Dissertation Research: Steatite Production on Santa Catalina Island: Issues of Specialization

在珍妮·阿诺德博士的指导下，弗吉尼亚霍华德女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将在位于加州海岸外的圣卡塔利纳岛进行考古发掘，以深入了解滑石船的生产如何随着时间的推移而发展和变化。滑石是一种较软的岩石，通过简单的技术手段相对容易成型。这是一个有价值的对象，在史前有许多用途，并被塑造成珠子和容器。由于岛上和邻近沿海地区的史前居民缺乏陶器，滑石器皿发挥了特别重要的作用。这些物品的生产主要限于圣卡塔利纳岛，因为那里有高质量的原材料来源。考古证据表明，早在公元1,100年，与邻近大陆的生产和贸易就开始了，生产的物品的性质随着时间的推移而变化。到史前晚期，生产似乎集中在大型礼仪器皿上，这表明存在内部分化的分层社会。这种情况在狩猎和采集群体中极为罕见。 霍华德女士希望了解滑石容器的生产如何随着时间的推移而变化，以及它是否以一种早期粮食生产社会的特征发展，这种活动从个体家庭转移到兼职或全职专家手中。在过去的工作中，她已经确定了圣卡塔利纳的一些采石场，并对它们进行了初步的年表。在初步数据的基础上，她还试图了解生产如何随着时间的推移而变化。然而，她的样品很小，几乎完全基于表面材料。在国家科学基金会的支持下，她将在一些采石场进行挖掘。这将产生关于时间顺序的信息，并提供制造过程中使用的相关工具以及生产碎片的样本。有了这些信息，霍华德女士将重建随着时间的推移不断变化的生产技术，并深入了解这种情况发生的社会背景。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供对史前猎人和采集者所获得的社会复杂程度的深入了解。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，增加我们对美国史前史的了解，并协助培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Jeanne Arnold, MS Virginia Howard will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct archaeological excavations on Santa Catalina Island, located off the California coast to gain insight into how production of steatite vessels developed and changed over time. Steatite is a soft rock which is relatively easy to shape by simple technological means. It was a valued object which served a number of purposes in prehistory and was fashioned into beads and containers. Because prehistoric inhabitants of the island and adjacent coastal regions lacked pottery, steatite vessels served a particularly important function. Production of such objects was limited primarily to Santa Catalina Island because of the high quality raw material sources located there. Archaeological evidence indicates that production and trade with the adjacent mainland began as early as 1,100 AD and that the character of the items produced changed over time. By the late prehistoric period it appears that production focused on large ceremonial vessels which indicate the presence of a internally differentiated stratified society. This is a condition extremely uncommon among hunter and gatherer groups. MS Howard wishes to understand how production of steatite vessels changed over time and whether it developed in a way which characterizes early food producing societies where such activities shifted from individual households into the hands of part or full time specialists. In past work she has located a number of quarries on Santa Catalina, developed a tentative chronology of them. On the basis of preliminary data she has also tried to understand how production changed over time. However her sample is small and is based almost solely on surface materials. With National Science Foundation support she will conduct excavations at a number of quarry sites. This should yield information on chronology and also provide a sample of associated tools used in manufacture as well as production debris. With this information MS Howard will reconstruct changing production technology over time and gain some insight into the social context in which this occurred. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into the degree of social complexity obtained by prehistoric hunters and gatherers. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists, increase our understanding of United States prehistory and assist in training a promising young scientist.