Biological Inequality at Tikal, Guatemala: Bioarchaeological Aspects of Social Complexity in an Ancient Maya Site

在国家科学基金会的支持下，洛里·赖特博士将对从玛雅考古遗址蒂卡尔收集的骨骼材料进行初步分析。蒂卡尔市位于危地马拉北部佩滕省的低地，一直是古代玛雅文明发展和消亡的重要信息来源。从公元前600年到公元1000年，蒂卡尔发展成为古代中美洲最大的城市之一。像其他玛雅政体一样，蒂卡尔的命运起起伏伏。在其存在的早期，人们认为人口只分为两个社会阶层。在随后的古典晚期，蒂卡尔发展成为一个中央集权国家的中心，拥有多达62,000人，社会经济多样性和地位水平的扩散。考古学对史前社会系统的重建强调了财富和能量消耗的物质象征。然而，这些数据只提供有限的信息，并不能反映这些差异对个人的直接影响。物理人类学技术可以通过确定不同食物消费模式、发病率和儿童生长差异以及通过研究遗传结构来处理社会不平等的生物学影响。这种趋势通常被认为与史前玛雅国家有关，但尚未得到充分探索。在蒂卡尔的挖掘工作中发现了几组人类骨骼遗骸，其他调查人员的初步分析表明，重建的身高差异实际上反映了地位差异。怀特博士想对整个样本做一个详细的分析。各种生物和化学技术可用于确定生长模式、生理应激程度和饮食。然而，这些材料储存在三个地点，没有一个有很好的库存。在热带条件下，骨骼保存往往很差，许多材料是不完整的。有了国家科学基金会的奖金，赖特博士将前往危地马拉，进行完整的盘点并评估每具骨骼的状态。这些数据将为评估全面研究项目的可行性提供基础。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Lori Wright will conduct a preliminary analysis of skeletal material collected from the Tikal, a Mayan archaeological site. Located in the lowlands of the northern Guatemalan Department of Peten, the city of Tikal has been a critical source of information about the development and demise of ancient Maya civilization. Occupied from ca. 600 BC through AD 1,000, Tikal grew to be among the largest cities of ancient Mesoamerica. Like other Maya polities, Tikal's fortunes waxed and waned. During the earlier part of its existence, the population is thought to have been divided into only two social tiers. During the following Late Classic period, Tikal grew to become the center of a centralized state, encompassing as many as 62,000 people, with greater socioeconomic diversity and a proliferation of status levels. Archaeological reconstruction's of prehistoric social systems have emphasized material symbols of wealth and energy expenditure. However these data provide only limited information and do not reflect the direct impact of these distinctions on individuals. Physical anthropological techniques can address the biological implications of social inequality through the identification of patterns of differential food consumption, differences in morbidity and childhood growth and through study of genetic structure. Such trends are commonly assumed to have pertained in prehistoric Mayan states but have yet to be fully explored. Excavations at Tikal have recovered several series of human skeletal remains and preliminary analyses by other investigators suggest that reconstructed height differences reflect, in fact, status differences. Dr. Wright wishes to do a detailed analysis of the entire sample. A variety of biological and chemical techniques can be applied to determine growth patterns, degree of physical stress and diet. However the materials are stored in three locations and none are well inventoried. Skeletal preservation is often poor in tropical conditions and many of the materials are incomplete. With this NSF award, Dr. Wright will travel to Guatemala, conduct a complete inventory and assess the state of each skeleton. These data will provide the basis to assess the feasibility of a full scale research project.