Evaluating Models of Political and Economic Integration at Pusilha, Belize

美国国家科学基金会将资助杰弗里·e·布拉斯韦尔博士、詹妮弗·b·布拉斯韦尔博士和他们的同事在普西尔哈进行为期三个季节的考古研究，这是一个史前古典时期（公元10年）250-800)玛雅人口和政治中心，位于中美洲伯利兹西南部。他们的调查将通过对象形文字纪念碑、陶瓷和石器文物以及定居模式的联合研究，检验古代国家政治和经济一体化的当前模型。第一阶段的研究将包括9平方公里的地块覆盖调查，这些地块构成了遗址的古城区、居住区和农业区。这一阶段的数据将使绘图小组能够建立一个地理数据库，以审查自然资源如何影响定居模式，以及不同人口阶层在这些资源方面的处境如何。第2阶段的调查将包括在住宅和特殊功能群体中进行试点作业，这些群体跨越所有职业和社会地位时期。在第二阶段收集的文物将用于从历时的角度研究精英和平民的经济整合水平，以及与更大更强大的政体的互动，特别是位于西南和东北的Copan和Caracol。第三阶段的挖掘将包括在被认为是生产区域的水平剥离作业。从这些密集的挖掘中收集的数据将使研究人员能够：(1)获得与建筑地层相关的细粒度时间信息；(2)通过点蚀试验研究建立生产位点试验模型；(3)更全面地回答有关精英家庭和普通家庭经济一体化的问题。目前在所有三个阶段，项目成员将记录和分析来自普西尔哈的大量象形文字纪念碑。这些纪念碑非常详细地描述了该遗址的建立及其王朝历史，并暗示普西尔哈（Pusilha）可能一度被扩张的科潘（Copan）国家或霸权所吸收。因此，对聚落模式和人工制品分布的分析，将有助于研究古代文献中讨论的政治事件的经济影响。这项研究将有助于最直接的地方和区域的政治和经济进程的理解在一个很大程度上未知的地区东南玛雅外围。更广泛地说，它将为玛雅社会的组织、稳定和变化提供新的和完善的现有模型，并且——通过扩展——将与全世界古代国家的研究相关。

Funding from the National Science Foundation will support Dr. Geoffrey E. Braswell, Dr. Jennifer B.Braswell, and their colleagues for three seasons of archaeological research at Pusilha, a prehistoric Classic period(A.D. 250-800) Maya population and political center located in southwestern Belize, Central America. Their investigations will test current models of the political and economic integration of archaic states through the conjunctive study of hieroglyphic monuments, ceramic and lithic artifacts, and settlement patterns. Phase 1 research will consist of block coverage survey of the 9 km2 that constitute the ancient urban, residential, and agricultural zones of the site. Data from this phase will allow the mapping team to build a geographic data base to examine how natural resources influenced settlement patterns, and how different segments of the population were situated in regard to those resources. Phase 2 investigations will consist of test-pitting operations in residential and special function groups that crosscut all periods of occupation and social status. Artifacts gathered during Phase 2 will be used to study the level of economic integration of elites and commoners from a diachronic perspective, as well as interaction with much larger and more powerful polities - particularly Copan and Caracol - located to the southwest and northeast. Phase 3 excavations will consist of horizontal stripping operations in areas thought to have been production zones. Data gathered from these intensive excavations will enable the researchers to: (1) obtain fine-grain temporal information linked to architectural strata; (2) test models regarding production loci developed through the test-pitting research; and (3) more fully answer questions about the economic integration of elite and commoner households. Current with all three phases, projectmembers will document and analyze the large corpus of hieroglyphic monuments from Pusilha. These monuments describe in great detail the founding of the site and its dynastic history, and hint that Pusilha -- for a time -- may have been absorbed by the expanding Copan state or hegemony. Analyses of settlement patterns and artifact distribution, therefore, will afford thestudy of the economic effects of the political events discussed in the ancient texts. This research will contribute most immediately to the understanding of local and regional political and economic processes in a largely unknown region of the southeastern Maya periphery. More broadly, it will contribute new and refine existing models of organization, stability, and change in Maya society, and - by extension - will be of relevance to the study of archaic states throughout the world.