Excavation at Copan

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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.