Dissertation Research: Rural Household and Community Development in the Xunantunich Hinterland During the Late and Terminal Classic

在温迪·阿什莫尔博士的指导下，辛西娅·罗宾女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。在先前研究的基础上，她将在位于伯利兹河谷热带低地环境中的Xunantunich遗址进行考古调查和挖掘。Xunantunich是一个玛雅遗址，在古典末期晚期(约公元600-1000年)被占领，因此跨越了玛雅文明的鼎盛和早期衰落。该遗址不同寻常，因为与估计的人口规模相比，它包含一个相对较小的仪式中心，缺乏纪念性建筑。在玛雅人发展的高峰期之后，大多数遗址的规模都在缩小，相反的情况似乎发生在Xunantunich，中心变得更大，而不是更小。罗宾女士想要研究“中央集权”地区和“农村”地区之间的关系，并通过这一点洞察政治是如何在社会和政治上组织起来的，以及是什么力量将实体凝聚在一起。虽然玛雅地区的许多工作都集中在遗址中心，但对腹地地区的了解较少。罗宾将继续她的田野工作，以确定家庭区域的位置，因为这些区域可以最大限度地揭示社会和经济组织。使用前几个季节开发的方法，她将在可能居住的地区提取按规则间隔分布的土芯，并通过分析由此恢复的文化遗迹来定位家园，以便进行广泛的水平挖掘。她还将挖掘由于更大的社会团体长期占领而产生的土堆。找回的陶瓷、石器和其他材料将使她能够确定各个遗址的年代，并检查工艺专门化和等级分化程度等问题。虽然众所周知，在古典时期的鼎盛时期，玛雅人的定居点将大量个人整合到中央控制的社会群体中，但用于实现这一目的的机制尚未得到很好的了解，考古学家对这些联系的性质和强度也存在分歧。只有通过大规模的挖掘和调查，答案才有可能浮出水面，罗宾女士的研究就是朝着这个目标进行的。她提供的数据将会引起许多考古学家的兴趣。该项目还将帮助培训一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Wendy Ashmore, MS Cynthia Robin will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Building on prior research she will conduct an archaeological survey and excavation at the site of Xunantunich located in the Belize River Valley in a tropical lowland environment. Xunantunich is a Mayan site which was occupied during the Late to Terminal Classic periods (ca. 600-1000 AD) and thus spans both the height and early decline of the Mayan civilization. The site is unusual because in relation to its estimated population size it contains a relatively small ceremonial center and a dearth of monumental architecture. After the peak of Mayan development when most sites decline in size the opposite appears to have occurred at Xunantunich and the center grows larger rather than smaller. MS Robin wants to examine the relationship between `central` and `rural` areas and through this gain insight into how the polity was organized socially and politically and what forces held the entity together. While much work in the Mayan region has focused on site centers less is known about hinterland areas. MS Robin shall continue her fieldwork to locate household areas since these can shed the most light on social and economic organization. Using a methodology developed in prior seasons she will extract soil cores spaced at regular intervals in areas of likely habitation and through analysis of cultural remains thus recovered locate homesteads for extensive horizontal excavation. She will also excavate in mounds which result from longer term occupation by larger social groups. The ceramics, lithics and other materials recovered will permit her to date individual sites and to examine questions such as craft specialization and degree of hierarchical differentiation. While it is known that Mayan settlements at the height of the Classic period integrated large numbers of individuals into centrally controlled social groupings the mechanisms used to accomplish this end are not well understood and archaeologists disagree on the nature and strength of these bonds. It is only through large scale excavation and survey that answers are likely to emerge and MS Robin's research is directed towards this end. The data she produces will be of interest to many archaeologists. The project will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.