Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Classic Maya Urban Planning in Central Quintana Roo, Mexico

在乔伊斯·马库斯博士的指导下，劳拉·维拉米尔女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将在位于墨西哥低地昆塔纳罗奥地区的两个玛雅考古遗址--拉格特拉和玛格丽塔·马扎·德华雷斯(MMJ)--进行调查和试掘。事实上，这种类型的中心是前工业化城市，因为它们将数千个人整合到一个单一的空间整合单元中。这两个遗址都有寺庙和广场建筑群，这表明尺子有能力为公共工程项目动员大量个人。这些城市内建筑类型的差异表明，它们在性质上服务于公共和家庭的多种功能。考古学家将相当多的注意力集中在这些实体的空间组织上，因为他们相信这些数据将提供对玛雅人的社会、政治和经济组织的洞察。维拉米尔和其他研究人员指出，即使在一个地区内，城市的形式也有很大差异，一些城市只有一个明确界定的中心，而另一些城市似乎有多个明确界定的公共建筑区域。她希望了解为什么以单一核心为中心的情况和假设随着时间的推移发展缓慢，并处于区域等级的顶端。她认为，多个核心中心是由一个建筑事件产生的，这些核心功能是互补的，而不是多余的。她认为，这样的城市代表着次要中心，出现的时间比单一核心城市略晚。为了测试这一想法，她将分别比较单核和多核的Lagthera和MMJ。利用航拍照片，她将绘制这两个地点的地图，并在两个野外季节进行地面调查，以核实它们并填写更多细节。然后，她将挖掘一大系列测试坑来收集分层陶瓷，这将允许对单个结构和区域进行相对年代测定。通过这种方式，她将决定当代建筑的程度。这种对对比场地平面图的详细检查将有助于理解城市社会的发展。对玛雅地区不同的城市模式和导致其发展的特定历史轨迹的调查将有助于跨文化研究，试图了解各种社会政治环境对城市的出现、发展和转型的影响。该项目还将帮助培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Joyce Marcus, MS Laura Villamil will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will survey and conduct test excavations at two Mayan archaeological sites, Lagartera and Margarita Maza de Juarez (MMJ), located in the Quintana Roo region of lowland Mexico. Centers of this type were, in fact, pre-industrial cities because they incorporated thousands of individuals into single spatially integrated units. Both sites contain temple and plaza complexes which indicate the ability of rulers to mobilize large numbers of individuals for public work projects. Differences in building type within such cities demonstrate they served multiple functions both public and domestic in nature. Archaeologists have focused considerable attention on the spatial organization of such entities because they believe such data will provide insight into the social, political and economic organization of the Maya. MS Villamil, along with other researchers, has noted that even within a single region cities vary significantly in form and that some have a single well defined center while others appear to have multiple clearly defined areas of public buildings. She wishes to understand why such is the case and hypothesizes that centers with a single core developed slowly over time and were situated at the top of the regional hierarchy. Multiple core centers, she believes resulted from a single building episode and that the cores serve complementary rather than redundant functions. Such cities, she argues represent secondary centers and appeared slightly later in time than their single core counterparts. To test this idea she will compare Lagartera and MMJ which have single and multiple cores respectively. Using aerial photographs she will create maps of both sites and over the course of two field seasons conduct ground surveys to verify them and to fill in additional detail. She will then excavate a large series of test pits to collect stratified ceramics which will allow individual structures and areas to be dated relative to each other. In this way she will determine the extent of construction contemporanity. This detailed examination of contrasting site plans will contribute to understanding of the development of urban society. The investigation of different urban patterns in the Maya area and of the specific historical trajectories which led to their development will contribute to cross-cultural studies seeking to understand the effects which various sociopolitical circumstances have on the appearance, growth and transformation of cities. The project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.