Collaborative Research: Ancient Maya Wooden Architecture and the Salt Industry

合作研究：古代玛雅木结构建筑与盐业

• 批准号: 1026486
• 负责人: Terance Winemiller
• 金额: $ 2.72万
• 依托单位: Auburn University at Montgomery
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1026486&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Ancient; Maya; Wooden

With funding from the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers including Dr. Heather McKillop and colleagues Dr. Karen McKee and Dr. Harry Roberts from Louisiana State University, and Dr. Terance Winemiller of Auburn University Montgomery will carry out 3 seasons of archaeological fieldwork on the ancient Maya salt industry. They will excavate a site submerged by sea-level rise in a peat bog below the seafloor in Belize, where the peat has preserved wooden buildings and artifacts. Salt, a basic biological necessity for human life, is not available everywhere. In antiquity, hunting and gathering societies generally obtained enough salt from wild animal meat and plants, but with the rise of agriculture, permanent villages, and dense populations of cities, access to salt became a concern, when demand exceeded supply. Historically and prehistorically worldwide, salt has been collected from salt mining, solar evaporation, and brine boiling. At times, ancient states controlled the production and distribution of salt by assigning state administrators at salt works, or by levying a salt tax as in the Han Dynasty in China or among the Aztecs. Salt caravans traversed the desert in Africa, where salt and gold were equivalencies. The word 'salt' derives from the Roman Empire's use of salt as salary for soldiers. The researchers will investigate the infrastructure of ancient Maya salt production and the implications for supplying salt to the inland Maya Classic period cities where salt was arguably in short supply. The research will provide additional data on the timing and rate of actual sea-level rise and subsidence-- a sobering reminder of the impact of sea-level rise on coastal communities worldwide. The researchers will use remote sensing in an automated vessel designed for shallow water to record the sea floor and search for buried remains. They will excavate wooden structures, areas of briquetage--pots used to boil brine over fires to make salt, and wooden structures used in concentrating the brine before the boiling process. They will excavate shallow sites using cofferdams and deeper sites by diving. Artifact conservation of artifacts will begin on site. They will reconstruct the ancient landscape with sediment coring across the lagoon system. The data will be integrated within a GIS, including 3D imaging and visualization.Some of the broader impacts include training graduate students using GIS and other advanced technology, and bringing experts from different disciplines where the same issues are addressed separately. The research underscores the environmental changes that submerge coastal areas subject to modern development. The knowledge of the ancient salt industry and the wooden architecture will have a broader impact on education in schools in Belize, information available for archaeological tourism in Belize, and for understanding of the wooden architecture of the ancient Maya which surely formed the majority of buildings as it does in traditional modern Maya villages. The intellectual merit of the research includes investigating ancient Maya wooden architecture, evaluating the Classic Maya salt industry, and explicating vegetation and sea level changes and their impact on people. The Paynes Creek wooden structures provide a key to documenting ancient wooden buildings, to evaluating analogies with modern structures, and for providing analogues for other ancient sites.

在美国国家科学基金会的资助下，由路易斯安那州立大学的 Heather McKillop 博士及其同事 Karen McKee 博士和 Harry Roberts 博士以及奥本大学蒙哥马利分校的 Terance Winemiller 博士组成的跨学科研究小组将对古代玛雅盐业进行为期三个季节的考古实地考察。他们将在伯利兹海底下方的泥炭沼泽中挖掘一个被海平面上升淹没的遗址，那里的泥炭保存了木制建筑和文物。盐是人类生命的基本生物必需品，但并非随处可用。在古代，狩猎和采集社会通常从野生动物肉和植物中获得足够的盐，但随着农业、永久村庄和城市人口密集的兴起，当需求超过供应时，获取盐就成为一个问题。在世界范围内的历史和史前时代，盐都是通过盐矿开采、太阳蒸发和盐水沸腾来收集的。有时，古代国家通过在盐厂指派国家行政人员，或像中国汉代或阿兹特克人那样征收盐税来控制盐的生产和分配。盐商队穿越非洲的沙漠，在那里盐和黄金是等价的。 “盐”一词源自罗马帝国用盐作为士兵的薪水。研究人员将调查古代玛雅盐生产的基础设施，以及向内陆玛雅古典时期城市供应盐的影响，这些城市的盐供应可能短缺。该研究将提供有关实际海平面上升和沉降的时间和速率的更多数据，清醒地提醒人们海平面上升对全世界沿海社区的影响。研究人员将在专为浅水区设计的自动化船上使用遥感技术来记录海底并搜索埋藏的遗骸。 他们将挖掘木结构、压块区域——用于在火上煮盐水制盐的锅，以及在煮沸过程之前用于浓缩盐水的木结构。 他们将使用围堰挖掘浅层遗址，并通过潜水挖掘更深的遗址。 文物保护工作将在现场开始。他们将利用泻湖系统中的沉积物取芯来重建古代景观。这些数据将集成到 GIS 中，包括 3D 成像和可视化。一些更广泛的影响包括使用 GIS 和其他先进技术培训研究生，并邀请来自不同学科的专家分别解决相同的问题。该研究强调了现代发展中淹没沿海地区的环境变化。古代盐业和木结构建筑的知识将对伯利兹学校的教育、伯利兹考古旅游的可用信息以及对古代玛雅木建筑的理解产生更广泛的影响，这种建筑肯定构成了大多数建筑，就像传统的现代玛雅村庄一样。该研究的智力价值包括调查古代玛雅木制建筑、评估经典玛雅盐业、解释植被和海平面变化及其对人类的影响。佩恩斯溪木结构为记录古代木结构建筑、评估与现代结构的类比以及为其他古代遗址提供类比提供了一把钥匙。