Social Dynamics of Early Formative Honduras: Excavations at Puerto Escondido (CR-372), Lower Ulua River Valley

该奖项允许罗斯玛丽·乔伊斯博士在洪都拉斯乌鲁瓦河谷的埃斯孔迪多港遗址进行考古发掘。在一个住房项目的建设过程中，推土机暴露了一个从古代到古典时期的考古序列。虽然，不幸的是，该序列的后期部分被移除，但最低的形成和古代水平完好无损，很容易挖掘。这种情况在美国中部极为罕见。乔伊斯博士和她的同事们的初步工作表明，这些沉积物非常丰富，含有加工过的贝壳和玉石，以及大量的陶瓷和黑曜石（火山玻璃）工具。还发现了植物遗迹，这些遗迹为了解农业实践提供了线索。有证据表明，在暴露的细长土堆（五个之一）上存在多个住宅，这是当前研究的重点。乔伊斯博士将在先前工作中确定的四个地点进行挖掘。由于它们之间的距离，很明显它们与四个独立的家庭院落有关。将对回收的材料进行分析，以重建生存实践，并确定家庭之间的工艺专业化程度，以及家庭之间可能的财富和地位差异。虽然考古学家对复杂的玛雅社会的运作有了很大的了解，但对导致其崛起的过程却知之甚少。古代和形成时期标志着从狩猎和采集到定居的村庄生活方式的转变，并为后来复杂国家的出现奠定了基础。迄今为止，对成形文化的研究主要集中在墨西哥南部的奥尔梅克文化上。埃斯孔迪多港很重要，因为它提供了一个时间上相同但地理上不同的情况，应该有可能将两者进行比较，以确定在墨西哥奥尔梅克观察到的趋势是否也适用于洪都拉斯。通过这样的分析，应该可以区分一般过程和历史特殊性。恢复的数据将增加对社会复杂性起源的人类学理解，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的信息。

This award permits Dr. Rosemary Joyce to conduct archaeological excavations at the site of Puerto Escondido, located in the Ulua River Valley in Honduras. During the construction of a housing project, bulldozers exposed an archaeological sequence which extended from Archaic through Classic periods. Although, unfortunately, the later part of the sequence was removed, the lowest Formative and Archaic levels were preserved intact and are easily accessible for excavation. Such occurrences are extremely uncommon in Middle America. Preliminary work by Dr. Joyce and her colleagues have demonstrated that the deposits are extremely rich and contain worked shell and jade as well as abundant ceramics and obsidian (volcanic glass) tools. Botanical remains, which provide insight into agricultural practices, were also recovered. Evidence indicates the presence of multiple dwellings on the exposed elongated mound (one of five) which forms the focus for the current research. Dr. Joyce will excavate at four localities identified during prior work. Because of the distances between each, it is clear that they are associated with four separate household compounds. The materials recovered will be analyzed to reconstruct subsistence practices and determine the degree of craft specialization among households as well as possible wealth and status differences among them.While archaeologists understand a great deal about how complex Mayan societies functioned, much less is known about the processes which led to their rise. The Archaic and Formative periods marked the shift from a hunting and gathering to a settled village lifestyle and established the base on which later complex states arose. To date research on the Formative has focused on the Olmec culture located in Southern Mexico. Puerto Escondido is important because it provides a chronologically identical yet geographically distinct situation and it should be possible to compare the two to determine whether trends observed in Olmec Mexico hold in Honduras as well. Through such analysis it should be possible to distinguish between general process and historical particular. The data recovered will increase anthropological understanding of the origins of social complexity and provide information of interest to many archaeologists.