Causes and Consequences of the Spread of the Early Formative Occupation of Pacific Coastal Southern Mesoamerica: Phase 1, the Paleoenvironmental Record

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Hector Neff博士和他的合作者将在危地马拉的太平洋沿岸进行古环境和有限的考古研究。他们将通过从6至10个采样点采集的岩心对古环境记录进行采样，并分析采集到的花粉、植硅体和沉积物。将进行广泛的放射性碳测年，以优化时间分辨率，并允许重建植被的变化，从ca。公元前3,000年到800年。由于遗传因素在形成这些热带地区中起着重要作用，这些数据将提供人类活动的间接代理。正是在这一时期，该地区的人口从狩猎和采集转向定居的农业生活方式，玉米花粉和植硅体的直接存在以及核心地区土地清理的间接证据将提供随时间变化的生存变化。考古队还将在沿海地区进行考古调查和有限的测试挖掘，以寻找尚未发现的早期遗址。考古学家传统上集中在中美洲的大西洋沿岸寻找文明的起源，并集中在奥尔梅克人的出现。然而，随着从其他区域获得数据，越来越清楚的是，需要有更广泛的区域视角。大约在公元前3000年到公元前800年之间，中美洲复杂社会的许多独特特征在太平洋沿岸地区融合在一起。在这一时期的开始，古代的觅食者在较低的海岸收集贝类和其他河口产品，并利用玉米和其他生长在高地的植物。到这一时期结束时，具有纪念性建筑和复杂分层社会的大型遗址正在建设中，大多数地方的人们显然严重依赖玉米农业。生存方式的根本转变，人们对特定地点的束缚增加，以及对建筑基础设施的重大投资的开始，构成了中美洲文明的出现。不幸的是，这一太平洋地区一直相对研究不足，发展序列的细节知之甚少。Neff博士和他的同事们的工作将为这种文化进步建立一个环境背景，并提供对这一过程本身的见解。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Hector Neff and his collaborators will conduct paleoenvironmental and limited archaeological research on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. They will sample the paleoenvironmental record by means of cores taken from six to ten sampling locations and analyze the pollen, phytoliths and sediments recovered. Extensive radiocarbon dating will be conducted to optimize chronological resolution and to allow for a reconstruction of vegetational changes from ca. 3,000 to 800 BC. Because anthropogenetic factors play a significant role in shaping such tropical regions, these data will provide an indirect proxy of human activity. It was during this period that human populations in this region shifted from hunting and gathering to settled agricultural way of life and the direct presence of pollen and phytoliths from maize as well as indirect evidence of land clearance for fields in the cores will provide insight into subsistence change over time. The team will also conduct an archaeological survey and limited test excavations within the coastal zone to search for early period sites as yet undiscovered.Archaeologists have traditionally focused on the Atlantic coast of Middle America in their search for the origins of civilization and concentrated on the emergence of Olmec peoples. However as data from other regions has been acquired, it has become increasingly clear that a broader regional perspective is necessary. Many of the distinctive characteristics of Mesoamerican complex societies coalesced between about 3000 BC and 800 BC in the Pacific coastal region. At the beginning of this period, archaic foragers were collecting shellfish and other estuarine products on the lower coast and exploiting maize and other plants growing on higher ground. By the end of the period, large sites with monumental architecture and complex stratified societies were being constructed and people in most locations apparently depended heavily on maize agriculture. The fundamental shifts in subsistence, the increased tethering of people to specific locations, and the beginning of major investment in architectural infrastructure constituted the emergence of Mesoamerican civilization. Unfortunately this Pacific region has been relatively understudied and details of the developmental sequence are poorly known. The work of Dr. Neff and his colleagues will both establish an environmental context for this cultural progression and provide insight into the process itself.