Investigating the Principles of Fortification Construction

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。该项目正在调查人们如何在墨西哥恰帕斯州的门萨巴克地区建造和放置防御工事。其目标是辨别用于建造中美洲防御工事的基本军事原则，并建立一种更强大的方法来审查过去的战争。世界各地的学者对过去战争的频率以及社会冲突对人类体验的影响进行了辩论。然而，研究人员往往受到书面历史的限制。如果学者们想要了解战争对人类体验的影响，那么考古学家必须为讨论做出贡献。考古学作为人类学的一个分支，广泛研究不同时代、不同地点的文化和人类活动。因此，考古学家开发了跨文化模型来建立类比，以解释过去的防御工事和战争文物。然而，最近军事科学和历史的文化转向突显了背景在战争中的重要性。为了理解战争，研究人员必须研究特定文化背景下的社会冲突，例如拿破仑战争期间的欧洲和西班牙殖民时期的中美洲。该项目调查玛雅文化背景下的防御工事。对跨文化模型的依赖意味着考古学家经常根据来自其他文化的模式来判断玛雅防御工事的功能。这项研究的目的是在跨文化概括和关注特定文化背景下的军事实践之间取得平衡。虽然案例研究的重点是玛雅防御工事，但正在开发的方法将在理解战争方面有广泛的应用。防御结构是过去战争的一些最重要的考古学指标。关于和平过去的争论往往取决于有没有设防地点。例如，通过对玛雅地区各地的防御工事进行多项研究，打破了玛雅文明和平的神话。这个项目将研究人们如何建造防御性建筑的模式，以及可能影响防御工事考古探测的过程。门萨巴克是考察过去军事原则的理想地区，因为它至少包含三个后古典/殖民地时期(公元900-1697年)的设防遗址和民族历史文献，提供了玛雅人如何进行战争的证据。门萨巴克的年表对于民族史学数据的应用至关重要，因为被检查的文件是在门萨巴克的防御工事被占领之后或在其被占领的时候写成的。对文件来源的深入审查提供了有关防御工事是如何建造的，以及从建造到废弃的过程对防御结构有何影响的数据。防御工事的地区差异将允许调查玛雅防御工事建设的共同模式。门萨巴克的两个地区的防御系统存在缺口，完全停止。这个项目的重点是调查玛雅人是否依靠斜坡代替城墙来保卫遗址。此外，木材作为建筑材料的优势是否可以解释许多地点的缝隙或没有围墙？这些发现有助于解释为什么大多数玛雅和中美洲遗址缺乏防御工事的证据。此外，他的考古方法可以在中美洲以外的地方应用和测试，因为坡度和保护影响到大多数考古遗址。拟议项目的一个主要培训目标是将任职人数不足的学生纳入门萨巴克正在进行的协同合作研究。该项目将通过向公众开放的专业会议和演讲向更广泛的公众传播。这项研究的结果将公布在开放获取网站Mesoweb.com和tDAR.org上。总体而言，该项目促进了对战争和人类经验的更好理解，同时扩大了学术界和科学界代表性不足的群体的参与。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This project is investigating how people constructed and placed fortifications in the region of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico. The goal is to discern the underlying martial principles employed to construct Mesoamerican fortifications and build a more robust methodology for examining past warfare. Scholars throughout the world have debated the frequency of war in the past and impact of social conflict on the human experience. Yet, researchers are often constrained by the limits of written history. If scholars want to understand the impact of warfare on the human experience, then archaeologists must contribute to the discussion. Archaeology, as a branch of anthropology, is broadly concerned with culture and human activity in various times and places. Therefore, archaeologists have developed cross-cultural models to build analogies for interpreting past fortifications and artifacts of war. However, the recent cultural turn in military science and history highlights that context matters in warfare. To understand war, researchers must examine social conflict in particular cultural contexts, such as Europe during the Napoleonic Wars and Mesoamerica during Spanish colonization. This project investigates fortifications within the Maya cultural context. Dependence on cross-cultural models means archaeologists are often judging the functions of Maya fortifications based on patterns derived from other cultures. The proposed research aims at achieving balance between cross-cultural generalization and a focus on martial practice within particular cultural contexts. Although the case study is focused on Maya fortifications, the methods being developed will have broad application for understanding warfare.Defensive structures are some of the most important archaeological indicators of past warfare. Arguments for a peaceful past often hinge on the presence or absence of fortified sites. For example, the myth of a peaceful Maya civilization was shattered through multiple studies of fortifications from across the Maya region. This project will examine patterns in how people construct defensive architecture and processes that may affect archaeological detection of fortifications. Mensabak is an ideal region to examine past martial principles because it contains at least three Postclassic/Colonial period (AD 900-1697) fortified sites and ethnohistoric documents provide evidence of how the Maya practiced war. Mensabak's chronology is crucial for the application of ethnohistoric data because the documents under examination were written just after or while Mensabak's fortified sites were occupied. Intensive review of documentary sources provides data on how fortifications were constructed and what processes affect defensive structures from time of construction to their abandonment. Regional variation in fortifications will allow for the investigation of common patterns underlying Maya fortification construction. Two of the Mensabak regions defensive systems contain gaps and stop altogether. This project focuses on investigating if the Maya relied on slope in place of walls to defend sites. Moreover, does a predominance of wood as a building material account for gaps or lack of walls at many sites? These findings can help explain why a majority of Maya and Mesoamerican sites lack evidence of fortifications. Moreover, his archaeological methods can be applied and tested beyond Mesoamerica, since slope and preservation affect most archaeological sites. A major training goal of the proposed project is to integrate underrepresented students into the ongoing synergistic collaborative research at Mensabak. This project will be disseminated to the wider public through professional conferences and presentations open to the public. The results of this research will be posted on the open-access websites Mesoweb.com and tDAR.org. Overall, this project promotes a better of understanding of warfare and the human experience, while broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in academia and science.