Warfare and Polity in the Region of La Mar, Chiapas, Mexico

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，安德鲁·谢勒博士和查尔斯·戈尔登博士将带领一个由两国学者组成的团队，对墨西哥恰帕斯州的前哥伦布时期战争进行考古调查。在古典时期（公元250年至900年），玛雅的Piedras Negras和Yaxchilan王国努力控制这一地区，并与其他王朝的入侵作斗争。基于Scherer和Golden先前nsf支持的研究结果，古典晚期（公元600 - 900年）雅克斯基兰王国的领主们建造了一个广泛的以景观为导向的防御系统，包括一个坚固的砖石墙边界系统，山顶堡垒，以及战略性地位于一系列定居点之间的贵族宫殿中心，以保护更大的政体免受邻国政体的攻击。相比之下，前古典时期晚期（公元前400年至公元250年），该地区的防御特征是以遗址为导向的，旨在保护一个单一的社区，并暗示了早期支离破碎的地缘政治景观。然而，尚不清楚的是，雅克斯奇兰的古典晚期以景观为导向的边境防御系统是否为该王国所独有，从而代表了独特的政治和军事形势，还是西部低地的其他王国也采取了类似的地缘政治战略。该项目旨在通过调查古典时期La Mar遗址周围360平方公里区域的防御特征、定居点和物质文化的空间分布，来测试古典时期玛雅战争战略的多样性。象形文字和图像的数据表明，La Mar是Piedras Negras政体边界的次要中心，而La Mar的统治者是Piedras Negras国王最重要的军事盟友之一。然而，缺乏与彼德拉斯·内格拉斯王国战争的历史证据相关联的考古数据。这项研究将加强对古玛雅防御特征和战争的理解，并解决战争作为玛雅地区政治形成和崩溃的原因和结果的作用。这项研究的结果将有助于我们理解前哥伦布时期的政治过程，特别是关于中美洲边界形成过程。更重要的是，这项考古研究将提供一个长期的历时性视角，有助于对国家边缘战争的跨文化和跨学科研究。研究古代战争的景观方法在暴力冲突的研究中越来越重要。然而，缺乏来自热带美洲复杂社会的比较数据，不仅无法与新大陆的其他地区进行比较和对比，也无法与我们对防御工事、景观和战争行为的跨文化理解的旧大陆复杂社会进行比较和对比。该项目将为来自墨西哥和美国的博士、硕士和本科生提供实地和实验室经验。更广泛地说，该项目将推动恰帕斯地区的国际合作研究，该地区很少受到考古学的关注。这项研究将为政府当局、土地使用管理人员和当地社区提供有关中美洲研究不足地区考古遗址位置和范围的数据。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Andrew Scherer and Dr. Charles Golden will lead a bi-national team of scholars in the archaeological investigation of Precolumbian warfare in Chiapas, Mexico. During the Classic period (AD 250 to 900), the Maya kingdoms of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan struggled to control this area, contending with intrusions by other dynasties as well. Based on the results of Scherer and Golden's prior NSF-supported research, the Late Classic period (AD 600 - 900) lords of the Yaxchilan kingdom constructed an extensive landscape-oriented defensive system that consisted of a fortified border system of masonry walls, hilltop redoubts, and noble palace centers strategically situated among a series of settlements positioned to defend the greater polity against attack from neighboring polities. In contrast, Late Preclassic period (400 BC to AD 250) defensive features from the region are site-oriented, meant to protect only a single community, and hint at the fractured geo-political landscape of that earlier time. What is unclear, however, is whether Yaxchilan's Late Classic period landscape-oriented border fortification system is unique to that kingdom, thus representing a distinctive political and military situation, or if other kingdoms in the western lowlands pursued similar geo-political strategy. This project seeks to test the diversity of Classic period Maya warfare strategies through the investigation of the spatial distribution of defensive features, settlement, and material culture associated with a 360 km2 area around the Classic period site of La Mar. Data from hieroglyphic texts and iconography establish that La Mar was a secondary center at the limits of the Piedras Negras polity and that La Mar's governors were among the Piedras Negras kings' most important military allies. Lacking, however, is archaeological data to correlate with the historical evidence for warfare by the Piedras Negras kingdom.This research will enhance understandings of ancient Maya defensive features and warfare and addresses the role of warfare as both a cause and effect of political formation and collapse in the Maya region. The results of this research will contribute to our understanding of Precolumbian political processes, particularly in regards to Mesoamerican boundary formation processes. More significantly, this archaeological research will provide a long-term diachronic perspective that can contribute to the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study of warfare at the margins of the state. Landscape approaches to ancient warfare are of increasing importance in the study of violent conflict. However comparative data are lacking from complex societies in the tropical Americas to compare and contrast with not only other parts of the New World, but also with Old World complex societies where much of our cross-cultural understanding of fortifications, landscape, and the conduct of war are rooted.The proposed project will provide field and laboratory experiences for doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students from both Mexico and the United States. More broadly, the project will advance international collaborative research in an area of Chiapas that has received little archaeological attention. This research will provide government authorities, land-use managers, and local communities with data regarding the location and extent of archaeological sites in an understudied region of Mesoamerica.