Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Las Minas Archaeometallurgical Project

在NSF的支持下，科林·托马斯将挖掘拉斯米纳斯的冶炼地点。拉斯米纳斯是位于秘鲁兰巴耶克省扎尼亚河沿岸的一个梯田自然山丘遗址。该遗址的主要目的似乎是从矿物质中提取金属，地面测量表明，拉斯米纳斯在地平线早期(公元前800-200年)就有人居住。追溯到奇木时期(公元1000-1470)。拉斯米纳斯有可能成为秘鲁海岸迄今发现的最早的冶炼地点，也是迄今已知的极少数几个奇木冶金地点之一。托马斯的研究将集中在回收的冶炼副产品和炉渣的物理和化学分析上，以确定拉斯米纳斯在一段时间内使用的确切物理过程。该项目还将涉及对金属工人住所的挖掘，并对由此产生的陶瓷和生计遗骸进行分析，以确定拉斯米纳斯冶炼厂的社会地位和从属关系。该项目的实验室部分将需要使用光学金相学和元素分析技术，Thomas先生将在秘鲁兰巴耶克的一家当地博物馆监督创建一个新的光学金相学实验室，以促进这种分析。安第斯地区，特别是秘鲁北海岸是大规模和长期冶金活动的地点。然而，目前关于安第斯冶金性质的几乎所有可用信息都来自对成品文物的研究。这与非洲、安纳托利亚和欧洲等其他地区对冶金发展的理解形成鲜明对比，在这些地区，冶炼的发展发挥了核心作用。为了促进对秘鲁史前冶金学的了解，有必要将对成品文物的分析与创造它们所需的所有步骤结合起来，包括获取矿石并将其冶炼成金属所需的前述步骤。了解拉斯米纳斯使用的物理过程的详细信息是了解安第斯山脉冶炼的更广泛社会背景的第一步。众所周知，安第斯铁匠关心的是使用某些颜色来表示社会地位和仪式信息，以及其他指导思想原则。很可能，冶炼过程是由一个同样错综复杂的非技术含义的网络指导的。要了解这张网，需要对冶炼的残留物进行详细研究，以便人们能够识别物理数据中编码的技术选择的痕迹。在拉斯米纳斯的挖掘还将导致在兰巴耶克建立一个新的光学金相学实验室，并对几名秘鲁研究生进行实地和实验室技术培训。这项研究将在美国和秘鲁的同行评议期刊上传播，原始数据将在网上向公众公布。Thomas先生还将在SAA会议以及其他考古学会议上介绍他的研究成果。

With NSF support, Mr. Colin Thomas will excavate the smelting site of Las Minas. Las Minas is a terraced natural hill site located along the Zaña river in the Department of Lambayeque, Peru. The primary purpose of the site appears to have been the extraction of metal from ore material, and surface survey indicates that Las Minas was inhabited from the Early Horizon (800-200 B.C.) to the Chimu period (A.D. 1000-1470). Las Minas has the potential of being the earliest smelting site yet excavated on the Peruvian coast as well as one of very few Chimu metallurgical sites known to date. Thomas' research will focus on the physical and chemical analysis of recovered smelting byproducts and furnace remains to determine the exact physical processes that were used at Las Minas through time. This project will also involve the excavation of the residences of the metalworkers and the analysis of resulting ceramic and subsistence remains in order to determine the social standing and affiliation of the smelters at Las Minas. The laboratory component of this project will require the use of optical metallography as well as elemental analysis techniques, and Mr. Thomas will oversee the creation of a new optical metallography laboratory at a local museum in Lambayeque, Peru to facilitate this analysis.The Andean region, and the North Coast of Peru in particular, was the site of large scale and long- term metallurgical activity. However, nearly all available information about the nature of Andean metallurgy currently comes from the study of finished artifacts. This stands in contrast to the understanding of metallurgical developments in other regions, such as Africa, Anatolia and Europe, where the development of smelting has played a central role. In order to advance the understanding of metallurgy in Peruvian prehistory it is necessary to combine the analysis of finished artifacts with the full range of steps necessary to create them, including the preceding steps necessary to acquire ore and smelt it to metal.Acquiring this detailed information about the physical processes used at Las Minas is a first step towards understanding the broader social context of smelting in the Andes. It is known that Andean smiths were concerned with the use of certain colors to indicate social status and ritual information as well as other guiding ideological principles. It is very likely that the smelting processes were directed by a similarly intricate web of non-technical meaning. Understanding this web requires a detailed study of the remnants of smelting, so that one can identify the traces of technological choice encoded within the physical data. Excavations at Las Minas will also result in the creation of a new optical metallography lab in Lambayeque as well as the training of several Peruvian graduate students in both field and laboratory techniques. The research will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals both in the United States and Peru, and the raw data will be made available to the public online. Mr. Thomas will also present the findings of his research at the SAA meetings as well as other archaeological conferences.