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情况下生存和保持其完整性的问题。许多农村村庄的规模接近史前玛雅晚期的规模，这项研究与许多考古研究一样，有可能跟踪长时间的变化和文化反应。基督教威尔斯，卡拉富尔顿将研究如何在古玛雅城市阿克顿坎，伯利兹，加利福尼亚州城市家庭发展和共享邻里身份。公元800-900年，随着周边中心的衰落，城市人口迅速增长。考古学家希望了解这一地区城市发展和衰落的过程，以及它们如何与社区中社会派系的行为联系起来。阿克通坎市提供了一个独特的机会来研究这些过程，因为在附近的考古学著名的Xunantunich中心的政治地位之前，期间和之后，该市一直保持着密集的占领。为了研究邻里认同，本研究将考虑三个家庭及其周围活动模式的性质和位置。这项工作将采用多种方法，包括用螺旋钻探针进行地下测试、土壤化学残留物分析、宏观和微观人工制品分析以及地球物理勘探数据分析。土壤化学是对这一研究领域的新贡献，它基于最近的观察，即玛雅地区的低密度城市中心是养分库，捕获和保存了各种活动的化学残留物。通过比较阿克通坎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（如烹饪和饮食）的模式。拟议的研究将为科学考古学做出至少两个重大贡献。首先，它将提供深入了解居民部署的社会战略，以维持他们的社区后，附近的大都市中心Xunantunich的崩溃和该地区的政治权力重组。研究玛雅地区平民家庭之间的关系是理解更广泛的政治动态的重要基础，包括家庭和统治者之间的关系，以及统治者如何能够创造，合法化和维护权力和权威。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，包括前西班牙家庭内部、周围和之间的空间使用。这项研究是创新的，因为土壤化学的方法来提取和表征活动残留物将提供更深层次的了解的住宅景观比否则只检查建筑和人工制品assemblage.More更广泛地允许，这项研究将有助于扩大当代遗产被认为是在伯利兹的方式。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，今天表达的文化历史和遗产被过去的精英观点所主导。本研究以平民家庭为研究对象，旨在拓宽历史和遗产的视野，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中更加常规化。

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.