Investigating the Principles of Fortification Construction

研究工事建设原理

• 批准号: 1715009
• 负责人: Christopher Hernandez
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Hernandez Christopher
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1715009&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Principles; Fortification; Construction

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This project is investigating how people constructed and placed fortifications in the region of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico. The goal is to discern the underlying martial principles employed to construct Mesoamerican fortifications and build a more robust methodology for examining past warfare. Scholars throughout the world have debated the frequency of war in the past and impact of social conflict on the human experience. Yet, researchers are often constrained by the limits of written history. If scholars want to understand the impact of warfare on the human experience, then archaeologists must contribute to the discussion. Archaeology, as a branch of anthropology, is broadly concerned with culture and human activity in various times and places. Therefore, archaeologists have developed cross-cultural models to build analogies for interpreting past fortifications and artifacts of war. However, the recent cultural turn in military science and history highlights that context matters in warfare. To understand war, researchers must examine social conflict in particular cultural contexts, such as Europe during the Napoleonic Wars and Mesoamerica during Spanish colonization. This project investigates fortifications within the Maya cultural context. Dependence on cross-cultural models means archaeologists are often judging the functions of Maya fortifications based on patterns derived from other cultures. The proposed research aims at achieving balance between cross-cultural generalization and a focus on martial practice within particular cultural contexts. Although the case study is focused on Maya fortifications, the methods being developed will have broad application for understanding warfare.Defensive structures are some of the most important archaeological indicators of past warfare. Arguments for a peaceful past often hinge on the presence or absence of fortified sites. For example, the myth of a peaceful Maya civilization was shattered through multiple studies of fortifications from across the Maya region. This project will examine patterns in how people construct defensive architecture and processes that may affect archaeological detection of fortifications. Mensabak is an ideal region to examine past martial principles because it contains at least three Postclassic/Colonial period (AD 900-1697) fortified sites and ethnohistoric documents provide evidence of how the Maya practiced war. Mensabak's chronology is crucial for the application of ethnohistoric data because the documents under examination were written just after or while Mensabak's fortified sites were occupied. Intensive review of documentary sources provides data on how fortifications were constructed and what processes affect defensive structures from time of construction to their abandonment. Regional variation in fortifications will allow for the investigation of common patterns underlying Maya fortification construction. Two of the Mensabak regions defensive systems contain gaps and stop altogether. This project focuses on investigating if the Maya relied on slope in place of walls to defend sites. Moreover, does a predominance of wood as a building material account for gaps or lack of walls at many sites? These findings can help explain why a majority of Maya and Mesoamerican sites lack evidence of fortifications. Moreover, his archaeological methods can be applied and tested beyond Mesoamerica, since slope and preservation affect most archaeological sites. A major training goal of the proposed project is to integrate underrepresented students into the ongoing synergistic collaborative research at Mensabak. This project will be disseminated to the wider public through professional conferences and presentations open to the public. The results of this research will be posted on the open-access websites Mesoweb.com and tDAR.org. Overall, this project promotes a better of understanding of warfare and the human experience, while broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in academia and science.

该奖项是作为NSF的社会，行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。该项目正在调查人们如何在墨西哥恰帕斯州门萨巴克地区建造和放置防御工事。其目标是辨别用于建造中美洲防御工事的基本军事原则，并建立一个更强大的方法来检查过去的战争。世界各地的学者都在争论过去战争的频率以及社会冲突对人类经历的影响。然而，研究人员往往受到书面历史的限制。如果学者们想了解战争对人类经验的影响，那么考古学家必须参与讨论。考古学作为人类学的一个分支，广泛地研究不同时代和不同地域的文化和人类活动。因此，考古学家开发了跨文化模型，以建立类比来解释过去的防御工事和战争文物。然而，最近军事科学和历史的文化转向强调了战争中的背景问题。为了理解战争，研究人员必须研究特定文化背景下的社会冲突，例如拿破仑战争期间的欧洲和西班牙殖民时期的中美洲。该项目研究玛雅文化背景下的防御工事。对跨文化模型的依赖意味着考古学家经常根据来自其他文化的模式来判断玛雅防御工事的功能。拟议的研究旨在实现跨文化的概括和特定文化背景下的武术练习的重点之间的平衡。虽然案例研究的重点是玛雅防御工事，但正在开发的方法将广泛应用于理解战争。防御结构是过去战争的一些最重要的考古指标。关于过去是否和平的争论往往取决于是否有防御工事。例如，通过对玛雅地区防御工事的多次研究，和平的玛雅文明的神话被打破了。这个项目将研究人们如何建造防御性建筑和可能影响防御工事考古探测的过程。门萨巴克是研究过去军事原则的理想地区，因为它至少包含三个后古典/殖民时期（公元900 - 1697年）的防御遗址，民族历史文献提供了玛雅人如何进行战争的证据。Mensabak的年表对于民族历史数据的应用至关重要，因为正在审查的文件是在Mensabak的设防地点被占领之后或期间写的。对文献资料的深入研究提供了关于防御工事是如何建造的以及从建造到废弃的过程对防御结构的影响的数据。防御工事的区域差异将允许调查玛雅防御工事建设的共同模式。门萨巴克地区的两个防御系统有缺口，完全停止。这个项目的重点是调查玛雅人是否依靠斜坡代替墙壁来保卫遗址。此外，木材作为建筑材料的优势是否可以解释许多遗址的缺口或缺乏墙壁？这些发现可以帮助解释为什么大多数玛雅和中美洲遗址缺乏防御工事的证据。此外，他的考古方法可以应用和测试中美洲以外，因为斜坡和保护影响大多数考古遗址。拟议项目的一个主要培训目标是将代表性不足的学生纳入正在进行的Mensabak协同合作研究。该项目将通过向公众开放的专业会议和介绍会向广大公众传播。这项研究的结果将公布在开放网站www.example.com和tDAR.org上。总的来说，这个项目促进了对战争和人类经验的更好理解，同时扩大了学术界和科学界代表性不足的群体的参与。

项目成果

Is Bearing Witness Enough?

作见证就够了吗？

• DOI: 10.1111/aman.13078
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: American Anthropologist
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Hernandez, Christopher

The Site of Noh K'uh, Chiapas, Mexico: A Late Preclassic Settlement in the Mensäbäk Basin

墨西哥恰帕斯州 Noh Kuh 遗址：门萨克盆地的前古典时期晚期定居点

• DOI: 10.1017/laq.2018.81
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Latin American Antiquity
• 影响因子: 0.9
• 作者: Juarez, Santiago;Salgado-Flores, Sebastián;Hernández, Christopher
• 通讯作者: Hernández, Christopher