Urbanization and Development in Ancient Mesoamerica

我们的目标是通过主要在洪都拉斯洛斯纳兰霍斯的考古调查来研究古代中美洲的城市化和发展过程。这里涵盖了从墨西哥恰帕斯到萨尔瓦多的太平洋沿岸地区及其周边地区。在洛斯纳兰霍斯，我们挖掘了结构2，3和6沿着地理调查，并在这里研究了古老村庄是如何城市化和发展的。在Tazumal、Chalchuapa，进行了建筑测量和地理调查。对该地区最大的建筑B1-1和球场（B1-3，4）进行了扩建。同时，通过对前期发掘资料的分析，重新研究了整个恰尔恰帕古城的发展。在科潘和托纳拉，我们收集了显示城市化和发展进程的数据。除了这些调查，为了计算伊洛潘戈火山灰的年龄，这是确定中美洲考古遗址年龄的关键，我们研究了火山灰的传播距离，并在火山爆发时被掩埋的森林中取样。因此，我们在洛斯纳兰霍斯建立了建筑序列，以满足目标。在Tazumal地区，介绍了建筑的结构。在科潘，我们确定了古典时期古城的发展。在托纳拉，我们还原了从前古典时期到后古典时期的古城发展过程，从不同的角度提供了每个研究地点的古城发展过程。然而，有必要对中美洲古代城市的不同情况进行比较，以发现古代城市发展的共同规律。

It is our objective to study processes of urbanization and development in ancient Mesoamerica by archaeological investigations mainly in Los Naranjos, Honduras. The area covered here encompasses the pacific coast region from Chiapas, Mexico to El Salvador, and its surroundings.In Los Naranjos we excavated Structure 2, 3 and 6 along with geographic surveys and studied here how the ancient village had urbanized and developed. In Tazumal, Chalchuapa, measurement of architectures and geographic surveys were undertaken. Excavations in Structure B1-1, which is the biggest architecture in this area, and Ball Court (B1-3, 4) were carried out. And also we re-studied the development of ancient city in the whole Chalchuapa by analyzing all data from the antecedent excavations. In Copan and Tonala, we gathered data that show the process of urbanization and development. In addition to these investigations, in order to calculate the age of Ilopango tephra which is a key to determine the age of archaeological sites in Central America, we researched how far had the tephra traveled and also sampled in a forest that had been buried during a volcanic eruption.As a result, in Los Naranjos we established the architectural sequence in order to meet the goal. In Tazumal area the structure of the architectures were presented. In Copan we determined the development of the ancient city during the Classic period. In Tonala the process of development of the ancient city from the Preclassic period to the Postclassic period were recovered.We could provide the process of development of ancient city in each of the researched sites from the different viewpoints. Nevertheless, it should be necessary to compare different cases in the ancient cities of Mesoamerica in order to find the regularity that would be common to the development of the ancient cities.