Subsistence Changes and Community-based Craft Production in Prehistoric Central Thailand

1990年至1994年间，在NSF的资助下，Vincent Pigott博士和同事们在泰国中部矿石丰富的Khao Wong Prachan山谷挖掘了三个史前铜矿遗址。 当占领开始时，公元前2300年，铜冶金直到公元前才出现。公元前1500年在Non Pa阿威、Nil Kham Haeng和Non Mak La。 在NSF的支持下，Pigott博士和Co-PI Karen Mudar博士将监督对这三个地点挖掘出的有机遗骸进行分析的计划。分析计划的目标是通过分析植物、动物和人类骨骼遗骸，建立和评估生存和生存变化的证据。我们试图衡量可能的农业不稳定性的基础上的边缘土壤，不稳定的降雨和干旱的潜力的证据。这些分析将被用来检验我们的工作模型，该模型将农业的不稳定性与铜的专业化生产联系起来，以解释史前环境中的经济和社会关系的性质。山谷中大量的铜生产，但几乎没有地方使用的迹象，表明铜的生产是为了交换，最有可能是为了食物。我们认为，铜生产是一种战略，以缓冲不可预测的短缺，在当地农业。有证据表明，人类造成的环境变化以及农业的不稳定性与铜生产的加强是一致的。生存和生产变化的相关性将有助于理解生存战略，我们认为，这是该地区长期的，非等级的，平等的，社会和经济关系的动机。Mudar博士将对所有出土的动物遗骸进行分析。Anagnostis Agelarakis博士（Adelphi大学）将研究Non Mak La遗址的48具人类骨骼。史蒂文·韦伯博士（华盛顿州立大学，温哥华）将研究所有出土的植物遗骸样本，丽莎·凯尔霍弗博士（圣克拉拉大学）将研究所有用于植硅体分析的样本，包括来自沼泽岩心的样本。有了分析结果，PI将研究工艺专业化、不可靠的农业和平等主义社会组织之间的潜在联系;这些证据应该为当前模型提供一个重要的替代方案。我们预计，这项研究的结果将对考古学家如何看待手工艺生产和社会复杂性产生重大影响。

Between 1990-1994,with NSF funding, Dr. Vincent Pigott and colleagues excavated a cluster of three prehistoric copper producing sites in the small, ore-rich Khao Wong Prachan Valley in central Thailand. While occupation began ca. 2300 B.C., copper metallurgy did not appear until ca. 1500 B.C. at Non Pa Wai, Nil Kham Haeng and Non Mak La. With pending support from the NSF, Dr. Pigott and Co-PI Dr. Karen Mudar will oversee a program of analysis of the excavated organic remains from these three sites. The goal of the analytical program is to establish and assess the evidence for subsistence and subsistence change through analysis of the floral, faunal, and human skeletal remains. We seek to measure possible agricultural instability based on evidence for marginal soils, erratic rainfall, and drought potential. These analyses will be used to test our working model that links agricultural instability to the specialized production of copper in explaining the nature of economic and social relations within this prehistoric context.Massive copper production in the valley, but little indication of local use, suggests that copper was being produced for exchange, most probably for food. We argue that copper production was a strategy to buffer unpredictable shortfalls in local agriculture. Evidence suggests that environmental changes brought on by humans as well as agricultural instability occurred in concert with the intensification of copper production. The correlation of changes in both subsistence and production will contribute to an understanding of subsistence strategies that, we argue, motivated long-term, non-hierarchical, egalitarian, social and economic relations in this region.Dr. Mudar will conduct the analysis of all excavated faunal remains. Dr. Anagnostis Agelarakis (Adelphi University) will study the forty-eight human skeletons from the site of Non Mak La. Dr. Steven Weber (Washington State University, Vancouver) will study all excavated samples of botanical remains and Dr. Lisa Kealhofer (Santa Clara University) will study all samples taken for phytolith analysis including those from swamp corings. With the analytical results in hand, the PI's will examine potential links between craft specialization, unreliable agriculture, and egalitarian social organization; evidence which should provide an important alternative to current models. We anticipate that the results of this study will have a major impact on how archaeologists view craft production and social complexity.