Prehistoric Maya Wetland Agriculture and Political Develop- ment in Northern Belize, Central America

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Mary Pohl博士和她的同事将在伯利兹的Albion岛进行两个多学科研究的田野季节。这项工作的目标是了解这一地区玛雅文明的发展。以前的研究已经证明，在美国中部的几个地区，史前民族已经使用了一种形式的湿地农业。这包括建造带有中间运河的隆起的田地系统，为作物生产提供适量的水。已知在阿尔比昂地区存在这样的场。波尔博士和她的合作者将使用航空数据来描绘这些特征。这将与实地研究相结合，以提供地面事实。还将收集土壤岩芯，以追踪随时间变化的地貌和进行考古挖掘。在此基础上，应该可以确定环境是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，农业实践是如何相应地改变的，以及这如何影响玛雅社会组织。美洲中部的玛雅印第安人发展了复杂的社会，拥有文字、纪念碑般的建筑和中央集权的政治等级制度。它们能够在热带地区生存，今天只能养活很少的人口。考古学家希望了解这些群体是如何存在的，以及是什么过程导致了如此复杂的文明的出现。在阿尔比昂岛上可以观察到这种发展的证据。在那里，古代农业遗迹在淹水的条件下得到了特殊的保存，再加上之前的丰富的考古研究，使这里成为研究这类问题的理想场所。波尔认为，海平面的波动是导致农民被迫在田里投入额外劳动力的变化的原因。这反过来又使他们的机动性大大降低，最终依赖于精英军事力量来保护这些改良的土地。这项研究将使她能够评估这一假设。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对复杂社会如何发展的理解，并为玛雅考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它在技术上也是创新的，因为它在考古方面利用了先进的地理信息系统。希望它将成为其他领域今后工作的典范。最后，对玛雅人种植的田野农业的洞察可能会被证明在第三世界地区开发新的农业技术方面有用。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Mary Pohl and her colleagues will conduct two field seasons of multidisciplinary research on Albion Island, Belize. The goal of the work is to understand the development of Mayan civilization in this area. Previous work has demonstrated that in several regions of Middle America, prehistoric peoples have used a form of wet field agriculture. This involved building systems of raised fields with intervening canals which provided the right amount of water for crop production. Such fields are known to exist in the Albion region. Dr. Pohl and her collaborators will use aerial data to delineate such features. This will be combined with research on the ground to provide ground truth. Soil cores will also be collected to trace changing landforms over time and archaeological excavations conducted. On this basis, it should be possible to determine how environment changed over time, how agricultural practices were altered accordingly, and how this affected Mayan social organization. The Mayan Indians of Middle America developed complex societies with writing, monumental architecture and centralized political hierarchy. They were able to subsist in tropical areas which can today support only very small populations. Archaeologists wish to understand both how these groups subsisted and what processes led to the emergence of such complex civilizations. Evidence of such a development can be observed on Albion Island. The exceptional preservation of remains from ancient agriculture in water-logged conditions there, together with a wealth of previous archaeological research, makes this an ideal place to examine such issues. Pohl believes that fluctuations in sea level were responsible for changes in which farmers were forced to invest additional labor in their fields. This, in turn, made them much less mobile and ultimately dependent on elite military strength for protection of these improved lands. This research will allow her to evaluate this hypothesis. This research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how complex societies develop and provide data of interest to Mayan archaeologists. It is also technologically innovative since it makes archaeological use of an advanced Geographic Information System. Hopefully, it will serve as a model for future work in other areas. Finally, the insights gained into Mayan raised field agriculture may prove of use in developing new agricultural techniques third world areas.