Classic Maya Elite Households: Extensive Excavations of Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala

在国家科学基金会的支持下，猪又武博士将在危地马拉Petexbatun地区的阿瓜特卡玛雅遗址进行三个季节的考古研究。大型多房间场地包括一个广泛而复杂的防御墙系统。它的震中包括一个主要的广场，堤道和一个“宫殿群”，这可能是一个皇家家庭的住所。周围是精英住宅区。Inomata先前在该遗址的工作表明，这个精英地区在古典时代晚期的敌人攻击中被烧毁。公元800年，居民逃离，留下了大部分财物。对废弃建筑的初步挖掘揭示了在低地经典玛雅中心发现的最丰富的地板组合。计划在未来三年内对文物丰富的建筑进行更广泛的挖掘，这将为研究玛雅家庭提供一个非凡的机会。这个遗址提供了一个独特的机会，因为在大多数遗址中，考古学家发现的房间材料代表了破旧和废弃的文物，这些文物只能提供对史前生活的最有限和最有偏见的见解。大部分区域将被暴露，挖掘机将使用全站仪系统和手持计算机点出人工制品。对古植物样本、土壤化学特征和小型废弃物的分析将有助于了解生活方式和房屋内外空间的利用。实验室工作将包括对陶瓷的残留物分析、陶瓷膏的成分研究、石器的使用磨损分析以及人类和动物骨骼遗骸的检查。 近年来，考古学家和文化人类学家都认识到，在传统社会中，家庭是维持生计和生产的基本单位，为了了解玛雅人等群体的运作方式，有必要重建家庭一级的活动。只有通过对各个有据可查的家庭群体进行比较，才能最好地理解社会等级制度以及经济和政治组织。这个项目是针对这一目标，并提出了三个直接的问题：古典时期玛雅家庭是如何组织的？他们的成员在他们的住所及其周围进行什么样的活动？以及家庭如何与更高级别的政治、经济和社会组织建立联系。在研究的前三年阶段，Inomata博士将重点关注“精英”家庭，在接下来的季节里，他将扩大范围，包括一系列社会经济群体。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。由于该遗址的非凡性质，它将提供对玛雅生活的独特见解，并产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它还应该揭示玛雅文明是如何在相对简单的技术和恶劣的环境条件下产生和维持的。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Takeshi Inomata will conduct three seasons of archaeological research at the Mayan site of Aguateca which is located in the Petexbatun region of Guatemala. The large multiroom site includes an extensive and complex system of defensive walls. Its epicenter contains a main plaza, causeway and a `palace group` which was the possible residence of a royal family. Surrounding this are elite residential areas. Previous work at the site by Inomata suggested that this elite area was burned during an attack by enemies during the Late Classic period ca. 800 A.D. The residents fled leaving most of their belongings behind. Preliminary excavations of the abandoned structures revealed the richest floor assemblages ever found at a lowland Classic Maya center. More extensive excavations of the artifact-rich buildings planned for the next three years will provide an extraordinary opportunity to study Maya households. This site offers a unique opportunity since at most sites room materials which archaeologists recover represent worn-out and abandoned artifacts which provide only the most limited and biased insights into prehistoric lives. Substantial areas will be exposed and excavators will point plot artifacts using a total station system and handheld computers. The analysis of paleobotanical samples, soil chemical signatures and small discarded objects will contribute to the understanding of lifeways and use of space in and around houses. Laboratory work will include residue analysis on ceramics, the composition study of ceramic pastes, use-wear analysis of lithics and the examination of human and faunal osteological remains. Both archaeologists and cultural anthropologists have come, in recent years, to realize that in traditional societies households are the basic units of subsistence and production and to understand how groups such as the Maya functioned it is necessary to reconstruct activities on a household level. It is through comparison of individual well documented household groups that insight into social hierarchies and economic and political organization can best be understood. This project is directed at this goal and poses three immediate questions: how were Classic period Maya households organized?; What kind of activities did their members conduct in and around their dwellings?; and how were households articulated with higher-level political, economic and social organizations. In this first three year phase of the research, Dr. Inomata will focus on `elite` households and in following seasons he will expand the scope to include a range of socioeconomic groups. This research is important for several reasons. Because of the extraordinary nature of the site, it will provide a unique insight into Maya life and produce data of interest to many archaeologists. It should also shed new light on how with a relatively simple technology and in harsh environmental conditions the Mayan civilization arose and was maintained.