Dissertation Research: The Classic Maya Collapse and Changing Ceramic Production and Distribution in the Petexbatun Region

小行星9311836 在亚瑟德马雷斯特博士的指导下，Antonia Foias女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将分析从危地马拉Peten的Petexbatun地区的遗址收集的陶瓷材料，这些材料跨越了公元前1000年至公元前1000年的时期。650 - 950 A.D.正是在这段时间，玛雅社会在这个地区达到了他们的发展的最高点，然后崩溃。通过Demarest博士和他的合作者以前在这个玛雅中部地区的广泛工作，主要的遗址是已知的，陶瓷年表建立和大量的材料挖掘。在为期10个月的实地考察期间，Foias女士将继续她对陶瓷遗骸的持续分析。她将根据类型/品种系统对作品进行分类，以确定相对年龄。然后，她将记录一些观察结果，以确定类内的标准化程度，并了解这是如何随着时间和空间的变化。这些数据将使我们深入了解生产的背景。Foias女士希望了解商业化和大规模生产-以标准化程度衡量-是否随着时间的推移而增加，以及这一进程是否导致较小的竞争中心。她还将确定可能表明入侵的非本地材料的频率。Foias女士还将在史密森学会对选定材料进行中子活化分析。由此产生的微量元素数据将提供与标准化和外国影响问题有关的信息。 早在哥伦布到达新大陆之前，玛雅文明就在中美洲低地荒凉的热带环境中繁荣起来。玛雅人建造大型寺庙和仪式建筑的许多地区只支持今天的低人口密度。在公元第一个千年达到顶峰后，纪念性建筑停止了，人们放弃了城市中心，分散成较小的群体。考古学家希望了解这种“崩溃”的原因，并提出了一些假设来解释它。这些假设包括环境破坏和外国征服。Foais女士将使用陶瓷数据来评估其中一些选择。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将揭示复杂社会如何产生、运作和衰落。最后，它将协助培训一名有前途的青年科学家。 ***

9311836 Demarest Under the direction of Dr. Arthur Demarest, Ms. Antonia Foias will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze ceramic materials collected from sites in the Petexbatun region of the Peten, Guatemala and which span the period from ca. 650 - 950 A.D. It was during this time that the Mayan societies in this region reached their highest point of development and then collapsed. Through extensive previous work by Dr. Demarest and his collaborators in this central Mayan region, the major sites are known, a ceramic chronology established and a large amount of material excavated. Over a 10 month field period Ms. Foias will continue her ongoing analysis of the ceramic remains. She will categorize pieces according to a type/variety system to establish relative ages. She will then record a number of observations to determine the degree of standardization within classes and learn how this changes over both time and space. These data will give insight into the context of production. Ms. Foias wishes to learn whether commercialization and mass production - as measured by degree of standardization - increased over time and whether this process resulted in smaller competing centers. She will also determine the frequency of non-local materials which may indicate invasion. Ms. Foias will also conduct neutron activation analysis of selected materials at the Smithsonian Institution. The resultant trace element data will provide information relevant to questions of both standardization and foreign influence. Well before the arrival of Columbus in the New World the Mayan civilization flourished in the inhospitable tropical environment of lowland Middle America. Many of the areas in which Mayans constructed large temples and ceremonial complexes support only low population densities today. After reaching a peak in the first millennium A.D. monumental construction ceased and people abandoned urban centers to disperse into smaller groups. Archaeologist s wish to understand the causes of this "collapse" and have proposed a number of hypotheses to account for it. These range from environmental depletion through foreign conquest. Ms. Foais will employ ceramic data to evaluate a number of these options. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also shed light on how complex societies arise, function and decline. Finally, it will assist in the training of a promising young scientist. ***