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

战争如此普遍，以至于在所有实际目的中，它都是一种普遍的人类行为，特别是在复杂的社会中。直到最近，经典的低地玛雅(AD。250-900)被认为是这一规则的例外。对“和平玛雅”观点的一个重大打击是1966年发现了与位于危地马拉东北部森林中的蒂卡尔巨大中心相关的令人印象深刻的土方工程。这些土方工程长达许多公里，与两侧的沼泽一起被解释为保卫面积约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来说是重要的公然(和独特的)声明。文字和艺术后来证实了玛雅战争的激烈形式的存在，考古学家也记录了许多其他防御系统。然而，在近40年的时间里，蒂卡尔的土方工程一直被忽视。关于它们和它们的意义，人们假设了很多，但知之甚少。美国国家科学基金会慷慨的支持使大卫·韦伯斯特博士和他的同事们于2003年回到蒂卡尔，正确地绘制了土方地图，并寻找失踪的路段。他们发现了这个系统的新部分，这个系统现在几乎有26公里长，形成了一个粗糙的多边形，可信地包围了至少200平方公里。该团队还绘制了一条250米宽、12.8公里长的与土方工程相关的古代聚落走廊。这项研究在一定程度上是对新的地理信息系统/全球定位系统技术及其在崎岖的热带森林条件下的有效性的测试，这些技术在热带森林条件下工作得非常好。2005年的项目将以这些发现为基础，通过绘制与新土方段相关的大块定居点以及土方本身的地图来进行。这项工作将延伸周边的东侧，并找到迄今缺失的南部边界。总而言之，人们怀疑土方系统可能有50-60公里长-这是古代中美洲人有史以来最大的单一建筑项目之一。至关重要的是确定这个系统的年代，它很可能建于6世纪中叶。详细的地图绘制将使人们能够评估土方具有非防御功能(如灌溉渠道)的建议，并将增加对可能只有20,000-30,000人的当地人口如何建造和保卫这样一道防线的理解。创新的土壤分析方法将提供蒂卡尔及其附近农业生产的化学特征。这项研究还将构成对铭文中记录的蒂卡尔王朝和军事历史的纯粹考古测试。该项目具有文化历史和理论意义。它将允许构建有助于理解一个主要玛雅政体的政治集中化规模的劳动力估计。如果土方工程实际上是防御工事，它们将揭示许多关于古代玛雅人的军事战略和战术。这项研究将整合NASA/NSF(AIRSAR)联合项目最近产生的遥感图像。这些图像将被用来搜索缺失的土方工程部分，但结果将考验这种遥感在热带森林环境中的潜力。一旦年表确定，最终的回报将是能够应用土地利用、农业生产和人口统计学的地理信息系统模型，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.