Prehistoric Craft-Specialization in Non-Hierarchical Societies

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Spielmann With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Katherine Spielmann and her students will analyze large collections of ceramic materials excavated from three late prehistoric pueblo sites in the Salinas area of central New Mexico. Chemical analyses of paste and included temper will be combined with detailed examination of surface design. On this basis it will be possible to reconstruct the system of ceramic manufacturing and exchange across a large region and to determine how this changed over time. The work will provide important insight into prehistoric social organization and the processes which give rise to complex society. Archaeologists have noted that in many parts of the world a correlation appears to exist between population growth, population aggregation into regional centers and the emergence of craft specialization. A number of models have been postulated to explain this observation and the most popular argues that with population growth, food can become more difficult to obtain and therefore a number of individuals become craft specialists and barter goods such as ceramics to obtain necessary subsistence resources. Population growth, aggregation and craft specialization occurred concurrently in the U.S. Southwest and as a result of many years of fieldwork, Dr. Spielmann has developed a data base which provides detailed documentation of this process. Through her proposed analysis, she shall disentangle cause and effect and gain insight into the mechanisms involved. This research is important because it will provide data of interest to many archaeologists as well as Native Americans. It will shed new light on how complex societies emerge and are maintained and will assist in the training of graduate students.