The Reconstruction of Early Complex Society in Pacific Guatemala

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Michael Love博士将在危地马拉太平洋海岸附近的Ujuxte考古遗址进行两个野外挖掘季节和额外的一段时间的分析。初步调查表明，乌尤克斯特大约在公元前600年开始作为一个规划城市，并发展到相当大的比例。调查显示，在其鼎盛时期，它覆盖了超过4平方公里，并占据了一些二级中心，其中包含其仪式建筑的较小副本。通过他的工作，乐福博士希望了解该遗址的历史，以及它的社会、经济和政治组织是如何随着时间的推移而发展和变化的。为了实现这些目标，他将首先进行一次密集的地表调查，并收集陶器和其他文化材料。在此基础上，他将选择住宅结构的样本进行挖掘。通过对陶瓷的分析，将有可能重建社会概况，确定经济分化的程度，并确定是否存在等级组织形式。通过对黑铁矿文物的水化分析，将建立详细的年代学。早期复杂的社会现在被认为是脆弱的，并受到融合和解体循环的影响。洛夫博士将在一个拥有目前已知的中美洲最早的复杂社会遗迹的地区研究一个这样的周期。这些社会的演变对于理解中美洲文化史具有基本的重要性，并可以阐明复杂社会发展的机制。在中世纪前古典主义时期，大约从公元前900-600年，该地区第一个以La Blanca遗址为中心的大型地区政体建立并崩溃。在那次坍塌之后不久，乌朱克特近在咫尺的遗址首先得到了发展。乐福博士的研究考察了从La Blanca政体到Ujuxte主导政体的过渡。它将从社会组织、经济结构和权力的思想基础方面对这两个实体进行比较。这项研究试图了解乌尤库特政体的结构在多大程度上重现了La Blanca的政体结构。在结构截然不同的程度上，研究人员将询问是什么条件使Ujuxte能够在La Blanca没有的地方生存和生长。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael Love will conduct two field seasons of excavation and an additional period of analysis at the archaeological site of Ujuxte, located near the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Preliminary investigations indicate that Ujuxte began as a planned city at approximately 600 BC and grew to reach considerable proportions. Survey has shown that at its peak, it covered over 4 sq kilometers and dominated a number of secondary centers which contained smaller copies of its ceremonial architecture. Through his work, Dr. Love wishes to understand the history of the site and how its social, economic and political organization developed and changed over time. To accomplish these goals, he will first conduct an intensive surface survey and collect pottery and other cultural materials. On this basis he will select a sample of residential structures for excavation. Through the analysis of ceramics it will be possible to reconstruct a social profile, determine the extent of economic differentiation and determine if a hierarchical form of organization existed. Through hydration analysis of obsidian artifacts, a detailed chronology will be constructed. Early complex societies are now recognized as fragile and subject to cycles of integration and decomposition. Dr. Love will investigate one such cycle in a region which has remains of the earliest complex societies presently known for Mesoamerica. The evolution of those societies has basic importance for the understanding of Mesoamerican culture history and can shed light on the mechanisms of the development of complex society. During the Middle Preclassic period, from ca. 900-600 BC, the region's first large regional polity, centered on the site of La Blanca, was constituted and collapsed. Soon after that collapse the nearly site of Ujuxte first developed. Dr. Love's research examines the transition from the La Blanca polity to that dominated by Ujuxte. It will compare the two entities in terms of social organization, economic structures and ideological basis of power. The research seeks to understand the extent to which the structures of the Ujxute polity recreated those of La Blanca. To the extent that the structures are distinct, the research will then ask what conditions enabled Ujuxte to endure and grow where La Blanca did not.