Agriculture, Paleoenvironment, and Human Occupation in the Pacific Coastal Lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica

中美洲南部太平洋沿岸低地的农业、古环境和人类居住

• 批准号: 0137413
• 负责人: Hector Neff
• 金额: $ 6.68万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-01-01 至 2004-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0137413&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Agriculture; Paleoenvironment; Human; Occupation; Pacific

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Hector Neff and his collaborators will complete the analysis of five sediment cores from Pacific coastal Guatemala that are known to span the time periods when people first began modifying the landscape for agriculture and other subsistence purposes. Preliminary results from one location suggest that people brought maize or a direct ancestor of maize to the region before 5000 B.C. and that dramatic agricultural intensification took place beginning around 3500 B.C. The signal of human modification and other landscape changes can be detected in sediment cores via the changing frequencies of plant microfossils (phytoliths and pollen) and charcoal together with variation in sedimentation rates. When people cut or burn down the tropical forest for agriculture, weeds and charcoal become more common in the record as trees and other forest species decline. Sedimentation rates also tend to increase as forest cover is removed. Maize and other agricultural crops can be identified both from pollen and phytoliths, the combined evidence providing the most secure identification (phytoliths are microscopic silica bodies that accumulate growing plants). These changes are placed in a chronological context by AMS radiocarbon dating of organic matter from selected levels in the cores. The period between 3500 B.C. and 800 B.C. in Pacific coastal Guatemala is of particular interest because it was during this period that many of the distinctive characteristics of Mesoamerican complex societies coalesced. By the end of the period, people in most locations depended heavily on maize agriculture, large sites with monumental architecture and elaborate stone sculpture were being constructed, and social stratification had appeared. The fundamental shifts in subsistence, the increased tethering of people to specific locations, and the beginning of major investment in architectural infrastructure constituted the emergence of Mesoamerican civilization. Unfortunately this Pacific region has been relatively understudied and details of the sequence are poorly known compared, for example, to the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The work of Dr. Neff and his colleagues will both establish an environmental context for this cultural progression and provide insight into the process itself.

在国家科学基金会的情况下，赫克托·内夫（Hector Neff）博士及其合作者将完成对五个太平洋危地马拉的五个沉积物核心的分析，这些沉积物核心跨越了人们首次开始修改农业和其他生存目的的景观的时期。一个地点的初步结果表明，人们将玉米或玉米的直接祖先带到了公元前5000年之前。这种戏剧性的农业强化发生在公元前3500年。可以通过变化的植物微化石（植物石和花粉）和木炭以及沉积速率的变化来检测到人类修饰和其他景观变化的信号。当人们砍伐或烧毁热带森林以进行农业时，随着树木和其他森林物种的下降，杂草和木炭变得越来越普遍。随着森林覆盖的去除，沉积率也会增加。玉米和其他农作物可以从花粉和植物石中鉴定出来，这是提供最安全鉴定的合并证据（植物石是堆积生长植物的微观二氧化硅体）。这些变化是通过从核心中选定水平的有机物对有机物的AMS放射性碳测定的时间表。公元前3500年的期间公元前800年在太平洋沿海地区，危地马拉特别令人感兴趣，因为在此期间，中美洲复杂社会的许多独特特征合并在一起。到当时的结束时，大多数地方的人们都依赖玉米农业，建造具有巨大建筑和精心制作的石材雕塑的大型地点，并且已经出现了社会分层。生存的根本转变，人们增加了人们到特定地点的束缚以及建筑基础设施的重大投资开始构成了中美洲文明的出现。不幸的是，这个太平洋地区已经相对研究了，该序列的细节与墨西哥墨西哥墨西哥沿岸的Olmec Heartland相比，相比之下。内夫（Neff）博士及其同事的工作都将为这种文化发展建立环境环境，并提供对过程本身的见识。