Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Late Preclassic Period Lithic Production and Exchange at Hamontun, Guatemala.

在Marilyn A博士的指导下，Masson，Jason Paling将记录玛雅社会的经济机构，这些机构在前古典时期后期（公元前300年-公元250年）为危地马拉Petén地区的新兴国家社会奠定了基础。他对古代家庭环境中石器生产和交换的系统和策略的比较分析将包括从最简陋的住宅到富丽堂皇的贵族住宅的样本。石器工具的使用对日常生活的各个方面都至关重要，包括清理和耕种农田、提取木柴、木工、房屋建造、狩猎、战争以及与纪念碑建设有关的熟练的砖石和石膏工作。与石器有关的经济生产和消费活动十分复杂;来自远近采石场的质量不同的原材料具有不同的价值，涉及各种技能和工艺的最终产品也是如此。对家庭作坊碎片和工具组合的研究将确定实用和奢侈物品的可获得性，并将查明职业专门化与社会阶层之间的联系。考古城市Hamontún位于危地马拉东北部，在前古典时期和古典时期（公元前300年-公元900年），最大的玛雅城市都位于这里。哈蒙通的城市环境是拟议研究的理想选择。我们将分析精英和平民的家庭库存，以记录精英参与石器生产和交换的程度，或者反过来说，平民在贵族干预下自主经营的程度。这项调查直接解决了一个非常重要的问题-古代玛雅政府的经济基础-关于这个问题没有共识，数据很少，特别是在前古典时期后期。考古学家目前对贵族阶级的富裕和权力在多大程度上植根于玛雅城市日常生活的经济存在分歧。众所周知，他们从事制造和交换精美的工艺品（除了石器工具），向下属城镇索取贡品，并在精心制作的聚会上分发礼物。贵族家庭的工匠是否也制造了为皇家随员提供住所、生活和饮食所需的工具，或者这些工具也是通过向城市或农村平民征收贡赋而获得的？在前古典时期的玛雅城市中，市场交换作为另一种分配机制是否重要？本研究的理论目标是重建古代城市的社会阶层生活。石器生产和交换系统的文献将记录玛雅地区城市生活首次发展时的关键经济和社会政治关系。这些数据将有助于玛雅和世界历史上其他国家社会的新兴经济之间的跨文化比较。 该项目还将促进危地马拉瓦莱大学和圣卡洛斯卡洛斯大学以及奥尔巴尼-纽约州立大学学生的专业发展，他们将获得考古研究方面的宝贵培训。计划建立一个网站，使公众能够查阅该项目的研究结果，同时出版物将向科学界传播研究结果。

Under the direction of Dr. Marilyn A. Masson, Jason Paling will document the economic institutions of Maya society that underwrote the foundations of emerging state societies in the Petén region of Guatemala during the Late Preclassic Period (300 B.C. - 250 A.D.). His comparative analysis of systems and strategies of stone tool production and exchange in ancient domestic contexts will include samples from the humblest dwellings to palatial noble dwellings. Stone tool use was essential to all facets of everyday life, including clearing and tilling agricultural fields, firewood extraction, wood-working, house-building, hunting, warfare, and skilled masonry and plaster-working linked to monument construction. Economic production and consumption activities linked to stone tools were complex; raw materials of varying quality from near and distant quarries were imbued with different value, as were final products involving a range of skills and craftsmanship. The study of household workshop debris and tool assemblages will determine the accessibility of utilitarian and luxury items and will identify links between occupational specialization and social class. The archaeological city of Hamontún is located in northeastern Guatemala, where the largest Maya cities were located during the Preclassic and Classic Periods (300 B.C. - 900 A.D.). Hamontún's urban setting is ideal for the proposed research. The household inventories of elites and commoners will be analyzed to document the degree of involvement of elites in stone tool production and exchange, or conversely, the degree to which commoners operated autonomously from noble intervention. This investigation directly addresses a problem of great importance - the economic foundations of ancient Maya governments - about which there is no consensus and little data, especially for the Late Preclassic Period. Archaeologists currently disagree about the degree to which the affluence and power of the noble class was rooted in the economies of daily life at Maya cities. It is known that they engaged in the manufacture and exchange of fine craft items (other than stone tools), exacted tribute from subordinate towns, and dispensed gifts at elaborate gatherings. Did craftspersons at noble houses also make the tools needed to house, maintain, and feed royal retinues, or were these also obtained by tribute demands placed on urban or rural commoners? Were marketplace exchanges significant as an alternative distributive mechanism at Preclassic Maya cities? This study articulates with a higher theoretical goal of reconstructing ancient urban life across social class categories. The documentation of stone tool production and exchange systems will document key economic and sociopolitical relationships at a time when urban life was first developing in the Maya area. These data will facilitate cross-cultural comparisons between the Maya and the emergent economies of other state societies in world history. This project will also contribute to the professional development of students from the Universidad de Valle and San Carlos, Guatemala, and the University of Albany-SUNY who will gain valuable training in archaeological research. The construction of a website is planned that will make the project's findings accessible to the public, while publications will communicate the results to the scientific community.