A Regional Perspective on the Archaeology of Global Encounters, Banda, Ghana AD 1300-1825

在国家科学基金会的支持下，安·斯塔尔博士和她的合作者将继续在加纳班达地区进行考古研究。虽然人类学家一般将这些农村地区概念化为相对独立的单位，这在很大程度上是可以通过考察当地情况来理解的，但越来越清楚的是，在更广泛的区域和国际层面上的变化对日常生活和社会组织具有直接影响。在她过去的工作中，斯塔尔博士专注于两个村落遗址，这两个村落的时间跨度约为公元130年至1825年，以及与更大的外部因素相关的模式变化。在这大约500年的时间里，该地区首先受到跨撒哈拉贸易的影响，然后并入更大的阿桑特帝国，最后与英国殖民者接触。聚落格局的变化、村庄的废弃、手工艺生产、生存和交换的集中和控制，都表明了这种更广泛的政治和经济背景的影响。斯塔尔博士和她的团队将在之前测试过的一个地点进行额外的工作，以增加文物样本的大小，然后在一些之前确定的地点进行挖掘，以建立更广泛的地区图景。她希望确定迄今观察到的年表模式是否反映了更广泛的模式。将进行一系列标准和专门的实验室分析。将从宏观上研究陶瓷，以完善年代顺序，并在微量元素水平上将成品与粘土来源相匹配，以确定生产和贸易模式。冶金分析将允许重建铜和铁的冶炼技术，而一系列动物和植物分析将提供对变化的生存实践的洞察。这项研究将有助于了解西非的社会发展和变化。同样重要的是，它将有助于制定综合人种学、考古学和文本数据的方法，并促进了解区域和区域外力量如何结合在一起影响传统农村社会的变化。

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Ann Stahl and her collaborators will continue a program of archaeological research in the Banda region of Ghana. While anthropologists have generally conceptualized such rural regions as relatively self contained units, largely understandable through examination of local context, it has become increasingly clear that changes on broader regional and international levels have direct affects on daily life and social organization. In her past work, Dr. Stahl has focused on two village sites which span the period from ca. 1,300 to 1825 AD and related changes in pattern to larger external factors. During this ca. 500 year span, the region was affected first by trans-Saharan trade, then incorporation into the larger Asante empire and finally contact with British colonialists. Changes in settlement pattern, village abandonment, centralization and control of craft production, subsistence and exchange all show the influence of this broader political and economic context. Dr. Stahl and her team will conduct additional work at one previously tested site to increase artifact sample sizes and then excavate at a number of previously identified locales to establish a broader regional picture. She wishes to determine whether chronological patterns observed to date reflect a broader pattern. A range of standard and specialized laboratory analyses will be conducted. Ceramics will be studied macroscopically to refine the chronological sequence and also at a trace element level to match finished product with clay source to determine patterns of manufacture and trade. Metallurgical analysis will permit reconstruction of both copper and iron smelting techniques while a range of faunal and floral analyses will provide insight into changing subsistence practice.This research will contribute to understanding of social development and change in West Africa. Equally important, it will help to develop methodologies which integrate ethnographic, archaeological and textual data and facilitate understanding of how regional and extra-regional forces combine to affect change in traditional rural societies.