Household Archeology at Ceren, El Salvador

公元600年左右，萨尔瓦多拉古纳火山口火山的灾难性喷发完全掩埋了一处玛雅人的宅基地和周围的田野。1978年，Ceren遗址的初步发掘表明，火山灰聚集在周围，保存完好的建筑物、木制品、树木、玉米植株、有脚印的田野和人体。随后在1979年进行的地球物理勘查证实，存在完好无损的房屋，这些房屋仍然埋在5米厚的火山灰下。NSF在1989年资助的研究发现了保存极为完好的遗骸。Sheets博士和他的同事们将回到这个地点，继续他们的广泛挖掘。通过明智地使用重型设备，横断面将被切割并移除覆盖层，以便轻松地手动挖掘地物。将恢复和分析花卉和动物材料，以重建家庭生计，预计骨骼材料将提供对家庭组成的洞察。田野挖掘将使农业技术得以重建。即使与庞贝等旧大陆遗址相比，Ceren也是独一无二的，因为火山灰基质如此精细，以至于它可以将有机物质保存到细胞水平。这一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，以及对人类行为、人口统计学、营养、农业和经济学的重要见解。人类学家已经认识到，在许多社会中，“家庭”--一群生活在一个地方并每天密切合作的个人--构成了一个基本的单位。然而，考古学上的家庭通常很难分离和研究。在Ceren，似乎就存在这样一个单位。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它将为复杂的玛雅社会的发展提供新的重要线索，并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.