Collaborative Research: Peripheral Neighborhoods in City Creation

这个项目的目标是了解一座城市地理边缘的社区可能或可能不是该城市的社会边缘，以及这如何影响该城市的历史轨迹。具体地说，研究小组将开展研究，研究人们对城市社区的时间、精力和资源投入，他们对社区和城市整体的认同感，以及他们的占领时间和强度之间的关系。考古学的独特之处在于解决城市历史进程中的这些问题，重点放在参与、身份和不平等的物质证据上。通过考虑社区多样性与城市投资水平的关系，人们可以理解通过有意参与而建立的社会、经济和政治联系是否会导致人们留下来并继续参与城市，或者相反，缺乏这种联系是否会导致这些社区更快地被抛弃。这可能有助于人们从自下而上、基层的角度来理解社会投资和当地参与之间的微妙关系、社区身份的多样性以及现代城市的未来。此外，该项目将为学生提供一个学习考古调查和挖掘技术的空间，并为主要由移民或第一代社区成员组成的当地社区提供机会，让他们接触和了解他们对城市的现代体验与过去生活在该空间的人之间的相似和差异。研究人员将着眼于古城不同社区人们的生活体验，考虑当地的投资(例如建筑、基础设施、社区组织)和潜在的好处(例如，获得某些商品、空间或活动的机会)，这些投资与积极参与城市及其活动相吻合。研究人员将在一座被当地人和非当地人占据了大约三个世纪的史前城市里解决这些问题。使用非侵入性地球物理调查来搜索地下考古特征、土壤取心和定向挖掘，研究人员将比较城市物理外围的两个社区，以衡量居住者是否也处于社会边缘，或者他们是否完全参与了中心城市的项目、活动和想法。研究人员将检查建筑风格和社区组织，包括公共建筑的分布，连接遗址区域的堤道的邻近程度，本应举行社区仪式的土丘和广场群，以及表明当地物质和社会投资水平的平整或填平居住区域。最后，研究人员将比较遗址中心部分典型的材料类型的比例，看看生活在这些外围社区的人们是否可以获得与居住在离市中心较近的人相同的物品、原材料和食物，即，完全参与城市项目是否有社会效益。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to understand how neighborhoods at the geographical margins of a city may or may not be socially peripheral to that city and how that affects the historical trajectory of that city. Specifically, the research team will undertake research to study the relationship between people’s investment of time, energy, and resources into urban neighborhoods, their identity in relation to their neighborhood and the city overall, and the length and intensity of their occupation. Archaeology is uniquely situated to address these questions over the course of a city’s history, with a focus on material evidence for engagement, identity, and inequality. By considering neighborhood diversity in relation to level of investment in the city, one can understand whether social, economic, and political ties created through intentional engagement lead people to stay and continue to participate in that city or, conversely, whether a lack of such ties may lead to more rapid abandonment of those neighborhoods. This may help people understand the nuanced relationship between social investment and local participation, diversity of neighborhood identities, and the futures of modern cities from a bottom-up, grass-roots perspective. Additionally, this project will provide a space for students to learn techniques of archaeological survey and excavation as well as opportunities for the local community, which is largely comprised of immigrant or first-generation community members, to engage with and understand the similarities and differences between their modern experience of a city and those of people living in that space in the past. Focusing on the lived experiences of people in different neighborhoods in an ancient city, researchers will consider the local investments (e.g., architecture, infrastructure, neighborhood organization) and the potential benefits (e.g., access to certain goods, spaces, or activities) that coincide with actively participating in the city and its goings-on. Researchers will address these questions at a prehistoric city which was occupied by both local and non-local peoples for roughly three centuries. Using non-invasive geophysical survey to search for subterranean archaeological features, soil coring, and targeted excavation, researchers will compare two neighborhoods at the physical periphery of the city to gauge whether occupants were also socially peripheral or whether they were fully engaged in central city projects, activities, and ideas. Researchers will examine architectural style and neighborhood organization, including distribution of public buildings, proximity to causeways connecting areas of the site, mound-and-plaza groups where community ceremonies would have occurred, and areas of leveling or filling for habitation which are indicative of local level of physical and social investment. Finally, researchers will compare the proportions of material types that are typical of the central portion of the site to see if people living in these peripheral neighborhoods had access to the same kinds of objects, raw materials, and food as people living closer to the city center, i.e., is there a social benefit to fully engaging in the urban project.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.