Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant - The Yalahau Regional Settlement Pattern Survey

雅拉豪地区聚落模式项目由杰弗里·B·格洛弗在斯科特·L·费迪克博士的监督下进行，正在调查墨西哥尤卡坦半岛东北角古代玛雅人的社会政治组织。雅拉豪地区代表着一个独特的富水环境，拥有广泛的淡水湿地，这与主导尤卡坦半岛北部其他地区的干燥景观截然不同。该项目将测试从前古典主义晚期(公元前100年-公元350年)到后古典主义晚期(公元前1250-1521年)该地区行政中心空间组织的四种可能模式。通过对雅拉胡地区内的行政系统(S)的共时和历时分析，了解与区域范围内社会政治复杂性的出现和最终衰落相关的过程，将丰富不断增长的研究语料库，不仅在玛雅地区，而且在全球范围内解决社会政治复杂性。在数据分析中，通过比较层级和异级社会政治组织模型，研究者将明确两者的优势和劣势，并在此过程中，潜在地开发出一个具有跨文化适用性的模型。在该地区，研究人员将利用两种经济调查方法，即基于线人的调查和对农村公路附近空地的调查。这些调查技术将提供该区域内所有主要遗址的分布情况，大多数中等规模的遗址，以及小型住区的样本。在这些地点，将进行陶瓷材料的地面收集，并在大型地点的样本中，放置非结构试验挖掘单元。有了这些位置和年代数据，主要的建筑群将被绘制在每个地点的地图上。根据这些数据，将进行两种类型的分析。首先，将根据对主要建筑样本的体积评估建立一个比较数据库，作为衡量每个地点相对行政权力的一种手段。其次，主要建筑的空间模式将被用来研究场地之间的关系。所有这些数据都包含在一个地理信息系统(GIS)中。今天，雅拉豪地区受到快速增长的人口的威胁，这是坎昆成功成为度假胜地的直接结果。鉴于这一威胁，该项目的完成将对该地区的遗址进行编目，并为国家人类学和历史研究所(INAH)提供保护该地区丰富的文化遗产的重要数据。除了管理数据外，地理信息系统还将用于生成该区域内尚未确定的地点的预测模型。该预测模型可供随后对该地区感兴趣的墨西哥和美国学者使用，并有助于INAH进一步保护遗址。从基于线人的调查技术来看，格洛弗先生正在与许多玛雅土著社区密切合作。在论文结束时，将向每个社区展示关于他们土地上发现的考古资源的可视地图和简要说明，以便他们能够更好地评估和管理他们的文化遗产。通过资助这项研究，NSF将为保护不可再生的文化遗产做出贡献，并帮助为未来的墨西哥和美国学者提供宝贵的教育工具遗产，形式包括预测模型、比较陶瓷收藏和基本考古技能(调查和挖掘)的田野工作培训。

The Yalahau Regional Settlement Pattern Project, conducted by Jeffrey B. Glover under the supervision of Dr. Scott L. Fedick, is investigating the socio-political organization of the ancient Maya in the northeastern corner of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The Yalahau region represents a unique water-rich environment with extensive freshwater wetlands that is strikingly different from the dry landscape that dominates the rest of the northern Yucatan peninsula. This project will test four possible models of the spatial organization of administrative centers within the region from the Late Preclassic period (100 B.C. - A.D. 350) to the Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1250 - 1521). Through the synchronic and diachronic analysis of the administrative system(s) operating within the Yalahau region, an understanding of the processes associated with the emergence and eventual decline of socio-political complexity at a regional scale will enrich the growing corpus of research addressing socio-political complexity not only in the Maya area but across the globe. By comparing hierarchical and heterarchical models of socio-political organization in the analysis of the data, the researcher will clearly highlight the strengths and weaknesses of both, and in the process, potentially develop a model with cross-cultural applicability.To cover the 5,000 km. of the region, the researcher will utilize two economical survey methods, an informant-based survey and a survey of cleared fields adjacent to rural roads. These survey techniques will provide a distribution of all of the major sites within the region, the majority of the moderate sized sites, and a sample of the small settlements. At these sites, surface collections of ceramic material will be conducted, and at a sample of the large sites, off-structure test excavation units will be placed. With these locational and chronological data, the major architectural groups will be mapped at each site when present. From these data two types of analyses will occur. First, a comparative database will be constructed based on a volumetric assessment of a sample of the major architecture as a means to measure the relative administrative power of each site. Secondly, the spatial patterning of the major architecture will be used to investigate intersite relations. All of these data are being contained in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The Yalahau region is threatened today by a rapidly growing population that is a direct result of Cancun's success as a vacation destination. In light of this threat, the completion of the project will catalog the sites within the region and provide INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) with important data for the protection of this area's rich cultural patrimony. Aside from managing data, the GIS will be used to generate a predictive model of as yet unidentified sites within the region. The predictive model can be used by subsequent Mexican and American scholars interested in the area, as well as aid INAH with further site preservation.Stemming from the informant-based survey technique, Mr. Glover is working closely with a number of indigenous Maya communities. At the termination of the dissertation, visually accessible maps and brief narratives about the archaeological resources found on their land will be presented to each community so that they can better assess and manage their cultural patrimony. By funding this research, NSF will be contributing to the preservation of non-renewable cultural patrimony as well as helping provide a legacy of valuable educational tools in the form of a predictive model, a comparative ceramic collection, and fieldwork training in basic archaeological skills (survey and excavation) for future Mexican and American scholars.