The Archaeology of Production: Prehistoric Copper Metallurgy in Central Thailand

在国家科学基金会的支持下，文森特·皮戈特博士和他的同事们将在泰国中部的Kao Wong Prachan山谷遗址进行为期三个季节的考古发掘。Pigott博士和他的泰国合作者在这个山谷进行的初步工作表明，这里包含一组不同寻常的文化和技术相关的铜生产和居住地点，时间从公元前三千年中期到公元一千年初。在亚洲已知的最大的史前金属生产地点之一，它们提供了一个独特的机会来研究大规模铜生产的技术和组织--从采矿到成品--在其社会文化背景下。在该项目的每一年中，将挖掘一个遗址。这样收集的数据将使该小组能够建立一个相对的年表，然后用放射性碳的日期来确定。他们还将允许解释当地的定居模式，因为它随着时间的推移而发展。最后，挖掘和实验室分析将允许重建当地的铜生产流程。这将在一定程度上通过冶金分析和实验室中的工艺复制实现。泰国中部的遗址具有考古学意义，因为它们是如此不同寻常。在过去的二十年里，相当多的学术关注集中在整个旧世界冶金的起源和发展上。这表明，青铜冶炼的引入与标志着国家崛起的社会、政治和经济发展的复杂情况有关。然而，在东南亚，早期铜和青铜冶金发展的社会文化背景似乎并不包括城市中心或国家式的政治结构的证据。正是在这一点上，皮戈特博士的研究承担了它的主要意义。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，它将提供关于技术和社会复杂性发展之间的互动的信息。它挑战了关于这些变量之间关联的传统观点。其次，它将增加我们对世界上一个从考古学角度来看相对不为人所知的地区的了解。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Vincent Pigott and his colleagues will conduct three seasons of archaeological excavation at sites in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley in central Thailand. Preliminary work by Dr. Pigott and his Thai collaborator in this valley has shown that it contains an unusual group of culturally and technologically related copper production and habitation sites ranging in date from the mid-third millennium B.C. to the early first millennium A.D. Among the largest prehistoric metal production sites known in Asia, they offer a unique opportunity to study the technology and organization of large-scale copper production -- as a continuum from mine to finished product -- within its sociocultural context. During each year of the project one site will be excavated. The data thus collected will permit the team to establish a relative chronology which will then be fixed with radiocarbon dates. They will also allow explication of the local settlement pattern as it developed over time. Finally, excavation and laboratory analysis will permit reconstruction of the local processes of copper production. This will be achieved in part through metallurgical analysis and process replication in the laboratory. The central Thailand sites are of archaeological interest because they are so unusual. Over the last two decades considerable scholarly attention has focussed on the origins and development of metallurgy across the Old World. This has indicated that the introduction of bronze metallurgy is associated with a complex of social, political, and economic developments which mark the rise of the state. In Southeast Asia, however, the sociocultural context in which early copper and bronze metallurgy developed does not appear to include evidence for urban centers or a state- like political structure. It is in this light that Dr. Pigott's research assumes its primary significance. This research is important for several reasons. First, it will provide information on the interaction between technology and the development of social complexity. It challenges traditional ideas about the association between these variables. Secondly, it will increase our knowledge about a part of the world which, from an archaeological perspective, is relatively unknown.