Re-evaluation of the Earthworks at Tikal, Guatemala, Phase 2

战争是如此广泛，以至于实际上，它是一种普遍的人类行为，特别是在复杂的社会中。直到最近，经典低地玛雅(公元。250-900)被认为是这条规则的例外。对“和平的玛雅”观点的重大打击是1966年发现的令人印象深刻的土方工程，该土方工程与位于危地马拉东北部森林中的巨大蒂卡尔中心有关。这些土方工程长达数公里，与两侧的沼泽一起被解释为防御面积约120平方公里的农业腹地的防御工事。更重要的是，它们代表了玛雅人自己关于古代环境的哪些部分对他们重要的公然（和独特）声明。从那以后，铭文和艺术证实了玛雅战争的激烈形式存在，考古学家也记录了许多其他的防御系统。然而，在将近40年的时间里，蒂卡尔的土方工程被忽视了。关于它们和它们的重要性，人们做了很多假设，但所知甚少。美国国家科学基金会的慷慨支持使大卫·韦伯斯特博士和他的同事们能够在2003年回到蒂卡尔，正确地绘制土方工程的地图，并寻找丢失的部分。他们发现了该系统的新部分，该系统现在长约26公里，形成一个粗糙的多边形，似乎至少包围了200平方公里，该团队还绘制了一条250米宽，12.8公里长的古代定居点走廊，与土方工程有关。这项研究的部分内容是测试新的地理信息系统/全球定位系统技术及其在崎岖的热带森林条件下的用途，这些技术在热带森林条件下工作得非常好。目前的2005年项目将建立在这些发现的基础上，通过绘制与新土方工程部分相关的大块定居点，以及土方工程本身。这项工作将扩展边界的东侧，并找到迄今为止缺失的南部边界。总的来说，人们怀疑土方工程系统可能有50-60公里长——这是古代中美洲人有史以来最大的单一建筑工程之一。至关重要的是确定这个系统的年代，它可能建于6世纪中期。详细的测绘将有助于评估土方工程是否具有非防御功能（如灌溉渠道）的建议，也将有助于了解这样一个周界是如何由可能只有2 -3万人口的当地人口建造和防御的。创新的土壤分析方法将提供在蒂卡尔及其附近使用的农业生产的化学特征。这项研究还将对铭文中记录的蒂卡尔王朝和军事历史进行纯粹的考古测试。这个项目具有文化历史和理论意义。它将允许构建劳动力估算，有助于理解玛雅主要政体的政治集中化规模。如果这些土方工程实际上是防御工事，它们将揭示古代玛雅人的军事战略和战术。该研究将整合由NASA/NSF （AIRSAR）联合项目产生的最新遥感图像。这些图像将用于寻找土方工程的缺失部分，但其结果将测试这种遥感在森林热带环境中的潜力。一旦年表确定，最终的回报将是应用土地利用、农业生产和人口统计的地理信息系统模型的能力，因为新一代遥感提供了无与伦比的地形和环境信息。

War is so widespread that it is, for all practical purposes, a universal human behavior, especially among complex societies. Until quite recently the Classic Lowland Maya (AD. 250-900) were perceived to be an exception to this rule. A major blow to the "peaceful Maya" perspective was the 1966 discovery of impressive earthworks associated with the huge center of Tikal, located in the forests of northeastern Guatemala. These earthworks were many kilometers in length, and along with flanking swamps were interpreted as fortifications that defended an agricultural hinterland some 120 sq km in area. More importantly, they represented a blatant (and unique) statement by the Maya themselves concerning what parts of the ancient environment were important to them.Inscriptions and art have since confirmed that intense forms of Maya warfare existed, and archaeologists have documented many other defensive systems. For almost 40 years, however, the Tikal earthworks were ignored. Much was assumed about them and their significance, but very little was known. Generous NSF support enabled Dr. David Webster and colleagues to return to Tikal in 2003 to properly map the earthworks and search for missing sections. They discovered new parts of the system, which now is almost 26 km long and forms a rough polygon that plausibly encloses at least 200 sq km. The team also mapped a 250 m wide and 12.8 km long corridor of ancient settlement associated with the earthwork. The research in part constituted a test of new GIS/GPS technologies and their usefulness in rugged tropical forest conditions, where they worked extremely well.The current 2005 project will build on these discoveries by mapping large blocks of settlement associated with the new earthwork segments, as well the earthwork itself. The work will extend the eastern side of the perimeter, and find the hitherto missing southern boundary. In all, it is suspected that the earthwork system might be 50-60 km long---one of the biggest single construction projects ever undertaken by ancient Mesoamericans. Of critical importance is dating this system, which was likely built in the mid-6th century. Detailed mapping will allow assessment of suggestions that the earthwork had non-defensive functions (such as an irrigation channel) and will also increase understanding of how such a perimeter could have been built and defended by a local population that probably numbered only 20,000-30,000 people. Innovative methods of soils analysis will provide chemical signatures of the agricultural production used in and near Tikal. The research will also constitute a purely archaeological test of Tikal's dynastic and military history as recorded in inscriptions.This project has both culture-historical and theoretical implications. It will allow construction of labor estimates that contribute to an understanding of the scale of political centralization of a major Maya polity. If the earthworks are in fact fortifications, they will reveal much about ancient Maya military strategies and tactics. The research will integrate recent remote sensing imagery produced by a joint NASA/NSF (AIRSAR) project. The imagery will be used to search for missing parts of the earthwork, but the results will test the potential of such remote sensing in forested tropical environments. The ultimate payoff, once the chronology is secure, will be the ability to apply GIS models of land use, agricultural production, and demography as a new generation of remote sensing provides unparalleled topographic and environmental information.