Power, Craft Production, and Exchange in Southern Mesoamerica

在国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里夏·厄本、爱德华·肖特曼和马恩·奥瑟克博士致力于描述和解释洪都拉斯西北部相邻的纳科和下卡考拉帕山谷中史前权力关系的变化。 基本的问题一直是，而且仍然是，“少数人是如何统治多数人的？“要回答这个看似简单的问题，需要研究地方统治者如何在其社会中利用政治和经济力量，并与邻国的同行结盟。 指导本研究的假设提出：1.统治者行使自治领的方式是垄断当地民众所需的进口商品，以及当地生产的物品，如陶瓷器皿和石器; 2.平民向当地贵族交出他们的劳动和忠诚，以换取这些商品; 3.平民不愿意轻易地依赖他人，他们也利用自己的技能和即时可用的资源制造尽可能多的物品供自己使用和交易，从而尽量减少对当地领主的依赖;这场竞争导致了人口的分化，分化程度取决于各党派、家族或派系所能掌握的权力以及他们所享有的财富。1990-1996年由国家科学基金会在纳科资助的工作对建立这一模型起到了重要作用; 1999-2000年由国家科学基金会资助的在下卡考拉帕山谷进行的调查对检验这些想法至关重要。 在Cacaulapa下游7平方公里的调查中，确定了一个主要的政治首都El Coyote，有超过340个史前建筑，占地0.7平方公里。 在El Coyote和五个农村遗址的40座建筑物及其周围挖掘了2，850平方米，揭示了与预期明显不同的占领历史。 具体来说，新出现的数据模式表明，首先，埃尔土狼在古典晚期（公元600-950年;该网站早在公元200年就成立了），可能是其更大的纳科山谷当代，拉谢拉的前哨。 第二，与其待在拉谢拉的阴影之下，埃尔土狼的统治者在公元1000年建立了他们的独立。 第三，在他们新获得的自治权的基础上，下卡考拉帕的贵族们在公元1000-1300年之间建立了一个规模和复杂性不断增长的王国，并从远至墨西哥中部和危地马拉太平洋沿岸的地方购买商品，当时包括纳科在内的邻近社会遭受了严重的衰落。 评估这些初步的解释需要进一步分析陶瓷，石器，动物和植物遗骸，以及人类骨骼，将在2001年5月至12月期间与国家科学基金会的支持下进行。 这些研究将集中在：1。 对文物，特别是陶瓷的风格研究，旨在帮助确定沉积物的日期，并推断下Cacaulapa居民通过时间享受的外部联系; 2.进行技术分析，以确定埃尔科约特及其腹地居民从事的专业化生产活动的范围和规模; 3.功能研究，旨在重建消费和生产模式在时间和空间上的变化; 4.分配评估，以测试暗示财富和权力差异的伪影模式; 5.检查骨骼遗骸，以描述人口统计过程以及压力（例如，饮食不足，受伤，某些职业特有的运动引起的身体变化），这些都是下Cacaulapa人口的继承人。计划中的工作对于撰写下Cacaulapa山谷史前史以及比较那里和其他古代国家操纵政治和经济进程的方式至关重要。 这项研究不仅适用于洪都拉斯，甚至适用于古代新世界，也适用于任何一个社会，在这个社会中，那些寻求权力的人试图改变他们的社会，而其他人则抵制统治。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Patricia Urban, EdwardSchortman, and Ms. Marne Ausec have worked to describe and explain changes inprehistoric power relations within the adjoining Naco and lower Cacaulapavalleys, Northwestern Honduras. The basic question has been, and remains,"How did a few come to rule the many?" Answering this deceptivelystraightforward query requires examining the ways in which local rulersmarshaled political and economic forces within their societies and forgedalliances with peers in neighboring realms. The hypothesis guiding thisresearch proposes that: 1. Rulers exercised dominion by monopolizing localaccess to imported commodities valued and needed by the general populace, aswell as locally produced items, such as ceramic vessels and stone tools; 2.Commoners surrendered their labor and loyalty to local notables in return foraccess to these goods; 3. Unwilling to go gently into dependence, commonersalso used their skills and immediately available resources to make as manyitems for their own use and trade as possible, thereby minimizing reliance onlocal lords; 4. This competition resulted in a population divided by thepower ndividuals, families, or factions could wield and the wealth they enjoyed.Work funded by the National Science Foundation in Naco, from 1990-1996, wasinstrumental in establishing this model; investigations pursued in the lowerCacaulapa valley from 1999-2000, also funded by the NSF, are crucial totesting these ideas. Survey of 7km2 in the lower Cacaulapa drainageidentified a major political capital, El Coyote, with over 340 prehistoricstructures covering 0.7km2. Excavation of 2,850m2 on and around 40 buildingsat El Coyote and in five rural sites revealed a history of occupation thatdiverged markedly from the expected. Specifically, emerging data patternssuggest that first, El Coyote came to prominence during the Late Classicperiod (AD 600-950; the site was founded as early as AD200), possibly as anoutpost of its larger Naco Valley contemporary, La Sierra. Second, ratherthan staying within La Sierra's shadow, El Coyote's rulers established theirindependence by AD 1000. Third, building on their new-found autonomy, lowerCacaulapa notables went on to fashion a realm that was growing in size andcomplexity, and acquiring goods from as far away as central Mexico andGuatemala's Pacific coast, between AD 1000-1300, when neighboring societies,including those in Naco, suffered profound declines. Assessing these preliminary interpretations requires further analyses of ceramics, stone tools, faunal and floral remains, as well as human skeletons, to be conducted with National Science Foundation support during May through December, 2001. These studies will focus on: 1. stylistic studies of artifacts, particularly ceramics, designed to help date deposits, and infer the external connections enjoyed by lower Cacaulapa residents through time; 2. technological analyses aimed at identifying the range and scale of specialized production activities in which residents of El Coyote and its hinterland engaged; 3. functional studies aimed at reconstructing changes in patterns of consumption and production across time and space; 4. distributional assessments, to test for artifact patterns suggestive of wealth and power differences; 5. examination of skeletal remains to describe demographic processes as well as stresses (for example, dietary deficiencies, injuries, physical changes from movements unique to certain occupations) to which lower Cacaulapa populations were heir. The planned work is crucial to writing lower Cacaulapa valley prehistory and comparing the ways in which political and economic processes were manipulated there and within other ancient states. The research applies not just to Honduras, or even the ancient New World, but to any society in which those seeking power tried to alter their societies, while others resisted domination.