Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Maya State Formation

考古学的一个中心目标是了解社会将大量个体整合到功能性社会群体中的机制。考古学可以为这一过程提供独特的见解，因为它可以追溯-有时超过数千年-这一发展跨越时间。这个项目研究了史前玛雅遗址中这种社会复杂性的出现，特别关注宝贵资源的不均匀分布如何建立和维持大规模社会组织所需的等级结构。动物作为有价值的物品，既因为它们提供的食物，也因为它们所起的象征性作用。动物骨骼是一个很好的数据来源，因为它们在许多考古遗址中保存得很好。这项研究讨论了动物资源在最早的玛雅国家形成中的作用。阿什利夏普，在基蒂埃莫里博士的指导下工作，将分析动物骨骼和贝壳从四个前古典时期（c。2000 B.C. -A. D. 250）危地马拉和伯利兹的玛雅遗址。她将解决如何以及何时动物及其产品（例如肉，毛皮，羽毛，骨头和贝壳）开始在社区成员中用于食物，手工艺，礼仪仪式，以及作为地位和政治权威的标志。这项研究还将结合联合收割机传统的动物考古学方法和新的稳定同位素技术，以确定过去的动物管理实践和远距离交流。调查的中心焦点是危地马拉的Ceibal遗址，该遗址拥有玛雅地区最早和最长的职业序列之一（c.公元前1000年-公元1000年）。塞巴尔成为政治主导的市民中心比许多其他前古典遗址要早得多，部分原因是其居民有能力获得和管理资源，包括动物。夏普将确定动物遗骸在Ceibal恢复，比较比例，多样性，并在该网站的核心和外围动物的使用，以跟踪社会复杂性的发展。哺乳动物和鸟类骨骼的碳和氮同位素特征将确定野生动物，特别是鹿，野猪和火鸡，是否被圈养。锶、氧和铅同位素将用来鉴别塞巴尔的非本地动物，这些动物是在塞巴尔逐渐成为政治统治者时，通过建立的远距离交换网络获得的。为了获得更广泛的区域了解早期动物资源的使用，Ceibal的动物考古学数据也将与夏普以前研究的组合进行比较，本论文项目从邻近的圣巴托洛，Cival和Cerros的前古典遗址。这是第一次大规模研究玛雅历史前古典时期的动物资源使用。这也是第一个对中美洲动物遗骸进行铅同位素分析的研究，并将为今后的考古材料调查建立基线数据，该项目的动物群鉴定和分析部分将在佛罗里达大学佛罗里达自然历史博物馆的环境考古实验室和危地马拉城的Ceibal考古项目实验室进行。这些分析将包括对美国和危地马拉本科研究人员的培训。在佛罗里达大学人类学骨化学实验室进行的同位素研究将包括人类学和生物学领域的本科生和研究生研究人员培训，他们将使用这些相同的技术来解决其他学科的研究问题。研究结果将在危地马拉和美国以英语和西班牙语发表和展示，包括在开放获取期刊上发表，并向当地社区成员介绍，向科学和公众发布信息。

A central archaeological goal is to understand the mechanisms which permit societies to integrate large number of individuals into functioning social group. Archaeology can provide a unique insight into this process because it can trace - sometimes over millennia - this developmental across time. This project examines the emergence of such social complexity at a prehistoric Mayan site with a particular focus on how uneven distribution of valuable resources serves to establish and maintain the hierarchical structure necessary for large scale social organization. Animals served as objects of value both for the sustenance they provided and for the symbolic functions they served. Animal bones are an excellent source of data because they are well preserved in many archaeological sites.This study addresses the role of animal resources in the formation of the earliest Maya states. Ashley Sharpe, working under the guidance of Dr. Kitty Emery, will analyze animal bones and shells from four Preclassic period (c. 2000 B.C - A.D. 250) Maya sites in Guatemala and Belize. She will address such questions as how and when animals and their products (e.g. meat, fur, feathers, bones, and shells) began to be differentially used among community members for food, crafting, ceremonial rituals, and as markers of status and political authority. This study will also combine traditional zooarchaeological methods with novel stable isotopic techniques to identify past animal management practices and long-distance exchange.The central focus of the investigation is the site of Ceibal, Guatemala, which boasts one of the earliest and longest occupational sequences in the Maya area (c. 1000 B.C. - A.D. 1000). Ceibal became a politically-dominant civic center much earlier than many other Preclassic sites, in part due to its residents' ability to acquire and manage resources, including those of animals. Sharpe will identify animal remains recovered at Ceibal, comparing proportions, diversity, and uses of animals in the site core and periphery to track the development of social complexity. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures of mammal and avian bones will identify whether wild animals, particularly deer, peccary, and turkey, were raised in captivity. Strontium, oxygen, and lead isotopes will identify non-local animals at Ceibal that were acquired through long-distance exchange networks established as the site rose to political dominance. To obtain a broader regional understanding of early animal resource use, Ceibal's zooarchaeological data will also be compared with assemblages previously examined by Sharpe for this dissertation project from the neighboring Preclassic sites of San Bartolo, Cival, and Cerros. This is the first large-scale study of animal resource use in the Preclassic period of Maya history. It is also the first study to incorporate lead isotopic analysis of Mesoamerican animal remains, and will establish baseline data for future investigations sourcing archaeological material.The faunal identification and analysis portion of the project will be carried out in the Environmental Archaeology laboratory of the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, and the Ceibal Archaeological Project laboratory in Guatemala City. These analyses will incorporate the training of US and Guatemalan undergraduate researchers. Isotopic studies conducted at the University of Florida Anthropology Bone Chemistry Laboratory will include undergraduate and graduate researcher training in the fields of anthropology and biology, who will be using these same techniques to address research questions in other disciplines. Results will be published and presented in both English and Spanish in Guatemalan and US venues, including publication in open access journals and presentations to local community members to release information to both scientific and public audiences.