Household Archeology at Ceren, El Salvador

于约公元600年，拉古纳火山爆发， 萨尔瓦多的一座火山完全掩埋了玛雅人的宅基地， 周围的田野。初步挖掘在这个 1978年在塞伦发现的火山灰 周围和彻底保存的结构，木制文物， 树木、玉米、有脚印的田野和人体。 随后在1979年进行的地球物理勘探证实， 仍被埋在5米以下的完好房屋的存在 灰。 NSF在1989年资助的研究显示， 保存的遗骸。 Sheets博士和他的同事将回到 继续进行大规模的挖掘 通过 明智地使用重型设备，将切割一个样带， 去除覆盖层，以便方便手工挖掘特征。 将回收和分析植物和动物材料， 重建家庭生计，并预期 这些材料将使人们深入了解家庭组成情况。 领域 挖掘工作将使农业技术得以重建。 Ceren是独一无二的，即使与旧世界遗址相比， 庞贝城，因为火山灰基质非常精细， 将有机物质保存到细胞水平。 这 几乎完整的物质文化记录将允许 详细重建功能正常的家庭， 对人类行为、人口统计学、营养学、农业、 和经济学。 人类学家逐渐意识到，在许多 “家庭”-一群生活在 在一个地方，每天密切合作- 形成一个基本单位。 然而，从考古学的角度来看， 通常很难分离和研究。 在塞伦， 这样的单位存在。 这项研究很重要，因为它将产生一个新的， 复杂的玛雅社会发展的重要光， 帮助我们理解复杂性是如何发展和维持的。

In ca. AD 600 a catastrophic eruption by the Laguna Caldera volcano in El Salvador completely buried a Mayan homestead and the fields which surrounded it. Preliminary excavations at this site of Ceren in 1978 indicated that the volcanic ash packed around and thoroughly preserved structures, wooden artifacts, trees, corn plants, a field with footprints, and human bodies. Subsequent geophysical prospection in 1979 confirmed the existence of intact houses which remain buried under five meters of ash. NSF funded research in 1989 revealed extremely well preserved remains. Dr. Sheets and his colleagues will return to this site and continue their extensive excavation. Through judicious use of heavy equipment, a transect will be cut and overburden removed to allow easy hand excavation of features. Floral and faunal materials will be recovered and analyzed to reconstruct household subsistence, and expected skeletal materials will provide insight into family composition. Field excavation will allow reconstruction of agricultural techniques. Ceren is unique, even in comparison to Old World sites such as Pompeii, because the volcanic ash matrix is so fine that it preserves organic materials down to the cellular level. This virtually complete material culture record will allow for a detailed reconstruction of functioning households and important insights to human behavior, demography, nutrition, agriculture, and economics. Anthropologists have come to realize that in many societies the "household" - a group of individuals who live together in one place and closely cooperate on a daily basis - form an essential unit. However, archaeologically households are usually difficult to isolate and study. At Ceren it appears that just such a unit exists. This research is important because it will shed a new and important light on the development of complex Mayan society and help us to understand how complexity develops and is maintained.