Amphibolite Exchange and Social Complexity in Copper Age Portugal: Phase I - Source Characterizations and Analyses of Archaeological Assemblage

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9406658 Lillios With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Katina Lillios will initiate the first stage of a proposed long term study which examines the rise of social complexity during the Copper Age (3000-2000 BC) in Portugal. Archaeological evidence indicates that it was during this period that stratified complex societies first emerged in Western Europe. Dr. Lillios believes that differential access and control over scarce and valued resources played a central role in this process and that amphibolite, a rock which was used to make ground stone tools, constitutes such a good. Dr. Lillios has identified outcrops of amphibolite in Portugal and conducted preliminary petrographic and chemical analyses which indicate that sources can be identified on the basis of structure and composition. In this current project she will expand on this work. Additional sourcing and analysis will be conducted with the goal of developing methods which allow more precise geographic characterization. Dr. Lillios will also study ground stone objects from a series of Copper Age sites to determine whether or not assignment of finished materials to individual source areas is in fact possible. On this basis, in future research projects, she should be able to reconstruct trade routes and relate these to social and economic variation among different settlements. Archaeologists wish to understand how complex societies originally arose and how they were maintained. Evidence from many parts of the world suggests that trade and control over scarce and valued resources played a central role. Researchers are now attempting to build a data base which would allow the comparison of individual cases. Dr. Lillios' work is important in this context. It will also provide data of interest to many archaeologists and will assist in the career development of a promising young scientist.