Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Neighborhood Identity and Social Practice in a CLassic Mayan City

这项研究很重要，因为它解决了社区如何在困难的环境和社会状况下生存和保持其完整性的问题。许多农村村庄的规模与史前玛雅晚期的规模相近，这项研究与许多考古研究一样，有可能在很长一段时间内追踪变化和文化反应。在E. Christian Wells博士的指导下，Kara Fulton将研究城市家庭是如何在伯利兹的古玛雅城市Actuncan发展和共享社区身份的，大约公元800-900年，当时城市经历了人口的快速增长，而周围的中心却在下降。考古学家希望了解这个地区的城市发展和衰败的过程，以及它们如何与邻里社区的社会派别行为联系起来。阿克通干市为研究这些过程提供了一个独特的机会，因为在附近著名的考古中心Xunantunich的政治突出之前、期间和之后，这座城市都保持着密集的占领。为了调查邻里身份，本研究将考虑三个家庭及其周围的活动模式的性质和位置。这项工作将采用多种方法，包括螺旋钻探针地下测试，土壤化学残留物分析，宏观和微观人工分析以及地球物理勘探数据分析。土壤化学是对这一研究方向的一个新贡献，它基于最近的观察，即玛雅地区的低密度城市中心是营养水库，可以捕获和保存各种活动的化学残留物。通过比较Actuncan家庭周围土壤和沉积物中化学元素的相对浓度和组合，可以识别和研究重复活动（如烹饪和进食）的模式。这项拟议中的研究至少将为科学考古学做出两项重大贡献。首先，它将深入了解在附近的城市中心巽南都尼崩溃和该地区政治权力重组后，居民为维持社区而部署的社会战略。研究玛雅地区普通家庭之间的关系是理解更广泛的政治动态的重要基础，包括家庭与统治者之间的关系，以及统治者如何能够创造、合法化和维持权力和权威。其次，研究结果将为其他研究类似问题的研究人员提供经验比较数据，包括前西班牙裔家庭内部、家庭周围和家庭之间的空间使用。这项研究是创新的，因为土壤化学方法提取和表征活动残留物，将提供对住宅景观的更深层次的理解，而不是单独检查建筑和人工制品组合。更广泛地说，这项研究将有助于拓宽伯利兹对当代遗产的看法。直到最近，玛雅地区的研究人员一直倾向于关注社会统治精英成员的生活。因此，今天表达的文化史和文化遗产被精英对过去的看法所主导。本研究以普通家庭为重点，旨在拓宽对历史和遗产的看法，并有助于更平衡地看待过去。此外，通过培训一名有前途的年轻科学家，这项研究将把美国和伯利兹的研究人员联系起来，这将加强国际合作，并有助于使世界这一地区的全球合作在科学研究方面更加常规。

This research is important because it addresses the question of how communities survive and maintain their integrity in the face of difficult environmental and social situations. Many rural villages approximate in size those of late prehistoric Maya and this study, in common with much archaeological research has the potential to track change and cultural response over extended periods of time.Under the guidance of Dr. E. Christian Wells, Kara Fulton will study how urban families developed and shared neighborhood identities at the ancient Maya city of Actuncan, Belize, ca. AD 800-900, a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers declined. Archaeologists wish to understand urban processes of growth and decay in this region, and how they are linked to the behaviors of social factions in neighborhood communities. The city of Actuncan provides a unique opportunity to examine these processes, because the city maintained intensive occupation before, during, and after the political prominence of the nearby and archaeologically well-known center of Xunantunich. To investigate neighborhood identities, this research will consider the nature and location of activity patterns in and around three households. Multiple methods will be employed for this work, including subsurface testing with auger probes, soil chemical residue analysis, macro- and microartifact analysis, and analysis of geophysical prospection data. Soil chemistry is a novel contribution to this line of research, and is based on the recent observation that low-density urban centers in the Maya region were nutrient reservoirs that trapped and preserved chemical residues of various activities. By comparing relative concentrations and combinations of chemical elements in soils and sediments around households at Actuncan, patterns from repeated activities (such as cooking and eating) can be identified and studied.The proposed research will make at least two significant contributions to scientific archaeology. First, it will provide insight into the social strategies deployed by residents to maintain their communities following the collapse of the nearby metropolitan center of Xunantunich and the reorganization of political power in the region. Studying relationships among commoner households in the Maya region is an important foundation for understanding broader political dynamics, including relationships between households and rulers, and how rulers were able to create, legitimize, and maintain power and authority. Second, the results will provide empirical comparative data for other researchers working on similar issues, including the use of space in, around, and between prehispanic households. This research is innovative, because a soil chemical approach to extract and characterize activity residues will provide a deeper level of understanding of the residential landscape than is otherwise permitted by examining architecture and artifact assemblages alone.More broadly, this research will contribute to broadening the ways in which contemporary heritage is viewed in Belize. Until recently, the tendency of researchers in the Maya region has been to focus on the lives of the ruling elite members of society. As a result, cultural history and heritage expressed today is dominated by an elite view of the past. With a focus on commoner households, this research aims to broaden the view of history and heritage and contribute to a more balanced perspective of the past. Moreover, through training a promising young scientist, the research will connect U.S. and Belizean researchers, which will strengthen international collaboration and help to make global collaborations in this part of the world more routine for scientific research.