Household, Community, and Power in Precolumbian Puerto Rico

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。安东尼奥·库雷特和李·纽森将在位于波多黎各南部海岸庞塞市附近的Tibes遗址进行初步考古调查。该遗址于1975年被发现，由各种高度独特的考古特征组成，包括两个时期的离散文化沉积物，丘和十二个石头结构（球场，广场和堤道）。最初的挖掘发现了两个墓地和其他散布在遗址上的墓葬。可能的藏地还包含各种各样的国内矿床，有可能揭示空间使用和社区模式的复杂历史。这个公民仪式中心具有重要的科学意义，因为它是加勒比地区最古老的，可能记录了一个复杂的酋长社会水平的兴起。居住在这一地区的泰诺人形成了新大陆上一些最复杂的“前国家”社会，西班牙编年史家试图用欧洲的分类来描述他们的组织为“封建王国”。这些群体高度发达的社会政治组织伴随着复杂的宗教体系，这些体系由酋长控制，酋长能够为公共工作或战争召集劳动力，并积累财富和主要产品。虽然很多考古工作都致力于了解北美、中美洲和南美洲地区社会复杂性的上升，但对加勒比地区的研究相对较少。由于岛屿构成了可以明确界定社会界限的划定区域，因此它们为研究个体群体的发展提供了一个极好的场所。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，curret和Newsom将对Tibes进行地球物理调查，并测试三种技术的效用——电阻率、磁强计和探地雷达——以确定它们定位和确定埋藏考古特征性质的能力，包括难以定位的国内地区。然后，他们将进行测试挖掘，将遥感到的异常与埋藏的异常相匹配。收集到的信息将用于开发一种方法，并为一个长期项目奠定基础，该项目将研究Tanio社会复杂性的兴起和本质。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Antonio Curet and Lee Newsom will conduct preliminary archaeological survey at the site of Tibes, located adjacent to the southern coast of Puerto Rico near the city of Ponce. Discovered in 1975 the site is composed of a variety of highly distinctive archaeological features including discrete cultural deposits from two periods, middens and twelve stone structures (ball courts, plazas and causeways). Original excavations uncovered two cemeteries and other burials dispersed across the site. Likely Tibes also contains a full range of domestic deposits with the potential to reveal a complex history of space use and community pattern. This civic-ceremonial center is of significant scientific interest because it is the oldest in the Caribbean and may document the rise of a complex chiefdom level of society. The Taino native inhabitants of much of this region formed some of the most complex "pre-state" societies in the New World and Spanish chroniclers, attempting to apply European categories described their organization as "feudal kingdoms."The highly developed social-political organization of these groups was accompanied by an intricate religious system controlled by chiefs who were able to gather labor for communal work or war, and who accumulated wealth and staple products.While much archaeological effort has been devoted to understanding the rise of social complexity in regions of North, Middle and South America the Caribbean has been relatively unstudied. Because islands constitute delimited areas where social boundaries can be clearly defined, they provide an excellent venue for study of individual group development. With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Curet and Newsom will conduct a geophysical survey of Tibes and test the utility of three techniques - resistivity, magnetometry and ground penetrating radar - to determine their ability to locate and determine the nature of buried archaeological features, including hard to locate domestic areas. They will then conduct test excavations to match remotely sensed anomalies with buried counterparts. The information gathered will be used to develop a methodology and set the stage for a longer term project which examines the rise and nature of Tanio social complexity.