Mayan Site Excavation

在这项研究中，法什博士将继续挖掘位于洪都拉斯科潘遗址的10L-26结构。科潘遗址是一个重要的玛雅中心，记录了玛雅文明的兴衰。结构10L-26是一个土丘，它包含一个楼梯，楼梯通向顶部的一座寺庙。它是所有玛雅古迹中最重要、最不为人所知的古迹之一。石刻的碑文覆盖了上层建筑的楼梯和立面，这是原住民新大陆已知的最长的石刻。不幸的是，超过一半的楼梯文字掉落并被掩埋。更严重的是，暴露在自然环境中的楼梯铭文正在迅速恶化。这项研究的目标是继续挖掘楼梯的埋藏部分，按正确的顺序组装石块，然后记录、翻译和解释碑文。考古学家已经认识到，不同的玛雅遗址并不是孤立发展起来的。各地区之间经常发生战争和贸易，因此每个地区都影响着邻国的兴衰。要了解个别遗址的历史，有必要把它们放在地区的背景下，事实上，从地区的角度考虑可能比从个别地点的角度考虑更有意义。虽然它们只被部分翻译，但人们认为纪念碑上的铭文记录了一场战争及其与邻国的结果。通过翻译文本，然后将这些信息纳入更广泛的考古框架，应该可以详细说明遗址间关系的一个方面。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加我们对复杂社会的理解，比如我们自己的社会。它将特别展示这些实体是如何出现、维持并随后衰落的。由于这样的过程不是几十年，而是数千年，考古数据特别适合这一目的。

In this research Dr. Fash will continue excavation of structure 10L-26 located at the site of Copan in Honduras. The site of Copan is a major Mayan center which documents the rise and subsequent decline of the Mayan civilization. Structure 10L-26 is a mound which contained a stairway which led to a temple on the top. It is one of the most important and least understood of all Maya monuments. An inscription carved in stone covered the stairway and the facade of the superstructure and this is the longest known in the aboriginal New World. Unfortunately, over half the stairway text fell and was buried. Even more seriously, the stairway inscription, exposed to the elements is deteriorating at a rapid rate. The goal of this research is to continue excavation of the buried portions of the stairway, assemble the blocks in the right order and then record, translate and interpret the inscription. Archaeologists have come to realize that different Mayan sites did not develop in isolation. Regions fought and traded, regularly with each other and thus each influenced the growth and decline of its neighbors. To understand the history of individual sites, it is necessary to set them in a regional context and in fact it probably makes more sense to think in terms of regions than individual sites. Although they have been only partially translated, it is believed that the inscriptions on the monument record a war and its outcome with a neighboring state. Through translation of the text and then incorporation of this information into a broader archaeological framework, it should be possible to both detail one aspect of intersite relations. This research is important because it will increase our understanding of complex societies such as our own. It will show, in particular how such entities emerge, are maintained and then decline. Since such processes cover not decades but thousands of years, archaeological data are particularly well suited to this purpose.