Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Metallurgical Production and Social Organization

Michael Johnson先生是芝加哥大学的博士候选人，他将研究社会如何在社会和经济上整合新技术。早期的研究通常将技术视为应用科学，具有预先确定的发展轨迹，可以预测具体的结果。最近的研究反驳了这一观点，认为技术及其结构是生产者、消费者和拥有既得利益的社会其他成员之间复杂的社会动态的结果，往往导致冲突、合作和妥协。这些相互作用产生了独特的、物质上可追溯的专业化、组织和消费模式。考古学拥有跨越千年的物质数据集，非常适合研究这些现象的物质方面。在古代文本记录的支持下，就像目前的研究一样，也有可能调查材料记录背后的社会动态，使研究人员能够看到人们所说（文本）和所做（材料保留）之间的紧张关系，这往往揭示了有关社会理想和权力限制的信息。从长远来看，不同的社会如何适应新的复杂的技术套件？今天，随着社会努力应对互联网、劳动力自动化和机器学习等技术带来的不可预见的后果，这个问题的重要性是显而易见的——新技术通常不会产生直接和可预测的影响，不同的群体会根据他们独特的优先级，以不同的方式构建它们，并利用它们来实现各种各样的目标。约翰逊先生和他的合作者将研究冶金技术在一个关键的变革时期是如何实践、管理和感知的，在这个时期，冶金经历了从小规模的精英工艺到一个复杂的工业的转变，促进了以财富为基础的经济的发展，提高了生产能力，从而为大型领土帝国的形成奠定了部分基础。Johnson先生将与材料科学家、地质学家和考古学家合作，利用STEM学科中开发的方法分析从土耳其南部Alalakh古城出土的冶金碎屑。作为一个拥有多样化经济基础的小国的首都，阿拉akh是研究这些发展的理想场所，它经常屈从于更大的地区大国。通过这些分析，研究人员将对400年间（公元前1600-1200年）使用的冶金技术进行全面评估，在此期间，铁的生产已经掌握，铜的制造达到了真正的工业规模。考虑到当地和区域的文字记录及其考古背景，对这些数据的评估将使我们能够全面评估当地生产、管理和消费方式的变化，以及这些趋势如何支持更广泛的社会发展。约翰逊先生和他的同事们将利用一个强大的跨学科项目，为STEM和人文科学数据集的整合制定一个更全面的协议，同时，合作的国际性质将为跨文化教学和交流创造一个有价值的场所。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mr. Michael Johnson, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, will undertake research on how societies integrate new technologies socially and economically. Early research typically treated technology as applied science with a predetermined developmental trajectory that predicted specific outcomes. Recent work contradicts this, suggesting that technologies and their structures are the result of complex social dynamics between producers, consumers, and other members of a society with a vested interest, often leading to conflict, cooperation, and compromise. These interactions produce unique and materially traceable patterns of specialization, organization, and consumption. Archaeology, with a material dataset spanning millennia, is well suited to studying the material aspects of these phenomena. When supported by ancient textual records, as in the case of the present research, it is also possible to investigate the social dynamics behind the material record, allowing researchers to look at the tension between what people say (texts) and do (material remains), which often reveals information about social ideals and the limits of power. Over the long-term, how do different societies come to terms with new and complex technological suites? Today, as societies grapple with the unforeseen consequences of technologies like the internet, labor automation, and machine learning, the importance of this question is clear - new technologies often do not have straightforward and predictable effects, and different groups, based on their unique priorities, will structure them differently and use them to meet a wide variety of goals. Mr. Johnson and his collaborators will examine how metallurgical technologies were practiced, managed, and perceived during a crucial transformative period where metallurgy underwent a shift from a small-scale elite craft to a complex industry that facilitated the development of wealth-based economies and increased productive capacity, thereby laying part of the foundation for the formation of large territorial empires. Working with material scientists, geologists, and archaeologists, Mr. Johnson will utilize methods developed in the STEM disciplines to analyze metallurgical debris excavated from the ancient city of Alalakh in southern Turkey. As the capital of a small state with a diverse economic base that was frequently subservient to much larger regional powers, Alalakh is an ideal setting for studying these developments. Through these analyses, the researchers will develop a comprehensive assessment of metallurgical technologies in use over a 400-year period (1600-1200 BC), during which the production of iron was mastered and the manufacture of copper reached a truly industrial scale. Considered in reference to local and regional textual records and their archaeological contexts, the evaluation of these data will permit a thorough assessment of changing methods of production, management, and consumption at a local level and how these trends supported broader social developments. Using a robust interdisciplinary program, Mr. Johnson and colleagues will generate a more thorough protocol for the integration of STEM and humanities datasets, while the international nature of the collaboration with create a valuable venue for cross-cultural teaching and exchange.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.