Power, Craft Production, and Exchange in Southern Mesoamerica

中美洲南部的电力、工艺生产和交流

• 批准号: 9904025
• 负责人: Patricia Urban
• 金额: $ 14.18万
• 依托单位: Kenyon College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-06-15 至 2001-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9904025&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Power; Craft; Production; Exchange; Southern

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Patricia Urban and Edward Schortman will conduct two seasons of archaeological survey and excavation in the Cacautapa Valley in Northern Honduras. In the course of previous survey work Schortman and Urban discovered a massive prehistoric center near the modern town of Pueblo Nuevo. Termed "La Coyota", it is spread over roughly .75 km square of high terrace. While dense vegetation has precluded making a clear assessment of the center's form and dimensions, it is clearly a major site. It is dominated by a monumental core located on its northeastern margin with sizable quantities of stone-faced platforms stretching out to the South. Several massive stone terraces were built to support putative residential groups against the foot of the steep northwestern slopes. The concentration of structures implies a significant degree of political concentration with a powerful elite able to settle large numbers of subordinates in close proximity. Based on correlations between ecology and social structure from other regions in Honduras, this concentration of population is surprising because supporting agricultural land is located in relatively small scattered patches which would increase the difficulty an elite would have in exercising direct and tight social control. The goal of this research is to understand the processes which led to the nucleation and centralization which La Coyota clearly indicates did exit. The investigators believe that it was the site's central geographic position in relation to rivers and mountain passes and its through control of trade that political centralization was achieved. To evaluate this hypothesis, the team will conduct a survey of all prime agricultural land to determine its distribution and the nature of prehistoric human habitation on it. All sites will be noted and their size established. Surface materials will be collected. Extensive excavation will be conducted at La Coyota and at a sample of rural settlements. Extensive lateral clearing will be conducted within patio groups both to increase sample size and to determine the spatial distribution of activities. Through examination of the distribution and intensity of craft production insight will be gained into the degree of central control. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on how social complexity arises and is maintained. It will provide data on a virtually unknown region of Middle America and it will assist in training many undergraduate students.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里夏·厄本博士和爱德华·肖特曼博士将在洪都拉斯北方的卡考塔帕山谷进行两个季节的考古调查和挖掘。在之前的调查工作中，Schortman和Urban在现代城镇Pueblo努埃沃附近发现了一个巨大的史前中心。被称为“La Coyota”，它分布在大约75平方公里的高露台上。虽然茂密的植被阻碍了对该中心的形式和尺寸进行明确的评估，但它显然是一个主要的地点。它由位于其东北边缘的巨大核心控制，大量的石头面平台延伸到南部。几个巨大的石头梯田被建造来支持假定的住宅群体对陡峭的西北坡脚下。结构的集中意味着政治上的高度集中，一个强大的精英阶层能够将大量的下属安置在附近。根据洪都拉斯其他地区的生态和社会结构之间的相关性，人口的这种集中令人惊讶，因为支持农业的土地位于相对较小的分散地块，这将增加精英在行使直接和严格的社会控制方面的困难。这项研究的目的是了解导致拉科约塔明确指出的核化和集中化的过程。调查人员认为，这是该网站的中心地理位置，相对于河流和山口，并通过其控制贸易，实现了政治集中。 为了评估这一假设，该小组将对所有主要的农业用地进行调查，以确定其分布和史前人类居住的性质。所有地点都将被记录下来，并确定其规模。将收集表面材料。将在La Coyota和农村定居点进行大规模挖掘。将在天井组内进行广泛的横向清理，以增加样本量并确定活动的空间分布。通过对手工业生产的分布和强度的考察，可以了解中央控制的程度。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将揭示社会复杂性是如何产生和维持的。它将提供关于中美洲一个几乎不为人知的地区的数据，并将帮助培训许多本科生。