Human Impact on the Ancient Animals of the Maya World: The Regional Maya Zooarchaeology Project

在国家科学基金会的资助下，Kitty F.埃默里将创建一个玛雅动物考古数据库，并测试其在中美洲玛雅南部低地地区古代动物分布和人口动态变化分析中的效用。该数据库将联合收割机新的数据库管理与地理信息系统技术相结合，为玛雅地区的考古学和生物学研究提供强大的资源。汇编的动物地理数据将有助于了解古玛雅人对动物种群的影响，并检验古玛雅人毁灭当地动物群和环境的假设。当今世界面临着动物多样性和动物栖息地的创纪录损失，主要是由于人类的影响。在包括玛雅世界在内的亚热带国家（危地马拉和伯利兹，以及洪都拉斯和墨西哥的部分地区），情况尤其如此，在那里，人类活动已经持续了2000多年。目前的考古学认为，古玛雅人通过减少动物种群、改变和破坏栖息地以及中断动物群落动态，对动物生物多样性和动物地理学产生了重大的负面影响。缺乏一个适当的强大和灵活的数据库系统，阻止了动物考古学家充分测试这一假设。然而，使用关系数据库进行分布分析的技术的最新进展使这成为一个综合研究计划的有利时机，该计划将首先改进当前的动物考古学数据管理方法，以创建玛雅动物考古学数据库，其次，利用这个数据库对古代玛雅人对动物群和环境的影响的流行假设进行初步测试。该项目将利用来自20个南部低地玛雅遗址，以创建和测试定制的关系数据库和地理参考GIS系统，该系统既足够灵活，可以从不同的动物考古样本中捕获数据，又可以作为考古，生物和保护科学的研究工具。数据库创建的本质是与数据库管理、动物考古学和玛雅考古学方面的国际专家进行广泛磋商，最终的数据库产品将广泛分发，供评论和以后的改进。通过与在玛雅世界工作的数据库专家、考古学家和保护生物学家以及危地马拉研究机构的合作和协商，将提供数据库格式和内容，供科学界进一步测试、改进和使用。这项研究具有重要的智力价值，创造了一个有效的手段中美洲动物考古学数据管理，将提供给考古学和生物科学的跨学科研究，以及在使用关系数据库和地理信息系统的动物考古学评估古玛雅人对动物的影响。这项研究的更广泛的影响在于为未来的动物考古学研究开发基础设施，国际学者和学生之间的合作，最重要的是，这些和以后的研究将有助于生物多样性保护，通过提供关于人类/动物相互作用的悠久历史及其对我们自己对现代环境的影响的影响的令人信服和明确的教训。

With National Science Foundation funding, Dr. Kitty F. Emery will create a database of Maya zooarchaeological data and test its utility in an analysis of changes in ancient animal distributions and population dynamics in the southern Maya lowland region of Mesoamerica. The database will combine new database management with GIS technology to provide a powerful resource for archaeological and biological research in the Maya area. Compiled zoogeographic data will contribute to an understanding of ancient Maya impact on animal populations and test the hypothesis that the ancient Maya decimated their local faunas and environments.The world today faces a record loss of animal diversity and faunal habitats, largely as a result of human impact. This is particularly true in the subtropical countries encompassing the Maya world (Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and Mexico) where human activity has been substantial for over 2000 years. Current archaeological thought holds that the ancient Maya had significant and negative effects on animal biodiversity and biogeography by reducing animal populations, altering and fragmenting habitats, and interrupting animal community dynamics. The lack of a suitably robust and flexible database system has prevented zooarchaeologists from adequately testing this hypothesis. However, recent advances in technologies for distributional analysis using relational databases make this an opportune moment for an integrated research initiative that will first, refine current methods of zooarchaeological data management to create a Maya zooarchaeology database, and second, use this database in a preliminary test of the prevailing hypothesis of ancient Maya impact on faunas and environments.The project will use available zooarchaeological data from 20 southern lowland Maya sites to create and test a customized relational database and geo-referenced GIS system that is both flexible enough to capture data from a diverse zooarchaeological sample and effective as a research tool in archaeological, biological, and conservation science. Intrinsic to the database creation will be extensive consultation with international experts in database management, zooarchaeology, and Maya archaeology, and the final database product will be circulated widely for critique and later refinement. Through collaboration and consultation with database specialists, archaeologists and conservation biologists working in the Maya world, and Guatemalan research institutions, the database format and contents will be made available for further testing, refinement, and use by the scientific community. This research has important intellectual merit in the creation of an effective means for Mesoamerican zooarchaeology data management that will be made available to interdisciplinary research in both the archaeological and biological sciences, as well as in the use of relational database and GIS systems in the zooarchaeological evaluation of ancient Maya impact on animals. The broader impact of this study lies in the development of infrastructure for future zooarchaeological research, the collaboration between international scholars and students, and, most importantly, in the fact that these and later studies will contribute to biodiversity conservation by providing cogent and clear lessons about the long history of human/animal interactions and their implications for our own impact on modern environments.