The Uxbenka Archaeological Project

乌克斯本卡考古项目

基本信息

批准号：
0803353
负责人：
Keith Prufer
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of New Mexico
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：
2007-09-18 至 2010-11-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0803353&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Uxbenka Archaeological Project

项目摘要

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Keith Prufer and his team of colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research in southern Belize. The team brings together specialists in archaeology and epigraphy to examine geopolitical relationships between large and small Maya cities that flourished between 200 and 900 AD. The project will combine the analysis of the hieroglyphic texts with intensive archaeological survey and excavations at Uxbenka, a small Maya capital founded sometime before 500 AD. Uxbenka is the earliest known site in southern Belize, an agriculturally rich region and situated near to coastal and inland trade routes. It is also located between several larger political centers. Texts from the Uxbenka suggest that it maintained close political ties to the large urban center Tikal, though the exact nature of their relationship remains unclear. Understanding how large and small centers interacted will contribute to knowledge of Maya political and economic organization. Competing models posit that large Maya polities functioned as central places and capitals, with coherent boundaries, holding sway over smaller centers or, alternately, that large and small Maya centers were, though economically integrated, politically autonomous rivals. More recent studies suggest that understanding geopolitical links and barriers also requires accommodating historical realities of rivalry and shifting relationships, and that single function models oversimplify prehistoric political landscapes. The project addresses several related sets of research questions. When first settled, what links did Uxbenka have with other regions? Did Uxbenka develop under the sway of Tikal, or did they merely emulate or memorialize historical figures or dynasties mentioned in native texts? Did the suspected relationship with Tikal continue to manifest itself as Uxbenka grew and interacted with other polities? Data from mapping, excavations, the analysis of ceramics and other artifacts, and architectural variation, combined with the study of hieroglyphic texts from the site, will illustrate Uxbenka's history and regional and long-distance economic and political ties over time. This research addresses theoretical debates regarding culture contact and the difficulty of distinguishing between types of interregional interactions. The intellectual merit of this project is in its approach, which integrates archaeological and historical data to improve our understanding Maya settlement and interaction over time, and in its theoretical perspective, which recognizes that political and economic organization is often based on uneven and asymmetrical networks between competing groups, subject to change over time. The resulting data will have implications for understanding similar developments across the Maya area and for understanding the development, behavior, and functioning of early complex polities in general. The broader impacts of this project are in education and community development. The results of this project will be disseminated widely to both scholars and the general public. The project will provide teaching, training, and learning opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Because Uxbenka is located in a modern Mayan community, the project will work closely with indigenous groups and the Belize government to insure that archaeological research and preservation activities benefit plans for co-managed sustainable development of the archaeological site.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，基思·普鲁弗（Keith Prufer）博士和他的同事团队将在伯利兹南部进行三个实地考古研究。该团队汇集了考古学和题词专家，以研究公元200至900年之间蓬勃发展的大型和小型玛雅城市之间的地缘政治关系。该项目将将象形文字文本的分析与密集考古调查和在公元500年之前建立的小型玛雅人资本的分析结合在一起。乌克斯本卡（Uxbenka）是伯利兹（Southern）最早的伯利兹（Souther），这是一个富裕的农业地区，位于沿海和内陆贸易路线附近。它也位于几个较大的政治中心之间。 Uxbenka的文字表明，它与大型城市中心Tikal保持着密切的政治联系，尽管他们的关系的确切性质尚不清楚。了解大小中心的相互作用将有助于玛雅政治和经济组织的知识。竞争模型认为，大型玛雅人政治充当了中心地点和首都，具有连贯的界限，在较小的中心上保持摇摆，或者，大型和小型玛雅人中心尽管经济融合了，在政治上是自主的竞争对手。最近的研究表明，了解地缘政治联系和障碍也需要适应竞争和转移关系的历史现实，并且单个功能模型过于简化史前的政治景观。该项目解决了几组相关的研究问题集。第一次解决时，Uxbenka与其他地区有什么链接？ Uxbenka是在蒂卡尔（Tikal）的摇摆下发展的，还是仅仅模仿或纪念本地文本中提到的历史人物或王朝？随着乌克斯本卡（Uxbenka）的成长并与其他政体互动，可疑与蒂卡尔（Tikal）的关系是否继续表现出来？来自映射，发掘，陶瓷和其他文物的分析以及建筑变化的数据，再加上对该网站的象形文字文本的研究，将说明Uxbenka的历史以及随着时间的流逝的区域和长途经济和政治联系。这项研究解决了有关文化接触的理论辩论以及区分区域间相互作用类型的困难。该项目的智力优点在于它的方法，它将考古和历史数据整合在一起，以提高我们的理解，以随着时间的流逝以及其理论观点，它认识到政治和经济组织通常是基于竞争群体之间不平衡和不对称的网络，随着时间的推移会随着时间的推移而变化。最终的数据将对理解整个Maya地区的类似发展以及理解一般早期复杂政体的发展，行为和运作有影响。该项目的广泛影响是教育和社区发展。该项目的结果将被广泛传播给学者和公众。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供教学，培训和学习机会。由于乌克斯本卡（Uxbenka）位于现代玛雅社区中，因此该项目将与土著群体和伯利兹政府紧密合作，以确保考古研究和保护活动有益于研究考古遗址的可持续发展计划。