Evaluating Models of Political and Economic Integration at Pusilha, Belize

来自国家科学基金会的资金将支持杰弗里E。布拉斯韦尔，博士詹妮弗B布拉斯韦尔，和他们的同事在普西利亚，一个史前古典时期（公元250-800）玛雅人口和政治中心位于西南部伯利兹，中美洲考古研究的三个赛季。他们的调查将通过对象形文字纪念碑、陶瓷和石器以及定居模式的联合研究，测试古代国家政治和经济一体化的现行模式。 第一阶段研究将包括对9平方公里的地块覆盖率调查，这些地块构成了该遗址的古代城市、住宅和农业区。 这一阶段的数据将使制图小组能够建立一个地理数据库，以研究自然资源如何影响住区格局，以及人口的不同部分如何与这些资源相联系。第二阶段的调查将包括在住宅和特殊功能群体中进行的测试性调查，这些群体贯穿所有职业和社会地位时期。 第二阶段收集的文物将用于从历时的角度研究精英和平民的经济一体化水平，以及与更大、更强大的政治体的互动--特别是位于西南和东北的科潘和卡拉科尔。 第三阶段挖掘将包括在被认为是生产区的区域进行水平剥离作业。 从这些密集的挖掘中收集的数据将使研究人员能够：（1）获得与建筑地层相关的细粒度时间信息;（2）通过测试坑研究开发的生产地点测试模型;（3）更全面地回答有关精英和平民家庭经济融合的问题。 目前的所有三个阶段，项目成员将记录和分析大量的象形文字纪念碑从普西利亚。 这些纪念碑非常详细地描述了该遗址的建立及其王朝历史，并暗示普西利哈--有一段时间--可能已经被扩张中的科潘国家或霸权所吸收。 因此，对聚落形态和人工制品分布的分析，将有助于研究古代文献中讨论的政治事件的经济影响。 这项研究将有助于最直接地了解当地和区域的政治和经济进程在一个基本上未知的地区东南玛雅周边。 更广泛地说，它将为玛雅社会的组织、稳定和变革贡献新的和完善现有的模型，并--通过扩展--将与世界各地古代国家的研究相关。

Funding from the National Science Foundation will support Dr. Geoffrey E. Braswell, Dr. Jennifer B.Braswell, and their colleagues for three seasons of archaeological research at Pusilha, a prehistoric Classic period(A.D. 250-800) Maya population and political center located in southwestern Belize, Central America. Their investigations will test current models of the political and economic integration of archaic states through the conjunctive study of hieroglyphic monuments, ceramic and lithic artifacts, and settlement patterns. Phase 1 research will consist of block coverage survey of the 9 km2 that constitute the ancient urban, residential, and agricultural zones of the site. Data from this phase will allow the mapping team to build a geographic data base to examine how natural resources influenced settlement patterns, and how different segments of the population were situated in regard to those resources. Phase 2 investigations will consist of test-pitting operations in residential and special function groups that crosscut all periods of occupation and social status. Artifacts gathered during Phase 2 will be used to study the level of economic integration of elites and commoners from a diachronic perspective, as well as interaction with much larger and more powerful polities - particularly Copan and Caracol - located to the southwest and northeast. Phase 3 excavations will consist of horizontal stripping operations in areas thought to have been production zones. Data gathered from these intensive excavations will enable the researchers to: (1) obtain fine-grain temporal information linked to architectural strata; (2) test models regarding production loci developed through the test-pitting research; and (3) more fully answer questions about the economic integration of elite and commoner households. Current with all three phases, projectmembers will document and analyze the large corpus of hieroglyphic monuments from Pusilha. These monuments describe in great detail the founding of the site and its dynastic history, and hint that Pusilha -- for a time -- may have been absorbed by the expanding Copan state or hegemony. Analyses of settlement patterns and artifact distribution, therefore, will afford thestudy of the economic effects of the political events discussed in the ancient texts. This research will contribute most immediately to the understanding of local and regional political and economic processes in a largely unknown region of the southeastern Maya periphery. More broadly, it will contribute new and refine existing models of organization, stability, and change in Maya society, and - by extension - will be of relevance to the study of archaic states throughout the world.