Paleoclimatic Reconstruction and Archaeological Investigation at Xcoch, Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico: Exploratory Research into Arctic Climate Change and Maya Culture Process

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。该研究项目通过在墨西哥尤卡坦的普乌克地区和Xcoch的玛雅中心进行考古挖掘和调查，从全球角度调查气候变化。北极的气候变化不仅仅是当代现象，这种变化对许多过去远离北极地区的人类社会产生了社会和文化影响，包括玛雅低地。在中世纪暖期(公元800-1300年)，气候变化促进了北大西洋群岛的北欧殖民。大约在同一时间，墨西哥尤卡坦的玛雅人正经历着降雨模式的中断，导致了持续的干旱时期。北极气候变化如何影响北大西洋和玛雅低地的文化发展和衰落进程，今天有可能让我们了解全球气候变化对文化环境的深远影响。来自普乌克地区等地的气候数据可能会让我们了解北极气候变化对全球气候系统的复杂影响。普乌克地区的特点是半干旱的热带气候和干燥的森林植被，遭受了漫长而危险的旱季。长期以来，气候变化一直被视为古代玛雅文明衰落的主要因素。在公元9世纪左右开始的被称为经典玛雅崩溃的现象中，干旱循环被认为是影响农业和特别是可用饮用水的关键。Xcoch遗址是唯一适合研究气候变化的地点，因为它被占领了很长时间，但在9世纪经历了显著的人口减少，包含一个通往永久水源的深洞穴，以及有许多池塘特征(Guadas)；所有这些因素使Xcoch有可能提供长期的古气候信息。附近的Uxmal、Muluch Tzekel和Xuchh中心也有美洲虎，该地区还有其他几个将进行测试的深洞穴。这项工作在很大程度上是基于新的、未经检验的想法，从未在尤卡坦地区尝试过，但涉及新的方法，需要多样化的专业知识，并涉及跨学科的视角。Xcoch的调查和挖掘将于2009年恢复，届时将收集、分析多学科的气候变化数据，并与北方数据进行比较。这项研究吸引了北极社区的参与，因为北极气候变化对全球文化和环境的影响正变得越来越明显。为了充分了解这些影响是什么，需要在北方和南方进行跨学科和跨区域的调查，如拟议的项目，让科学界参与全球讨论。PI希望在Xcoch发现的数据将被添加到与北方科学家正在进行的讨论中。这项研究被认为具有潜在的变革性，将到目前为止主要是关于气候变化对当地社会和文化系统的影响的地区性考古研究联系起来，Xcoch项目将试图通过连接北方和南方来实现这一研究的全球化。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This research project investigates climatic change from a global perspective through archaeological excavation and survey in the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico and at the Maya center of Xcoch. Climate change in the Arctic is not just a contemporary phenomenon, such change had social and cultural consequences for many past human societies far from northern Polar Regions, including the Maya lowlands. Changing climate facilitated Norse colonization of the North Atlantic Islands during the Medieval Warm Period (AD 800-1300). At about the same time, the Maya of Yucatan, Mexico, were experiencing disruptions to rainfall patterns leading to sustained periods of drought. How Arctic climate change affected processes of cultural development and decline in the North Atlantic and Maya Lowlands has the potential to inform us today regarding the far reaching and serious cultural-environmental impact of global climate change. Climate data from places like the Puuc region, characterized as a semi-arid tropical climate and dry forest vegetation that suffers from a long precarious dry season, has the potential to inform us about the complex effects that Arctic climate change had and has on the global climate system. Climate change has long been seen as a major factor in the decline of ancient Maya civilization. Cycles of drought affecting agriculture and available drinking water in particular are believed to have being critical in the phenomenon known as the Classic Maya collapse beginning around the 9th century AD. The site of Xcoch is uniquely suited for climatic change research because it had a long occupation but experienced significant depopulations by the 9th century, contains a deep cave to a permanent water source, and there are many ponding features (aguadas); all these factors give Xcoch the potential to provide long-term paleoclimatic information. The nearby centers of Uxmal, Muluch Tzekel, and Xuch also contain aguadas and there are several other deep caves in the region that will be tested. This work is largely based upon new, untested ideas and has never been tried in the Yucatan but involves new approaches, requires diverse expertise, and engages interdisciplinary perspectives. Survey and excavation at Xcoch will resume in 2009 when multidisciplinary climate change data will be collected, analyzed, and compared with northern data. This research engages the Arctic community because it is becoming increasingly apparent that Arctic climate changes have global culture-environmental impacts. In order to fully understand what those impacts are, interdisciplinary and cross regional investigations, such as the proposed project, need to take place both in the north and in the south engaging the scientific community in a global discussion. The data that the PI expects to uncover at Xcoch will be added to this ongoing discussion with northern scientists. This research is viewed as potentially transformational, connecting what up to this point have been primarily regionalized archaeological research on the affects of climate change on local social and cultural systems, the Xcoch project will attempt globalize this research by connecting the north with the south.