Assessing Resource Utilization and Trade Among Prehistoric Rio Grande Glaze Paints Using Lead Isotope Analysis

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Habicht-Mauche博士和A。罗素·弗拉克将从新墨西哥州中部的加里斯特奥盆地地区的史前矿山收集铅样本，并对这些样本和在同一地区出土的史前陶瓷上的铅釉进行铅同位素分析。由于铅由4种同位素组成，并且每种同位素的相对频率随着时间的推移通过放射性衰变而变化，因此同位素特征通常可以用于识别单个铅矿床。在陶瓷制造过程中，铅矿石与其他成分的混合物使得使用价值不大的微量元素进行采购研究。然而，这种混合并不影响同位素比例，因此，这种分析允许，在原则上，考古陶瓷材料与铅源相匹配。在设想的长期项目的第一阶段，该团队将进行可行性研究，以确定铅源之间的同位素比变化是否大于每个源内部的同位素比变化，以及铅源和釉之间是否可能匹配。 在史前时代晚期，美国西南部的普韦布洛印第安人发展了大规模的酋长级社会，在广泛的互动网络中将个人和城镇联系在一起。这一转变的基本标志之一，发生在大约。公元1350年，广泛的社区手工艺和资源专业化网络以及长途贸易系统的发展，将北方格兰德河地区的城镇和省份联系在一起，形成了一系列不断变化的社会政治和经济联盟。虽然很明显，这种互动是存在的，但考古学家不知道这些城镇本质上是否是平等的，或者它们是否以等级制的方式排列。例如，某些村庄和地区显然主导了釉陶器的生产，他们的产品在整个山谷和更远的地方广泛交易。不幸的是，这种生产和分布的细节还没有得到很好的理解，拟议的研究将有望提供一个强大的工具来跟踪广泛领域的相互作用。例如，应当能够确定是否由一个村庄或一小群村庄控制着原材料的获取，是否存在一个单一的经济网络或多个网络。该项目的成果将增加我们对美国复杂社会出现的理解，并将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Habicht-Mauche and A. Russell Flegal will collect lead samples from prehistoric mines in the Galisteo Basin area of central New Mexico and conduct lead isotope analyses on both these and lead glazes on prehistoric ceramics also excavated in the same general area. Because lead consists of 4 isotopes and the relative frequencies of each change through radioactive decay over time, isotopic signatures may often be used to fingerprint individual lead deposits. The mixture of lead ore with other ingredients during ceramic manufacture makes sourcing studies using trace elements of little value. However such mixing does not affect isotopic ratios and therefore such analysis permits, in principle, archaeological ceramic materials to be matched with lead source. In this first stage of an envisioned long term project, the team will conduct a feasibility study to determine whether variation in isotopic ratios is greater between lead sources than within each and if matching between source and glaze is possible. In late prehistoric times the Pueblo Indians of the U.S. Southwest developed large scale chiefdom level societies which linked individuals and towns together in extensive interaction networks. One of the fundamental hallmarks of this transformation, which occurred ca. 1350 A.D. was the development of widespread networks of community craft and resource specialization and systems of long-distance trade which linked the towns and provinces in the northern Rio Grande region in a series of shifting sociopolitical and economic alliances. While it is clear that such interaction existed, archaeologists do not know whether or not these towns were essentially egalitarian or whether they were arranged in a hierarchical fashion. For example, certain villages and districts apparently dominated glaze ware production, trading their products widely throughout the valley and beyond. Unfortunately the details of this production and distribution are not well understood and the proposed research will, hopefully provide a powerful tool to trace interactions over a broad area. It should be possible to determine, for example, whether a single village or small set of villages controlled access to raw materials and if a single economic network or a multiplicity of networks existed. The results of this project will increase our understanding of the emergence of complex societies in the United States and will provide data of interest to many archaeologists.