Doctoral Dissertation Research: Craft Production, Exchange, and the Development of Complex Society in the Volcan Baru Region of Western Panama

在Robert D.Drennan博士的指导下，博士生Scott Palumbo将在Barriles遗址和巴拿马西部山区Volcan Baru地区的几个较小遗址进行地面收集和测试挖掘，以评估工艺生产和交换在公元前350年至公元1520年之间社会不平等的出现和发展中的重要性。之前的研究人员认为，该地区的新兴精英对森林砍伐和木工工具所需的磨石工具的生产建立了控制，从而使越来越多的人依赖这些工具。其他人则认为，控制奢侈品的生产是精英们获得声望和影响力的另一种方式。之前对伏尔坎巴鲁地区的研究已经表明，在几个大型社区中，存在着生产研磨石斧和相关工具的考古证据。帕伦博将收集更详细的证据，以评估这种生产是否由这些中心的新兴社会精英控制或以其他方式与之有关。他从更多受控背景中获得的更大的文物样本也将揭示是否有其他类型的功利性物品和/或奢侈品或象征性物品的专门生产。较小的定居点也将包括在他的样本中，这样就有可能评估那里是否没有这种专门的生产。这样的结果将导致这样的结论，即这些附属地区依赖于更大的此类商品生产中心。在需要研究的两千年的社会变革中，是否以及何时出现这种模式，将是理解控制专业经济生产在该地区日益等级化的社会组织中的作用有多重要的关键。帕伦博分析的文物样本将从数千个微小的挖掘单位中找到，这些单位广泛分布在几个定居点的居民区，从而有可能全面阐述生产组织及其与社会等级的关系。最终，这项研究的结果将被用于将伏尔坎巴鲁地区与世界其他地区进行比较，以更好地了解过去社会不平等是如何发展和持续的。这项研究还将产生除科学发现之外的更广泛的影响。它将为博士生以及巴拿马、哥斯达黎加、哥伦比亚和北美学生提供基本培训，这些学生将从事实地和实验室工作的几个方面。通过这种方式，该项目还将加强国际科学合作。通过社区与当地学校和大学的接触，将提高公众对考古研究的性质和相关性以及保护考古记录的重要性的认识。结果将在奇里基省的Volcan镇和Cerro Punta镇公布，向当地居民通报调查结果，从而了解他们所在地区的文化遗产。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, doctoral candidate Scott Palumbo will carry out surface collections and test excavations at the site of Barriles and several smaller sites in the Volcan Baru region in the mountains of western Panama, in order to evaluate the importance of craft production and exchange in the emergence and development of social inequality between 350 B.C. and A.D. 1520. Previous researchers have argued that emerging elites in this region established control over the production of ground stone tools necessary to forest clearance and wood working tools and thereby made an ever larger population dependent upon them. Others have argued that control over the production of luxury items was another way by which elites gained prestige and influence.Previous research in the Volcan Baru region has already shown that archaeological evidence for the production of ground stone axes and related tools is present at several large communities. Mr. Palumbo will collect more detailed evidence to evaluate whether this production was controlled by or otherwise connected to emerging social elites at these centers. His larger samples of artifacts from more controlled contexts will also reveal whether there was specialized production of other sorts of utilitarian items and/or of luxury or symbolic items. Smaller settlements will also be included in his sample, making it possible to assess whether such specialized production was absent there. Such a result would lead to the conclusion that these subsidiary places were dependent upon larger centers of production for such goods. Whether, and when, these kinds of patterns emerged during the two millennia of social change to be studied will be the key to understanding how important was the role of control over specialized economic production in the increasingly hierarchical social organization of the region. The artifact samples Mr. Palumbo's analysis will be based on will be recovered from thousands of tiny excavation units widely distributed through the residential sections of several settlements, making possible comprehensive statements about the organization of production and its relationship to social ranking. Ultimately, the results of this research will be used to compare the Volcan Baru region to other regions in the world to understand better how social inequality developed and persisted in the past.This research will also have broader impacts beyond its scientific findings. It will provide essential training for the doctoral candidate, as well as for Panamanian, Costa Rican, Colombian and North American students who will be engaged in several aspects of the field and laboratory work. In this way, the project will also strengthen international scientific collaboration. Public appreciation of the nature and relevance of archaeological research, as well as the importance of protecting the archaeological record, will be enhanced though community outreach to local schools and universities. Results will be presented in the towns of Volcan and Cerro Punta, Chiriqui Province, to inform local residents about the findings, and thus about the cultural heritage of their region.