Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Value and Depositional History of Middle Preclassic Pottery in the Peten Lakes Region of Guatemala

在普鲁登斯·赖斯博士的指导下，凯瑟琳·南将通过对陶器及其沉积背景的研究，研究玛雅低地中前古典主义时期(公元前1000-350年)身份分化的出现。在整个中美洲，中前经典时期是社会、经济和政治发展的过渡时期，新出现的地位分化在稀有的外来材料中很明显，如玉石和贝壳。相反，这项研究调查了大量的当地制造的陶器，以及作为这些社会转型的一部分，它是如何被使用、操纵和估价的。被分析的中古陶器之前是从危地马拉佩特恩湖地区的四个社区(遗址)挖掘出来的，玛雅人在那里开始建造大量的建筑。在玛雅考古学之外的背景下，这项研究很重要，原因有两个。首先，它将提供对社会复杂性和地位等级如何出现的洞察。其次，它将有助于开发一种分析技术，考古学家可以将其应用于世界许多背景和地区。该项目重点研究价值在这件陶器中的编码方式。与古典时期的彩绘彩陶不同，中前古典陶器几乎没有显性的身份标志装饰，这表明它的价值是基于其功能和用途(“使用价值”)，而不是与生产劳动(“生产价值”)有关的属性，如表面装饰。因此，这项研究通过综合分析来检验使用价值在中古陶器中的作用，其中包括：基于器皿形状和类型名称的视觉分类；基于出土地点的上下文信息；以及侧重于陶工在生产中使用的粘土配方的成分研究。这些分析将不仅提供关于生产选择的信息，而且还提供关于遗址和沉积环境之间的差异的信息，从而在考虑文物价值在考古记录中的作用时强调背景信息的重要性。这种全面性不仅可以研究佩特恩湖地区早期玛雅人是如何评价陶器的，而且还可以联系到更大的人类学问题，即社区中不断出现的地位差异如何影响一般物质文化中的价值概念，以及复杂社会中有声望的商品的潜在发展过程。除了调查早期玛雅人陶器的价值如何，这项研究还试图证明综合方法进行文物分析的重要性，这种方法同时考虑了背景和物理属性。该项目将提供研究生培训，同时也扩大了在玛雅低地研究早期陶器的研究人员之间的合作机会。此外，该项目将在湖泊地区创建早期玛雅陶器的类型收藏和目录，这将使危地马拉和外国研究人员能够研究这种材料的代表性样本。研究结果将通过博士论文、英文和西班牙文、同行评议的期刊以及在美国和危地马拉举行的专业会议上公布。数据还将通过数字考古记录(TDAR)在线提供。

Under the guidance of Dr. Prudence Rice, Katherine South will examine the emergence of status differentiation during the Middle Preclassic period (1000-350 BC) in the Maya lowlands through the study of pottery and its depositional contexts. Throughout Mesoamerica, the Middle Preclassic was a time of transition in social, economic, and political development, with emerging status differentiation evident in rare, exotic materials such as jade and shell. This study instead investigates abundant, locally made pottery and how it was used, manipulated, and valued as part of these societal transitions. The Middle Preclassic pottery analyzed was previously excavated from four communities (sites) in the Petén lakes region of Guatemala, where Maya had begun building substantial constructions. The research is important in a context which extends beyond Mayan archaeology for two reasons. First, it will provide insight into how social complexity and status hierarchies emerge. Secondly it will help to develop an analytic technique which archaeologists may apply in many contexts and in many regions of the world.The project focuses on the ways value was encoded in this pottery. Unlike painted polychromes of the Classic period, Middle Preclassic pottery displayed little overt status-marking decoration, suggesting that its value was based on its function and use ("use-value") rather than attributes related to the labor of production ("production-value") such as surface decoration. Thus the study examines the role of use-value in Middle Preclassic pottery through an integrated analysis that includes: visual classification based on vessel shape and typological designation; contextual information based on where it was excavated; and compositional study that focuses on the clay recipes used by the potters in production. These analyses will provide information not only about production choices, but also about differences among sites and depositional contexts, thereby emphasizing the importance of contextual information when considering the role of object-value in the archaeological record. This comprehensiveness permits not only study of how pottery was valued by the early Maya in the Petén lakes region, but connects to larger anthropological questions of how emerging status differentiation in communities impacted the notion of value in material culture in general and the processes underlying development of prestigious goods in complex societies.Beyond investigating how early Maya pottery was valued, this study seeks to demonstrate the importance of an integrated approach to artifact analysis that takes into account both contextual and physical attributes. This project will provide graduate student training while also extending the opportunity for collaboration among researchers who study early pottery in the Maya lowlands. Additionally, the project will create a type collection and catalog of early Maya pottery in the lakes region, which will enable Guatemalan and foreign researchers to study representative samples of this material. Results of the study will be made available through a doctoral dissertation and, in English and Spanish, in peer-reviewed journals and at professional meetings in the United States and Guatemala. Data will also be made available online through the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR).