Dissertation: Midden Formation and Post-Depostional Alteration of Ceramics in Kalinga, Philipines

在威廉·朗卡克博士的指导下，玛格丽特·贝克女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将研究菲律宾吕宋岛北部卡林加语民族制造的陶器的使用、丢弃和丢弃后的改造。该地区的群体生活在50-90户人家的村庄里，主要靠种植水稻来养活自己。有两个这样的村庄继续生产陶瓷器皿，用于烹饪、饮用水和食物储存，尽管金属和塑料容器的供应和普及程度越来越高。因此，它们提供了检查人类使用了10,000多年的手工艺品类别的机会，这是从许多考古遗址出土的一种重要材料类别。贝克的工作建立在朗卡克博士和一系列研究生在该地区开展的一系列项目的基础上。她研究的主要目标是了解现代卡林加陶瓷上众所周知的使用变化模式在卡林加考古遗址内的埋葬过程中是如何被改变或伪装的。由于陶瓷在使用过程中会发生变化，考古学家可以研究器皿内外的磨损或烧焦等特征，试图重建功能。然而，文化和自然过程都会影响血管和血管碎片，潜在地改变或掩盖使用的证据。在评估使用后的更改之前，必须正确识别使用后的更改。虽然贝克女士将研究器皿的使用情况，但她的工作重点将放在影响陶瓷丢弃后的因素上。她将研究垃圾堆积的过程，挖掘不同年龄段的废弃陶瓷。将研究四类基本的陶瓷改性：1。“酸浸”或铁浸出；2.去除外部和内部的碳；3.磨损；以及4.碎裂和分散。血管碎片的自然变化将在实验中重现，以更好地理解和预测它们发生的条件。由于陶器在史前被广泛使用，并在许多考古背景下保存完好，它们构成了考古发掘中发现的一类重要文物。一些项目会产生数以吨计的碎片，因此研究人员希望从这些碎片中提取尽可能多的信息。贝克女士已经认识到，丢弃后的过程可能会使这一过程变得非常复杂和偏向，她的研究将为广泛的考古应用提供见解和指导方针。该项目还将帮助培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. William Longacre MS Margaret Beck will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will examine ceramic use, discard and post-discard alteration of pottery manufactured by Kalinga speaking peoples of northern Luzon, Philippines. The groups in this region live in villages of 50-90 households and support themselves largely irrigated rice farming. Two such villages continue to produce ceramic vessels for cooking, drinking water and food storage despite the increasing availability and popularity of metal and plastic containers. Thus they offer the opportunity to examine the use of an artifact class which has been employed by humans for over 10,000 years and which constitutes an important category of material excavated from many archaeological sites. MS Beck's work builds on a series of projects conducted in the region by both Dr. Longacre and a series of prior graduate students. The primary goal of her research is to see how well-known patterns of use alteration on modern Kalinga ceramics are altered or disguised during burial within a Kalinga archaeological site. Because ceramics are altered during use, archaeologists can study such characteristics as abrasion on the inside and outside of vessels or charring in an attempt to reconstruct function. However both cultural and natural processes can affect vessels and vessel fragments, potentially altering or obscuring the evidence of use. Post-use alterations must be correctly identified before use alteration can be evaluated. While MS Beck will examine vessel use, her work will focus on the factors which affect ceramics after their discard. She will study the process of trash midden accumulation and excavate discarded ceramics of varying age. Four basic classes of ceramic modification will be studied: 1. "Acid leaching" or iron leaching; 2. removal of exterior and interior carbon; 3. abrasion; and 4. fragmentation and dispersion. Natural alterations of vessel fragments will be reproduced experimentally to better understand and predict the conditions under which they occur. Because ceramics were widely used prehistorically and preserve well in many archaeological contexts, they constitute a significant class of artifact recovered during archaeological excavation. Some projects yield literally tons of sherds and therefore researchers wish to extract the maximum possible amount of information from them. MS Beck has recognized that post discard processes can significantly complicate and bias this process and her research will provide insights and guidelines of widespread archaeological use. The project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.