Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Manufacturing in a Traditional Society

在大卫M.波士顿大学的玛丽克拉克将进行研究，研究构成古代玛雅经济的社会经济关系，特别关注劳动关系和手工生产。以前关于古代经济的研究主要集中在一些变量上，包括生产组织、商业化水平、市场组织和市场交换。虽然有些情况表明，生产者的工作直接得到消费者的支持（他们可能为生产者提供材料、生活用品，在某些情况下还提供住房），但另一些情况表明，生产者独立工作，可以直接从其生产的商品的商业交换或销售中获利。然而，商业活动仍然可以由国家的代表来管理：商品的价格可以被固定，企业活动可以被鼓励或禁止，金融机构可以控制交换的手段和机会。要评估古代社会的商业化程度，就需要了解政治组织及其策略，这些都反映在市场交换的物质记录中，如市场、家庭集会和作坊。考古学特别适合提供相关的见解，因为它可以评估这些地点的物质证据，然后可以在社区，遗址，地区之间进行比较，作为重建古代经济和经济交易的一种手段。因为这项研究将由克拉克女士作为她的博士论文研究的一部分进行，它将起到宝贵的教育作用。克拉克女士将通过对石灰石作坊和生产者家庭的调查来评估古玛雅经济。石灰石在中美洲是一种普遍存在的材料，古玛雅人将其用于无数目的，包括建造纪念性艺术和建筑。石碑、祭坛、门楣和寺庙的楼梯都是用切割和雕刻的石灰石制成的，上面刻有记载真实的和神话事件的叙述，以及对重要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，其中家庭建筑与采石场车间相结合，其中发现了仍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生产用于纪念性国家表达的材料，这意味着只有一个消费者，即国家。以该地区为案例研究，该项目将评估多个工作假设，以解决一个更广泛的问题：在Xultun，石灰石生产在社会和经济上是如何组织的，这告诉我们早期社会的劳动力和权力是什么？通过对来自Xultun的碎石、研磨石和凿石的分析，本项目将确定整个现场石灰石生产作业的分布和成核。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程度以及国家参与其生产和分配的程度。结果将在更广泛的背景下，不可再生资源管理，商业化和地方交换系统，以及在古代社会的国家身份的生产和投影的多标量框架。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.