Biological Inequality at Tikal, Guatemala: Bioarchaeological Aspects of Social Complexity in an Ancient Maya Site

在国家科学基金会的支持下，洛里赖特博士将对从玛雅考古遗址蒂卡尔收集的骨骼材料进行初步分析。蒂卡尔市位于危地马拉佩滕省北方的低地，是古玛雅文明发展和消亡的重要信息来源。从CA占用。公元前600年至公元1,000年，蒂卡尔逐渐成为古代中美洲最大的城市之一。像其他玛雅政体一样，蒂卡尔的命运也有起有落。在其存在的早期，人口被认为只分为两个社会阶层。在随后的古典晚期时期，蒂卡尔逐渐成为一个中央集权国家的中心，人口多达62，000人，社会经济更加多样化，地位等级也越来越高。史前社会系统的考古重建强调了财富和能量消耗的物质象征。然而，这些数据提供的信息有限，并不反映这些区别对个人的直接影响。体质人类学技术可以通过查明不同的食物消费模式、发病率和儿童成长方面的差异以及通过研究遗传结构来解决社会不平等的生物影响。这种趋势通常被认为与史前玛雅国家有关，但尚未得到充分探索。 在蒂卡尔的考古工作已经发现了几个系列的人类骨骼遗骸，其他研究人员的初步分析表明，重建的身高差异实际上反映了地位差异。赖特博士想对整个样本做详细分析。可以应用各种生物和化学技术来确定生长模式、物理压力程度和饮食。然而，这些材料储存在三个地点，没有一个有良好的库存。在热带条件下，骷髅的保存往往很差，许多材料都不完整。有了这个NSF奖，赖特博士将前往危地马拉，进行一个完整的库存和评估每个骨架的状态。这些数据将为评估全面研究项目的可行性提供基础。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Lori Wright will conduct a preliminary analysis of skeletal material collected from the Tikal, a Mayan archaeological site. Located in the lowlands of the northern Guatemalan Department of Peten, the city of Tikal has been a critical source of information about the development and demise of ancient Maya civilization. Occupied from ca. 600 BC through AD 1,000, Tikal grew to be among the largest cities of ancient Mesoamerica. Like other Maya polities, Tikal's fortunes waxed and waned. During the earlier part of its existence, the population is thought to have been divided into only two social tiers. During the following Late Classic period, Tikal grew to become the center of a centralized state, encompassing as many as 62,000 people, with greater socioeconomic diversity and a proliferation of status levels. Archaeological reconstruction's of prehistoric social systems have emphasized material symbols of wealth and energy expenditure. However these data provide only limited information and do not reflect the direct impact of these distinctions on individuals. Physical anthropological techniques can address the biological implications of social inequality through the identification of patterns of differential food consumption, differences in morbidity and childhood growth and through study of genetic structure. Such trends are commonly assumed to have pertained in prehistoric Mayan states but have yet to be fully explored. Excavations at Tikal have recovered several series of human skeletal remains and preliminary analyses by other investigators suggest that reconstructed height differences reflect, in fact, status differences. Dr. Wright wishes to do a detailed analysis of the entire sample. A variety of biological and chemical techniques can be applied to determine growth patterns, degree of physical stress and diet. However the materials are stored in three locations and none are well inventoried. Skeletal preservation is often poor in tropical conditions and many of the materials are incomplete. With this NSF award, Dr. Wright will travel to Guatemala, conduct a complete inventory and assess the state of each skeleton. These data will provide the basis to assess the feasibility of a full scale research project.