Doctoral Dissertation: The Technological Styles of Late Postclassic Slipped Pottery Groups in the Peten Lakes Region

在Dr. Prudence Rice的指导下，MS Leslie Cecil将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将对危地马拉Peten地区后古典主义遗址的大量陶器碎片进行风格和技术分析。Peten地区居住着说玛雅语的人，古典时期的考古学——玛雅人在该地区发展的高度——是众所周知的。早期在该地区的西班牙探险家遇到了这些部落的后裔，他们记录的书面描述被广泛分析。然而，很难将这些书面记录与玛雅古典时期的个体群体相匹配。在后古典时期，高度集中的社会组织形式发生了转变，导致了令人印象深刻的寺庙和纪念碑的建设，人口被重新分配到更小、更分散、更独立的单位。考古学家希望了解这一过程发生的原因和方式，因此，近年来，他们越来越关注后古典时期。他们已经了解到，很难将单个站点与西班牙语描述中提到的地点和群体相匹配，塞西尔女士的研究就是为了实现这一目标。陶瓷可以以多种方式制作，成品的形式和装饰的潜在变化实际上是无穷无尽的。陶器是在社会背景下生产和使用的，它的最终形式反映了不言而喻的群体规则，就像文化的其他方面一样。通过对许多后古典佩滕遗址的陶器碎片进行风格和技术分析，塞西尔女士将确定遗址之间的共同点和差异，定义更大的社会单位，然后有希望将它们与民族历史上描述的群体联系起来。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供对通常被认为是玛雅社会“崩溃”的深入了解。它将有助于完善一种可能广泛适用于考古学的分析技术，并有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Prudence Rice, MS Leslie Cecil will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct both stylistic and technological analysis on a large series of potsherds from Postclassic sites in the Peten region of Guatemala. The Peten was inhabited by Mayan speaking peoples and the archaeology of the Classic period - the height of Mayan development in the region - is well known. The early Spanish explorers in the region encountered the descendents of these groups and the written descriptions they recorded have been extensively analyzed. However it is difficult to match this written record with individual Classic period Mayan groups. During the intervening Postclassic period, the highly centralized form of social organization which resulted in the construction of impressive temples and monuments was transformed and populations were redistributed into smaller more dispersed and independent units. Archaeologists wish to understand why and how this process occurred and thus, in recent years have increasingly focused on the Postclassic period. They have learned that it is difficult to match individual sites to places and groups mentioned in the Spanish descriptions and MS. Cecil's research is directed towards this goal.Ceramics can be fabricated in a variety of ways and the potential variation in the form and decoration on the finished products are practically endless. Pottery is produced and used in a social context and its final form reflects unspoken group rules as do other aspects of culture. Through both stylistic and technological analysis of potsherds from a number of Postclassic Peten sites, MS Cecil will determine commonalties and differences among sites, define larger social units and then hopefully link these to ethnohistorically described groups. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into what is commonly regarded as the "collapse" of Mayan society. It will help to refine an analytic technique of potentially wide archaeological applicability and assist in training a promising young scientist.