在大西南地区的网站。现代侵蚀正在积极破坏考古遗址的大部分，突出了研究的迫切需要。这项研究将测试的假设，运河灌溉创造了湿地环境，最终导致不稳定的沉积条件。这些不稳定的条件可能促成了社会重组和灌溉技术的放弃。将使用放射性碳和光激发光测年法来确定运河使用和废弃的时间。这些数据将与沉积学和土壤数据进行比较，以表征整个农业早期的洪泛区条件。这项研究的结果将促进对干旱环境中早期农业技术的理解，并有助于在美国西南部早期农业起源的更大背景下对考古遗址进行全面的年表。墨西哥西北部。

The archaeological study of traditional Native American agricultural techniques is essential for the evaluation of long-term land use because it allows for the examination of environmental change at the time scales necessary to test for sustainability. The earliest farmers on the floodplains of the Sonoran Desert used careful planning, group cooperation, and experimentation in the massive reconfiguration of the natural environment for agricultural purposes. The diversity in size and complexity of these early farming communities requires examination of the specific factors that favored the significant investment in landscape modification in order to understand the development of these practices. The examination of local environmental conditions and their relationship to the timing of agricultural practices is key in understanding the regional development and demise of early earthen irrigation canals. This information will contribute to the growing body of knowledge of sustainable earthen irrigation systems, an agricultural technology commonly used in arid environments today. Results from this interdisciplinary research have international impacts in earth science, archaeology, and sustainable agriculture. This project supports student training in fieldwork, research, and specialized laboratory techniques for women and underrepresented groups and is a component of a twenty-year collaboration between the University of Arizona and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. This dissertation research will investigate the earliest agricultural technology in the Southwest United States/Northwest Mexico region and evaluate local environmental impacts to determine when and why this technology was developed and subsequently abandoned. Dr. Vance Holliday and Rachel Cajigas from the University of Arizona will use high-precision dating techniques combined with environmental data to determine the timing of early agricultural practices and the relationship to floodplain conditions at the La Playa site in Sonora, Mexico. This site has important implications for the understanding of the development of agricultural techniques because it is the single largest Early Agricultural Period (2100 B.C.-A.D. 50) site in the greater Southwest. Modern erosion is actively destroying large portions of the archaeological site, highlighting the urgent need for study. This research will test the hypothesis that canal irrigation created a wetland environment, eventually leading to unstable depositional conditions. These unstable conditions may have contributed to social reorganization and abandonment of irrigation technology. Radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating methods will be used to determine the timing of canal use and abandonment. These data will be compared with sedimentological and soils data to characterize floodplain conditions throughout the Early Agricultural period. The results from this study will advance the understanding of early agricultural techniques in arid environments and contribute to a comprehensive chronology of the archaeological site within the greater context of the origins of early agriculture in the Southwest U.S./Northwest Mexico.