Craft Production and Sociopolitical Hierarchy in Southern Mesoamerica

Edward Schortman博士和Patricia Urban博士最近在洪都拉斯的纳科山谷进行的挖掘和调查工作表明，存在着一个复杂的史前政体，在公元1千年末和公元2千年初达到了鼎盛时期。在拉塞拉的中心遗址，调查人员注意到核心区的38个纪念性平台和总共468个建筑，可以追溯到古典晚期。在周边地区，他们定位了大量遗址，这些遗址都明显小于拉塞拉本身。在此基础上，他们认为该遗址代表了覆盖整个山谷的州级政体的首都，并可能超出这些地形限制。在国家科学基金会的支持下，该团队将在纳科山谷继续他们的研究。他们的目标是了解允许分层和中央集权发展的政治机制。他们认为，经济体系是由精英控制的，并以这种方式组织起来，以保持这种统治地位。这既包括当地手工艺品生产，也包括专门商品的进口。为了测试这一想法，他们将挖掘拉塞拉内外的一系列家庭群体，以确定在政体不同部分进行的手工艺活动的范围和强度。这些数据将与与拉塞拉有关的场地位置和其他家庭声望指标相关联。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，它将增加我们对复杂社会是如何发展、维持并最终崩溃的理解。这种考古学可以提供的历时数据将为政治控制机制提供新的线索。其次，该项目将提供来自相对未知地区的数据，这些数据将引起大量考古学家的兴趣。最后，这个项目支持本科生机构的研究，并将为学生提供第一手的科学实践机会。

Recent excavation and survey work by Drs. Edward Schortman and Patricia Urban in the Naco valley in Honduras has indicated the presence of a complex prehistoric polity which reached florescence in the late first and early second millennia A.D. At the central site of La Sierra, investigators noted 38 monumental platforms in the core area and 468 constructions overall which date to the Late Classic period. In the surrounding region, they located a large number of sites, all of which are significantly smaller than La Sierra itself. On this basis they suggested that the site represents the capital of a state level polity which encompasses the entire valley and possibly extends beyond these physiographic limits. With National Science Foundation support the team will continue their research in the Naco Valley. Their goal is to understand the political mechanisms which permitted stratification and centralization to develop. They believe that the economic system was controlled by the elite and organized in such a way to maintain this domination. This extended both to local craft production as well as importation of specialized commodities. To test this idea they will excavate a series of household groups both within and beyond La Sierra to determine the range and intensity of craft activities performed in different portions of the polity. These data will be correlated with site location in relation to La Sierra and other indicators of household prestige. The research is important for several reasons. First, it will increase our understanding of how complex societies are developed, maintained, and eventually collapse. The diachronic data which such archaeology can provide will shed a new light on mechanisms of political control. Secondly, the project will provide data from a relatively unknown area and these will be of interest to a large number of archaeologists. Finally, this project supports research at an undergraduate institution and will provide students firsthand exposure to the practice of science.