Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role Of Spatial Clustering In Group Organization

在 Daniela Triadan 博士的指导下，Melissa Burham 将调查古代玛雅城市随时间变化的社会和空间组织。许多学者都关注来自玛雅城市中心、家庭和定居模式的证据，以了解社会和政治组织。然而，在复杂的城市化社会中，邻里、地区和当地社区等社会群体在家庭、城市和国家之间的层面上发展。无论是过去还是现在，这些都是社会再生产和谈判的重要领域，有助于将不同群体团结成有凝聚力的社会、经济和政治体系。考古学非常适合研究过去不同群体如何形成，以及他们如何随着时间的推移与更大的社会联系。伯勒姆的项目通过关注促进当地身份认同的互动，为越来越多的中层群体研究做出了贡献，其中可能包括仪式实践、共同居住以及水等公共资源的管理。通过观察近 2000 年时间跨度的发展，该项目调查了早期城市化的本质，并探讨了早期的复杂性如何塑造了后来的社会。此外，通过研究水管理在社会融合中的作用，该项目对于理解过去和现在城市景观的可持续性和资源管理具有重要意义。伯勒姆的工作为研究不同层次的社区组织提供了方法论和理论途径，从而为古代社会的城市化和社会复杂性的发展提供了新的见解。伯勒姆的研究是 Ceibal-Petexbatun 考古项目的一部分，该项目由猪俣武 (Takeshi Inomata) 博士和丹妮拉·特里亚丹 (Daniela Triadan) 博士领导的国际合作者团队组成。塞巴尔位于危地马拉，从前古典中期到古典末期（约公元前 1000 年至公元 900 年）都有广泛的占领，并且似乎有一个结构良好的城市规划。因此，这是研究随着时间的推移居住在边远地区的人们的空间和社会组织的理想案例。伯勒姆的项目重点关注小型寺庙群，这些寺庙群定期分布在边远居民区。许多研究人员认为，小型寺庙是低地玛雅定居点的重要综合中心。基于这些观点，该项目调查了小型仪式团体、居住在它们附近的人们如何与寺庙以及彼此之间的关系，以及寺庙中进行的实践和社会关系如何影响更大的社会政治秩序。小寺庙很可能是塞巴尔当地社区的物质和思想中心。尽管它们可能是离散的社会单位，但这些群体的形成对于塑造和维持更大的社会至关重要，特别是当人口增加和社会等级制度变得更加明显时。该项目以五个小型寺庙建筑群及其周围住宅结构的证据为重点，通过检查当地社区是否：1）安排在空间上不同的区域并与至少一座寺庙联合组织，从而评估当地社区社会融合的程度和性质； 2) 每个区域内都有支持当地社区人口的水源； 3）每个区域内都有独特的物质文化模式，这是由于对某些商品的相似获取或偏好造成的。对很长一段时间内的多条证据的检查为更好地理解中间社会群体的形成以及探索社区组织在整个塞巴尔历史中可能发生的变化奠定了基础。

Under the direction of Dr. Daniela Triadan, Melissa Burham will investigate the social and spatial organization of ancient Maya cities through time. Many scholars have focused on evidence from the center of Maya cities, households and settlement patterns to understand social and political organization. However, in complex, urbanized societies, social groups such as neighborhoods, districts and local communities, develop at levels between the household, the city, and the state. These were important spheres of social reproduction and negotiation both in the past and present, and help to unify different groups of people into cohesive social, economic and political systems. Archaeology is well placed to study how diverse groups formed in the past, and how they articulated with the larger society through time. Burham's project contributes to a growing body of research on intermediate-level groups by focusing on the interactions that fostered local identities, which may have included ritual practices, co-residence, and the management of communal resources, like water. By looking at developments over a time span of almost 2000 years, this project investigates the nature of early urbanization and explores how early complexity shaped later society. Furthermore, by studying the role of water management in social integration, this project carries implications for understanding sustainability and resource management in urban landscapes, both past and present. Burham's work provides methodological and theoretical approaches for studying different levels of community organization, and hence offers new insights into the development of urbanism and social complexity in ancient societies. Burham's research is part of the Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project, which consists of an international team of collaborators directed by Dr. Takeshi Inomata and Dr. Daniela Triadan. Ceibal, located in Guatemala, had an extensive occupation from the Middle Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods (ca. 1000 BC-AD 900), and appears to have had a well-structured city plan. It is therefore an ideal case to study the spatial and social organization of people living in outlying areas through time. Burham's project focuses on minor temple groups, which are located at regular intervals in outlying residential areas. Many researchers have suggested minor temples were important integrative hubs in lowland Maya settlements. Building on these perspectives, this project investigates minor ceremonial groups, how the people living near them related to the temples and to each other, and how the practices and social relations undertaken at the temples influenced the larger sociopolitical order. Minor temples were likely the physical and ideological centers of local communities at Ceibal. Although they may have been discrete social units, the formation of these groups was crucial to shaping and sustaining the larger society, especially as populations increased and social hierarchies became more pronounced. Focusing on evidence from five minor temple complexes and the residential structures surrounding them, this project assesses the degree and nature of social integration of local communities by examining whether they were: 1) arranged into spatially-distinct zones and organized in association with at least one temple; 2) had a source of water within each zone that supported the local community population; and 3) had a distinct pattern of material culture within each zone, resulting from similar access to or preferences for certain goods. An examination of multiple lines of evidence over a large time span provides a basis to better understand the formation of intermediate social groups, and for exploring how community organization may have changed throughout Ceibal's history.