Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Symbols in Establishing Political Power

自复杂社会兴起以来，政治、军事和宗教领袖通过创造独特的徽章来实现权力。像面具一样，权力徽章的制造是一项由训练有素的工匠通过复杂的手工工艺开发的活动。在跨文化上，面具可以被认为是神圣的权力物品。例如，它们可以是代表祖先的魔法饰品，在入会仪式上被用作转变和隐藏的象征，也可以作为社会等级的标志。该项目将专注于玛雅绿岩马赛克面具，并试图确定它们是由一个或多个团体或工匠生产的。前者表明，生产受到精英的严格控制，因此被当作权力的象征来操纵。据推测，这些面具是由一个正在崛起的中心的最高领导人使用的，他试图扩大对该地区次要实体的政治影响力，并通过赠送面具来封存它们的从属关系。过去对玛雅低地中部3个考古遗址的考古调查发现了7个古代皇室墓地和1个副王室墓地。墓葬中的许多文物都经过了研究、保护和修复，其中一些暂时在世界各地的博物馆展出。尽管如此，其他材料仍未得到研究，包括形成拆解的马赛克面孔的绿岩碎片()，目前储存在危地马拉城的国家博物馆。在2015年的一项初步研究中，发现了近1000个绿岩，它们可以形成至少9个面具。在修复这些文物之前，这项研究将探索古代玛雅工匠创造这些文物的工艺传统和技术。论文学生胡安·卡洛斯·梅伦德斯将利用微考古学方法进行一项研究，将通过绿岩实验考古获得的制造痕迹与古代玛雅绿岩上记录的痕迹进行比较。为了保留原始磁带区，将使用复制磁带段复制选定的扇区。与墨西哥城坦普洛市长博物馆合作，将使用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)观察这些片段，放大倍数高达1000倍。在这种规模下，与在绿岩上进行的实验的观察结果相比较，将有可能确定制造的相似或不同

Since the rise of complex societies, political, military, and religious leaders have materialized power through the creation of distinctive insignias. The manufacture of insignias of power, like masks, is an activity developed through complex artisanal processes carried out by highly trained craftsmen. Cross-culturally, masks can be considered as sacred power objects. For example they can be magical accessories through which ancestors are represented, used as symbols of transformation and concealment in initiation ceremonies, and as markers of social rank. This project will focus on Mayan greenstone mosaic masks and attempt to determine whether they were produced by a single or multiple groups or artisans. The former would suggest that production was tightly elite controlled and thus were manipulated as power symbols. It is hypothesized that the masks were used by a supreme leader of a rising center who sought to expand political influence over minor entities in the region and sealed their affiliation through mask gifting.Past archaeological investigations at 3 archaeological sites in the Central Maya Lowlands revealed seven ancient royal and one sub-royal burials. Many of these artifacts contained in the burials were studied, conserved, and restored, and some have been temporarily exhibited in museums around the world. Nonetheless, other materials remained unstudied, including fragments (tesserae) of greenstone that form disassembled mosaic faces, which are currently stored in the National Museum in Guatemala City. During a preliminary study in 2015, nearly 1000 greenstone tesserae were identified, which could form at least nine masks. Before restoring these artifacts, this research will explore the craft traditions and technology practiced by ancient Maya craftsmen to create these objects. Using microarchaeological approaches, the dissertation student, Juan Carlos Melendez will conduct a study which compares the manufacture traces obtained through experimental archaeology on greenstone with traces recorded on ancient Maya greenstone tesserae. To preserve the original tesserae, selected sectors will be replicated using segments of replicating tape. In collaboration with the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City, the segments will be observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), allowing magnifications of up to 1000X. At this scale it will be possible to determine manufacturing similarities or differences when compared to the observations made on experiments carried out on greenstone