Ceramic Compositional Analysis to Trace Extensive Cultural Interaction

陶瓷成分分析追踪广泛的文化互动

• 批准号: 2311167
• 负责人: Hannah Mattson
• 金额: $ 19.21万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2311167&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ceramic; Compositional; Analysis; Trace; Extensive

This project conducts research to study pottery production and trade at an Chaco Canyon. Chaco is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an important anthropological case study in the socioeconomic organization of pre-state societies. Much remains unknown about the configuration of Chaco’s exchange network, which funneled materials from abroad geographical region into the canyon. The major contribution of this research is addressing a critical gap in the current understanding of the role of pottery in maintaining this network. Pottery-making is still an important activity to many relevant descendant communities. By incorporating the expertise and perspectives of traditional Pueblo potters, this project serves as an example of how significant scientific archaeological research can not only be successfully conducted in a minimal-impact manner that is aligned with the values of descendant tribes, but also produce richer and more meaningful results by incorporating aspects of traditional Indigenous knowledge. The beneficial outcomes of the research also include providing important scientific training opportunities for students, thereby helping them to advance along their STEM career paths, as well as providing a framework within which an early career PI can form important contacts and relationships with members of Indigenous communities ancestrally affiliated with her area of research, allowing her to better align her work with their concerns and interests.While some types of pottery were clearly imported into Chaco Canyon, the precise production location of Cibola Wares is unknown; these wares constitute the majority of ceramic artifacts recovered from archaeological sites in Chaco Canyon, representing tens of thousands of vessels, at a minimum. Based on the geographic distribution of Cibola pottery, its possible production area encompasses 30,000 square miles. Given the scarcity of archaeological evidence in the canyon for significant ceramic manufacture, the widespread default assumption among researchers is that most, if not all, of the Cibola pottery was produced outside the canyon. However, this assumption has not been adequately tested, leaving unresolved a question that reflects directly on the economic support of the canyon and the nature of relationships between the canyon and the other communities comprising the Chaco system. The PI resolves this important issue through a program of compositional analysis, involving both Neutron Activation Analysis and Electron Microprobe Analysis, of Cibola ceramics from 36 large Chacoan sites (‘great houses’), both in the canyon itself and those in Chaco’s interaction and exchange sphere. This study represents the first large-scale instrumental compositional study aimed at Cibola ceramics from this period, significantly advances knowledge of the role ceramic circulation played in the organization of Chacoan society, and creates a large compositional reference database that can be used by future researchers.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.

该项目对查科峡谷的陶器生产和贸易进行研究，查科峡谷是联合国教科文组织世界遗产，也是前国家社会社会经济组织的重要人类学案例研究，但查科交流网络的配置仍然未知。这项研究的主要贡献是解决了目前对陶器在维持这一网络中的作用的认识上的一个关键差距。对于许多相关的后裔社区来说，陶器制作仍然是一项重要活动。通过融合传统普韦布洛陶艺家的专业知识和观点，该项目成为一个例子，说明重要的科学考古研究不仅可以以符合后裔部落价值观的影响最小的方式成功进行，而且还可以产生通过融入传统土著知识的各个方面，获得更丰富、更有意义的成果。研究的有益成果还包括为学生提供重要的科学培训机会，从而帮助他们沿着 STEM 职业道路前进，并提供一个框架，让他们能够在其中进行早期学习。职业 PI 可以与成员建立重要的联系和关系土著社区的祖先与她的研究领域有联系，使她能够更好地将她的工作与他们的关注和兴趣结合起来。虽然某些类型的陶器显然是进口到查科峡谷的，但西波拉陶器的确切生产地点尚不清楚；查科峡谷考古遗址中出土的大部分陶瓷制品，代表着数以万计的器皿，根据西博拉陶器的地理分布，其可能的生产面积至少为 30,000 平方英里。由于峡谷中缺乏大量陶瓷制造的考古证据，研究人员普遍默认的假设是，大多数（如果不是全部）西博拉陶器都是在峡谷外生产的。然而，这一假设尚未得到充分检验，留下了一个悬而未决的问题。这直接反映了峡谷的经济支持以及峡谷与构成查科系统的其他社区之间关系的性质。PI 通过一项涉及中子激活的成分分析计划解决了这一重要问题。对来自 36 个大型查科遗址（“大房子”）的西博拉陶瓷进行了分析和电子显微探针分析，这些遗址位于峡谷本身以及查科的相互作用和交换范围内。这项研究代表了第一个针对西博拉陶瓷的大规模仪器成分研究。从这一时期开始，显着提高了人们对陶瓷流通在查科社会组织中所发挥作用的认识，并创建了一个可供未来研究人员使用的大型成分参考数据库。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并具有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，该项目被认为值得支持。