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

博士论文改进奖：象征在政治权力建立中的作用

• 批准号: 1654051
• 负责人: David Freidel
• 金额: $ 1.17万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1654051&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Role

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

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标志来实现权力。权力标志的制造，如面具，是一项由训练有素的工匠通过复杂的手工工艺发展起来的活动。跨文化，面具可以被视为神圣的权力对象。例如，它们可以是代表祖先的魔法配件，在入会仪式中用作转变和隐藏的象征，并作为社会等级的标志。该项目将重点关注玛雅绿石马赛克面具，并试图确定它们是由单个还是多个团体或工匠制作的。前者意味着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，这些面具是由一个崛起的中心的最高领导人使用的，他试图扩大对该地区小实体的政治影响，并通过面具礼物密封他们的从属关系。过去在中央玛雅低地的3个考古遗址的考古调查发现了7个古代皇家和一个次级皇家墓葬。这些墓葬中的许多文物都被研究、保存和修复，其中一些在世界各地的博物馆中暂时展出。尽管如此，其他材料仍然没有研究，包括形成拆解马赛克面的绿岩碎片（镶嵌），目前存放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个绿宝石镶嵌物，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物品的工艺传统和技术。论文学生胡安·卡洛斯·梅伦德斯（Juan Carlos Melendez）将利用微考古方法进行一项研究，将通过绿岩实验考古获得的制造痕迹与古玛雅绿岩镶嵌块上记录的痕迹进行比较。为了保留原始镶嵌块，将使用复制带的片段复制选定的扇区。与墨西哥城的Templo Mayor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。在这个尺度上，将有可能确定制造业的相似性或差异时，进行了比较，对绿石实验的观察