RUI: Archaeological Investigation of the Puuc Hills

在晚期古典时期（公元700-950年）的几个世纪里，Puuc建筑风格在尤卡坦半岛的丘陵西北角蓬勃发展，现在这个地区基本上没有人口。这种风格影响了整个尤卡坦半岛北部的建筑，同时也表现出与b里约热内卢贝克和中国地区亚文化的密切联系。该项目由Tomas Gallareta Negron （INAH，墨西哥）、George J. Bey III （Millsaps学院）和William M. Ringle （Davidson学院）负责，旨在从经济、政治和社会的角度理解这一地区亚文化的起源和发展。与北部平原的大型城市相比，东部Puuc山的Bolonchen地区的社区更小，更密集。虽然该地区的土壤相当肥沃，但Bolonchen地区的丘陵景观似乎不利于大型场地。地表水的缺乏也迫使人们依赖蓄水池（蓄水池）。尽管如此，Bolonchen的遗址仍然显示出高度的繁荣和社会复杂性。在国家科学基金会的支持下，该项目将考察三个邻近的中级社区（Labna， Kiuic和Huntichmul），这些社区都是Puuc风格的经典范例。由于农业生产可能是他们财富的关键之一，因此将通过对连接三个中心的腹地的考察，将城市发展置于背景之下，这是Puuc的第一次农村调查。出色的表面可视性和保存性允许对结构大小和精细程度的详细信息的积累，即使是最简陋的。一个核心假设是，繁荣在一定程度上是由于与小城市中心的扩散平行的农村重组过程。初步研究表明，这涉及到城镇和乡村中基础广泛的地主精英的扩张。精英们和他们的家属可能组成了小型的生产单位，居住在像庄园一样的居民点上，每个单位都有一小块可耕地。因此，该项目的一个目标将是记录定居点的分布，特别是精英定居点，在这些可耕种的口袋里，并通过地面收集和建筑风格来确定土地管理的演变。另外，山地群体可能已经参与了手工生产，在这种情况下，与耕地的联系可能会减少。其中两个单元将集中挖掘，以评估随着时间的推移经济活动和建筑发展。进一步的目标将是了解城市中心与其腹地之间的联系。行政和仪式生活是否集中？这些中心反过来又受制于乌斯马尔等大城市吗？城市精英和内地精英一样吗？城市建筑的详细地图将特别展示社区是否共享共同的行政或仪式设施，反映中央领导，或者可能更多样化，表明政治独立。进一步的问题包括普鲁克定居点的时间深度。工程已经证明建造比之前认为的要早几个世纪，但经典航站楼繁荣的本质仍有待澄清，它的消亡也是如此。最近发现的后纪念性建筑表明，遗弃可能没有以前认为的那么突然。其中一个这样的大院将被挖掘出来，还有一个后期普克风格的住宅大院供比较。因此，这一建议的学术价值在于：1)阐明过去对一个如今人口稀少的地区的成功管理；2)理解这一过程的发展史；3)理解地区身份是如何在政治、经济和社会方面形成的。更广泛地说，这个项目是一个更大的倡议的一部分，旨在保护和管理普克山最后一片原始森林之一的文化和自然资源。它将包括来自墨西哥、美国和其他地方的高级教职员工和学生。我们也希望当地村民的就业、培训和教育将使他们在迅速发展的旅游经济中处于有利地位。

For a few centuries during the Late-Terminal Classic periods (A.D. 700-950), the Puuc architectural style flourished in the hilly northwest corner of the Yucatan peninsula, an area now largely devoid of population. This style influenced architecture throughout northern Yucatan, as well as exhibiting close ties to the Rio Bec and Chenes regional subcultures. The overarching purpose of this project, directed by Tomas Gallareta Negron (INAH, Mexico), George J. Bey III (Millsaps College), and William M. Ringle (Davidson College), is to understand the genesis and elaboration of this regional subculture in economic, political, and social terms. In contrast to the large, widely spaced cities of the northern plains, the communities of the Bolonchen district of the eastern Puuc Hills are smaller and much more densely packed. Although soils of the region are quite fertile, the hilly landscape of the Bolonchen District seems to have militated against large sites. Lack of surface water also forced reliance upon cisterns (chultunes). Despite this, Bolonchen sites evidence a high level of prosperity and social complexity.With support from the National Science Foundation, this project will examine three neighboring mid-level communities (Labna, Kiuic, and Huntichmul), all classic exemplars of the Puuc style. Since agricultural production may be one key to their wealth, urban development will be contextualized through examination of the hinterlands connecting the three centers, the first rural survey in the Puuc. Excellent surface visibility and preservation permits accumulation of detailed information on structure size and elaboration, even of the most humble.A central hypothesis is that prosperity was due in part to a process of rural reorganization paralleling the proliferation of small urban centers. Preliminary work suggests this involved expansion of a broadly based landed elite present in both town and country. Elites and their dependents may have formed small production units residing in manor-like settlements on individual hills, each unit presiding over a pocket of cultivable land. One goal of the project will therefore be to document the distribution of settlement, especially elite settlement, to these cultivable pockets and to date the evolution of land management by means of surface collections and architectural styles. Alternatively, hill groups may have been involved in craft production, in which case less connection to arable parcels may be expected. Two of these units will be intensively excavated to assess economic activities and architectural development over time.A further goal will be to understand the connection between urban centers and their hinterlands. Was administration and ritual life centralized or not? Were these centers in turn subject to larger cities such as Uxmal? Were urban elites like those of the hinterlands? Detailed mapping of civic architecture in particular will demonstrate whether communities shared common administrative or ritual facilities, reflecting centralized leadership, or were perhaps more varied, suggesting political independence. Further questions include the time depth of Puuc settlement. Work has already demonstrated construction centuries earlier than previously believed, but the nature of the Terminal Classic boom remains to be clarified, as does its demise. Recent discovery of post-monumental structures suggests abandonment may have been less abrupt than previously believed. One such compound will be excavated, as well as a late Puuc-style residential compound for comparison.The intellectual merits of this proposal will thus be to 1) elucidate past successful management of an area which today is underpopulated, 2) understand the developmental history of this process, and 3) understand how regional identities are formed, politically, economically, and socially.More broadly, this project is part of a larger initiative directed toward preservation and management of both cultural and natural resources in one of the last stands of primary forest in the Puuc Hills. It will involve senior staff and students from Mexico, the U.S., and elsewhere. We hope too that employment, training, and education of local villagers will place them advantageously in a rapidly evolving tourist economy.