Specialized Craft Production in the Tuxtlas Mountains, Veracruz, Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，罗伯特·桑特利博士和他的同事们将在墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯南部的塔斯特拉斯山脉进行两个季节的考古研究。这将集中在大型古典时期的马塔卡潘遗址，这一直是调查人员过去研究的重点。在航拍照片的帮助下，几个小组将进行一项广泛的区域调查，以包括所有主要的环境区。所有地点的位置都将被记录下来。在第二季，更密集的工作将集中在更有限的地区。陶器和其他文化材料将从表面收集。除此之外，还将进行有限数量的挖掘。将对数据进行分析，以重建区域定居点、经济和政治制度，并显示这些制度如何随着时间的推移而发展和变化。马塔卡潘地区尤其令人感兴趣，因为它可以揭示史前的中美洲社会。先前的工作表明，与在该区域其他地区观察到的情况相反，马塔卡潘地区表现出树枝状的组织形式，其中定居点按照经济和政治等级安排，并有明确的规模等级。经济似乎也高度集中在树枝状的形式中，很少有商品在类似规模的单位之间水平流动，而是向上流向更大的中心。位于等级制度顶端的马塔卡潘遗址似乎是陶器和黑铁矿的主要贸易中心，后者因制造石器而备受珍视。虽然马塔卡潘本身已经开展了广泛的工作，但为了了解更广泛的区域系统是如何运作的，大范围的调查工作是必要的。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为广大的中美洲考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它不仅将增加我们对史前社会如何运作的了解，还将使我们深入了解当今第三世界许多地区控制小规模社会的机制。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Robert Santley and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological research in the Tuxtlas Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. ThIs will center around the large Classic period site of Matacapan which has been the focus of past research by the investigator. With the assistance of aerial photographs several teams will carry out a broad scale regional survey designed to include all major environmental zones. The location of all sites will be noted. During the second season, more intensive work will focus on more limited regions. Ceramics and other cultural materials will be collected from the surface. This will be complemented by a limited number of excavations. Data will be analyzed to reconstruct the regional settlement, economic and political systems and to show how these developed and changed over time. The Matacapan region is of particular interest for the light it can shed on prehistoric Middle American society. Prior work has shown that contrary to what is observed in other parts of this region, the Matacapan area exhibited a dendritic form of organization where settlements are arranged in an economic and political hierarchy with clearly defined size ranks. It also appears that the economy was highly centralized in a dendritic form where very few goods passed horizontally among units of similar size, but rather flowed upwards to larger centers. The site of Matacapan which sits at the top of the hierarchy seems to be a major trading center both for pottery and obsidian which was highly prized for making stone tools. While extensive work has been conducted at Matacapan itself, to understand how the broader regional system operated, wide scale survey work is necessary. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to a wide group of Middle American archaeologists. It will not only increase our understanding of how prehistoric societies functioned, but also provide insight into the mechanisms which control small scale societies in many parts of the third world today.