Doctoral Dissertation: Chemical Analysis of Domestic Sediments as a Means of Identifying Prehistoric Activity Areas

在加里费曼和T.道格拉斯普莱斯，威廉米德尔顿先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。这项研究有几个目标：首先，改进化学技术，重建考古遗址的人类活动;其次，将研究结果应用于回答墨西哥瓦哈卡史前居住地埃胡特拉的一系列具体问题。虽然石器或陶瓷等物品往往能让我们深入了解史前遗址居民的具体活动，但它们在重建活动发生的空间和社会背景方面往往用处不大。人们经常清扫和清除生活区的碎片，并将它们存款在垃圾场。为了解决这个问题，考古学家越来越多地转向生活地板的化学分析，以寻找烹饪或制造过程（如陶瓷生产或贝壳加工）的化学指标。然而，活动与化学特征之间的关系往往并不简单，而且由于在同一地点发生多种活动而变得复杂。为了深入了解人类行为的空间模式和活动留下的痕迹，米德尔顿等研究人员越来越多地转向受控的民族志背景，在这种背景下，活动可以直接观察，土壤样本随后收集进行分析。该奖项将允许米德尔顿先生返回墨西哥，在一系列家庭中进行观察和收集样本。然后将对这些进行分析以确定元素组成。有了这些信息，米德尔顿先生将检查从一个古典时期的房子地板从瓦哈卡，墨西哥网站收集的材料。埃胡特拉与一个更大的中美洲贸易网络联系在一起，该网络将墨西哥中部大片地区的数万人整合在一起。它是贝壳装饰品的制造中心。考古学家希望了解在如此复杂的社会中，贸易是如何组织起来的，以及是否存在专注于生产一种或非常有限范围的材料的专家。许多人认为，正是这种工艺专业化导致了文明的兴起。Feinman博士已经挖掘出一个结构，它表明了生存和专门的生产活动，米德尔顿先生将利用他的民族志研究所获得的洞察力来分析和解释保存下来的化学信号。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为史前社会手工业生产的组织提供新的线索。它还将有助于开发一种考古学家可以在世界许多地方的许多遗址应用的技术。这笔赠款还将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Drs. Gary Feinman and T. Douglas Price, Mr. William Middleton will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The research has several goals: first, to refine chemical techniques for the reconstruction of human activities at archaeological sites and secondly, to apply the results to answer a series of specific questions at Ejutla, a prehistoric habitation in Oaxaca, Mexico. Although objects such as stone tools or ceramics often provide insight into specific activities conducted by inhabitants of a prehistoric site, they are often of little use in the reconstruction of the spatial and social context in which the activities occurred. People often sweep and remove debris from living areas and deposit them in trash dumps. To solve this problem, archaeologists have increasingly turned to chemical analysis of living floors to search for chemical indicators of cooking or manufacturing processes such as ceramic production or shell working. However the relationship between activity and chemical signature is often not straightforward and is complicated by multiple activities which occur in the same place. To gain insight into both the spatial patterning of human behavior and the marks which activities leave behind, researchers such as Mr. Middleton have increasingly turned to controlled ethnographic contexts where activities can be directly observed and soil samples subsequently collected for analysis. This award will permit Mr. Middleton to return to Mexico, make observations and collect samples in a series of households. These then will be analyzed to determine elemental compositions. With this information, Mr. Middleton will then examine material collected from a Classic period house floor from the site of Ejutla in Oaxaca, Mexico. Ejutla was tied into a larger Middle American trade network which integrated tens of thousands of individuals over a large area of Central Mexico. It served as a manufacturing center for shell ornaments. Archaeologists wish to understand how trade in such complex societies was organized and whether specialists existed who focused on the production of one or a very limited range of materials. Many have argued that just such craft specialization led to the rise of civilization. Dr. Feinman has excavated a structure which indicates both subsistence and specialized production activities and Mr. Middleton will use the insight gained through his ethnographic research to analyze and interpret the preserved chemical signals. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the organization of craft production in prehistoric societies. It will also help to develop a technique which archaeologists can apply at many sites in many parts of the world. This grant will also help in training a promising young scientist.