Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Trade on Rural Development and Network Connections

在全球化利益和地方自治主张之间的冲突日益突出的世界中，研究人员了解全球系统的起源是很重要的。考古学家特别适合研究大规模社会系统的发展，因为他们可以追踪古代国家和帝国之间不断增长的贸易联系网络和政治联盟。以前对古代相互作用的研究通常采取自上而下的方法，关注古代国家中心之间的联系以及大都市精英控制边疆地区的能力。本研究的目的有所不同。来自加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Mikael Fauvelle将带领一支由墨西哥和美国考古学家组成的国际团队，在Fracción Mujular遗址挖掘古代家庭，这是位于恰帕斯州太平洋沿岸的一个可追溯到公元6世纪的小型住宅定居点。尽管它的面积很小，Fracción Mujular与遥远的特奥蒂瓦坎城市保持着密切的联系，特奥蒂瓦坎是北美接触前最强大的文明之一的首都。通过挖掘Fracción Mujular不同地区的精英和非精英家庭，该项目将调查来自不同社会阶层的当地人如何与遥远的权力中心谈判他们的关系。该项目将在Fracción Mujular进行首次挖掘，该遗址长期以来以在几个石碑上发现的墨西哥中部风格元素而闻名。尽管人们对特奥蒂瓦坎和玛雅地区之间的关系了解甚多，但对两者之间的地区进行的研究相对较少。同样，之前大多数关于中美洲特奥蒂瓦坎人互动的研究都集中在精英城市中心，而不是像Fracción Mujular这样的次要地点。该项目将以前一季的调查工作为基础，该调查工作绘制了该地点的地图，并在地表矿床中发现了大量进口的墨西哥中部黑曜石。事实上，在一个相对温和的住宅环境中，结合了墨西哥中部联系的多种证据，使得Fracción Mujular成为一个绝佳的地方，可以测试关于早期古典时期区域互动如何影响生活在二线定居点的人们的假设。通过在场地不同功能区的房屋两侧挖掘测试单元，该项目还将研究区域互动如何在不同的社会阶层和不同的时期发挥作用。在Fracción Mujular的工作将测试区域互动的新模式，为更好地理解北美历史的重要时期迈出重要的一步，并为我们理解早期国家的扩张提供重要的案例研究。

In a world increasingly characterized by conflicts between globalized interests and assertions of local autonomy, it is important for researchers to understand the origins of global systems. Archaeologists are especially well suited to study the development of large-scale social systems as they can trace the growing network of trading connections and political alliances that were made between ancient states and empires. Previous studies of ancient interaction have generally taken a top-down approach, focusing on connections between the centers of ancient states and on the abilities of metropolitan elites to control frontier areas. The present study aims for something different. Mikael Fauvelle, from the University of California at San Diego, will lead an international team of Mexican and U.S. archaeologists to excavate ancient households at the site of Fracción Mujular, a modest residential settlement on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas dating to the 6th century C.E.. Despite its small size, Fracción Mujular maintained strong connections with the distant city of Teotihuacan, the capital of one of the most powerful civilizations that ever developed in pre-contact North America. By excavating a combination of both elite and non-elite households across different areas of Fracción Mujular, this project will investigate how local people from different social strata negotiated their relationships with a distant center of power. This project will conduct the first ever excavations at Fracción Mujular, a site long-known for the Central Mexican stylistic elements found on several of its stone monuments. Although much is known about the relationship between Teotihuacan and the Maya region, comparatively little research has been done in areas in-between. Likewise, most previous research on Teotihuacan interactions in Mesoamerica have focused on elite city centers, rather than secondary sites such as Fracción Mujular. This project will build on a previous season of survey work which mapped the site and found a large amount of imported Central Mexican obsidian in surface deposits. The fact that multiple lines of evidence for Central Mexican connections are combined in a relatively modest residential context makes Fracción Mujular an excellent place to test hypotheses regarding how regional interactions during the Early Classic period affected people living in second-tier settlements. By excavating test units on the flanks of housemounds from different functional areas of the site, the project will also examine how regional interactions played out across different social strata and through different time periods. Work at Fracción Mujular will test new models for regional interaction, take important steps towards better understanding an important period of North American history, and contribute an important case study to our understanding of the expansion of early states.