Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Community Growth and Sustainability in Unstable Times

这项研究的目的是更好地了解玛雅低地地缘政治中心在终端经典时期的发展，这是整个玛雅地区普遍衰落和放弃的时期。 研究人员以前已经确定了在这段时间内发展起来的少数中心，但在社会动荡，冲突增加和经常性干旱期间的经济和政治增长机制仍然研究得很少。 为了解决这些问题，博士生拉斐尔。在基思普吕弗博士的指导下，格拉将在位于中美洲伯利兹伯利兹河谷的玛雅城邦下多佛进行考古实地考察。在这一地区，大多数大型玛雅中心在最初建立后经过许多世纪的发展，在地理上均匀分布，相距约10公里。在下多佛的初步研究表明，它在两个历史悠久的中心之间迅速发展，而当时邻近的地点正在衰落，并在象形文字文本中描述了重大的内插冲突。 虽然下多佛缺乏象形文字的记录，但它可能是一个经济"繁荣城镇"的例子，在放弃完善的伯利兹山谷政治所造成的权力真空中，它在经济和政治上蓬勃发展。 下多佛在当时的成功可能与其战略位置有关，沿着伯利兹河，使其直接进入重要的长途贸易路线，并有能力作为伯利兹河流域上游和下游之间的门户。 它仍然是由终端经典时期（ca。公元950年）下多佛也被遗弃。 在一个主要中心的增长发生在很长一段时间内的地区，这项研究有可能为大规模动荡期间的政治，社会和经济结构的变化提供信息。 由此产生的论文将有助于理解一些政体的财富下降如何为其他人创造机会，并探讨这些“繁荣城市”经济的稳定性。 这项研究的结果将对研究复杂地缘政治系统弹性的社会科学家感兴趣，并将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻学者。 在下多佛的实地工作包括挖掘和土壤的地球化学测试，并将重点调查可能的市场和河边码头设施，这些设施是由共同主要负责人在初步研究中确定的。以及对遗址核心和定居点的调查，以制定一个高分辨率的社区发展和衰落年表。 这个精确的AMS 14C年表将允许确定在巨大的核心开发之前是否有现有的当地人口，或者创始人是否在两个衰落的政体之间的先前未被占领的空间进行殖民。 放射性碳样品的制备由新墨西哥州大学稳定同位素中心的共同主要研究者进行。 通过对黑曜石的pXRF分析和详细的陶瓷研究，将说明下多佛与潜在的区域和长途贸易网络之间的经济互动。

The goal of this research is to better understand the development of geopolitical centers in the Maya Lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, a time of general decline and abandonment across the Maya region. Researchers have previously identified a handful of centers that developed during this time, but the mechanisms for economic and political growth during a period of social upheaval, increasing conflict, and recurrent droughts remain poorly studied. To address these issues doctoral student Rafael. Guerra under the direction of Dr. Keith Prufer, will conduct archaeology fieldwork at the Maya city-state of Lower Dover located in the Belize River Valley, Belize Central America. In this region, most large Maya centers developed over many centuries following their initial foundation and are geographically evenly spaced at ~10 km apart. Preliminary research at Lower Dover suggests it developed rapidly between two of these long-established centers and at a time when neighboring sites were declining and engaged in significant interpolity conflict described in hieroglyphic texts. While Lower Dover lacks a hieroglyphic record, it may be an example of an economic "boom town" which flourished economically and politically in the power vacuum created by the abandonment of well-established Belize Valley polities. The success of Lower Dover at that time may be linked to its strategic location, along the Belize River giving it direct access to important long-distance trade routes and the ability to act as gateway between the upper and lower Belize River valley. It remains that by the end of the Terminal Classic Period (ca. AD 950) Lower Dover too was abandoned. In a region where the growth of major centers occurred over long periods of time, this research has potential to inform on the changes in political, social and economic structures during an interval of massive upheaval. The resulting dissertation will contribute to understanding of how the declining fortunes of some polities can foster opportunities for others, and to explore the stability of these "boom town" economies. The results of this research will be of interest to social scientists studying the resilience of complex geopolitical systems, and will contribute to the development of a promising young scholar. Fieldwork at Lower Dover consists of excavations and geochemical testing of soils and will focus on investigating a possible marketplace and riverside docking facility identified in preliminary studies by the co-PI., as well as investigations in the site core and settlements to develop a high-resolution chronology for the development and decline of the community. This precise AMS 14C chronology will allow determination of whether there was an existing local population prior to the development of the monumental core, or if the founders colonized previously unoccupied space between two declining polities. Preparations of radiocarbon samples with be undertaken by the co-PI at the University of New Mexico Center for Stable Isotopes. Detailed ceramic studies and analysis by pXRF of obsidian will illustrate economic interactions between Lower Dover and potential regional and long distance trade networks.