Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Community Growth and Sustainability in Unstable Times

这项研究的目的是为了更好地了解玛雅低地地缘政治中心在末期经典时期的发展，这一时期玛雅地区普遍衰落和被遗弃。研究人员此前已经确定了在这段时间内发展起来的少数几个中心，但在社会动荡、冲突加剧和经常性干旱期间，经济和政治增长的机制仍然缺乏研究。为了解决这些问题，博士生拉斐尔。Guera在Keith Prufer博士的指导下，将在位于伯利兹中美洲伯利兹河谷的玛雅城邦下多佛市进行考古田野工作。在该地区，大多数大型玛雅中心在最初的基础上发展了许多世纪，并在地理上均匀分布，相距约10公里。下多佛的初步研究表明，它在其中两个历史悠久的中心之间迅速发展起来，而当时邻近的遗址正在衰落，并陷入了象形文字文本中描述的严重的插补冲突。虽然下多佛没有象形文字的记录，但它可能是一个经济“繁荣城市”的例子，它在因放弃成熟的伯利兹河谷政治而造成的权力真空中在经济和政治上蓬勃发展。下多佛当时的成功可能与其战略位置有关，伯利兹河畔的地理位置使其能够直接进入重要的长途贸易路线，并有能力充当伯利兹河谷上下游之间的门户。到末期经典时期(约公元950年)结束时，下多佛也被抛弃了。在一个主要中心的增长是在很长一段时间内发生的地区，这项研究有可能了解大规模剧变期间政治、社会和经济结构的变化。由此产生的论文将有助于理解一些政体的衰落如何为其他政体创造机会，并探索这些“繁荣城市”经济的稳定性。这项研究的结果将对研究复杂地缘政治系统的弹性的社会科学家感兴趣，并将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻学者。在下多佛的实地工作包括对土壤的挖掘和地球化学测试，并将重点调查联合PI在初步研究中确定的一个可能的市场和河边停靠设施，以及对工地核心和定居点的调查，以制定关于社区发展和衰落的高分辨率年表。这一精确的AMS 14C年表将允许确定在纪念性核心发展之前是否存在现有的当地人口，或者创始人是否在两个衰落的政体之间殖民了以前空置的空间。放射性碳样品的制备将由新墨西哥大学稳定同位素中心的国际合作组织进行。详细的陶瓷研究和pXRF对黑麻岩的分析将说明下多佛与潜在的区域和长途贸易网络之间的经济互动。

The goal of this research is to better understand the development of geopolitical centers in the Maya Lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, a time of general decline and abandonment across the Maya region. Researchers have previously identified a handful of centers that developed during this time, but the mechanisms for economic and political growth during a period of social upheaval, increasing conflict, and recurrent droughts remain poorly studied. To address these issues doctoral student Rafael. Guerra under the direction of Dr. Keith Prufer, will conduct archaeology fieldwork at the Maya city-state of Lower Dover located in the Belize River Valley, Belize Central America. In this region, most large Maya centers developed over many centuries following their initial foundation and are geographically evenly spaced at ~10 km apart. Preliminary research at Lower Dover suggests it developed rapidly between two of these long-established centers and at a time when neighboring sites were declining and engaged in significant interpolity conflict described in hieroglyphic texts. While Lower Dover lacks a hieroglyphic record, it may be an example of an economic "boom town" which flourished economically and politically in the power vacuum created by the abandonment of well-established Belize Valley polities. The success of Lower Dover at that time may be linked to its strategic location, along the Belize River giving it direct access to important long-distance trade routes and the ability to act as gateway between the upper and lower Belize River valley. It remains that by the end of the Terminal Classic Period (ca. AD 950) Lower Dover too was abandoned. In a region where the growth of major centers occurred over long periods of time, this research has potential to inform on the changes in political, social and economic structures during an interval of massive upheaval. The resulting dissertation will contribute to understanding of how the declining fortunes of some polities can foster opportunities for others, and to explore the stability of these "boom town" economies. The results of this research will be of interest to social scientists studying the resilience of complex geopolitical systems, and will contribute to the development of a promising young scholar. Fieldwork at Lower Dover consists of excavations and geochemical testing of soils and will focus on investigating a possible marketplace and riverside docking facility identified in preliminary studies by the co-PI., as well as investigations in the site core and settlements to develop a high-resolution chronology for the development and decline of the community. This precise AMS 14C chronology will allow determination of whether there was an existing local population prior to the development of the monumental core, or if the founders colonized previously unoccupied space between two declining polities. Preparations of radiocarbon samples with be undertaken by the co-PI at the University of New Mexico Center for Stable Isotopes. Detailed ceramic studies and analysis by pXRF of obsidian will illustrate economic interactions between Lower Dover and potential regional and long distance trade networks.