Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Terminal Classic Maya Household at the Microscale: Social Organization and Foodways in the Puuc Hills, Yucatan, Mexico

在威廉·A·萨图诺博士的监督下，斯蒂芬妮·西姆斯将分析通过考古调查在Escalera al Cielo玛雅遗址获得的数据。Escalera al Cielo位于墨西哥尤卡坦半岛，位于附近城市中心周围的丘陵网络中。Escalera al Cielo的山顶乡村住宅在公元800年至公元950年期间被密集占据，然后突然被遗弃。尽管这种快速离开的原因尚不清楚，但散布在家居建筑内和周围的丰富文物提供了日常生活的快照。对睡眠结构、厨房、食物储存区和毗邻的露天庭院的挖掘旨在确定那里发生的活动模式。对陶瓷烹饪和储存容器、研磨石和其他石器工具以及沉淀物中的食物残留物的分析将提供与食物有关的活动的新信息。几乎没有直接证据表明古代玛雅人的食物方式(注：食物方式指的是由特定群体的所有成员共享的食物概念化、采购、分配、保存、准备和消费的整体系统)。这是由于潮湿热带的有机材料保存不佳，以及普遍缺乏适用于这类研究的考古背景(例如，厨房地板上覆盖着人工制品)。因此，在与欧洲人接触之前，学者们倾向于采用直接的历史方法来了解玛雅地区的食物。然而，无论是现代民族志还是16世纪的民族史学文献，都没有考虑到外来食物的引入和西班牙征服期间对传统生活的彻底破坏所产生的影响。事实证明，这对整个美洲土著社会的文化保守主义产生了误导性的假设。Escalera al Cielo的研究将通过对家庭粮食生产和消费的多学科调查来克服上述困难，以阐明玛雅地区古代食物和土地管理战略的各个方面。通过将景观、建筑、人工制品和识别微小植物残留物(如植硅体和淀粉粒)的新方法结合在一起，这些数据将被用于评估当地和区域的人与环境的相互作用，并有助于建立未来可持续发展的模型。在本研究期间记录的关于人与环境相互作用的具体细节将为非营利性Kaxil Kiuic生物文化保护区(kiuic.org)的努力提供信息，考古项目只是该保护区的一个组成部分。主要任务是创建一个活的实验室，用于当地和国际研究和教育目的，资助尤卡坦自然和文化景观的保护。来自墨西哥和美国的本科生和研究生将在该项目的实地和实验室层面继续接受培训。此外，这项研究的结果将通过对学童的定期参观、海报和城镇会议向亚哈陈当地社区传播。所有植物遗骸的显微照片将被纳入一个在线数据库(pareobot.org)，作为世界各地研究人员的参考工具。完整的研究将以作者的博士论文和期刊文章的形式分发给科学界。

Under the supervision of Dr. William A. Saturno, Stephanie Simms will analyze data garnered through archaeological investigations at the Maya site of Escalera al Cielo. Escalera al Cielo is located in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, within a network of hills surrounding a nearby urban center. The rural hilltop residence of Escalera al Cielo was intensively occupied between A.D. 800 and A.D. 950, and then abruptly abandoned. Although the causes for this rapid departure remain unknown, rich artifact scatters in and around household buildings provide a snapshot of daily life. Excavations of sleeping structures, kitchens, food storage areas, and adjoining open patios were designed to identify patterns of activities that took place there. Analyses of food residues from ceramic cooking and storage vessels, grinding stones and other stone tools, and sediments will provide new information on food-related activities. There is little direct evidence for ancient Maya foodways (note: foodways refers to a holistic system of food conceptualization, procurement, distribution, preservation, preparation, and consumption shared by all members of a particular group). This results from poor preservation of organic materials in the humid tropics and a general lack of archaeological contexts appropriate for such studies (e.g., kitchen floors covered in artifacts). As a result, scholars tend to employ a direct historical approach to understanding foodways in the Maya area prior to European contact. Neither modern ethnographies nor ethnohistorical documents from the 16th century, however, take into account the effects of the introduction of foreign foodways and the complete disruption of traditional life that occurred during the Spanish conquest. This has been demonstrated to generate misleading assumptions about the cultural conservatism of indigenous societies throughout the Americas. Research at Escalera al Cielo will overcome the difficulties mentioned above through a multidisciplinary investigation of household production and consumption of food in order to illuminate aspects of ancient foodways and land management strategies within the Maya area. By integrating landscape, architecture, artifacts, and new methods for identifying microscopic botanical residues (such as phytoliths and starch grains), these data will be used to assess local as well as regional human-environment interactions and can contribute to models for future sustainability. Specific details about human-environment interactions that are documentedduring this study will inform the efforts of the non-profit Kaxil Kiuic Biocultural Reserve (kiuic.org), of which the archaeological project is only one component. The overarching mission is to create a living laboratory for local and international research and education purposes, sponsoring the conservation of both the natural and cultural landscape of Yucatán. Undergraduate and graduate students from Mexico and the U.S. will continue to receive training during the field and lab dimensions of the project. In addition, the results of this research will be disseminated to the local community of Yaxachen through regular tours given to schoolchildren, posters, and town meetings. Photomicrographs of all botanical remains will be incorporated into an online database (paleobot.org) that will serve as a reference tool for researchers anywhere in the world. The complete study will be distributed to the scientific community in the author's doctoral dissertation and journal articles.