Xibun Maya and the Luxury Economy within Classic-to-Colonial Mesoamerica

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Patricia McAnany博士和她的同事将在伯利兹的Sibun河谷进行四季的考古和古环境研究。迄今为止有限的调查表明，在古典玛雅时期，这个灌溉良好、农业丰富的山谷有人居住，西班牙殖民文献中描述了这个群体的直系后裔。可可是巧克力（而不是可卡因）的基础，在该地区野生生长，在殖民时期是一种重要的作物，今天也被种植。事实上，山谷中最大的两个考古遗址之一——好时遗址——之所以如此命名，是因为它坐落在一个可可果园里，以前是好时食品公司的。McAnany博士的研究目标是重建该地区从古典时期（约公元800年）到殖民时期的政治经济，为了实现这一目标，她将与研究生和本科生一起收集考古和古生态数据。该团队将重建植被历史，进行地貌和土壤研究，挖掘露天和仪式洞穴遗址，并将这些数据放入地理信息系统。已经选择了五个样带进行调查和挖掘，这些样带将被花粉和沉积学数据所补充，这些数据来自钻入河底牛轭样本的岩心。对当前植被群落的研究将为解释古环境数据提供一个背景。调查样带中大约7%的建筑将被挖掘出来，由此发现的文物——尤其是玉器和进口陶器等奢侈品——将为了解四本河谷社区的财富程度及其分布提供洞见。玛雅热带低地的考古研究主要集中在主要的中心，根据重建的人口规模和令人印象深刻的仪式建筑，这些中心是主要的中心。然而，同样清楚的是，包含有价值原材料的腹地，如可可，与更大的中心广泛互动，并在或多或少的程度上被纳入古典玛雅王国。然而，人们对整合的程度和方法理解得很差，对重建古代玛雅世界的运作方式是必不可少的。该项目将从腹地提供一个必要的和缺乏的视角，因为锡本河谷可能是一个重要的史前可可生产和出口中心，它提供了一个很好的场所来研究中心与周边的关系。该项目包括研究生和本科生，因此也具有重要的培养功能。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Patricia McAnany and her colleagues will conduct four seasons of archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Sibun River Valley of Belize. Limited survey to date indicates that this well watered agriculturally rich valley was inhabited during the Classic Mayan period and the direct descendents of this group were described in Spanish colonial documents. Cacao, the basis for chocolate (and not cocaine), occurs wild in the region, constituted an important crop in colonial times and is cultivated today. In fact one of the two largest archaeological sites in the valley - the Hershey site - is so named because it is located in a cacao orchard previously owned by Hershey Foods. The goal of Dr. McAnany's research is to reconstruct the political economy of this region from Classic (ca. 800 AD) through colonial times and to accomplish this she, together with graduate and undergraduate students, will collect both archaeological and paleoecological data. The team will reconstruct vegetation history, carry out geomorphological and soil studies, excavate both open air and ritual cave sites and place these data in a geographic information system. Five transects have been chosen for survey and excavation and these will be supplemented by pollen and sedimentological data derived from cores drilled into a sample of oxbows lining the river. A study of current vegetation communities will provide a context within which to interpret the paleoenvironmental data. Approximately 7% of the structures encountered in the survey transects will be excavated and the artifacts thus recovered - especially luxury items such as jade and imported pottery - will provide insight into the degree of wealth and its distribution within the Sibun River Valley communities.Archaeological research in the lowland Mayan tropics has focused primarily on major centers which, based on reconstructed population size and impressive ceremonial architecture, served as primary centers. However it is also clear that hinterlands which contained valuable raw materials, such as cacao, interacted extensively with larger centers and were incorporated, to a greater or lesser extent into Classic Mayan kingdoms. However the degree and method of integration is both poorly understood and essential to reconstructing how the ancient Mayan world functioned. This project will provide a necessary and lacking view from the hinterlands and because the Sibun River Valley likely was an important prehistoric center for the production and export of cacao, it offers an excellent venue to examine center - periphery relations. The project includes both graduate and undergraduate students and thus also serves an important training function.