Testing Economic Models of the Classic Maya Civilization at Motul de San Jose, Peten, Guatemala

在危地马拉佩滕的 Motul de San Jose 测试经典玛雅文明的经济模型

• 批准号: 9905456
• 负责人: Antonia Foias
• 金额: $ 12.62万
• 依托单位: Williams College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2001-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9905456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Testing; Economic; Models; Classic; Maya

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Antonia Foias will conduct two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at the site of Motul de San Jose, located in Guatemala's Central Peten. This secondary center was occupied during the Late Classic period and thus dates from the height of Mayan civilization. Preliminary work by Dr. Foias and her colleagues indicates that the site was a center for the production of polychrome vessels with elaborately painted texts and that these were widely distributed. The goal of this work is to address the question of Mayan social organization and to determine the social, political and economic strategies which Mayan elites used to bind large numbers of individuals together in effectively functioning social units. Although many sites have been excavated, archaeologists still do not know the extent to which power was centralized or segmented among multiple factions. The research will include a detailed settlement survey and extensive subsurface testing in the monumental site core and periphery. During the 1999 and 2000 field seasons the primary goal will be to examine large-scale distribution of economic activities across the site core and periphery to understand the degree of elite control over economic production and exchange. An intensive survey of a 2 square km. area around the site core and of two 250 m wide and 4 km long transects oriented North and South of the site core will be complemented by test pitting of all plaza groups and by intensive shovel testing of refuse deposits surrounding structures. The extensive artifact collections provided by the test pitting and shovel testing programs will be used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of production activities as identified by manufacturing debris, production tools or high densities of specific artifact classes. The association of these production loci with elite or non-elite households will indicate the degree of political control over this economic subsystem. The scale of inter-regional exchange will be estimated through quantification of non-local items. Neutron activation analysis of ceramics will provide information on the spatial distribution of production.Many scholars have considered control over economic institutions the crucial factor in sociopolitical evolution. Debate about Maya political organization pivots on the degree to which the elite controlled critical aspects of the economy. Yet Classic Maya economics remain the least understood aspect of this Mesoamerican civilization. This project promises to provide critical economic data to address this question.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Antonia Foias博士将在位于危地马拉佩滕中部的Motul de圣何塞遗址进行两个季节的考古实地考察。这个次级中心在古典时期晚期被占领，因此可以追溯到玛雅文明的高峰。 Foias博士和她的同事的初步工作表明，该网站是一个中心的生产多色容器与精心绘制的文本，这些是广泛分布。这项工作的目标是解决玛雅社会组织的问题，并确定玛雅精英用来将大量个人结合在有效运作的社会单位中的社会、政治和经济战略。虽然许多遗址已经被挖掘出来，但考古学家仍然不知道权力集中或分散在多个派系之间的程度。该研究将包括一个详细的沉降调查和广泛的地下测试在纪念碑的网站核心和外围。在1999年和2000年的实地调查期间，主要目标将是检查整个遗址核心和外围的经济活动的大规模分布，以了解精英对经济生产和交换的控制程度。一个2平方公里的密集调查。将对场地核心周围的区域和两个250 m宽、4 km长的断面进行测试，并对所有广场组进行坑蚀测试，对建筑物周围的垃圾沉积物进行密集的铲土测试。由测试点蚀和铲测试程序提供的大量工件集合将用于重建生产活动的空间分布，如通过制造碎片、生产工具或特定工件类别的高密度所识别的。这些生产地点与精英或非精英家庭的联系将表明政治对这一经济子系统的控制程度。区域间交流的规模将通过非本地项目的量化来估计。陶瓷的中子活化分析将提供生产空间分布的信息。许多学者认为对经济制度的控制是社会政治演变的关键因素。关于玛雅政治组织的争论取决于精英对经济关键方面的控制程度。然而，古典玛雅经济学仍然是中美洲文明中最不为人所知的方面。该项目有望为解决这一问题提供关键的经济数据。