Prehistoric Human-Environment Interactions in the Southern Maya Lowlands: The Holmul Region Case

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，考古学家弗朗西斯科·埃斯特拉达-贝利和地理学家大卫·沃尔将带领一个由美国和危地马拉学生组成的团队，在危地马拉东北部脆弱的湿地对人类定居的动态和玛雅文明的环境进行跨学科研究。环境变化，无论是人为引起的还是与自然气候变化相关的，都被认为是导致玛雅南部低地两次显著人口下降的原因。第一次发作发生在公元后2000年，被认为影响了玛雅南部低地的许多大型前古典中心；第二次发生在公元后古典时期末期900年，影响了玛雅南部低地的大部分遗址。在这两种情况下，古环境数据都被解释为气候变化和环境退化是人口大量减少的主要原因。然而，关于前西班牙时期环境变化的年代学和原因的全貌尚未出现，因为许多记录的年代不可靠，缺乏关键文化区域的记录，或者缺乏足够的分辨率。此外，玛雅低地是一个非常异质的地区，具有独特的史前文化景观和当地对特定环境条件的适应。逐一审查这些景观将为就动态的人/环境关系得出更广泛的结论提供基础。这项研究将提供关于人类居住和环境变化的详细记录，这是玛雅低地的一个地区，在公元前1000年左右首次建立定居点，大型城市中心在前古典晚期（公元前300年-公元250年）和古典时期（公元250年-900年）蓬勃发展，但缺乏古环境数据。为了模拟环境退化和/或气候变化对该地区文化轨迹的影响，本研究将使用广泛的古环境指标，并结合详细的定居历史。人类居住地附近的湖泊沉积物将使用多种技术进行研究，包括花粉、木炭、稳定同位素分析和放射性AMS定年法。横切当地交错带的调查样带将系统地记录住宅和土地使用特征。与当地人口变化有关的环境变化证据，以及与玛雅低地其他地区的类似证据在时间上的相关性，有可能为这些模型提供强有力的支持。因此，这个项目将建立在先前玛雅低地的古环境工作的基础上，以确定是否大规模的过程，跨越更广泛的南部低地，影响了当地的定居模式。这项研究的更广泛的影响在于它的能力：1)提供玛雅文明史上人类与环境相互作用的详细记录，将人类影响与气候变化分开，并评估与区域遗址废弃的相关性；2)填补了我们对脆弱湿地环境地区景观演化和气候变率认识的重要空白；3)生成关于玛雅低地最早定居点的基线考古数据；4)为两篇人类学论文提供初步支持。

With National Science Foundation's support, archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli and geographer David Wahl will lead a team of US and Guatemalan students in an interdisciplinary study of the dynamics of human settlement and the environment of Maya civilization in the fragile wetlands of northeastern Guatemala. Environmental change, either anthropogenically induced and/or associated with natural climate variability, has been posited as contributing to two periods of marked population decline in the southern Maya Lowlands. The first episode occurred ~A.D. 200 and is thought to have affected a number of large Preclassic centers across the southern Maya Lowlands; the second occurred at the end of the Late Classic period ~A.D. 900, and affected most sites in the southern Maya lowlands. In both cases, paleoenvironmental data have been interpreted to suggest that climate change and environmental degradation were the primary causes of extensive demographic decline. However, a full picture of the chronology and causes of environmental change during the Pre-Hispanic period has not emerged because many records are insecurely dated, are lacking from key cultural areas, or lack sufficient resolution. Moreover, the Maya Lowlands is a very heterogeneous region, with distinct prehistoric cultural landscapes and local adaptations to specific environmental conditions. Examination of these landscapes on a case-by-case basis will provide the foundation for drawing broader conclusions about the dynamic human/environment relationship.This study will provide a detailed record of human occupation and environmental change from the Holmul region, an area of the Maya Lowlands where settlement was first established around 1000 B.C. and large urban centers flourished in the Late Preclassic (300 B.C.-A.D. 250) and Classic periods (A.D. 250-900) but for which paleo-environmental data is lacking. In order to model the effects of environmental degradation and/or climate change on the cultural trajectory of the region, this research will use a wide range of paleoenvironmental indicators in conjunction with detailed settlement history. Lake sediments from the vicinity of human settlement will be studied using a variety of techniques including pollen, charcoal, stable isotope analyses, and radiometric AMS dating. Survey transects cross-cutting local ecotones will document residential and land use features systematically. Evidence of environmental change that is connected to local demographic shifts and temporally correlated to similar evidence in other areas across the Maya Lowlands has the potential to offer strong support to these models. Thus, this project will build upon previous paleoenvironmental work in the Maya Lowlands in order to identify whether large-scale processes, across a wider section of the southern lowlands, affected local settlement patterns. The broader impact of this study lies in its ability to 1) provide a detailed record of human-environment interactions in the history of Maya civilization, separating human impacts from climate change, and evaluate any correlation with regional site abandonments; 2) fill an important gap in our knowledge of landscape evolution and climate variability in an area of fragile wetland environments; 3) generate baseline archaeological data on the earliest settlement of the Maya Lowlands and 4) provide initial support for two anthropological dissertation theses.