Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Maya Marketplaces: A New Perspective on Interpreting a Classic Period Plaza at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize

在Jason Yaeger博士的监督下，Bernadette Cap将对在伯利兹Buenavista del Cayo古玛雅遗址收集的文物和土壤样本进行考古调查和分析。布埃纳维斯塔是一个主要的中心，位于伯利兹河谷上游，靠近莫潘河现在的河岸。约瑟夫·鲍尔和詹妮弗·塔切克所做的工作证明，该遗址最初于公元前960年左右被占领，公元240-950年间，该遗址的规模和重要性不断扩大，同时成为当地面向广大观众的皇家仪式和行政活动的场所。卡普的研究将通过调查布埃纳维斯塔最大的广场空间之一来探讨布埃纳维斯塔的经济功能，以确定它是否被用作市场。市场是一个特定的地点，人们同意在预定的时间聚集在一起交换物质产品。由于考古学家不能直接观察个体之间交换的实际行为，他们寻找反映这些交换的物质痕迹，例如与物质商品相关的摊位。一些研究人员已经开始在玛雅人中寻找集市的迹象，但对于公元240至950年间玛雅低地是否存在集市，学术上仍然没有达成共识。目前也不清楚它们在考古上的表现可能是什么。早期的市场研究最初集中在一系列证据上，如建筑模式，以确定它们的存在和位置，但最近的研究已开始检查人工制品和土壤化学模式，以做出解释。这项研究试图进一步完善史前集市的考古学研究，方法是建立可验证的相关性，并使用侧重于细粒度分析的数据恢复技术，包括以前的集市研究中没有使用的微制品(小于4毫米的)和微地层学。成功识别古代玛雅市场将允许理解市场是如何在空间上组织的，包括交通流量模式、交换的商品类型、不同类型商品的商贩的空间安排以及组织随着时间的推移的稳定程度。这些新数据将对发现其他玛雅遗址的市场很重要，但也将有助于关于玛雅经济系统集中化程度的辩论。布埃纳维斯塔市场的存在将意味着一个更集中的交换系统，并可能比大多数玛雅学者认为的更多精英参与商品的分配，特别是日常商品。这个项目还将在科学领域以外产生几个更广泛的影响。首先，布埃纳维斯塔周围的当地伯利兹社区将通过就业和培训机会从该项目中受益。提交人在这些社区和伯利兹考古会议上所作的介绍将有助于进一步了解伯利兹的古代玛雅历史。伯利兹考古会议每年在伯利兹举行，当地和外国考古学家、学生和公众都参加了会议。这项研究的结果还将通过在网上发布实地报告、在期刊上发表出版物以及在专业会议上作介绍的方式向更广泛的受众传播。最后，该项目将与威斯康星大学考古野外学校合作，从而为美国本科生提供考古培训，并有机会体验不同的文化。

Supervised by Dr. Jason Yaeger, Bernadette Cap will conduct archaeological investigations and analysis of artifacts and soil samples collected at the ancient Maya site of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. Buenavista is a major center located in the upper Belize River valley near the present bank of the Mopan River. Work conducted by Joseph Ball and Jennifer Taschek has documented that the site was first occupied around 960 BC and grew in size and importance from AD 240-950 while serving as a local venue for regal-ritual and administrative activities geared towards large audiences. Ms. Cap's research will address the economic function of Buenavista by investigating one of the largest plaza spaces at the site to determine if it served as a marketplace. A marketplace is a specific location where people agree to meet at pre-set times to exchange material goods. Because archaeologists cannot directly observe the actual action of exchange between individuals they look for material traces that reflect these exchanges, such as stalls with associated concentrations of material goods. Some researchers have begun to search for indications of marketplaces among the Maya but there still is no scholarly consensus as to whether marketplaces existed between AD 240 and 950 in the Maya lowlands. It is also unclear what their archaeological manifestations might be. Early marketplace research initially focused on lines of evidence such as architectural patterns to identify their existence and location but more recent studies have started to examine artifact and soil chemical patterns to make interpretations. This study attempts to refine the archaeological study of prehistoric marketplaces further by developing empirically testable correlates and using data recovery techniques focused on fine-grained analysis, including microartifacts (those less than 4 mm) and microstratigraphy, not used in previous marketplace studies. The successful identification of an ancient Maya marketplace will permit an understanding of how marketplaces were spatially organized, including patterns of traffic flow, the types of goods exchanged, the spatial arrangement of vendors of different kinds of goods, and the degree of stability in organization over time. This new data will be important for the discovery of marketplaces at other Maya sites but will also contribute to the debate on the degree to which Maya economic systems were centralized. The presence of a marketplace at Buenavista would imply a more centralized exchange system and potentially more elite involvement in the distribution of goods, especially every-day goods, than assumed by most Maya scholars.This project also will have several broader impacts beyond the scientific realm. First, the local Belizean community around Buenavista will benefit from this project through employment and training opportunities. Presentations made by the author within these communities and at the Belize Archaeological Conference, held annually in Belize and attended by local and foreign archaeologists, students and the general public, will help to build further understandings of Belize's ancient Maya past. The results of this research also will be disseminated to a wider audience through online publication of field reports, publications in journals, and presentations at professional conferences. Finally, this project will be working in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin archaeological field school, thus offering American undergraduates archaeological training and the opportunity to experience a different culture.