Investigating the Origins of Social Complexity

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The construction of monuments and ceremonial centers in the ancient past is often assumed to indicate a society with complex social organization, with established agriculture and a sedentary way of life, the use of ceramics, large populations, and centralized power. While it is interesting to study these complex societies, recent investigations suggest that some large constructions were built earlier, during the transition to a sedentary way of life and the initial use of ceramics. These observations lead to an important question of how such early monumental constructions arose. That is, what social, cultural, and environmental factors were at play in earlier societies that made large collective work possible? In this project, the investigators will excavate archaeological sites that immediately pre-date the emergence of a monumental ceremonial center to examine subsistence strategies, technology, social organization, and cultural affinities in these earlier groups. The work will advance fundamental knowledge about human ability to adapt to a wide range of environments. The project supports student training and mentoring from the undergraduate through the postdoctoral level, international research and teaching collaborations, and several public science outreach activities.The investigators will examine the transition from the preceramic period to the ceramic period in a lowland setting where remains of the late preceramic period are virtually absent and where burials dating to this period are extremely rare. The team’s previous excavations revealed four burials without any associated ceramics. Radiocarbon dating provided dates that were earlier than the ceramic-bearing contexts known at this site when a ceremonial complex was constructed. The excavation of more preceramic features will provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine social conditions leading to this remarkable societal transformation. These investigations will provide critical information on a longstanding question about the origins of early lowland ceramics and their users, as well as continuity and change from preceramic technologies and material culture to those of the ceramic period. The data will provide information on the level of maize cultivation, which may have made drastic societal development possible. Moreover, this study will contribute to the broader anthropological question of human adaptation to lowland environments before the development of full-scale agriculture, as well as the interactions among groups practicing different subsistence strategies.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.