Investigating Obsidian and Ochre Exchange

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在密苏里大学研究反应堆考古实验室的Brandi MacDonald博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一名早期职业科学家，他在小规模社会中研究赭石和黑铁矿的各个方面的交换。利用一些专门的考古技术以及野外、收藏和实验室工作的结合，该项目正在重建用于获取、分配和使用这些关键地质资源的网络。最终，这项研究使用考古学提供的长期视角来更好地理解交换网络可以告诉我们什么，关于小规模社会如何驾驭平等、互惠、凝聚力和冲突的相互竞争的需求。小规模社会中的互动和交换的动态仍然没有被很好地理解，特别是在酋长和国家一级社会一起发展的地区。人们经常认为，这些社会模仿了他们的邻居，或者是他们更小、更不发达的版本，尽管数十年的考古学和人种学研究表明情况并非如此。该项目通过评估有权势的个人和政体(如果有的话)的控制程度、它们如何随时间变化以及它们是否以及何时受到重大的地方和地区变化的影响，包括大政体的发展和崩溃以及严重干旱时期的影响，系统地审查了社会用来交换赭石和黑铁矿的网络的结构和规模。为此，该项目正在利用中子活化分析(NAA)、激光烧蚀电感耦合等离子质谱仪(LA-ICPMS)、便携式X射线荧光光谱仪(PXRF)和扫描电子显微镜(SEM-EDS)对各种背景下的岩画和黑铁矿样本进行大规模来源研究，从而重建黑铁矿和赭石的消费模式。同样重要的是，该项目提供了在使用和应用考古技术以及研究和保护考古遗产方面与研究人员和当地土著社区进行培训和合作的机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Brandi MacDonald at the Archaeometry Laboratory of the University of Missouri Research Reactor, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the various dimensions of ochre and obsidian exchange among small-scale societies. Using a number of specialized archaeometric techniques and a combination of field, collections, and laboratory work, this project is reconstructing the networks used to procure, distribute, and use these key geological resources. Ultimately, this research uses the long-term perspective provided by archaeology to better understand what exchange networks can tell us about how small-scale societies navigated the competing demands for (in)equality, reciprocity, cohesion, and conflict.The dynamics of interaction and exchange in small-scale societies are still not well understood, particularly in areas where chiefdoms developed alongside state-level societies. It has often been assumed that these societies imitated their neighbors or were smaller and less developed versions of them, despite decades of archaeological and ethnographic research showing otherwise. This project systematically examines the structure and scale of the networks used by societies to exchange ochre and obsidian by evaluating the degree to which these were controlled by powerful individuals and polities (if at all), how they changed over time, and whether and when these were impacted by major local and regional transformations, including the development and collapse of large polities and intense periods of drought. To do this, the project is reconstructing the consumption patterns of obsidian and ochre by identifying and characterizing sources of each and conducting a large-scale provenance study on rock art and obsidian samples from a diverse range of contexts using neutron activation analysis (NAA), laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS). Equally as important, this project provides opportunities for training and collaboration with researchers and local indigenous communities in the use and application of archaeometric techniques and in the study and protection of archaeological heritage.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.