Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Development of Urban Structure and Government

亚利桑那州立大学的禤浩焯·蔡斯将负责研究古代玛雅人创造和使用的城市形态。古代玛雅城市的特点是面积达200平方公里的低密度大城市；一些城市的人口高达(有时超过)10万人；所有城市的农业和生计都依赖季节性热带降雨。虽然玛雅尺子，主要是从石碑上记录的文字，在古典时期(公元550年-公元900年)玛雅城市和州统治，但法院官员和支持人员可能处理这些城市的日常行政任务。古代玛雅人提供了一个很好的案例研究来回顾自上而下(精英)和自下而上(家庭)过程都可以影响古代城市的日常治理的作用。这项研究结合了对伯利兹卡拉科尔玛雅城市的挖掘，这是记录最充分的玛雅城市之一，并进行了数据分析，以确定治理模式。像卡拉科尔这样的玛雅城市被设计为收集雨水以维持生计和农业，但仅凭这些方面并不能保证这些古老城市的长寿。卡拉科尔本身也因其社会和政治组织而繁荣了一千多年。对卡拉科尔治理的进一步了解将有助于阐明这座城市是如何运作的，阐明它的长寿，并为理论制定和跨文化比较提供适当的数据。卡拉科尔大学的研究还涉及美国和伯利兹公民之间的合作，以及在不同层面上建立和加强两国之间积极的国际联系，包括动手的本科考古培训。在这项研究中，禤浩焯大通评估了城市物理布局的各个方面(包括基础设施的位置、住宅特征的标准化和社区认同)在多大程度上为确定以伯利兹卡拉科尔为测试地点的治理提供了实用的代理。使用了三个数据集：1)城市服务设施特征在城市周围的分布，作为基础设施力量程度的代理；2)花园城市特征的标准化程度，作为居住自治的代理；以及3)仪式文物的模式和分布，以及它们与提议的社区的相关性，作为通过社区层面的认同来代表集体行动的可能性。通过这项研究，不同学科中更一般的城市理论的概念将与考古研究相结合，通过基础设施权力、家庭自治和集体行动在多个分析尺度上的可操作性：城市范围、地区、邻里和广场家庭。对建筑环境和考古材料的分析将增强象形文字的叙述，并提供对古典晚期玛雅城市治理的更好理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Adrian Chase, of Arizona State University, will undertake research to study the urban form created and used by the ancient Maya. Ancient Maya urbanism is characterized by large low-density cities covering up to two hundred square kilometers; some had populations of up to (and sometimes over) 100,000 people; all had a reliance on seasonal tropical rainfall for both agriculture and subsistence. While Maya rulers, mostly known from texts recorded on stone monument, reigned over Classic Period (550 CE - 900 CE) Maya cities and states, court officials and support staff likely handled day-to-day administrative tasks within these cities. The ancient Maya provide an excellent case study to review the role that both top-down (elite) and bottom-up (household) processes can impact the day-to-day governance of ancient cities. This research incorporates excavation at the Maya city of Caracol, Belize, one of the most well documented Maya cities, with data analyses to determine governance patterns. Maya cities, like Caracol, were designed to harvest rainfall for both sustenance and agriculture, but these aspects alone did not provide for the longevity of these ancient cities. Caracol itself also thrived for over one thousand years because of its social and political organization. Additional understanding of governance at Caracol will help elucidate how this city functioned, shed light on its longevity, and provide data appropriate for theoretical formulations and cross-cultural comparisons. Research at Caracol also involves cooperation between United States and Belizean citizens, as well as building and reinforcing positive international ties between both countries on a variety of levels that include hands-on undergraduate archaeological training.In this study, Adrian Chase assesses the degree to which aspects of the physical layout of a city (including the location of infrastructure, standardization of residential features, and neighborhood identity) provide practical proxies for identifying governance with Caracol, Belize as the test site location. Three datasets are used: 1) the distribution of urban service facility features around the city as a proxy for the degree of infrastructural power; 2) the degree of standardization of garden city features as a proxy for residential autonomy; and, 3) the patterning and distribution of ritual artifacts and their correlation with proposed neighborhoods as a proxy for the potential for collective action through neighborhood level identity. Through this research, concepts from more general urban theory in a variety of disciplines will be integrated with archaeological research through the operationalization of infrastructural power, household autonomy, and collective action at multiple scales of analysis: citywide, district, neighborhood, and plazuela household. Analysis of the built environment and archaeological material will augment the hieroglyphic narrative and provide a better understanding of the governance of a Late Classic Period Maya city.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.