Copper Processing and its Implications in NW Honduras

人们对史前中美洲冶金的了解似乎很简单。制造铜和铜合金制品的作坊最早可追溯到7世纪，仅限于墨西哥西部。这些物品在整个中美洲地区被发现的数量很少，其背景表明它们被用来传达那些可以获得它们的人的高层。因此，在许多理解社会中，等级差别的创造和表现在一定程度上取决于精英阶层能否获得通过源自墨西哥西部的贸易网络流动的商品。2002年至2004年在洪都拉斯西北部的El Coyote政治中心进行的挖掘挑战了这些假设。这里的调查揭示了铜加工的意外但明确的证据，包括以下区域：含铜岩石在冶炼前被粉碎；冶炼发生；熔化的材料被进一步加工成小的纯铜珠子；以及这些步骤产生的碎屑被丢弃。如果研讨会的理解日期得到证实，这一发现将质疑考古学关于铜在古代中美洲生产、贸易和电力系统中的作用的假设。要确定El Coyote对于理解冶金在中美洲政治和经济进程中的地位的重要性，需要确定：何时在中心进行铜加工；在这个过程中采用了什么技术；以及铜制品的制造如何在当地和更广泛的领土范围内行使权力的社会关系中发挥作用。在这些目标中，第一个是最根本的。对El Coyote铜作坊进行年代测定的初步尝试产生了相互矛盾的结果；在生产区发现的物质文化表明它在晚期经典时期使用，而C-14分析表明它的日期是18世纪。使问题复杂化的是，有证据表明，El Coyote的铜至少经历了三个不同的时间阶段，可能跨越史前和史前时代。因此，冶金学可能出现在西班牙征服之前和/或之后的地方和地区政治经济中。由国家科学基金会支持的工作将通过挖掘和数据分析的综合计划来解决这些关键问题。系统的挖掘将确定生产区的全部范围，确定与铜加工相关的特征，特别是在铸造文物的地方，并在整个车间收集不同地层和地点的材料样本。将对这些项目进行各种分析，包括：1.研究人工制品的风格和功能，以推断职业时期、在车间中追求的行为、工匠的文化背景，以及这些变量随时间的变化；对土壤、人工制品和碎屑进行化学和矿物学评估，以重建不断变化的制造和贸易联系技术；这项研究的更广泛的影响包括它将提供的机会：洪都拉斯和美国的学生学习考古实践；当地教师和他们的负责人将对该地区史前历史的新理解纳入他们的研究；以及加强对冶金在过去政治经济学中的地位的了解。

What is known about prehistoric Mesoamerican metallurgy is seemingly straightforward. Workshops where items of copper and copper alloys were made date to as early as the 7th century and are limited to western Mexico. These objects are found in small numbers throughout Mesoamerica in contexts that suggest their use in conveying the high ranks of those who could acquire them. Consequently, the creation and expression of hierarchical distinctions in numerous prehispanic societies partly depended on elite access to goods flowing through trade networks originating in west Mexico. Excavations conducted during 2002 and 2004 at the Terminal Classic (AD 800-1000) political center of El Coyote in northwestern Honduras challenge these assumptions. Investigations here revealed unexpected but clear evidence of copper processing including areas where: copper-bearing rocks were broken up before smelting; the smelting occurred; the melted material was further processed to yield small beads of pure copper; and, debris generated by these steps was jettisoned. If the workshop's prehispanic date is confirmed, this discovery questions archaeological assumptions about copper's role in ancient Mesoamerican systems of production, trade, and power. Ascertaining El Coyote's significance to the understanding of metallurgy's place in Mesoamerican political and economic processes requires determining: when copper working occurred at the center; what techniques were employed in this process; and how the manufacture of copper artifacts figured in the social relations through which power was exercised locally and over wider territorial extents. Of these objectives, the first is the most fundamental. Initial attempts to date El Coyote's copper workshop yielded contradictory results; the material culture found in the production area points to its use in the Terminal Classic period while C-14 assays suggest an 18th century date. Complicating the matter is evidence that copper was worked at El Coyote over at least three distinct chronological phases and may span the prehistoric and historic eras. Metallurgy may, thus, have figured in local and regional political economies that pre- and/or post-dated the Spanish conquest.Work supported by the National Science Foundation will address these crucial issues through a combined program of excavation and data analysis. Systematic excavation will determine the production area's full extent, identify features related to copper working, especially where artifacts were cast, and collect material samples from different strata and locations throughout the workshop. These items will be subject to varied analyses, including: 1.) studies of artifact styles and functions to infer periods of occupation, behaviors pursued in the workshop, the cultural affiliations of the artisans, and changes in these variables over time; 2.) chemical and mineralogical assessments of soils, artifacts, and debris to reconstruct changing technologies of manufacture and trade connections; 3.) C-14 assays to date the different intervals of copper processing.The broader impacts of the research include the opportunities it will provide: for Honduran and U.S. students to learn the practice of archaeology; for local teachers and their charges to incorporate emerging understandings of the area's prehistory in their studies; and, to enhance understanding of metallurgy's place in past political economies.