Investigating the Origins of Social Complexity

古代修建纪念碑和礼仪中心通常被认为是一个社会组织复杂的社会，农业发达，生活方式久远，使用陶瓷，人口众多，权力集中。虽然研究这些复杂的社会很有趣，但最近的调查表明，一些大型建筑建得更早，是在过渡到久坐的生活方式和最初使用陶瓷的过程中。这些观察引出了一个重要的问题，即这种早期的纪念性建筑是如何产生的。也就是说，在早期的社会中，是什么社会、文化和环境因素在发挥作用，使大型集体工作成为可能？在这个项目中，调查人员将挖掘在纪念性仪式中心出现之前的考古遗址，以检查这些早期群体的生存战略、技术、社会组织和文化亲和力。这项工作将增进关于人类适应广泛环境能力的基础知识。该项目支持从本科生到博士后阶段的学生培训和指导，国际研究和教学合作，以及几项公共科学推广活动。研究人员将在低地环境下研究从前陶瓷时代到陶瓷时代的过渡，那里几乎没有前陶瓷时代的遗迹，而这一时期的埋葬非常罕见。该团队之前的挖掘发现了四个没有任何相关陶瓷的墓葬。放射性碳测年提供的年代早于该遗址建造礼仪建筑群时已知的含陶瓷环境。更多史前特征的挖掘将提供一个史无前例的机会来审视导致这一显着社会转型的社会条件。这些研究将为一个长期存在的问题提供关键信息，这个问题涉及早期低地陶瓷的起源及其使用者，以及从前陶瓷技术和材料文化到陶瓷时代的延续和变化。这些数据将提供有关玉米种植水平的信息，这可能使社会的急剧发展成为可能。此外，这项研究将有助于更广泛的人类学问题，即人类在全面发展农业之前对低地环境的适应，以及实施不同生存战略的群体之间的互动。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The construction of monuments and ceremonial centers in the ancient past is often assumed to indicate a society with complex social organization, with established agriculture and a sedentary way of life, the use of ceramics, large populations, and centralized power. While it is interesting to study these complex societies, recent investigations suggest that some large constructions were built earlier, during the transition to a sedentary way of life and the initial use of ceramics. These observations lead to an important question of how such early monumental constructions arose. That is, what social, cultural, and environmental factors were at play in earlier societies that made large collective work possible? In this project, the investigators will excavate archaeological sites that immediately pre-date the emergence of a monumental ceremonial center to examine subsistence strategies, technology, social organization, and cultural affinities in these earlier groups. The work will advance fundamental knowledge about human ability to adapt to a wide range of environments. The project supports student training and mentoring from the undergraduate through the postdoctoral level, international research and teaching collaborations, and several public science outreach activities.The investigators will examine the transition from the preceramic period to the ceramic period in a lowland setting where remains of the late preceramic period are virtually absent and where burials dating to this period are extremely rare. The team’s previous excavations revealed four burials without any associated ceramics. Radiocarbon dating provided dates that were earlier than the ceramic-bearing contexts known at this site when a ceremonial complex was constructed. The excavation of more preceramic features will provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine social conditions leading to this remarkable societal transformation. These investigations will provide critical information on a longstanding question about the origins of early lowland ceramics and their users, as well as continuity and change from preceramic technologies and material culture to those of the ceramic period. The data will provide information on the level of maize cultivation, which may have made drastic societal development possible. Moreover, this study will contribute to the broader anthropological question of human adaptation to lowland environments before the development of full-scale agriculture, as well as the interactions among groups practicing different subsistence strategies.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.