Doctoral Dissertation: Recycling the Sacred Landscape: The Ritual Reuse of Cultural Geography among the Late Postclassic Maya

在Karl Traube博士的指导下，Karl Lorenzen先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将继续在位于墨西哥南部金塔纳罗奥地区的Tumben-Naranjal遗址进行考古研究。该网站是重要的，因为它经历了两个时期的占领。它最初是在古典玛雅时期建造的，包含寺庙，仪式坟墓和其他标志着玛雅文明高度的纪念碑。它和邻近的对应物在古典时期结束时相对废弃，大约900年没有被占用。在后古典时期后期，紧接着西班牙移民，该网站被重新占领，再次由玛雅人。洛伦岑对后一个时期感兴趣，他想确定后古典时代的领导人如何与废弃的建筑和其他景观特征建立仪式联系，以建立权力。他认为，通过操纵和声称与古典精英的象征性联系，后古典统治者努力加强自己的权力。许多高地位的后古典家族神龛和坟墓在空间上与早期的对应物相关联。基于人种学类比和对早期西班牙文献的分析，Lorenzen先生认为，这一策略是流离失所的玛雅氏族群体采用的一种故意策略，他们在迁移期间重建了他们的血统历史，并将其移植到他们重新占领的地点。这种专门方法的关键组成部分包括一种有效的祖先崇拜形式，战略性地放置墓葬，创造了一种虚构的遗产，最终使遗址所有权合法化。 在过去的田野季节里，Lorenzen先生在现场进行了调查和有限的挖掘。在NSF的支持下，他将在后期后古典神社建筑群的基础平台以及与仪式建筑相关的简单住宅基础周围进行测试挖掘。挖掘仪式建筑物附近的垃圾堆积物将恢复仪式活动中使用的文物，并提供有关这些建筑物的使用和功能的宝贵数据。住宅区将被检查的证据，仪式建筑，如神社和改变。根本的问题是，大群体的个人是如何组织成功能性社会单位的，以及地位等级是如何发展和维持的。玛雅考古学家已经意识到，宗教仪式在这方面发挥了重要作用，而Tumben-Naranjal被重新占领的事实使人们有可能对这一过程的运作方式获得独特的见解。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多区域考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它将为史前社会组织提供新的线索，并将有助于培养一个有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Karl Traube, Mr. Karl Lorenzen will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will continue his archaeological research at the site of Tumben-Naranjal, located in the Quintana Roo region of Southern Mexico. The site is important because it experienced two periods of occupation. It was originally constructed during the Classic Maya period and contains temples, ceremonial tombs and other monuments which characterized the height of Mayan civilization. It and adjacent counterparts were relatively abandoned at the end of the Classic period and remained unoccupied for approximately 900 years. During the late Postclassic period which immediately proceeded Spanish immigration, the site was reoccupied, again by Mayan peoples. Mr. Lorenzen is interested in this latter time period and wants to determine how Postclassic leaders may have established ritual ties with both the abandoned buildings and with other features of the landscape to establish power. He believes that by manipulating and claiming symbolic ties with the Classic elite, Postclassic rulers worked to reinforce their own power. Many high status Postclassic family shrines and tombs are spatially associated with their earlier counterparts. Based on ethnographic analogy and analysis of early Spanish documents Mr. Lorenzen believes that this strategy was an intentional tactic employed by displaced Maya kin-based groups who during periods of migration recreated their lineage histories and transplanted them to the sites they reoccupied. The key component of this specialized approach incorporated a potent form of ancestor veneration strategically placed burials created a fictive patrimony which ultimately served to legitimize site title. In past field seasons Mr. Lorenzen has conducted survey and limited excavation at the site. With NSF support he will carry out test excavations around basal platforms of Late Postclassic shrine complexes as well as simple residential foundations associated with ceremonial architecture. Excavation of refuse deposits adjacent to ceremonial structures will recover artifacts used during ritual activities and provide valuable data regarding the use and function of these structures. Residential compounds will be examined for evidence of ritual architecture such as shrines and alters. The underlying question is how large groups of individuals were organized into functional social units and how status hierarchies developed and were maintained. Mayan archaeologists have come to realize that religious ritual served an important function in this regard and the fact that Tumben-Naranjal was reoccupied, makes it possible to gain unique insight into how this process worked. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many regional archaeologists. It will shed new light onto prehistoric social organization and will assist in training a promising young scientist.