Excavation at Copan

这项拨款允许博士。桑德斯和惠廷顿继续在科潘遗址进行考古研究。这个位于洪都拉斯的大型遗址记录了玛雅文化的兴起。在纪念性建筑达到顶峰的“古典时期”，以及随后玛雅社会“崩溃”的时期，它也曾被占领。在其他团队工作的基础上，桑德斯博士从1980年12月到现在领导了一个多学科领域项目。科潘的发展以城市“核心”为中心，这里居住着地位高的人，周围是拥有较小家园的农村地区。然而，在这个偏远地区，也有一些更大的精英住宅。这些倾向于发生在成对的结构不同的位点上。虽然在这些农村精英化合物中已经做了一些工作，但它们的功能还没有得到很好的理解。Drs。桑德斯和惠廷顿将挖掘两个这样的中心。像陶器这样的文物应该能让我们深入了解遗址的功能。回收的墓葬将提供有关居民健康、营养和人口统计的数据，而黑曜石可以通过水合技术确定年代，从而可以更精确地确定年代。考古学家仍然不明白玛雅帝国是如何在如此短的时间内兴起，维持，然后崩溃的，而这项研究将有助于回答这个问题。它也将增加我们对这个非常重要的地点的了解。考古资料，因为它们涵盖了如此长的时间跨度，因为它们提供了直接的环境信息，非常适合回答这些文化过程的问题。

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.