Political Geography of Mayan Peten

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，唐·赖斯博士和他的同事们将在危地马拉的佩滕地区进行两次实地考古研究。这项工作的目标是了解在“古典玛雅”崩溃后玛雅文化发生了什么。考古证据清楚地表明，在玛雅发展的高峰时期，社会的复杂性达到了一定程度。牧师皇帝统治着美国中部的大片低地。一种书写系统被发明出来，保存至今的寺庙土丘证明了纪念性建筑的重要性。考古和文字资料都表明，大量的人被纳入单一的政治单位，传统的农业技术有助于在困难的低地热带环境中提供足够的食物。然而，大约在公元9世纪，这个经典的玛雅社会“崩溃”了，其原因鲜为人知。Rice博士和他的同事们将把重点放在公元9世纪到17世纪之间的时间间隔上，那时欧洲人征服了这个地区。他们将从早期的西班牙文本开始工作，这些文本描述了玛雅主要城镇的大致位置。通过实地调查，他们将试图找到这些，并通过有限的考古发掘，提供日期。这些信息将为一个大型挖掘项目提供框架，该项目将使玛雅人的“衰落”得以追溯到大约800年的间隔。这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供一段鲜为人知的史前时期的信息。它产生的数据将引起许多考古学家的兴趣，它将增加我们对复杂社会如何兴起和衰落的理解。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Don Rice and his colleagues will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research in the Peten region of Guatemala. The goal of the work is to understand what happened to Mayan cultures after the collapse of the "Classical Maya." Archaeological evidence clearly demonstrates the degree of social complexity which was achieved at the height of Mayan development. Priest emperors ruled over large areas of lowland Middle America. A writing system was devised and the importance of monumental architecture is demonstrated by temple mounds which survive to present times. Both archaeological and textual data indicate that large numbers of people were integrated into single political units and that traditional agricultural techniques served to provide adequate food in a difficult lowland tropical environment. In approximately the 9th century AD however this classic Mayan society "collapsed" and the reasons for this are poorly known. Dr Rice and his colleagues will focus on the time interval between the 9th and 17th centuries AD, when Europeans conquered this area. They will work from early Spanish texts which described, and located - in a general way - major Mayan towns. Through on the ground survey they will attempt to locate these and through limited archaeological excavation, provide dates. This information will provide the framework for a major excavation project which will allow the Mayan "decline" to be traced over a ca. 800 year interval. This project is important for several reasons. It will provide information on a little understood period of prehistory. The data it produces will be of interest to many archaeologists and it will increase our understanding of how complex societies arise, and also decline.