Classic Maya Elite Households: The Analysis of Floor Assemblages from Burned Sructures at Aguateca, Guatemala

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，稻间武（Takeshi Inomata）博士将对Aguateca遗址出土的考古材料进行三个季度的分析。这个大型的多房间遗址位于危地马拉的Petexbatum地区，包括一个广泛而复杂的防御墙系统。它的中心包含一个主广场、堤道和一个可能是王室住所的“宫殿群”。周围是精英住宅区。Inomata博士在该遗址进行了三个季节的挖掘，这表明在古典时期晚期（约公元800年），精英区域在敌人的攻击中被烧毁，居民逃离时留下了大部分财物，这些被证明是在低地古典玛雅遗址中发现的最丰富的地板集合。因此，阿瓜特卡提供了一个独特的机会，因为在大多数遗址中，考古学家恢复的房间材料代表了磨损和废弃的文物，这些文物只能提供最有限和有偏见的史前生活见解。Inomata博士和一组合作者现在将分析回收的材料。因为大部分陶器都被打碎了，重建工作需要付出巨大的努力。这些物品，以及许多碎片，将被绘制和拍照。石器的使用磨损分析将提供有关居民活动的重要信息。该小组将分析各种材料的空间分布，以检查活动区域和家庭组织。将对土壤进行分析，以寻找特定文化活动的化学特征。近年来，考古学家和文化人类学家都认识到，在传统社会中，家庭是生存和生产的基本单位，要了解像玛雅人这样的群体是如何运作的，就有必要在家庭层面上重建活动。只有通过对有详细记录的家庭群体的比较，才能最好地理解对社会等级制度和经济和政治组织的洞察。Inomata博士和他的同事们希望了解古典时期玛雅家庭是如何组织的。它们将决定在住宅内部和周围进行何种活动，以及个别家庭如何与更高级别的政治、经济和社会组织联系。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。由于该遗址的特殊性质，它将为了解玛雅人的生活提供独特的视角，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将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 support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Takeshi Inomata will conduct three seasons of analysis of archaeological material recovered from the site of Aguateca. Located in the Petexbatum region of Guatemala, this 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. Dr. Inomata has conducted three seasons of excavation at the site and this indicates that the 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 and these have proven to be the richest floor assemblages ever found at a lowland Classic Maya site. Aguateca therefore 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. Dr. Inomata and a team of collaborators will now analyze the materials recovered. Because most pottery was smashed, significant effort will involved reconstruction. These objects, as well as many fragments, will be drawn and photographed. Use-wear analysis of stone tools will provide important information about the activities conducted the residents. The team will analyze the spatial distribution of various types of materials to examine activity areas and household organization. Soils will be analyzed to search for chemical signatures of specific cultural activities.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. Dr. Inomata and his colleagues wish to understand how Classic period Maya households were organized. They will determine what kind of activities were conducted in and around dwellings and how individual households articulated with higher-level political, economic and social organizations.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.