Under the direction of Dr. T. Douglas Price, Mr. Michael Galaty will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He work has both substantive and methodological goals. On a substantive level he wishes to determine the degree to which centralized economic control played a role in the rise of early Greek state level societies. Methodologically, Mr. Galaty will compare the usefulness of petrographic vs. weak acid analysis of ceramics to determine ceramic groupings. Anthropologists wish to know how state level societies arise and are maintained. What forces in technologically simple societies allow elites to establish and maintain control? Many have argued that control over crucial economic resources plays a significant role and early Greek texts suggest that, in this region of the world at least, this factor comes into strong play. Based on the results of preliminary research however Mr Galaty believes that the situation is more complicated. In a chemical analysis of ceramic `course wares` - non-ritual ceramics which served every day functions such as cooking and storage - individual regions produced their own pots according to their own formulas from clays collected at a number of sources. This implies lack of centralized control over a vital resource. In the current project Mr. Galaty will increase his sample size to determine whether this conclusion is, in fact, statistically significant. He will also analyze a class of fineware which served as wine drinking cups and likely had a ritual function. He postulates that centralized control, if exercised, occurred in this more formal realm. Chemical analysis will permit him to determine if clay sources and production methods are more standardized as theory would predict. In this research both trace element analysis via weak acid extraction and more standard and widely accepted petrographic analysis will be conducted. Comparison of the results will serve to evaluate the validity of a weak acid extraction approach. If its validity is confirmed it will provide a rapid and low cost tool for trace element studies. In addition to its methodological and substantive contributions, this research will assist the professional development of a promising young scientist.
