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

在博士的指导下。Gary Feinman和T. Douglas Price， William Middleton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，改进用于重建考古遗址中人类活动的化学技术；其次，应用研究结果来回答墨西哥瓦哈卡州的史前居住地埃贾特拉的一系列具体问题。尽管诸如石器或陶瓷之类的物品通常能让我们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域的碎片，并把它们放在垃圾堆里。为了解决这个问题，考古学家越来越多地转向对生活地板进行化学分析，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，活性和化学特征之间的关系往往不是直截了当的，并且由于在同一地点发生的多种活性而变得复杂。为了深入了解人类行为的空间模式和活动留下的痕迹，像米德尔顿先生这样的研究人员越来越多地转向受控的民族志背景，在那里可以直接观察活动，随后收集土壤样本进行分析。这项奖励将允许米德尔顿先生回到墨西哥，在一系列家庭中进行观察和收集样本。然后对它们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墨西哥瓦哈卡州埃胡特拉遗址的古典时期房屋地板上收集的材料。埃贾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。它曾是贝壳饰品的制造中心。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，以及是否存在专门生产一种或非常有限的材料的专家。许多人认为，正是这种工艺专业化导致了文明的兴起。费曼博士挖掘了一个结构，它表明了生存和专业生产活动，米德尔顿先生将利用他通过民族志研究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。它将为史前社会的工艺生产组织提供新的线索。它还将有助于发展一种技术，考古学家可以在世界上许多地方的许多地点应用这种技术。这笔拨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.