Political Geography of Mayan Peten

在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北电地区进行两个野外考古季节的研究。这项工作的目标是了解玛雅文化在“古典玛雅”崩溃后发生了什么。考古证据清楚地表明，在玛雅人发展的顶峰时期，社会达到了复杂的程度。祭司皇帝统治着美国中部低地的大片地区。一种书写系统被设计出来，纪念性建筑的重要性通过保存到现在的寺庙土堆来展示。考古和文字资料都表明，大量的人被编入单一的政治单位，传统的农业技术在困难的低地热带环境中提供了足够的食物。然而，大约在公元9世纪，这个经典的玛雅社会“崩溃”，其原因却鲜为人知。赖斯博士和他的同事们将重点研究公元9世纪到17世纪，当时欧洲人征服了这一地区。他们将从早期的西班牙文本开始工作，这些文本描述了主要的玛雅城镇，并大致定位了这些城镇。通过地面调查，他们将试图确定这些地点，并通过有限的考古挖掘，提供日期。这些信息将为一个主要的挖掘项目提供框架，该项目将允许在大约800年的间隔内追踪玛雅人的衰落。这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供关于一个鲜为人知的史前时期的信息。它产生的数据将会引起许多考古学家的兴趣，它将增加我们对复杂社会如何产生和衰落的理解。

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.