Soil Chemical Analysis in classic Maya Household Archaeology

在国家科学基金会的支持下，理查德·特里博士和他的合作者将开发磷酸盐和微量元素分析技术，并将其应用于一系列玛雅考古遗址。多年来，考古学家和土壤科学家已经认识到，特定的人类活动，如准备食物和丢弃垃圾，会在土壤中留下化学印记，并试图从化学效应到行为原因进行研究。 Terry博士开发了一种使用Mehlich II萃取和比色计进行磷酸盐分析的现场实验室方法。这种快速廉价的方法可以在现场进行，提供了高精度的定量数据，使研究人员能够以前所未有的规模进行磷酸盐分析。微量元素如Cu、Fe、Hg、Mn、Pb和Zn通常与工艺和仪式活动有关。在对三个玛雅遗址进行实地考察的过程中，将从有关地区收集土壤样本，并在杨百翰大学土壤实验室通过硝酸-高氯酸消化和电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法对这些元素进行测量。微量元素分析在考古学中的应用远比磷酸盐测试有限，这种方法的系统应用将为研究过去的行为开辟新的可能性。外地业务将有三个主要组成部分。首先，将在危地马拉阿瓜特卡遗址附近的一座目前使用的房屋和附近的一个玛雅村庄进行民族考古学研究。特里博士和他的同事们将研究土壤化学特征和已知活动之间的相关性。第二，将在三个玛雅考古遗址迅速废弃的建筑物的挖掘中进行土壤分析。在萨尔瓦多的阿瓜特卡和塞伦的工作清楚地表明，这两个地方都很快被放弃。这两个遗址的结构都包含了许多留在原地的文物，为研究化学数据和过去行为之间的相关性提供了理想的考古环境。在Piedras Negras遗址，逐渐废弃的结构将提供一个试验案例，以测试土壤化学数据在人工制品贫乏的环境中的效用。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为史前玛雅人如何塑造他们的活动提供新的线索。它还将有助于开发在各种考古情况下具有潜在价值的技术。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Richard Terry and his collaborators will develop the techniques of phosphate and trace element analysis and apply them to a series of Mayan archaeological sites. For many years archaeologists and soil scientists have recognized that specific human activities such as food preparation and trash discard leave a chemical imprint in the soil and attempts have been made to work from chemical effect to behavioral cause. Dr. Terry has developed a field lab method of phosphate analysis using Mehlich II extraction and a colorimeter. This quick inexpensive method which can be conducted in the field provides high precision, quantitative data and allows researchers to conduct analysis of phosphate on an unprecedented scale. Trace elements such as Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn are often associated with craft and ritual activities. In the course of ongoing fieldwork at three Mayan sites, soil samples from relevant areas will be collected and these elements measured at the Brigham Young University soil laboratory through nitric-perchloric acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. The use of trace element analysis in archaeology has been far more limited than phosphate tests and the systematic application of this method should open new possibilities in the study of past behavior. Field operations will have three major components. First, ethnoarchaeological studies will be conducted at a currently used house near the site of Aguateca Guatemala and in a nearby Maya village. Dr. Terry and colleagues will examine the correlation between soil chemical signatures and known activities. Second, soil analysis will be applied in the excavation of rapidly abandoned structures at three Mayan archaeological sites. Work at Aguateca and Ceren, El Salvador, has clearly demonstrated that both were abandoned rapidly. Structures at both sites contain numerous artifacts left in situ, providing ideal archaeological situations to examine the correlation between chemistry data and past behavior. At the site of Piedras Negras, gradually abandoned structures will offer a trial case to test the utility of soil chemistry data to in artifact-poor surroundings. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on how prehistoric Mayan peoples patterned their activities. It will also help to develop techniques of potential value in a wide range of archaeological situations.