Doctoral Dissertation Research: Izapa Archaeology Project

这个项目的基本目标是深入了解复杂的社会，如国家一级的群体是如何从简单的社会组织形式出现和发展的。像这样的考古项目可以追溯很长一段时间的变化，有助于解释当今的社会现象。在罗伯特·罗森斯威格博士的指导下，丽贝卡·门德尔松将在早期的中美洲城市（公元前800年至公元前1000年）进行家庭挖掘。伊萨帕（Izapa），位于墨西哥恰帕斯州的南太平洋沿岸地区。伊萨帕是中美洲最大的形成时期中心之一，拥有高达21米的土丘和250多个相关纪念碑。该遗址以其艺术风格而闻名，考古学家认为它是中美洲两个主要的早期文化群体奥尔梅克人和玛雅人之间的重要联系。尽管该遗址很重要，但进行的挖掘工作相对较少，对该遗址的经济和环境知之甚少。该项目是在Izapa首次使用现代挖掘技术进行的家庭挖掘。该项目还将包括Rosenswig的Izapa区域定居点项目在2011年重新绘制该遗址时发现的新土丘的首次挖掘。从伊萨帕收集的数据旨在揭示从酋长到国家和定居点到城市的根本转变，并将对研究世界各地复杂社会崛起的研究人员感兴趣。就像今天一样，城镇或定居点的城市化对社会的各个层面都有经济影响。这个项目着眼于过去，并询问社会制度和人际关系是如何被操纵来实现城市扩张和维持人口增长的。通过记录不同职业阶段的家庭内容，该研究旨在确定伊萨帕的城市化和社会经济等级的日益发展如何影响平民的物质福利。从挖掘中收集的文物将用于重建早期经济，并调查新兴国王或国王般的领导人如何获得足够的社会和经济资本来组织遗址的纪念性建设。该项目研究了如何使用诸如对声望物品和长途贸易产品的监管，对工艺专业化的控制以及对宗教符号的操纵等策略来扩大精英和平民之间的社会和经济差距。这些战略与中美洲和世界各地其他新兴国家所采用的战略相同吗？除了所提出的研究之外，该项目还打算产生更广泛的影响。该项目在墨西哥进行研究，旨在促进墨西哥和美国之间从当地农民到墨西哥大学研究人员的各级国际合作。在地方一级，该项目的目标之一是在学校和社区中心举办讲座，以提高当代Izapa社区对考古过程和保护考古遗址和材料的价值的认识。来自美国和墨西哥的学生和考古学家将参与挖掘和随后的材料分析。该项目的成果将编入门德尔松女士为纽约州立大学奥尔巴尼大学人类学系撰写的论文，并通过美国和墨西哥的会议介绍和同行评议出版物传播。

The fundamental goal of this project is to gain insight into how complex societies such as state-level groupings emerge and develop from simpler forms of social organization. Archaeological projects such as this one which can trace change over a long time span help to explain social phenomena characteristic of the present day.Under the guidance of Dr. Robert Rosenswig, Rebecca Mendelsohn will conduct household excavations at the early Mesoamerican city (800 B.C.- A.D. 100) of Izapa, located in the southern Pacific coast region of Chiapas, Mexico. Izapa is among the largest Formative period centers in Mesoamerica, containing mounds up to 21m high and over 250 associated monuments. The site is famous for its art style and has been proposed by archaeologists to be an important link between two of Mesoamerica's dominant early cultural groups, the Olmec and the Maya. Despite the site's importance, relatively few excavations have been conducted and very little is known about the economy and environment at the site. This project represents the first household excavations at Izapa using modern excavation techniques. The project will also include the first excavation of new mounds discovered during the 2011 remapping of the site by Rosenswig's Izapa Regional Settlement Project. Data collected from Izapa is intended to shed light on the fundamental transition from chiefdoms to states and settlements to cities, and will be of interest to researchers investigating the rise of complex societies around the world.Just as today, the urbanization of a town or settlement has economic impacts at every level of society. This project looks to the past and asks how social systems and human relationships are manipulated to achieve urban expansion and sustain population growth. By documenting household contents at different stages of occupation, the study aims to determine how the urbanization and increasing development of socioeconomic hierarchy at Izapa affected the material wellbeing of commoners. Artifacts collected from excavations will be used to reconstruct the early economy and investigate how emerging kings or king-like leaders gained enough social and economic capital to organize monumental construction at the site. The project investigates how strategies like the regulation of prestige items and long-distance trade products, control over craft specialization, and manipulation of religious symbols could be used to widen the social and economic gap between elites and commoners. Are these strategies the same as those employed in other incipient states in Mesoamerica and around the world?Beyond the research presented, this project also intends to have a broader impact. With research conducted in Mexico, the project aims to foster international collaboration between Mexico and the United States at various levels, from local farmers to researchers at Mexican universities. At the local level, one of the goals of the project is to deliver lectures at schools and community centers to increase awareness in the contemporary Izapa community about the process of archaeology and the value of preserving archaeological sites and materials. Students and archaeologists from both the United States and Mexico will be engaged in the excavation and subsequent analyses of materials. Results from this project will be compiled in Ms. Mendelsohn's dissertation for the Department of Anthropology at the University at Albany, SUNY, as well as disseminated through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications in both the United States and Mexico.