Walton and Carballo NSF Grant Recipient

By: Maria H. Sousa
July 28, 2015

Boston University Department of Archaeology Professor David Carballo and Graduate Student David Walton (GRS’16) are recipients of an National Science Foundation Grant.

Under the guidance of Dr. David Carballo, David Walton will investigate the nuances of obsidian tool production and consumption in household spaces. This project is unique, compared to previous scholarship, because it applies methods of technological classification and microwear analysis to artifact collections obtained from previous and recent excavations at six different sites in the central Mexican highlands spanning the Middle Formative to Late Postclassic Periods (900 B.C.-A.D. 1550). Using archaeological data through a comparative approach avoids culture-bound theorizing and helps to evaluate models of economic behavior gleaned from studies around the world. This volcanically active region of Mesoamerica contains chemically traceable sources of obsidian that were mined consistently for over 2,300 years. The study sample, which includes a survey collection from the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan, is selected to offer secure excavation contexts from communities of variable sizes located in the same region that had access to these obsidian sources. This project maximizes the amount of data creation for these collections, some of which have been studied to only a small degree, by conducting multiple analyses to generate complementary information. In particular, this project amasses one of the largest and most diverse samples of Mesoamerican stone tools subjected to microwear analysis, which is a heavily underutilized method in the field compared to other areas such as North American and Paleolithic archaeology. This project acts to strengthen international relationships with officials from the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Antropología (INAH) and three US academic institutions through laboratory collaborations and resulting publications. It will also permit Mr. Walton to conduct research for his doctoral dissertation.