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

在Daniela Triadan博士的指导下，Melissa Burham将研究古代玛雅城市穿越时间的社会和空间组织。许多学者都从玛雅中心城市、家庭和聚落模式的证据来了解社会和政治组织。然而，在复杂的城市化社会中，社区、地区和当地社区等社会群体在家庭、城市和国家之间发展。在过去和现在，这些都是社会复制和谈判的重要领域，有助于将不同的群体统一为具有凝聚力的社会、经济和政治制度。考古学很好地研究了不同的群体在过去是如何形成的，以及他们如何随着时间的推移与更大的社会联系在一起。Burham的项目通过关注培育地方认同的互动，促进了对中级群体越来越多的研究，这些互动可能包括仪式实践、共同居住和对公共资源(如水)的管理。通过观察近2000年的发展，这个项目调查了早期城市化的性质，并探索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，该项目对理解过去和现在的城市景观的可持续性和资源管理具有重要意义。伯汉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，从而为古代社会都市化和社会复杂性的发展提供了新的见解。Burham的研究是Ceibal-PetexBatun考古项目的一部分，该项目由一个由稻田武博士和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，从中世纪前经典时期到末期经典时期(约公元前1000年-公元900年)都有广泛的居住地，似乎有一个结构良好的城市规划。因此，这是研究居住在边远地区的人们随着时间的推移而形成的空间和社会组织的理想案例。Burham的项目专注于小寺庙群，这些寺庙群定期位于边远居民区。许多研究人员认为，小寺庙是低地玛雅人聚居地的重要综合枢纽。在这些观点的基础上，这个项目调查了较小的仪式群体，居住在他们附近的人是如何与寺庙和彼此相关的，以及寺庙所采取的习俗和社会关系如何影响到更大的社会政治秩序。小庙宇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塑造和维持更大的社会至关重要，特别是在人口增加和社会等级制度变得更加明显的情况下。该项目侧重于五个小寺庙建筑群及其周围居住结构的证据，通过检查它们是否：1)被安排成空间上不同的区域，并与至少一座寺庙联合组织；2)每个区域内有一个支持当地社区人口的水源；以及3)每个区域内有不同的物质文化模式，导致对某些物品的类似获取或偏好，来评估当地社区的社会融合程度和性质。对大量时间跨度的多条证据线的考察，为更好地理解中间社会群体的形成，以及探索社区组织在塞巴尔历史上可能发生的变化提供了基础。

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.