RUI: Archaeological Investigation of the Puuc Hills

在晚期古典时期（公元700-950年）的几个世纪里，普乌克建筑风格在尤卡坦半岛半岛的西北角丘陵地带蓬勃发展，该地区现在基本上没有人口。这种风格影响了整个尤卡坦半岛北方的建筑，并表现出与里约贝克和切内斯地区亚文化的密切联系。该项目的总体目标，由托马斯Gallareta Negron（INAH，墨西哥），乔治J贝三世（米尔萨普斯学院），威廉M。林格尔（戴维森学院），是了解经济，政治和社会方面的起源和这种区域亚文化的阐述。与北方平原上分布广泛的大城市相比，Puuc山东部的Bolonchen区的社区规模较小，人口密度更高。虽然该地区的土壤相当肥沃，但Bolonchen区的丘陵景观似乎对大型场地产生了影响。地表水的缺乏也迫使人们依赖于cisstrom（chultunes）。尽管如此，博龙兴遗址仍显示出高度的繁荣和社会复杂性。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，本项目将考察三个邻近的中层社区（Labna，Kiuic和Huntichmul），它们都是Puuc风格的经典典范。由于农业生产可能是他们财富的关键之一，因此将通过检查连接三个中心的土地来了解城市发展的背景，这是Puuc的第一次农村调查。良好的表面可见度和保存允许积累详细的信息结构的大小和制作，即使是最卑微的。一个中心的假设是，繁荣的部分原因是农村重组的过程中并行的小城市中心的扩散。初步研究表明，这涉及到在城镇和农村广泛存在的土地精英的扩张。精英和他们的家属可能已经形成了小型的生产单位，居住在各个山丘上的庄园式定居点，每个单位负责一小块可耕地。因此，该项目的一个目标是记录这些可耕地的居住区，特别是精英居住区的分布情况，并通过地面收集和建筑风格来确定土地管理演变的日期。另外，山丘群可能参与手工艺品生产，在这种情况下，与可耕地的联系可能会减少。其中两个单元将被集中挖掘，以评估经济活动和建筑发展随着时间的推移。进一步的目标将是了解城市中心和他们的土地之间的联系。行政和仪式生活是否集中？这些中心反过来又受制于像乌克斯马尔这样的大城市吗？城市精英们是否也像苏格兰人那样？特别是对城市建筑的详细测绘将表明，社区是否共享共同的行政或仪式设施，反映了中央集权的领导，或者可能更加多样化，表明政治独立。进一步的问题包括Puuc定居点的时间深度。工作已经证明了建设比以前认为的要早几个世纪，但终端经典繁荣的性质仍有待澄清，它的消亡也是如此。最近发现的后纪念性结构表明，遗弃可能没有以前认为的那么突然。将发掘一个这样的建筑群，以及一个后期的Puuc-style住宅区作为比较。因此，这一建议的智力价值将是1）阐明过去对今天人口稀少的地区的成功管理，2）了解这一过程的发展历史，3）了解区域身份是如何形成的，政治，经济和社会。更广泛地说，这个项目是一个更大的倡议的一部分，该倡议旨在保护和管理Puuc山最后一片原始森林中的文化和自然资源。它将涉及来自墨西哥，美国，和其他地方。我们也希望当地村民的就业、培训和教育将使他们在迅速发展的旅游经济中处于有利地位。

For a few centuries during the Late-Terminal Classic periods (A.D. 700-950), the Puuc architectural style flourished in the hilly northwest corner of the Yucatan peninsula, an area now largely devoid of population. This style influenced architecture throughout northern Yucatan, as well as exhibiting close ties to the Rio Bec and Chenes regional subcultures. The overarching purpose of this project, directed by Tomas Gallareta Negron (INAH, Mexico), George J. Bey III (Millsaps College), and William M. Ringle (Davidson College), is to understand the genesis and elaboration of this regional subculture in economic, political, and social terms. In contrast to the large, widely spaced cities of the northern plains, the communities of the Bolonchen district of the eastern Puuc Hills are smaller and much more densely packed. Although soils of the region are quite fertile, the hilly landscape of the Bolonchen District seems to have militated against large sites. Lack of surface water also forced reliance upon cisterns (chultunes). Despite this, Bolonchen sites evidence a high level of prosperity and social complexity.With support from the National Science Foundation, this project will examine three neighboring mid-level communities (Labna, Kiuic, and Huntichmul), all classic exemplars of the Puuc style. Since agricultural production may be one key to their wealth, urban development will be contextualized through examination of the hinterlands connecting the three centers, the first rural survey in the Puuc. Excellent surface visibility and preservation permits accumulation of detailed information on structure size and elaboration, even of the most humble.A central hypothesis is that prosperity was due in part to a process of rural reorganization paralleling the proliferation of small urban centers. Preliminary work suggests this involved expansion of a broadly based landed elite present in both town and country. Elites and their dependents may have formed small production units residing in manor-like settlements on individual hills, each unit presiding over a pocket of cultivable land. One goal of the project will therefore be to document the distribution of settlement, especially elite settlement, to these cultivable pockets and to date the evolution of land management by means of surface collections and architectural styles. Alternatively, hill groups may have been involved in craft production, in which case less connection to arable parcels may be expected. Two of these units will be intensively excavated to assess economic activities and architectural development over time.A further goal will be to understand the connection between urban centers and their hinterlands. Was administration and ritual life centralized or not? Were these centers in turn subject to larger cities such as Uxmal? Were urban elites like those of the hinterlands? Detailed mapping of civic architecture in particular will demonstrate whether communities shared common administrative or ritual facilities, reflecting centralized leadership, or were perhaps more varied, suggesting political independence. Further questions include the time depth of Puuc settlement. Work has already demonstrated construction centuries earlier than previously believed, but the nature of the Terminal Classic boom remains to be clarified, as does its demise. Recent discovery of post-monumental structures suggests abandonment may have been less abrupt than previously believed. One such compound will be excavated, as well as a late Puuc-style residential compound for comparison.The intellectual merits of this proposal will thus be to 1) elucidate past successful management of an area which today is underpopulated, 2) understand the developmental history of this process, and 3) understand how regional identities are formed, politically, economically, and socially.More broadly, this project is part of a larger initiative directed toward preservation and management of both cultural and natural resources in one of the last stands of primary forest in the Puuc Hills. It will involve senior staff and students from Mexico, the U.S., and elsewhere. We hope too that employment, training, and education of local villagers will place them advantageously in a rapidly evolving tourist economy.