Dissertation Research: Evolution and Cultural Meaning of Courts in the Copan Acropolis

在Robert Sharer博士的指导下，Loa Traxler女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将参与科潘卫城的挖掘，并确定建筑结构随着时间的推移发生了怎样的变化。位于洪都拉斯的科潘是玛雅人的主要遗址之一，它记录了玛雅社会的兴衰。一个大土丘或“雅典卫城”标志着遗址的中心，由叠加的寺庙、宫殿建筑和其他结构组成。尽管其他玛雅遗址也包含这样一系列建筑，但科潘是独一无二的，因为沿东部的侵蚀切割使人们可以随时进入所有主要建筑楼层，并为广泛暴露重叠建筑提供了难得的机会。沙雷尔博士和他的同事们开发了一种隧道挖掘策略，可以让他们沿着埋在地下的墙壁，重建建筑的大小和形状。特拉克斯勒将继续收集和分析此类数据。在美国中部，考古学家倾向于要么专注于能够洞察精英行为的不朽建筑，要么专注于与下层阶级地位相关的较小的边远遗址。科潘遗址特别重要，因为长期的聚落格局调查和挖掘都集中在后者上。通过这项工作，考古学家现在了解了人口是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，以及科潘山谷的利用是如何变化的。在这种背景下，特拉克斯勒将收集的数据极其重要，因为这将使她能够研究这两个社会层面是如何相互作用的。这项研究将为了解玛雅文明的兴衰提供新的见解。它将产生一大批考古学家感兴趣的数据，并有助于培训一位非常有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Robert Sharer, Ms Loa Traxler will collect data for her doctoral dissertation thesis. She will participate in the excavation of the Acropolis of Copan and determine how architectural construction changed over time. Copan, located in Honduras, is one of the major Mayan sites and it documents the rise and subsequent decline of Mayan society. A large mound or "Acropolis" marks the center of the site and consists of superimposed temples, palace buildings and other structures. Although other Mayan sites also contain such a sequence of buildings, Copan is unique because an erosional cut along the eastern portion allows ready access to all major construction levels and presents a rare opportunity for extensive exposure of superimposed architecture. Dr. Sharer and his colleagues have developed a tunneling strategy which lets them follow buried walls and reconstruct building size and shape. Ms Traxler will continue to collect and analyze such data. In Middle America, archaeologists have tended to concentrate either on monumental structures which provide insight into elite behavior or on smaller outlying sites associated with lower class status. The site of Copan is particularly important because of the long term settlement pattern survey and excavations which have focussed on the latter. As a result of this work, archaeologists now understand how population changed over time and how the utilization of the Copan Valley changed. Within this context, the data which Ms Traxler will collect is extremely important because it will permit her to examine how these two levels of society interacted. This research will provide new insight into the rise and decline of Mayan civilization. It will result in data of interest to a large group of archaeologists and assist in the training of an extremely promising young scientist.