Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Manufacturing in a Traditional Society

在大卫·M·卡巴罗的指导下，波士顿大学的玛丽·克拉克将进行研究，研究古代玛雅经济中的社会经济关系，特别是劳资关系和手工生产。以前对古代经济的研究集中在许多变量上，包括生产的组织、商业化的水平以及市场和市场交换的组织。虽然有些背景表明生产者的工作直接得到了消费者的支持(他们可能为生产者提供了材料、生活必需品，在某些情况下还为生产者提供了住房)，但另一些背景表明，生产者是独立工作的，可以从其生产的商品的商业交换或销售中直接获利。然而，商业活动仍然可以由国家代表管理：商品价格可以固定，创业活动可以鼓励或禁止，金融机构可以控制交换的手段和机会。对古代社会商业化的评估需要政治组织及其战略的知识，这些知识反映在市场交易的物质记录中，如市场、家庭集会和车间。考古学特别适合提供相关的洞察，因为它可以评估这些地点内的物质证据，然后可以在一个社区、一个遗址、一个地区进行比较，作为重建古代经济和经济交易的一种手段。由于这项研究将由克拉克女士进行，作为她博士论文研究的一部分，它将发挥有价值的教育作用。克拉克将通过对石灰石作坊和生产者家庭的调查来评估古代玛雅经济。石灰岩是中美洲无处不在的材料，古代玛雅人将其用于各种目的，包括建造纪念碑艺术和建筑。由切割和雕刻的石灰石制成的石碑、祭坛、门槛和寺庙楼梯上刻着记录真实和神话事件的叙事，以及对关键仪式表演和超自然生物的描述。在危地马拉的Xultun遗址，发现了一个石材生产区，那里的家庭建筑与采石场相结合，在那里发现了仍然附着在石灰岩基岩上的不完整的纪念碑。这个地区的石灰石生产商专门为不朽的州表达生产材料，这意味着只有一个消费者，即州。以这个地区为例，该项目将评估多个工作假说，以解决一个更广泛的问题：徐尔屯的石灰石生产是如何在社会和经济上组织起来的，这告诉了我们关于早期社会的劳动力和权力的什么信息？通过对徐尔屯碎石、磨石和啄石的分析，该项目将确定石灰石生产工作在整个工地的分布和成核。从社会组织转向经济组织，该项目将评估家庭消费模式中可见的交换系统，以确定石灰石的商业化以及国家参与其生产和分配的程度。结果将在不可再生资源管理、商业化和地方交换系统以及古代社会国家身份的产生和投射等更广泛、多标度的框架内进行背景分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Under the direction of David M. Carballo, Mary Clarke of Boston University will undertake research to study the socioeconomic relationships that comprised ancient Maya economies, focusing specifically on labor relations and artisanal production. Previous scholarship on ancient economies has focused on a number of variables, including the organization of production, the level of commercialization, and the organization of marketplaces and marketplace exchange. While some contexts suggest that the work of producers was directly supported by consumers (they may have provided materials, subsistence goods, and, in some cases, housing for producers), others illustrate that producers worked independently and could directly profit from the commercial exchange or sale of the goods they produced. Commercial activities, however, can still be managed by representatives of the state: the price of goods can be fixed, entrepreneurial activities can be encouraged or prohibited, and financial institutions may control the means of and opportunities for exchange. The evaluation of commercialization in ancient societies requires knowledge of political organization and its strategies, which are reflected in the material records of marketplace exchange, such as marketplaces, household assemblages, and workshops. Archaeology is particularly well placed to provide relevant insight because it can evaluate the material evidence within these locations, which can then be compared across a community, a site, a region as a means of reconstructing ancient economies and economic transactions. Because this research will be conducted by MS Clarke as part of her doctoral dissertation research it will serve a valuable educational function.Ms. Clarke will evaluate the ancient Maya economy through an investigation of limestone workshops and producer households. Limestone is a ubiquitous material in Mesoamerica that was used by the ancient Maya for a myriad of purposes, including the construction of monumental art and architecture. Stelae, altars, lintels, and temple stairways made of cut and carved limestone were inscribed with narratives documenting real and mythological events, as well as with depictions of key ritual performances and supernatural beings. At the site of Xultun, Guatemala, a stone production district was found where domestic architecture is integrated with quarry workshops wherein incomplete monuments were found still attached to the limestone bedrock. The limestone producers in this district were specifically producing materials for monumental state expressions, implying a single consumer, the state. Using this district as a case study, this project will assess multiple working hypotheses to address one broader question: how was limestone production organized, both socially and economically, at Xultun, and what does this tell us about labor and power in early societies? Through the analysis of chipped, ground, and pecked stone from Xultun, this project will establish the distribution and nucleation of limestone production work across the site. Moving from social to economic organization, this project will evaluate the systems of exchange visible in household consumption patterns to determine the commercialization of limestone and the extent of state involvement in its production and distribution. Results will be contextualized within the broader, multi-scalar frames of non-renewable resource management, commercialization and local exchange systems, and the production and projection of state identity in ancient society.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.