Prehistoric Human-Environment Interactions in the Southern Maya Lowlands: The Holmul Region Case

玛雅南部低地的史前人类与环境的相互作用：霍尔穆尔地区案例

• 批准号: 0647034
• 负责人: Francisco Estrada-Belli
• 金额: $ 8.37万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0647034&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Prehistoric; Human; Environment; Interactions; Southern

With National Science Foundation's support, archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli and geographer David Wahl will lead a team of US and Guatemalan students in an interdisciplinary study of the dynamics of human settlement and the environment of Maya civilization in the fragile wetlands of northeastern Guatemala. Environmental change, either anthropogenically induced and/or associated with natural climate variability, has been posited as contributing to two periods of marked population decline in the southern Maya Lowlands. The first episode occurred ~A.D. 200 and is thought to have affected a number of large Preclassic centers across the southern Maya Lowlands; the second occurred at the end of the Late Classic period ~A.D. 900, and affected most sites in the southern Maya lowlands. In both cases, paleoenvironmental data have been interpreted to suggest that climate change and environmental degradation were the primary causes of extensive demographic decline. However, a full picture of the chronology and causes of environmental change during the Pre-Hispanic period has not emerged because many records are insecurely dated, are lacking from key cultural areas, or lack sufficient resolution. Moreover, the Maya Lowlands is a very heterogeneous region, with distinct prehistoric cultural landscapes and local adaptations to specific environmental conditions. Examination of these landscapes on a case-by-case basis will provide the foundation for drawing broader conclusions about the dynamic human/environment relationship.This study will provide a detailed record of human occupation and environmental change from the Holmul region, an area of the Maya Lowlands where settlement was first established around 1000 B.C. and large urban centers flourished in the Late Preclassic (300 B.C.-A.D. 250) and Classic periods (A.D. 250-900) but for which paleo-environmental data is lacking. In order to model the effects of environmental degradation and/or climate change on the cultural trajectory of the region, this research will use a wide range of paleoenvironmental indicators in conjunction with detailed settlement history. Lake sediments from the vicinity of human settlement will be studied using a variety of techniques including pollen, charcoal, stable isotope analyses, and radiometric AMS dating. Survey transects cross-cutting local ecotones will document residential and land use features systematically. Evidence of environmental change that is connected to local demographic shifts and temporally correlated to similar evidence in other areas across the Maya Lowlands has the potential to offer strong support to these models. Thus, this project will build upon previous paleoenvironmental work in the Maya Lowlands in order to identify whether large-scale processes, across a wider section of the southern lowlands, affected local settlement patterns. The broader impact of this study lies in its ability to 1) provide a detailed record of human-environment interactions in the history of Maya civilization, separating human impacts from climate change, and evaluate any correlation with regional site abandonments; 2) fill an important gap in our knowledge of landscape evolution and climate variability in an area of fragile wetland environments; 3) generate baseline archaeological data on the earliest settlement of the Maya Lowlands and 4) provide initial support for two anthropological dissertation theses.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，考古学家弗朗西斯科埃斯特拉达-贝利和地理学家大卫瓦尔将带领一个由美国和危地马拉学生组成的团队，对危地马拉东北部脆弱湿地的人类定居动态和玛雅文明环境进行跨学科研究。环境变化，无论是人为引起的和/或与自然气候变化，已被假定为促成两个时期的人口显着下降，在南部玛雅低地。 第一次事件发生在公元200年，被认为影响了玛雅南部低地的一些大型前古典中心;第二次事件发生在古典晚期末期，大约公元900年，影响了玛雅南部低地的大多数地点。 在这两种情况下，古环境数据都被解释为气候变化和环境退化是人口大规模下降的主要原因。 然而，在前西班牙时期的环境变化的年表和原因的全貌还没有出现，因为许多记录是不安全的日期，缺乏从关键的文化领域，或缺乏足够的分辨率。 此外，玛雅低地是一个非常多样化的地区，具有独特的史前文化景观和当地对特定环境条件的适应。 在个案基础上对这些景观的研究将为得出关于动态人类/环境关系的更广泛结论提供基础。这项研究将提供霍尔木尔地区人类占领和环境变化的详细记录，霍尔木尔地区是玛雅低地的一个地区，在公元前1000年左右首次建立定居点，在前古典晚期（公元前300年-公元前300年），大型城市中心蓬勃发展。公元250年）和古典时期（公元250-900年），但缺乏古环境数据。 为了模拟环境退化和/或气候变化对该地区文化轨迹的影响，这项研究将使用广泛的古环境指标，结合详细的定居历史。将使用各种技术，包括花粉、木炭、稳定同位素分析和放射性AMS测年，对人类住区附近的湖泊沉积物进行研究。 调查样带贯穿当地生态交错区，将系统地记录居住和土地使用特点。与当地人口变化有关的环境变化证据，以及与玛雅低地其他地区类似证据在时间上相关的证据，有可能为这些模型提供强有力的支持。因此，该项目将在玛雅低地以前的古环境工作的基础上，以确定是否大规模的过程，在南部低地的更广泛的部分，影响当地的定居模式。 这项研究的更广泛的影响在于它能够1）提供玛雅文明历史上人类与环境相互作用的详细记录，将人类影响与气候变化分开，并评估与区域遗址废弃的任何相关性; 2）填补我们在脆弱湿地环境地区景观演变和气候变化知识的重要空白; 3）生成关于玛雅低地最早定居点的基线考古数据，4）为两篇人类学论文提供初步支持。