Dissertation Research: Analysis of Michoacan Ceramics

在Dan Healan博士的指导下，Christine Hernandez女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。几年来，在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，希兰博士在墨西哥中部的齐纳佩瓜罗地区进行了考古发掘。这个地区的重要之处在于其丰富的高品质黑曜石（火山玻璃）矿床。因为这种材料可以加工出锋利的边缘，所以在前金属时代，它是非常珍贵的工具原材料。迄今为止的证据表明，Zinapecuaro黑曜石在一个广泛的地区进行交易，交易模式随着时间的推移而变化。希兰博士和他的同事们在许多采矿和生产地区进行了挖掘，收集了大量的材料。他们现在面临的问题是确定每一次发生的时间。幸运的是，许多陶瓷遗迹已经被发现，因为陶瓷风格随着时间的推移而变化，对它们的分析提供了一种富有成效的方法。埃尔南德斯女士将前往墨西哥研究这些陶瓷材料。她将运用标准类型的方法，结合地层资料，对这些材料进行排序，以建立一个序列。通过对异国或外国陶器碎片的鉴定，她将把当地的序列与更广泛的跨区域背景联系起来。最后，她将研究区域间关系是如何随着时间的推移而发展和变化的。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供一个时间顺序，许多考古学家可以用它来研究各种各样的目标。它将在一个相对简单的发展水平上阐明社会之间的经济和政治关系，并阐明它们相互作用的方式。它还将协助培训一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Dan Healan, MS Christine Hernandez will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. For several years with National Science Foundation support Dr. Healan has conducted archaeological excavation in the Zinapecuaro region of Central Mexico. What makes this area important are its abundant deposits of high quality obsidian (volcanic glass). Because this material may be worked to produce sharp edges it was highly prized raw material for tools in pre-metal times. Evidence to date indicates that Zinapecuaro obsidian was traded over a wide region and that patterns of exchange varied over time. Dr. Healan and his colleagues have excavated in a number of mining and production areas and collected large amounts of material. The problem they now face is dating each occurrence. Luckily numerous ceramic remains have been recovered and because ceramic styles change over time analysis of them provides a fruitful approach. MS Hernandez will travel to Mexico and study these ceramic materials. Applying a standard type variety approach in conjunction with stratigraphic information, she will seriate these materials to establish a sequence. Through the identification of exotic or foreign potsherds she will tie the local sequence into a broader inter-regional context. Finally she will study how inter-regional relationships developed and changed over time. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide a chronological sequence which many archaeologists can use for a variety of goals. It will shed light on the economic and political relationships between societies at a relatively simple level of development and elucidate the ways in which they interact. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.