Societal resilience and interaction with the environment

在国家科学基金会的资助下，卡梅隆·L·麦克内尔博士将领导一个由国际学者组成的团队，调查环境因素在古代玛雅城邦崩溃中的作用。这次坍塌发生在公元790年至950年间，发生在玛雅地区的低地地区，一直是广泛争论的焦点。人们提出了许多假说来解释它，包括战争、气候变化、头重脚轻的政治体系和自然灾害。但尤其是，环境退化或森林砍伐被广泛支持，作为对崩溃的解释。来自洪都拉斯科潘山谷的考古和环境数据经常被引用来争辩说，古代玛雅人破坏了他们的环境，加速了他们社会的崩溃。根据这种观点，人口压力驱使玛雅人砍伐他们的土地，从而煽动大规模的侵蚀，导致政治和人口崩溃。该项目将使用各种科学学科的研究技术来生成关于科潘山谷人与环境相互作用的新数据，这将为崩塌的环境退化理论提供新的线索。该项目还将解决一个截然不同的假设：在他们文明的顶峰时期，玛雅人实际上实施了可持续的土地利用做法，这意味着森林砍伐不是导致崩溃的主要因素。大部分数据收集将集中在科潘山谷的玛雅古镇里奥·阿马里洛的考古遗址及其以西的冲积平原。这项研究的目标是收集各种独立和互补的数据集，以便对过去的人与环境相互作用进行分析。特别是，该项目将对从水体中提取的沉积物岩心的花粉和植硅体进行分析；对磨石、岩屑和陶瓷进行淀粉和植硅体分析；鉴定考古发掘发现的烧焦的宏观遗骸；稳定的碳同位素和植硅体，以确定遗址周围地区的植被历史；地面穿透雷达，以发现排水网络的迹象；使用近红外传感器对地貌进行三维成像，以寻找实地变化；记录现代花粉雨，以协助解释古代花粉特征。这些形式的数据中的每一种都有可能提供人类人口随时间造成的环境退化程度的指标。这项研究的结果将补充对考古发掘获得的文物和定居点计划的分析，提供这一地区人与环境相互作用的详细记录。该项目将提供有关科潘山谷坍塌时景观状况的新数据和新见解。

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Cameron L. McNeil will lead an international team of scholars investigating the role of environmental factors in the collapse of ancient Maya city-states. The collapse, which occurred within lowland regions of the Maya area between AD 790 and 950, has been the focus of extensive debate. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain it, including warfare, climate change, top-heavy political systems, and natural disasters. But in particular, environmental degradation, or deforestation, has found widespread support as an explanation for the collapse. Archaeological and environmental data from the Copan Valley in Honduras are frequently invoked to argue that the ancient Maya destroyed their environment and precipitated the collapse of their society. According to this view, population pressure drove the Maya to deforest their lands and thereby instigate large-scale erosion, contributing to the political and demographic collapse. This project will use research techniques from a variety of scientific disciplines to generate new data on human-environmental interaction in the Copan Valley, which will shed new light on the environmental degradation theory of the collapse. The project will also addresses a contrasting hypothesis: that at the peak of their civilization the Maya actually implemented sustainable land-use practices, implying that deforestation was not a major factor in the collapse. The majority of the data collection will be centered on the archaeological site of Río Amarillo, an ancient Maya town in the Copan Valley, and the alluvial plain to its west. The goal of the research is to collect a variety of independent and complementary data sets amenable to the analysis of past human-environmental interactions. In particular, the project will undertake the analysis of pollen and phytoliths from sediment cores extracted from a body of water; starch and phytolith analysis from ground stones, lithics, and ceramics; the identification of charred macroremains recovered from archaeological excavations; stable carbon isotopes and phytoliths to determine the vegetative histories of the fields around the site; ground penetrating radar (GPR) to uncover signs of drainage networks; 3D imaging of the landscape with near-infrared sensors to look for field modifications; and recording modern pollen rain to assist in interpreting ancient pollen signatures. Each of these forms of data has the potential to provide indications of the extent of environmental degradation created by human populations over time. Results from this research will complement the analysis of artifacts and settlement plans acquired from archaeological excavations, providing a detailed record of human-environmental interaction in this area. The project will provide new data and new insights concerning the state of the landscape in the Copan Valley at the time of the collapse.