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: 1026796
• 负责人: Heather McKillop
• 金额: $ 22.28万
• 依托单位: Louisiana State University
• 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=1026796&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.

在国家科学基金会的资助下，一个跨学科的研究团队，包括来自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大学的Terance Winemiller博士，将对古代玛雅盐业进行为期3个季节的考古实地考察。他们将在伯利兹海底的泥炭沼泽中挖掘一处被海平面上升淹没的遗址，那里的泥炭保存着木制建筑和文物。盐是人类生活的基本生物必需品，但并不是到处都能买到。在古代，狩猎和采集社会通常从野生动物的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的稠密的兴起，当供不应求时，获取盐成为一个令人担忧的问题。在历史上和史前世界范围内，盐都是从盐矿开采、太阳能蒸发和卤水煮沸中收集的。有时，古代国家通过在盐场指派国家行政人员，或像汉代中国或阿兹特克人那样征收盐税，来控制食盐的生产和分配。盐商队穿越非洲的沙漠，在那里盐和黄金是等同的。“盐”一词源于罗马帝国使用盐作为士兵的薪水。研究人员将调查古代玛雅食盐生产的基础设施，以及向内陆玛雅古典时期城市供应食盐的含义，这些城市的食盐可以说是供不应求。这项研究将提供有关实际海平面上升和下降的时间和速度的更多数据--这是一个发人深省的提醒，提醒人们海平面上升对世界各地沿海社区的影响。研究人员将在一艘专为浅水设计的自动化船只上使用遥感技术来记录海底并寻找被掩埋的遗骸。他们将挖掘木结构建筑、煤球区域--用于在火上煮沸盐水以制盐的锅，以及用于在煮沸过程之前浓缩盐水的木结构建筑。他们将使用围堰挖掘较浅的地点，并通过潜水挖掘较深的地点。文物保护将在现场开始。他们将重建以沉积物为核心横跨泻湖系统的古代景观。这些数据将整合到一个地理信息系统中，包括3D成像和可视化。一些更广泛的影响包括使用地理信息系统和其他先进技术培训研究生，以及吸引来自不同学科的专家，在这些学科中，相同的问题分别得到解决。这项研究强调了环境变化淹没了受现代发展影响的沿海地区。关于古代盐业和木制建筑的知识将对伯利兹学校的教育、伯利兹考古旅游可用的信息以及对古代玛雅人木制建筑的了解产生更广泛的影响，正如在传统的现代玛雅村庄一样。这项研究的学术价值包括调查古代玛雅木制建筑，评估经典的玛雅盐业，解释植被和海平面变化及其对人类的影响。佩恩斯克里克木结构建筑为记录古代木结构建筑、评估与现代建筑的类比以及为其他古代遗址提供类似物提供了关键。