Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Archaeology of the Colonial Period Gulf of Fonseca, El Salvador

在罗斯玛丽·A·乔伊斯博士的监督下，埃斯特班·戈麦斯将分析他对萨尔瓦多丰塞卡湾孔查瓜·维贾岛上的土著村庄孔查瓜·维贾村进行考古挖掘时收集的数据。根据民族史研究，在1524年西班牙人接触时，康查瓜·维雅是讲伦卡语言的人居住的。Conchawa Vieja的挖掘将审查家庭层面组织和外部关系的变化性质，以回应西班牙接触和殖民管理引发的社会、政治和经济重组的压力。文化接触、殖民主义和传教的时刻往往扰乱对资源的获取，影响家庭经济生产的性质和组织，并改变维持社区内社会凝聚力的社会习俗。为了从考古角度考察这些变化，将对家庭一级的活动区进行详细研究，以揭示过去的生存做法、生产和加工、交换以及与更广泛的区域和区域间领域的联系。由于食品加工和消费涵盖了人们预期在居民区进行的许多活动，因此确定与生计有关的活动和活动区域至关重要。为评价活动区的组织情况，该项目将侧重于建筑、便携式文物和职业碎片，并审查动植物的微量残留物以及活动区的化学特征。目标是遵守实际工作人员的基本组织原则。档案文件和民族历史记述将被纳入，以提供单独的证据，特别是评估Conchwa Vieja的文化变化和连续性，并确定构成居民日常生活的经济和政治结构的变化。从挖掘、实验室分析和历史文献中收集的数据将构成审查各级社会互动的多标量办法的基础：社区一级的家庭融合；丰塞卡湾区域内的经济网络；以及与其他区域社区的经济联系。解释更高层次的过程必须从了解当地社区和国内组织模式开始。Conchwa Vieja的研究将对丰塞卡湾经济网络的考古知识做出重大贡献，丰塞卡湾是一个研究不足的地区，在殖民之前和期间对区域间交流至关重要，并有助于该区域参与太平洋沿岸和中美洲其他地区更广泛的交流和通信网络。除了社会科学家感兴趣的研究问题外，该项目还将在当地范围内提高公众对科学的理解水平，从而产生更广泛的影响。在丰塞卡湾，与该项目有关的公众宣传将重点放在现代城镇孔查吉塔和萨尔瓦多拉乌尼昂省拉乌尼翁的卡萨·德·库图拉。Casa de Cultura计划是一项由联邦政府发起的倡议，旨在让公众了解萨尔瓦多的地区历史。外展工作包括学校访问和考古研究讲座。Conchawa Vieja的研究还将为圣萨尔瓦多技术大学的本科生提供现场和实验室培训，并将在美国研究人员和萨尔瓦多机构之间建立一个合作的研究环境。

Under the supervision of Dr. Rosemary A. Joyce, Esteban Gomez will analyze data gathered during his archaeological excavation of Conchagua Vieja, an indigenous village site on the island of Conchaguita, in the Gulf of Fonseca, El Salvador. Based on ethnohistorical research, Conchagua Vieja was inhabited by Lenca-speaking peoples at the time of Spanish contact in 1524. Excavations at Conchagua Vieja will examine the changing nature of household level organization and external relations in response to the stress of social, political, and economic reorganization initiated by Spanish contact and colonial administration. Moments of culture contact, colonialism and missionization often disrupt access to resources, affect the nature and organization of household economic production, and alter the social practices that maintain intra-community social cohesion. To examine these changes archaeologically, detailed studies of activity areas at the household level will be undertaken to reveal past subsistence practices, production and processing, exchange, and links to wider regional and interregional spheres. Since food processing and consumption encompass so many of the activities one would expect to occur in residential areas, the determination of subsistence-related activities and activity areas is critical. To evaluate the organization of activity areas, this project will focus on architecture, portable artifacts and occupational debris, as well as examine micro-residues of plants and animals, and chemical signatures of activity areas. The goal is to observe the basic organizational principles of people in action.Archival documents and ethnohistoric accounts will be incorporated to provide a separate line of evidence to evaluate culture change and continuity at Conchagua Vieja, in particular, and to define the changes in economic and political structures that structured the residents' daily lives. Data gathered from excavations, laboratory analyses, and historical documentation will form the basis for a multi-scalar approach to examine social interaction at various levels: integration of households at the community level; economic networks within the Gulf of Fonseca region; and economic linkages with communities in other regions. Explaining higher order processes must begin with an understanding of local communities and patterns of domestic organization.Research at Conchagua Vieja will make a significant contribution to archaeological knowledge of economic networks in the Gulf of Fonseca, an under-studied region that was critical to inter-regional exchange both before and during colonization, and to the region's participation in broader networks of exchange and communication along the Pacific Coast and other regions of Central America. Beyond research questions of interest to social scientists, the project will have a broader impact by enhancing the level of public understanding of science at the local scale. In the Gulf of Fonseca, public outreach associated with the project will focus on the modern town of Conchaguita, and the Casa de Cultura of La Union, Department of La Union, El Salvador. The Casa de Cultura program is a federally sponsored initiative that aims to inform the general public of El Salvador's regional histories. Outreach efforts consist of school visits and lectures on archaeological research. Research at Conchagua Vieja will also provide field and laboratory training for undergraduate students at the Universidad Tecnologica of San Salvador, and will develop a collaborative research environment between U.S. researchers and Salvadoran institutions.