The Great Ballcourt at Nixtun-Ch'ich', Guatemala: The Terminal Classic "Collapse" and Relations with Chich'en Itza

普鲁登斯·M·赖斯和一个由美国和危地马拉考古学家组成的团队将通过著名的经典南部低地玛雅文明“崩溃”来研究社会生存和再生的过程。调查的重点是位于危地马拉佩滕伊察湖西缘的Nixtun-ch‘ich’遗址的大球场，它从早期的前经典时期(约公元前1000-800年)开始蓬勃发展。进入后经典和历史时期(18世纪初)。通过崩溃而生存的社会取决于许多因素，其中之一是加强社会政治融合和群体团结的机制。在中美洲，球类运动就是这样一种机制；具有深远神话意义的最早的正式球场可以追溯到公元前1400年。尼克斯顿-契奇的大球场建筑群拥有一条长100米，宽30米的球道，是南部低地最大的球场，它在大小和规划上类似于墨西哥尤卡坦北部的Chich‘en Itza的大球场。尼克斯顿-契奇的棒球场被认为是公共融合仪式的关键场所，伴随着比赛和盛宴的展示。有人认为，这些，再加上与北部奇恩伊察尚不为人所知的政治经济联系，进一步促进了该遗址在玛雅“崩溃”期间的生存。项目目标包括：(1)确定Nixtun Chich的大球场建筑群的建造年代；(2)通过宴请的证据检查该建筑群在公共仪式中的用途；以及(3)通过建筑和陶瓷比较来调查与Chich‘en Itza的球场建筑群的关系。这些目标将通过清理和挖掘战略来实现，该战略包括：(1)确定球场球道的确切尺寸；(2)在球场的一个结构上进行浅的横向挖沟；(3)进行深坑试验以调查建筑历史；(4)确定球场(外部)后面的考古沉积物(中庭)，作为盛宴的证据；以及(5)测试附属结构，以寻找可与Chich‘en Itza的上层建筑遗迹相媲美的证据。该项目的学术价值在于回答了一些问题，即为什么一些社会崩溃，另一些社会继续存在，以及什么条件导致不可逆转的衰落，而其他社会允许延续或再生。在对一个大型玛雅中心的研究中，它阻止了衰落，而其他中心则“倒塌”了，可以通过与棒球赛相关的公共仪式和盛宴的综合机制来检验延续的种子。还将探索与Chich‘en Itza的关系，Chich’en Itza是一个大型、遥远的地点，有一个类似的棒球场建筑群。这项研究有助于解决社会崩溃和复兴的一般问题，加深了对公共仪式作为社会政治整合机制的作用的理解。它提供了一个更好的理解复杂的马赛克南部低地经典玛雅“崩溃”和中美洲棒球赛的作用。该项目为伊萨玛雅人的历史做出了贡献，他们的后代仍然居住在北天湖岸边，并向他们归还了他们通过崩溃而生存的经典时期的历史。此外，危地马拉学生将接受考古领域和实验室技术方面的培训，工作成果将纳入当地一家以该地区考古史为重点的博物馆。

Prudence M. Rice and a team of American and Guatemalan archaeologists will examine processes of societal survival and regeneration through the famous Classic southern lowland Maya civilizational "collapse." Investigations focus on the Great Ballcourt at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich', on the western edge of Lake Peten Itza, Peten, Guatemala, which thrived from the late Early Preclassic (ca. 1000-800 B.C.) into the Postclassic and historic period (early 18th century). Societal survival through collapse depends on many factors, one being mechanisms that enhance socio-political integration and group solidarity. In Mesoamerica, the ballgame is one such mechanism; with deep mythological significance, its earliest formal court of play dates to 1400 B.C. Nixtun-Ch'ich's Great Ballcourt architectural complex boasts a playing alley 100 m long and 30 m wide, the largest ballcourt in the southern lowlands, and it resembles in size and plan the Great Ballcourt at Chich'en Itza (to the north in Yucatan, Mexico). Nixtun-Ch'ich's ballcourt is hypothesized to have been a key setting for public rituals of integration, accompanied by displays of competition and feasting. It is proposed that these, together with yet-unknown politico-economic ties to Chich'en Itza in the north, furthered the site's survival during the Maya "collapse." Project objectives include: (1) dating the construction of Nixtun Ch'ich's Great Ballcourt complex; (2) examining the complex's use in public ritual through evidence of feasting; and (3) investigating relations with Chich'en Itza's ballcourt complex through architectural and ceramic comparisons. These objectives will be achieved through a clearing and excavation strategy that involves: (1) determining the exact dimensions of the ballcourt playing alley; (2) shallow transverse trenching across one of the ballcourt's structures; (3) deep test-pitting to investigate construction history; (4) identifying archaeological deposits (middens) behind (exterior to) the court, as evidence of feasting; and (5) testing ancillary structures for evidence of superstructural remains comparable to those at Chich'en Itza. The intellectual merit of the project lies in answering questions about why some societies collapse and others continue, and what conditions result in irreversible declines while others permit continuity or regeneration. In studying one large Maya center that forestalled decline while others succumbed to "collapse," seeds of continuity can be examined through the integrative mechanism of public ritual and feasting associated with the ballgame. Relations with Chich'en Itza, a large, distant site with a similar ballcourt complex, will also be explored. This research contributes to general questions of societal collapse and regeneration, deepening understanding of the role of public ritual as a socio-political integrative mechanism. It provides a better understanding of the complex mosaic of the southern lowland Classic Maya "collapse" and the role of the Mesoamerican ballgame. The project contributes to the history of the Itza Maya, whose descendants still reside on the shores of Lake Peten Itza, and returns to them their Classic-period history of survival through collapse. In addition, Guatemalan students will be trained in archaeological field and lab techniques and the results of the work will incorporated into a local museum that is focused on the archaeological history of the region.