Archaeological Investigation of Mayan Adaptation

玛雅适应的考古调查

• 批准号: 1249235
• 负责人: Lisa Lucero
• 金额: $ 11.92万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1249235&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Archaeological; Investigation; Mayan; Adaptation

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Lisa J. Lucero will bring together a multidisciplinary team that include archaeologists, underwater archaeologists, exploration divers, an ethnobotanist, a tropical tree specialist, and a paleontologist from the U.S., Mexico, and Belize to examine how ancient Maya settlement articulates with sacred landscape features in addition to examining rainfall patterns and landscape transformation.Openings in the earth, such as caves and pools, were sacred to the Maya as portals to the underworld or Xibalba. The Maya left countless offerings in these portals to petition gods and ancestors to bring forth rain and bountiful crops. At Cara Blanca in central Belize, there are 25 openings in the earth in the form of pools (Pools 1-25). Its distance from centers and relatively sparse but unique settlement (e.g., water temple and sweatbaths) suggest it may have served as a pilgrimage center. Growing evidence in the form of a Terminal Classic (c. 800-900 C.E.) water temple at Pool 1 with a copious amount of water jars indicates that the Maya increased their visits to Cara Blanca at the end of the Late Classic, perhaps in response to a series of multiyear droughts that struck the Maya area between c. 800 and 900 C.E. Further, previous dives at Pool 1 have yielded megafauna fossils, submerged trees and freshwater shells that can be used to assess ancient climate and landscape change through oxygen isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating, and species identification.The major goals in 2014 (April 30-June 30) are to conduct underwater excavations at two pools, continue excavating the water temple at Pool 1, collect submerged fossils, fossil matrix (gastropods, wood, soil) and tree limbs, map and explore a total of five unexplored pools, and collect botanical specimens near pools to compare with submerged trees. The intellectual merit of this project will be to collect information about cultural landscapes, ceremonial life on the surface and in the water, and ritual intensification. This project is unique in both its multidisciplinary approach and focus on both the cultural and material aspects of climate change and how the Maya responded to it. This project also will address a topic that has been missing in southern lowland Maya studies - the focus on water bodies as portals. The broader impacts of the study is that results will be relevant today since the challenges the Maya faced between 800 and 900 C.E. are similar to the ones at present with accelerating global climate change. The international and multidisciplinary team will include graduate students from the University of Illinois. The investigations at Cara Blanca also set the stage for future fieldwork, including additional diving expeditions to explore more of the 25 pools, continuing to survey the transect along the pools, and excavating the sweatbaths, water shrines, and other interesting settlement configurations. Results will be disseminated through major peer review outlets (e.g., Latin American Antiquity, Ancient Mesoamerica, Antiquity) and in Belize at the annual Belize Archaeology Symposium.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，丽莎·J·卢塞罗博士将召集一个多学科团队，其中包括来自美国、墨西哥和伯利兹的考古学家、水下考古学家、探险潜水员、民族植物学家、热带树木专家和古生物学家，除了研究降雨模式和景观转变外，还研究古代玛雅定居点如何与神圣的景观特征相结合。 洞穴和水池等土地对于玛雅人来说是神圣的，是通往地下世界或西巴尔巴的门户。 玛雅人在这些门户中留下了无数的祭品，祈求神灵和祖先带来雨水和丰收。 在伯利兹中部的卡拉布兰卡，地球上有 25 个水池形式的开口（水池 1-25）。 它距中心的距离以及相对稀疏但独特的定居点（例如水神庙和汗浴场）表明它可能曾作为朝圣中心。 越来越多的证据表明，在经典末期（约公元 800-900 年）1 号水池内有一座水神庙，里面有大量的水罐，这表明玛雅人在古典晚期末期增加了对卡拉布兰卡的访问，这可能是为了应对约公元 10 至 900 年间袭击玛雅地区的一系列多年干旱。公元800年和900年。此外，之前在1号池的潜水已发现巨型动物化石、水下树木和淡水贝壳，可用于通过氧同位素分析、放射性碳测年和物种鉴定来评估古代气候和景观变化。2014年（4月30日至6月30日）的主要目标是在两个池进行水下挖掘，继续挖掘1号池的水神庙，收集 水下化石、化石基质（腹足类、木材、土壤）和树枝，绘制并探索了总共五个未勘探的水池，并收集水池附近的植物标本以与水下树木进行比较。该项目的智力价值在于收集有关文化景观、水面和水中的仪式生活以及仪式强化的信息。 该项目的独特之处在于其多学科方法，重点关注气候变化的文化和物质方面以及玛雅人如何应对气候变化。 该项目还将解决南部低地玛雅研究中缺失的一个主题——重点关注水体作为门户。 这项研究更广泛的影响在于，其结果在今天仍然具有现实意义，因为玛雅人在公元 800 年至 900 年期间面临的挑战与目前全球气候变化加速所面临的挑战相似。 国际多学科团队将包括伊利诺伊大学的研究生。 卡拉布兰卡的调查也为未来的实地工作奠定了基础，包括额外的潜水探险以探索 25 个水池中的更多区域，继续调查水池沿线的横断面，以及挖掘汗浴、水神殿和其他有趣的聚落结构。 结果将通过主要同行评审机构（例如拉丁美洲古代、古代中美洲、古代）以及在伯利兹举行的年度伯利兹考古研讨会上传播。