The Evolution of Community Ritual and Effects of State Expansion in Central Mexico at La Laguna, Tlaxcala

由于世界上大多数人口居住在城市，对早期城镇成为城市的过程，以及城市如何扩张和影响农村地区的考古研究，对于理解社会复杂性的深层根源至关重要。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，David Carballo博士将与Luis Barba博士和墨西哥国立大学（UNAM）的其他研究人员合作，在特拉斯卡拉的拉古纳（La Laguna）的前西班牙考古遗址进行两个季节的调查。该项目的重点是通过挖掘、化学研究和文物分析，阐明仪式空间的演变、社区仪式的整合和分裂方面，以及城市化和国家扩张对农村的影响。在后期形成时期（约公元前600年-公元100年），这一地区历史上充满活力的篇章见证了拉古纳周围三个城市的城市化，其中一个城市特奥蒂瓦坎的政治扩张遍及墨西哥中部的大部分地区，甚至更远的中美洲。拉古纳作为连接墨西哥盆地和墨西哥湾的战略交通走廊内最大的城镇，其定位影响了其自治发展，并可能与该地区城市化和加速政治演变的放弃直接相关。拉古纳仪式中心的发展轨迹和使用记录将提供一个考古案例研究，适用于评估当前行为科学中的跨学科模型，这些模型涉及群体合作的动态、集体行动问题，以及复杂社会起源中更多的“自下而上”过程。调查将评估社区仪式的哪些方面更具集体性和综合性，哪些方面更具个性化和竞争性。一组相关的目标是确定焚烧仪式建筑和遗址遗弃是由社区居民自己策划的，符合更自愿的城市化进程，还是因为军事征服，以及特奥蒂瓦卡诺对该地区的潜在控制。这些问题直接关系到古代城市化与国家形成的模式和节奏、区域间的交流与互动，以及扩张主义国家与乡村边缘之间的权力与抵抗动态。调查和分析的方法包括水平挖掘，暴露地面，对与过去活动有关的有机和无机残留物进行化学分析；与文化沉积物相对应的地下特征的记录；以及建筑序列和人工制品集中的风格和时间分析——后者涉及地球化学分析，以重建生产和交换关系。该项目的成果将被纳入论文项目，并为在美国和墨西哥学习的学生提供专业培训。该项目涉及美国和墨西哥学术和科学机构之间的密切合作，一个双语项目网页和最后的专著将面向广泛的受众，并向广泛的感兴趣的研究人员提供项目数据。

With most of the world's population living in cities, archaeological studies of the processes by which early towns became cities, and how cities expanded and impacted rural areas, are critical to understanding the deep roots of social complexity. Supported by the National Science Foundation, Dr. David Carballo will undertake two seasons of investigations at the prehispanic archaeological site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, in collaboration with Dr. Luis Barba and other researchers from Mexico's National University (UNAM). The project is focused on elucidating the evolution of ceremonial space, the integrative and divisive aspects of community ritual, and the rural impacts of urbanization and state expansion through excavations, chemical studies, and artifact analyses at this regional center in the Central Highlands of Mexico. During the later Formative period (ca. 600 B.C. - A.D. 100) this dynamic chapter in the history of the region witnessed the urbanization of three cities surrounding La Laguna and the political expansion of one of these -Teotihuacan - throughout much of central Mexico and farther abroad in Mesoamerica. The positioning of La Laguna as the largest town within a strategic communication corridor linking the Basin of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico influenced its autonomous development and likely relates directly to its abandonment coinciding with urbanization and accelerated political evolution in the region.Documentation of the developmental trajectory and usage of La Laguna's ceremonial center will provide an archaeological case study suitable for assessing current inter-disciplinary models in the behavioral sciences concerning the dynamics of group cooperation, collective-action problems, and more "bottom-up" processes in the origins of complex societies. The investigations will assess what aspects of community ritual were more collective and integrative, and what aspects were more individualizing and competitive. A related set of objectives are to determine whether the burning of ceremonial structures and site abandonment were orchestrated by the inhabitants of the community itself, consistent with more voluntary processes of urbanization, or because of military conquest, and potential Teotihuacano control of the region. These issues bear directly on the mode and tempo of ancient urbanization and state formation, inter-regional exchange and interaction, and the dynamics of power and resistance between an expansionistic state and a more rural periphery. Methods of investigation and analysis include horizontal excavations to expose floors for chemical analyses of the organic and inorganic residues associated with past activities; the documentation of subterranean features corresponding to cultural deposits; and stylistic and chronological analysis of architectural sequences and artifact concentrations - the latter involving geochemical analyses in order to reconstruct production and exchange relations.Results from the project will be incorporated into thesis projects and provide professional training for students studying in the US and Mexico. The project involves close collaboration between US and Mexican academic and scientific institutions, and a bilingual project webpage and final monograph will reach a broad audience and make project data available to a wide array of interested researchers.