Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Late Preclassic Period Lithic Production and Exchange at Hamontun, Guatemala.

在玛丽莲·A·马森博士的指导下，杰森·佩林将记录玛雅社会的经济制度，这些制度为危地马拉佩廷地区新兴国家社会在前古典主义时期(公元前300年-公元250年)晚期的基础奠定了基础。他对古代家庭背景下石器生产和交换的制度和策略的比较分析将包括从最简陋的住宅到富丽堂皇的贵族住宅的样本。石器的使用对日常生活的方方面面都是必不可少的，包括清理和耕种农田、采柴、木工、建房、狩猎、战争，以及与纪念碑建造有关的熟练的石工和灰泥工作。与石器有关的经济生产和消费活动是复杂的；来自附近和远处采石场的不同质量的原材料具有不同的价值，涉及一系列技能和工艺的最终产品也是如此。对家庭作坊残骸和工具组装的研究将确定实用和奢侈品的可及性，并将查明职业专业化和社会阶层之间的联系。考古城市哈蒙顿位于危地马拉东北部，最大的玛雅城市位于前古典主义和古典主义时期(公元前300年-公元900年)。哈蒙顿的城市环境非常适合进行这项研究。将对精英和平民的家庭清单进行分析，以记录精英参与石器生产和交易的程度，或者相反，平民在多大程度上独立于贵族的干预。这项调查直接解决了一个非常重要的问题--古代玛雅政府的经济基础--关于这个问题，人们没有达成共识，数据也很少，特别是在前古典主义时代晚期。考古学家目前对贵族阶层的富裕和权力在多大程度上植根于玛雅城市日常生活的经济存在分歧。众所周知，他们从事精美手工艺品(石器除外)的制造和交换，向下属城镇索要贡品，并在精心设计的集会上分发礼物。贵族宫廷中的工匠是否也制作为皇室随从提供住房、维护和供养所需的工具，或者这些也是通过对城市或农村平民的贡品要求而获得的？在前古典玛雅城市，市场交易所作为一种替代分配机制是否意义重大？这项研究提出了一个更高的理论目标，即跨社会阶层类别重建古代城市生活。石器生产和交换系统的记录将记录玛雅地区城市生活首次发展时的关键经济和社会政治关系。这些数据将有助于将玛雅人与世界历史上其他国家社会的新兴经济进行跨文化比较。该项目还将有助于危地马拉瓦莱大学和圣卡洛斯大学以及奥尔巴尼-纽约州立大学的学生的专业发展，他们将获得宝贵的考古研究培训。计划建立一个网站，使公众能够接触到该项目的研究结果，同时出版物将向科学界传播研究结果。

Under the direction of Dr. Marilyn A. Masson, Jason Paling will document the economic institutions of Maya society that underwrote the foundations of emerging state societies in the Petén region of Guatemala during the Late Preclassic Period (300 B.C. - 250 A.D.). His comparative analysis of systems and strategies of stone tool production and exchange in ancient domestic contexts will include samples from the humblest dwellings to palatial noble dwellings. Stone tool use was essential to all facets of everyday life, including clearing and tilling agricultural fields, firewood extraction, wood-working, house-building, hunting, warfare, and skilled masonry and plaster-working linked to monument construction. Economic production and consumption activities linked to stone tools were complex; raw materials of varying quality from near and distant quarries were imbued with different value, as were final products involving a range of skills and craftsmanship. The study of household workshop debris and tool assemblages will determine the accessibility of utilitarian and luxury items and will identify links between occupational specialization and social class. The archaeological city of Hamontún is located in northeastern Guatemala, where the largest Maya cities were located during the Preclassic and Classic Periods (300 B.C. - 900 A.D.). Hamontún's urban setting is ideal for the proposed research. The household inventories of elites and commoners will be analyzed to document the degree of involvement of elites in stone tool production and exchange, or conversely, the degree to which commoners operated autonomously from noble intervention. This investigation directly addresses a problem of great importance - the economic foundations of ancient Maya governments - about which there is no consensus and little data, especially for the Late Preclassic Period. Archaeologists currently disagree about the degree to which the affluence and power of the noble class was rooted in the economies of daily life at Maya cities. It is known that they engaged in the manufacture and exchange of fine craft items (other than stone tools), exacted tribute from subordinate towns, and dispensed gifts at elaborate gatherings. Did craftspersons at noble houses also make the tools needed to house, maintain, and feed royal retinues, or were these also obtained by tribute demands placed on urban or rural commoners? Were marketplace exchanges significant as an alternative distributive mechanism at Preclassic Maya cities? This study articulates with a higher theoretical goal of reconstructing ancient urban life across social class categories. The documentation of stone tool production and exchange systems will document key economic and sociopolitical relationships at a time when urban life was first developing in the Maya area. These data will facilitate cross-cultural comparisons between the Maya and the emergent economies of other state societies in world history. This project will also contribute to the professional development of students from the Universidad de Valle and San Carlos, Guatemala, and the University of Albany-SUNY who will gain valuable training in archaeological research. The construction of a website is planned that will make the project's findings accessible to the public, while publications will communicate the results to the scientific community.