Dissertation Research: Archaeological Excavation of the Xunantunich Maya

在Wendy Ashmore博士的指导下，Angela Keller女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。在过去的几年里，她参与了对位于伯利兹低地的玛雅遗址Xunantunich的调查和挖掘。它主要由一群核心的纪念性建筑组成，包括人行道、道路、公共广场和露台，以及更大、更令人印象深刻的寺庙丘。这个网站之所以特别有趣，有几个原因。首先，它的日期相对较晚，在玛雅序列只有后期后经典和终端经典组件。这意味着架构布局可以被看作本质上是同步的，并且按时间周期划分的特性的最小隔离是必要的。其次，基地本身和周围腹地之间存在着一种奇怪的分离，在基地被占领之前和被遗弃之后，周围的腹地都保持着大量繁荣的人口。这在玛雅文化中是不寻常的。Ashmore， Keller和其他团队成员检查了Xunantunich核心的空间组织，并将其与描述玛雅村庄的民族历史文献进行了比较，这些文献最初是由西班牙人描述的。他们认为，主要的建筑和堤道是按照仪式路线组织起来的，空间上的排列反映了玛雅人对宇宙秩序的信仰。只挖掘了遗址的一部分，详细的地图还没有完成。在NSF支持的一个季节的实地考察中，Keller女士将同时做这两件事。她已经确定了支持“宇宙”模型所需的数据配置，并将收集必要的信息来验证这一想法。考古学家希望了解玛雅文明是如何产生的，并由生活在极其恶劣的环境中，拥有简单技术水平的人们维持下来的。如何可能将大量的人融入广泛的社会和经济体系？许多考古学家认为，政治权力和仪式权力本质上是同义的，通过控制重要的仪式，统治者能够行使相当大的权力。如果搜南都尼在空间上是按照仪式路线组织的，这一事实将有力地支持这一假设。这项研究也很重要，因为它将有助于培养有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Wendy Ashmore, MS Angela Keller will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. For the last several years she has participated in the survey and excavation of Xunantunich, a Mayan site located in lowland Belize. It consists primarily of a core cluster of monumental architecture with walkways, roads, public plazas and terraces as well as larger more impressive temple mounds. The site is particularly interesting for several reasons. First, it dates to relatively late in the Maya sequence with only Late Postclassic and Terminal Classic components. This means that the architectural layout can be viewed as essentially synchronous and minimal segregation of features by time period is necessary. Secondly, a curious disjunction exists between the site itself and the surrounding hinterland which maintained a large and prosperous population both before the site was occupied and after its abandonment. This is unusual in a Mayan context. Ashmore, Keller and other team members have examined the spatial organization of the Xunantunich core and compared it to ethnohistoric documents which describe how Mayan villages, when first described by the Spanish, were arranged. They believe that major buildings and causeways were organized along ritual lines and that the arrangement in space reflected Mayan beliefs about cosmic order. Only portions of the site have been excavated and detailed mapping has not been completed. During one season of NSF supported fieldwork MS Keller will do both. She has determined what configuration of data is necessary to support a `cosmic` model and will collect the necessary information to test this idea. Archaeologists wish to understand how the Mayan civilization arose and was maintained by people who lived in an extremely harsh environment and who possessed a simple level of technology. How was it possible to integrate large numbers of people into widespread social and economic systems? Many archaeologists have postulated that political and ritual power were essentially synonymous and through control of important rituals rulers were able to exercise considerable power. Were Xunantunich spatially organized along ritual lines, this fact would strongly support this hypothesis. This research is also important because it will assist in training a promising young scientist.