Landscape Succession in Lowland Maya Archaeology

低地玛雅考古中的景观演替

• 批准号: 0840930
• 负责人: Stephen Houston
• 金额: $ 23.51万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-03-01 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0840930&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Landscape; Succession; Lowland; Maya; Archaeology

With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. Stephen Houston and Dr. Thomas Garrison, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues, will conduct three seasons of archaeological field and lab research in north-central Guatemala. The team brings together experts in archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, geomorphology, paleohydrography, remote sensing, paleodiet, and human osteology to address issues of ancient Maya landscape succession from 1000 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E. Landscape succession refers to the ways in which cultural perceptions of the landscape affect human decision making, particularly with respect to settlement, and how these perceptions and decisions change through time depending on historical circumstances. The research area for this project focuses on three sites located within the San Miguel de la Palotada Biotope in the central Peten district. From the Late Preclassic Period onwards (c. 250 BCE), the sites of El Palmar, Bejucal, and El Zotz appear to have succeeded each other in regional prominence. This will be the first project in the central Maya lowlands to investigate systematically the succession of multiple landscapes over the course of Maya civilization. The research focuses on how decisions related to subsistence strategies and settlement location hinged on what the Maya perceived to be the most influential factors in the surrounding landscape. The concept of landscape succession will prove useful to archaeologists working with complex societies throughout the world. The proposed research will situate the Maya within discussions of landscape dynamics in regions such as Mesopotamia, India, China, and South America.The two major research hypotheses put forth are: (1) in the Late Preclassic (400 BC-AD 300), when large-scale communities coalesced in the region, settlements exploited and their location was conditioned by a resource-rich natural landscape; and (2) these settlements were succeeded by Classic Period (AD 300-900) settlements that were strategically established to play a role in the emergent, increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. To address these proposals, the team will reconstruct the ancient natural, political, economic, urban, and rural landscapes through a combination of survey, excavation, paleoenvironmental studies, and epigraphy. These reconstructions will be used to formulate, test, and refine a model of landscape succession for the ancient Maya.The broader impacts of the proposed project are varied. The research converges on an endangered region of the Maya biosphere that is in strong need of archaeological research before further looting and environmental loss destroys significant evidence of the ancient Maya. An understanding of successful adaptations to the ancient environment will help craft responses to current problems of population expansion in the lowland biosphere and contribute to a growing literature on environmental history and human responses to, and instigation of, such change. The project will maintain an updatable wiki website to disseminate general findings to the public and scholarly community. The interdisciplinary nature of the research allows project members to contribute intellectually to debates in archaeology, environmental science, geography, remote sensing, and geographic information science.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，斯蒂芬·休斯顿博士和托马斯·加里森博士与同事跨学科团队合作，将在危地马拉中北部进行三个季节的考古领域和实验室研究。该团队汇集了考古学，肖像学，题词，地貌，古水水学，遥感，古杂种和人类骨科的专家，以解决公元前1000年的古代玛雅景观继任问题。到1500年，景观继承是指对景观的文化看法影响人类决策的方式，尤其是在定居点方面，以及这些观念和决策如何根据历史环境而随时间而变化。该项目的研究区域重点放在中央彼得区的圣米格尔·德拉·帕洛塔达（San Miguel de la Palotada）生物管道内的三个地点。从前期前古时期（约公元前250年），El Palmar，Bejucal和El Zotz的地点似乎在地区的突出性方面取得了成功。这将是中央玛雅低地的第一个项目，在玛雅文明过程中系统地调查多个景观的继承。该研究的重点是与生存策略和定居点有关的决策如何取决于玛雅人认为是周围景观中最具影响力的因素。 景观继承的概念将被证明对与世界各地复杂社会合作的考古学家有用。 拟议的研究将使玛雅人在美索不达米亚，印度，中国和南美等地区的景观动态进行讨论中，提出的两个主要研究假设是：（1）在晚期的预制（400 bc-ad 300）中，当时大规模的社区在该地区，其位置汇总了一个自然的土地，并汇集了一定的土地。 （2）这些定居点取得了经典时期（公元300-900）的成功，这些定居点在战略上建立，以在新兴的，日益复杂的地缘政治景观中发挥作用。为了解决这些建议，团队将通过调查，发掘，古环境研究和题词的结合来重建古老的自然，政治，经济，城市和农村景观。这些重建将用于制定，测试和完善古代玛雅人的景观演替模型。拟议项目的更广泛影响是多种多样的。该研究在玛雅生物圈的濒危地区汇聚，该地区强烈需要考古研究，然后再掠夺和环境损失破坏了古代玛雅人的重大证据。了解对古代环境的成功适应将有助于制定对低地生物圈中人口扩展问题的反应，并为不断增长的环境历史和人类对这种变化的反应和人类反应的文献做出贡献。该项目将维护一个可更新的Wiki网站，以向公众和学术社区传播一般发现。研究的跨学科性质使项目成员能够在考古，环境科学，地理，遥感和地理信息科学上为智力上做出贡献。