Excavation at Copan

这笔赠款允许桑德斯博士和惠廷顿继续 在科潘遗址进行考古研究。 位于 洪都拉斯，这个大型遗址记录了玛雅文化的兴起。 在“古典时期”， 建设达到了顶峰，在接下来的时间里， 玛雅社会的“崩溃” 在工作的基础上， 桑德斯博士领导了一个多学科的实地项目， 从1980年12月至今。 科潘的发展与城市的“核心”，其中住房高地位 个人，周围是一个农村地区与较小的家园。 然而，在这个偏远地区，一些更大的精英 住宅也位于。 这些往往发生在成对的 配置不同的站点。 虽然有些工作 在这些农村精英大院里，他们的功能并不好 明白 桑德斯博士和惠廷顿博士将挖掘出两个 中心. 像陶器这样的人工制品应该可以让我们深入了解 网站功能 人工埋葬将产生健康数据， 营养，居民和黑曜石的人口统计学，这可以是 通过水化技术，将允许更精确的 约会 考古学家仍然不明白玛雅帝国 出现，维持，然后崩溃，在这样一个相对 短时间内，这项研究将有助于回答这个问题 问题 它也将增加我们对这方面的知识， 重要网站 考古数据，因为它们涵盖了如此长的时间跨度， 由于它们提供了直接的环境信息， 非常适合回答这样的文化过程问题。

This grant permits Drs. Sanders and Whittington to continue archaeological research at the site of Copan. Located in Honduras, this large site documents the rise of Mayan culture. It was also occupied during the "classic period" when monumental construction reached its peak and during the following interval which saw the "collapse" of Mayan society. Building on work by other teams, Dr. Sanders led a multidisciplinary field project there from December 1980 until the present. Copan developed with an urban "core" which housed high status individuals, surrounded by a rural area with smaller homesteads. Within this outlying region, however, a few larger elite residences are also located. These tend to occur in paired sites which differ in configuration. Although some work has been done in these rural elite compounds their functions are not well understood. Drs. Sanders and Whittington will excavate two such centers. Artifacts such as pottery should provide insight into site function. Recovered burials will yield data on health, nutrition, and demography of residents and obsidian, which can be dated by a hydration technique, will allow for more precise dating. Archaeologists still do not understand how the Mayan empire arose, was maintained, and then collapsed in such a relatively short period of time, and this research will help to answer this question. It will also increase our knowledge about this very important site. Archaeological data, because they cover such long spans of time and because of the direct environmental information they provide, are well suited to answering such questions of culture process.