Browman With National Science Foundation support and under the direction of Dr. David Browman, Ms. Georgia Britt will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze ceramic material from the archaeological site of Bezuapan which is located in Veracruz, Mexico. Prior excavation of individual households has yielded large samples of ceramics from well defined stratigraphic contexts. All date from different intervals within the Late Formative period. Evidence indicates that the ceramics were made within each household. Ms. Britt will examine these materials from a number of perspectives to determine the degree of standardization within each ceramic type within each sample. She will record metric as well as technical and decorative attributes. The underlying goal of this research is to study the relationship between ceramic production and social organization. Archaeologists have argued that as societies grow more complex, the degree of economic specialization increases and the degree of mass production increases. They have also assumed that standardization increases as well and that degree of standardization in ceramics and other common objects can be used as an indirect measure of social complexity. However these assumptions have not been carefully tested. Other kinds of archaeological evidence indicate that the Late Formative period in Veracruz marks a time of increased social complexity. By the following Early Classic period a clearly divided hierarchical society had emerged. In conjunction with other researchers who have examined ceramics from the later period, Ms. Britt will focus on the Late Formative to determine whether, in fact, social complexity and ceramic standardization are related. This research is important for several reasons. It will help to refine a tool which is of wide archaeological use. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
