Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Community Role In Emergence Of Complex Societies

本研究探讨了大型公共建筑在早期社区的出现和复杂社会的形成中的作用。纪念性建筑仍然是定居农业社区和结构劳动组织的不平等关系的最广泛认可的标志之一。因此，它通常被视为社会复杂性的结果。然而，世界各地一些值得注意的纪念性建筑的早期实例表明，令人印象深刻的项目可以通过大量流动和最低层次的人口之间的合作关系来完成。这些发现需要一个调整的框架来解释参与建设和使用公共空间的个人之间的社会关系，以及构建的空间在促进新的社会关系中的作用。在构建的空间中创造和互动的行为是否以新的方式将人们联系在一起？这样的建设是否促进了更广泛地区以及当地社区的融合？本论文项目将探讨公共建筑在一个考古遗址的当地社区形成和区域整合中的作用。为了提高分析能力，并为有抱负的研究人员提供实验室经验，本地学生将参与研究。拟议的项目通过关注劳动力投资、活动、仪式沉淀和区域互动的证据，研究了公共建筑的发展如何与社区一体化的标志联系起来。该遗址的一个重要建筑群可以追溯到其历史的早期。它的基础似乎早于现场的家庭建筑，表明该综合体是当地定居点形成的组成部分。建筑材料和建筑群布局的变化与重要的时间和政治区域变化相关，为研究公共建筑和整合与地方和区域尺度之间的长期关系提供了合适的考古背景。在这个项目中，一个公共广场结构综合体内的劳动力投资和活动的变化将作为当地社区发展的标志进行研究，而场地内发现的仪式沉积物和陶瓷风格的相似性与该地区其他地方报告的相似度将作为区域一体化的标志进行研究。通过在建立和改进场地年表时使用统计模型来确定变化的指标。从整个遗址埋在地下的地板上收集的样品的地球化学测试得出的活动残留物，为早期纪念碑的研究增加了一个重要的数据集，并阐明了它们对当地人口的用途和意义的其他方面。将该数据集整合到从建筑挖掘和回收文物分析中获得的传统考古测量的系统检查中，扩展了对早期建筑的理解，并有助于进一步理解促成社会复杂性的各种驱动因素。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research addresses the role of large-scale public architecture in the emergence of early communities and the formation of complex societies. Monumental construction remains one of the most widely recognized markers of settled agricultural communities and relationships of inequality which structure labor organization. Thus, it is often viewed as an outcome of social complexity. However, several noteworthy early instances of monumental constructions throughout the world indicate impressive projects could be accomplished through cooperative relationships among largely mobile and minimally stratified populations. These findings require an adjusted framework for interpretation of the social relationships between individuals engaging in the construction and use of public spaces and the role of constructed space in promoting new social relationships. Does the act of creating and interacting in a constructed space bind people together in new ways? Do such constructions promote integration across broader regions, as well as local communities? This dissertation project will investigate the role of public architecture in local community formation and regional integration at an archaeological site. In an effort to increase analysis capacity and offer laboratory experience to aspiring researchers, local students will participate in the research.The proposed project investigates how the development of the public architecture relates to markers of increased community integration by focusing on evidence for labor investment, activity, ritual deposits, and regional interaction. A key architectural complex at the site dates to very early in its history. Its foundation appears to predate household construction at the site and indicates the complex was integral to the formation of a local settlement. Changes in the architectural materials and arrangement of the complex correlate with important temporal and political regional changes providing a fitting archaeological context to examine the long-term relationship between public architecture and integration and the local and regional scales. In this project, shifts in labor investment and activity within a public plaza-structure complex will be examined as markers of local community development while increased similarity in ritual deposits and ceramic styles between those found within the site and those reported from others in the region will be examined as markers of regional integration. Indicators of change will be anchored in time through the use of statistical modeling in building and improving the site chronology. Activity residues, derived from geochemical testing of samples, collected from buried floors across the site, add an important dataset to the study of early monuments and elucidate additional aspects of their uses and meanings to local populations. Integrating this dataset within systematic examination of traditional archaeological measurers derived from architectural excavations and analysis of recovered artifacts expands understanding of early construction and stands to further understanding of the diverse drives contributing to social complexity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.