Where the Water Meets the Land: An Archaeological Case Study of Two Millennia of Wetland Utilization at K'axob, Belize

水与陆地相遇的地方：伯利兹卡克索布两千年湿地利用的考古案例研究

• 批准号: 9601206
• 负责人: Patricia McAnany
• 金额: $ 14.31万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-09-01 至 2001-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9601206&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Where; Water; Meets; Land; Archaeological

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Patricia McAnany and her colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at the site of K'axob, located in the tropical lowlands of Belize. Extensive prior work at the site by Dr. McAnany has indicated an extensive Mayan settlement which spans the development and the classical period of Mayan prehistory. Associated with the settlement are a series of agricultural features, termed `raised fields` which consist of raised elongated `fields` and canals or drainage ditches which separate them. Dr. McAnany wishes to understand how and when these fields were constructed, how long they were used and just what crops were grown on them. She wants to compare changes in settlement pattern and size with development and changes in the field system. To accomplish this she will: 1. construct a complete ground-truthed map of the wetland canal and island-field system at K'axob; 2. conduct archaeological excavation of a statistically significant sample of island fields and canals drawn from a known sampling frame; 3. use optical microscopy for micromorphological analysis of wetland sediments to clarify formation processes; 4 apply magnetic susceptibility and total phosphate analysis to sediment columns to facilitate the discrimination of depositional sequences; 6. synthesize the chronology and stratigraphically derived excavations with that of settlement excavations in the adjacent uplands. The lowland Maya flourished and lived in large groups in a harsh tropical lowland environment which is essentially uninhabited today. Archaeologists wish to understand the agricultural practices which permitted this florescence and to trace how these developed and changed over time. To date no consensus exists and scientists disagree strongly on the age of these occurrences and just how they functioned. Dr. McAnany's carefully designed project should provide an answer to these questions. The work is also important for the insight it can shed on wetland management and many of the data may be relevant to management practices today. It appears that the Mayan people were able to utilize wetlands for extended periods of time and use them for agricultural production without destroying their essential nature. The results of this project will be of interest to many scientists. It will provide data of potential use for wetland management and shed new light on the subsistence practices of prehistoric Mayan peoples.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里夏·麦卡纳尼博士和她的同事将在位于伯利兹热带低地的卡克索布遗址进行两季的考古实地考察。麦卡纳尼博士之前对该遗址进行的大量研究表明，玛雅人的定居点跨越了玛雅史前史的发展期和古典时期。与定居点相关的是一系列农业特征，称为“高地”，由高地拉长的“田地”和分隔它们的运河或排水沟组成。麦卡纳尼博士希望了解这些土地的建造方式和时间、使用时间以及土地上种植的作物。她想将聚落格局和规模的变化与田地系统的发展和变化进行比较。为了实现这一目标，她将： 1. 绘制卡克索布湿地运河和岛屿场系统的完整地面实况地图； 2. 对从已知抽样框架中抽取的具有统计意义的岛屿田野和运河样本进行考古发掘； 3.利用光学显微镜对湿地沉积物进行微形态分析，阐明形成过程； 4 对沉积物柱进行磁化率和总磷酸盐分析，以便于区分沉积序列； 6. 将年代学和地层推导的挖掘与邻近高地的聚落挖掘综合起来。 低地玛雅人在恶劣的热带低地环境中繁衍生息，并成群生活，而如今该地区基本上无人居住。考古学家希望了解允许这种花期的农业实践，并追踪它们如何随着时间的推移而发展和变化。迄今为止，还没有达成共识，科学家们对于这些事件的发生时间和作用方式也存在强烈分歧。 麦卡纳尼博士精心设计的项目应该可以回答这些问题。这项工作对于深入了解湿地管理也很重要，并且许多数据可能与当今的管理实践相关。玛雅人似乎能够长期利用湿地并将其用于农业生产而不破坏其本质。 该项目的结果将引起许多科学家的兴趣。它将提供湿地管理潜在用途的数据，并为史前玛雅人的生存实践提供新的线索。