Tsegai: An Archeological Ethnohistory of the Chaco Region

This report on the Navajo archeology of the Chaco region was planned as the final major contribution deriving from the Navajo studies conducted by the Division of Chaco Research. There is some work not finished as this is written. Whether it will see print before or after this is an imponderable, but it cannot be taken into account in my final summation in Part III, Concluding Remarks. Part III will have to stand as the primary effort at synthesis of the Navajo studies accomplished under the project. It does not pretend to provide a definitive statement of all the Navajo past in that region. There are too many questions yet unanswered for such a statement. Most important still is the need to identify with certainty the archeological traces of Navajo presence prior to the Spanish Reconquest of New Mexico, 1692-1700. Although the Museum of New Mexico attempted to define a "Dinetah Phase" for this early period in the Navajo Reservoir district (Dittert, Hester, and Eddy 1961:245-46), the fact that the proposed phase was based largely on negative evidence and physical remains of uncertain significance led to relegating it to a status somewhat comparable to the hypothetical Basketmaker I of the Pecos Classification in the final report (Eddy, 1966). We have done no better in the Chaco work. The early remains of the camps of the first Apaches de Nabaxo have probably been noted in various archeological surveys, but if so, they have gone unrecognized for what they are. Until we do learn to distinguish these remains, the earlier phases of Apachean settlement on the Colorado Plateau will be known only from the accounts of the early Spanish explorers and colonists. While numerous tree-ring dates extending back as far as the 14th century have now been processed from Apachean sites, no good clusters of dates or real cutting dates are yet known prior to 1694, and these are from a small Pueblo-style structure (Wilson and Warren, 1974).本报告针对查科地区（Chaco region）的纳瓦霍人（Navajo）考古学展开，旨在作为查科研究部（Division of Chaco Research）开展的纳瓦霍研究项目所产出的最终核心学术成果。本文撰写之际，尚有部分研究工作尚未完成。这些未竟工作能否在本报告付梓前后刊印，尚属未知，因此无法纳入第三部分"结语（Concluding Remarks）"的最终总结当中。第三部分将作为本项目下已完成纳瓦霍研究的核心综合梳理成果，但其无意对该区域纳瓦霍人的全部史前历史作出定论性表述——鉴于仍有诸多学术问题尚未得到解答，暂不具备作出此类表述的条件。 尤为关键的是，我们亟需精准确定1692-1700年西班牙重新征服新墨西哥之前，纳瓦霍人活动留下的考古遗迹。尽管新墨西哥博物馆曾尝试为纳瓦霍水库区域（Navajo Reservoir district）的这一早期时段界定"迪内塔阶段（Dinetah Phase）"（Dittert、Hester与Eddy，1961：245-46），但该阶段的提出主要基于否定性证据与意义不明的实物遗存，因此在最终报告中，其被定位为类似皮科斯分类体系（Pecos Classification）中的假想篮纹器时代一期（Basketmaker I）的地位（Eddy，1966）。我们在查科地区的研究中亦未取得更佳进展：首批阿帕切-纳瓦霍人营地的早期遗存，或许已在多项考古调查中被记录，但即便如此，它们也未被正确识别。在我们掌握识别这类遗存的方法之前，科罗拉多高原（Colorado Plateau）阿帕切语族（Apachean）定居点的早期阶段，只能依靠早期西班牙探险者与殖民者的记述来了解。目前虽已从阿帕切语族遗址中获取了可追溯至14世纪的大量树轮年代数据（tree-ring dates），但在1694年之前，尚未发现可靠的年代聚类序列或确切断代数据，仅有的相关数据来自一处小型普韦布洛风格建筑（Pueblo-style structure）（Wilson与Warren，1974）。