Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Societal Collapse and Migration

何塞·劳尔·奥尔蒂斯是亚利桑那大学的博士候选人，他将研究9-10世纪低地中心被遗弃后，玛雅高地社区是如何受到潜在移民的影响的。最近对玛雅地区“终端经典”的研究表明，玛雅社区受到崩溃过程的不同影响，他们的反应是多种多样的，包括破坏和遗弃、短暂繁荣、恢复力和转型。奥尔蒂斯的研究将集中在从潜在接收端检测移民，这一主题已经在其他世界范围内的古代移民案例中得到解决，但在其他玛雅子地区却很少被追踪到。关于玛雅崩溃的影响的问题，包括低地人口迁移的影响，在高地上很少得到解决。这项研究的结果将有助于越来越多的关于社会身份，特别是古玛雅人的社会身份，如何与技术相交，以及如何在考古记录中发现移民的讨论。奥尔蒂斯的工作旨在通过提供来自他们自己文化过去的重要文化历史信息，促进合作参与，重新所有权和保护当地文化遗产，对居住在遗址附近的土著奇奇玛雅人产生积极影响。该项目的结果是通过对这一社会过程的流行和灾难性信念的争论，试图公开讨论玛雅社区经历玛雅崩溃的无数方式。在稻俣武博士的指导下，Ortiz先生将在危地马拉的Kixpek进行考古研究。这个古老的定居点位于高地的北部边缘，紧邻低地地区的南部。在该遗址发现的陪葬陶器表明了古典晚期到后古典早期（公元600-1200年）的占领，表明该社区经历了古典玛雅崩溃。位于Chixoy流域的Kixpek遗址提供了一个机会来研究高原社区在终端经典期间和之后经历的社会过程。移民是否在北部高地的邻居之间迁移？在该地区有什么证据表明这种迁移？在玛雅崩溃后，高地陶瓷技术是否会随着新的社会群体的引入而继续存在或改变？奥尔蒂斯将在B组和主要广场周围的推定居住区域进行挖掘，以获得玛雅崩溃前后占领时期的陶器样本。实验室分析将包括通过宏观和微观技术对陶器分类的风格和技术属性进行详细的陶瓷分析。奥尔蒂斯将评估技术系统的连续性和变化，特别是陶器、黑曜石和Kixpek的埋葬习俗，以及在终端古典时期之后人们可能的重新安置。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Jose Raul Ortiz, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona, will investigate how Maya highland communities were affected by potential immigration after the abandonment of lowland centers during the 9-10th centuries. Recent research on the Terminal Classic in the Maya area shows that Maya communities were differentially affected by collapse processes and their responses were variable, including cases of disruption and abandonment, short flourishment, and resilience and transformation. Ortiz's research will focus on the detection of migration from a potential receiving end, a theme that has been addressed in other worldwide ancient migration cases but that has been minimally tracked in other Maya sub-regions. Questions about the effects of the Maya collapse, including the impact of lowland population movements, have been less frequently addressed for the highlands. The results of this research will contribute to the growing discussion on how social identity, specifically of the ancient Maya, intersects with technology, and how migrants can be detected in the archaeological record. Ortiz's work seeks to make a positive impact on the indigenous Qeqchi Maya living near the site by providing important culture-historical information from their own cultural past and promoting collaborative participation, re-ownership, and safekeeping of local cultural heritage. The results of the project seek to publicly discuss the myriad ways that Maya communities experienced the Maya collapse by contesting popular and catastrophic beliefs of this social process.Under the direction of Dr. Takeshi Inomata, Mr. Ortiz will conduct archaeological research at Kixpek, Guatemala. This ancient settlement is located at the northern edge of the highlands immediately south of the lowlands region. Funerary pottery found at the site indicates a Late Classic to Early Postclassic occupation (AD 600-1200), showing that the community lived through the Classic Maya collapse. The site of Kixpek on the Chixoy drainage presents an opportunity to examine how a highland community experienced social processes that happened during and after the Terminal Classic. Did migrants relocate among their neighbors at the northern highlands and what evidence of this migration is available at this region? Did highland ceramic technologies persist or change with the potential introduction of new social groups after the Maya collapse? Ortiz will conduct excavations in Group B and presumed habitation areas surrounding the main plaza in order to obtain pottery samples from pre- and post-Maya collapse periods of occupation. Laboratory analysis will include detailed ceramic analysis by stylistic and technological attributes through macroscopic and microscopic techniques for pottery classification. Ortiz will evaluate the continuities and changes in technological systems, specifically in pottery, obsidian, and burial practices at Kixpek, amidst the potential relocation of people after the Terminal Classic period.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.