Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Organic Residue Analysis into Long Term Dye Preservation

21世纪全球经济的许多特征--相互关联、全球化、广泛流通的商品以及经济作物农业日益面向外国出口--是至少可以追溯到早期现代时期的长期历史进程所塑造的。这个项目调查了那个时期的一种关键商品和经济作物：胭脂虫。这种以昆虫为基础的充满活力的红色染料在数百年(如果不是几千年的话)的墨西哥经济、艺术和知识生产中发挥了核心作用。随着西班牙的入侵和殖民地新西班牙的建立，胭脂虫给新兴的全球化经济、艺术运动和科学发现带来了革命性的变化。胭脂虫出现在英国军官的红大衣上，欧洲著名画家的画布上，甚至启蒙运动科学家的新假说上。然而，关于殖民时期西班牙对这种染料的需求如何改变墨西哥国内原有的生产系统，人们所知的要少得多。胭脂虫生产者留下的文字记录很少，因此考古学特别适合研究西班牙殖民是如何影响他们的生活和他们参与的行业的。通过在考古时间尺度上调查墨西哥的胭脂虫生产，该项目有助于更广泛的努力，以了解全球化如何影响并继续影响当地的农业系统和经济。研究人员使用有机化学分析来确定曾经用于生产胭脂虫的工具。通过分析这些工具的使用频率随时间的变化，他们调查了关于墨西哥胭脂虫生产的古老历史的各种问题。更具体地说，胭脂虫生产的经济实践有多普遍，它是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？此外，这种经济实践如何与西班牙征服的更广泛背景相交，包括人口下降、融入跨大西洋经济和生态变化？该项目的方法依赖于考古化学分析的最新进展，使鉴定保存在古代文物中的化合物成为可能。这些方法有可能极大地扩大人们认为可以了解过去的范围；然而，由于大多数考古学家缺乏有机化学培训，这些方法一直没有得到充分利用和发展。该项目通过改进现有的方法来推进考古学中的科学技术，以便它们能够检测更广泛的化合物，从而能够检测更广泛的人类行为。该项目分析了墨西哥中部特拉斯卡拉州考古遗址的现有文物收藏，特拉斯卡拉州是墨西哥殖民时期胭脂虫生产的最大中心之一。通过建立一个可靠的本地生产案例研究，该项目将加强可应用于未来研究项目的分析方法，这些研究项目检查本地染料生产和全球贸易之间的交叉。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。

Many features of the 21st century global economy – interconnectedness, globalization, widely circulating commodities, and cash crop agriculture increasingly oriented towards foreign export – were shaped by long-term historical processes that trace back at least to the early modern period. This project investigates one key commodity and cash crop of that period: cochineal. This vibrant red insect-based dye played a central role in prehispanic Mexican economies, artistry, and knowledge production for centuries, if not millennia. Following the Spanish invasion and establishment of colonial New Spain, cochineal revolutionized emerging globalized economies, artistic movements, and scientific discovery. Cochineal made its way onto the red coats of British military officers, the canvases of Europe’s celebrated painters, and even the newly developed hypotheses of Enlightenment scientists. Yet, far less is known about how colonial Spain’s demand for this dye changed pre-existing production systems within Mexico. Cochineal producers left behind few written records, and thus archaeology is particularly well suited to investigating how Spanish colonization impacted their lives and the industry in which they participated. By investigating Mexican cochineal production on an archaeological time scale, this project contributes to broader efforts to understand how globalization has impacted and continues to impact local agricultural systems and economies. The researchers use organic chemical analysis to identify tools that were once used to produce cochineal. By analyzing the change over time in the frequency of these tools, they investigate various questions about the antiquity of cochineal production in Mexico. More specifically, how widespread was the economic practice of cochineal production, and how did it change over time? Additionally, how did this economic practice intersect with the broader context of the Spanish conquest, including demographic decline, incorporation into transatlantic economies, and ecological change? This project’s methods rely upon recent developments in archaeo-chemical analysis that make possible the identification of chemical compounds preserved in ancient artifacts. These methods have the potential to greatly expand the scope of what is considered possible to learn about the past; however, they have been both underutilized and underdeveloped due to the lack of training in organic chemistry most archaeologists receive. This project advances scientific techniques in archaeology by refining existing methodologies so that they are capable of detecting a wider range of chemical compounds, and therefore, a wider range of human behaviors. This project analyzes existing artifact collections from archaeological sites in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala, one of the largest centers of colonial Mexican cochineal production. By building one robust case study of local production, this project will strengthens analytical methods that can be applied to future research projects examining the intersections between local dye production and global trade.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.