Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Use Of Material Exchange In Long Distance Social Organization

俄克拉何马大学的肖恩·兰伯特在阿肯色河流域的丘陵中心研究史前美洲原住民卡多陶器，以调查仪式的生产和分配模式。目的是了解卡多地区两个不同地区之间的早期社会互动。考古学处于有利地位，可以研究小社区新出现的社会复杂性与他们发展可持续数百年的远程交流网络的能力之间的关系。今天，在许多发展中世界，小社区通过商品交换形成更大的区域实体，以建立社会关系。因此，了解联系的基本原则以及它们如何反映在实物中，为辨别社会组织提供了一个宝贵的工具。最近的考古研究强调，具有新出现的组织复杂性的社区参与了高价值陶器的大规模生产和分销。制作和分发它们的社区所促进的互动创造了新的社会网络和长期关系，并影响了整个区域的历史轨迹。从公元800年到1150年，阿肯色河流域的居民建造了土丘中心，成为卡多地区举行仪式和殡葬活动的重要场所。具有强烈象征意义的成型卡多陶器被带到这些土丘中心，并严格用于太平间目的。然而，他们的南部卡多邻居生产了更多的它们，并被用于各种家庭和仪式目的。这表明，北美一些最有特色的陶器有着广泛的集中生产和远距离分销的历史。这项研究将对我们如何理解史前社区陶器的起源和传播具有重要意义。这项研究旨在确定形成Caddo陶器生产和分销的地理位置和强度，以及它是否能够满足阿肯色州盆地丘陵中心对远程交换和停尸房的需求。为了更好地了解这种陶器的生产和销售的仪式和社会重要性，本项目采用了两种类型的分析。首先，仪器中子活化分析(INAA)将在密苏里大学研究反应堆实验室(MURR)进行，以表征阿肯色河流域形成的卡多陶器的化学成分。INAA还将用于阿肯色河流域当地制造的陶瓷，以创建粘土参照组。将这些结果与之前生成的卡多南部地区的INAA数据进行比较，将使研究人员能够确定在阿肯色州盆地仪式遗址发现的陶器的地理来源。其次，为了将这一项目转化为历史叙事，有必要通过AMS测年技术具有更好的年代敏感性。一年一度的植物和木炭样本将被送往亚利桑那大学AMS实验室。当这些样本的背景与INAA使用的陶器直接相关时，将选择这些样本，以探索这些社区在形成时期的历史连续性或变化的直接关系。

Shawn Lambert, of the University of Oklahoma, examines prehistoric Native American Caddo pottery at mound centers in the Arkansas River Basin to investigate the ritual mode of production and distribution. The goal is to understand early social interactions between two diverse areas of the Caddo region. Archaeology is well positioned to research the relationships between emerging social complexity in small communities and their capacity to develop long-distance exchange networks that can persist for hundreds of years. In much of the developing world today small communities are knit into larger regional entities by exchange of goods which serve to forge social relations. Thus understanding underlying principles of linkage and how they are reflected in physical objects provides a valuable tool for discerning social organization. Recent archaeological studies have emphasized that communities with an emerging organizational complexity were engaged in large-scale production and distribution of highly valued pottery. The interaction fostered by communities who produced and distributed them created new social networks and long-term relationships, and influenced the historical trajectories of an entire region. From A.D. 800 - 1150, the inhabitants of the Arkansas River Basin built earthen mound centers that became important places on the Caddo landscape for ritual and mortuary activities. Formative Caddo pottery that had powerful symbolic meanings was brought to these mound centers and used strictly for mortuary purposes. However, their southern Caddo neighbors produced them in larger numbers and were used for a variety of domestic and ceremonial purposes. This suggests an extensive history of centralized production and long distance distribution of some of the most distinctive pottery known in North America. This study will have major implications for how we understand the origins and spread of pottery in prehistoric communities. This research is designed to identify the geographic locales and intensity of Formative Caddo pottery production and distribution and whether or not it led to meet the demands for long-distance exchange and mortuary use at Arkansas Basin mound centers. To better understand the ritual and social importance of the production and distribution of this pottery, this project employs two types of analysis. First, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) will be conducted at the University of Missouri Research Reactor laboratory (MURR) to characterize the chemical makeup of Formative Caddo pottery in the Arkansas River Basin. INAA will also be used on locally made ceramics from the Arkansas River Basin to create clay reference groups. Comparing these results with previously generated INAA data of the southern Caddo region will allow the researchers to determine the geographic origins of pottery recovered at Arkansas Basin ceremonial sites. Second, in order to turn this project into a historical narrative, it is necessary to have better chronological sensitivity through AMS dating techniques. Annual plants and charcoal samples will be sent to the University of Arizona AMS Laboratory. These samples will be chosen when their contexts are directly associated with the pottery that are used for INAA in order to explore the direct relationships of these communities for historical continuity or change within the Formative Caddo period.