Collaborative Research: Tropical Human Ecology, AgriculturalProduction and Prehistoric Settlement in the Jama River Drainage, Manabi Province, Ecuador

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Deborah Pearsall博士和James Zeidler博士将继续在厄瓜多尔北部的Jama流域进行合作考古研究。他们的工作主要集中在圣伊西德罗的遗址上，这是一个位于中部的大型土丘，可能是一个地区仪式和行政中心。该遗址的大小和不朽的建筑暗示着过剩生产的存在，能够养活密集的人口。迄今发现的材料表明，圣伊西德罗是厄瓜多尔沿海以及沿海和高地之间的外部接触和商品流动的主要地点。在他们的工作过程中，Zeidler博士和Pearsall博士对周围地区进行了调查，以确定较小的地点和相关的农业特征。这方面研究的目标是将圣伊西德罗置于更广泛的区域背景中。目前的NSF奖项将允许该团队对最后一个调查区域进行行人调查，并完成对调查数据和相关文物的分析。这些最后步骤将能够分析两种区域定居点模式，从而能够调查地点位置、规模和功能的时间变化，以及定居点增长和社会转型模式随时间的变化。这项研究很重要，因为它将为厄瓜多尔北部这一热带地区的人口增长过程以及生存变化和随之而来的文化复杂性的发展提供新的见解。尽管这种复杂的社会在世界不同地区多次出现在热带地区，但其潜在的过程并未得到很好的理解。众所周知，厄瓜多尔拥有丰富的史前遗迹，但那里几乎没有进行过考古研究。这个项目将有助于纠正这种情况。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Deborah Pearsall and James Zeidler will continue their collaborative archaeological research in the Jama drainage in northern Ecuador. Their work has focussed on the site of San Isidro, a large centrally located earthern mound which probably functioned as a regional ceremonial and administrative center. The site's size and monumental architecture imply the existence of surplus production capable of supporting a dense population. Materials recovered to date suggest that San Isidro was a major point of external contact and commodity flow both along the coast of Ecuador and between the coast and the highlands. In the course of their work, Drs. Zeidler and Pearsall have surveyed the surrounding region to locate smaller sites and related agricultural features. The goal of this aspect of the research is to set San Isidro into a broader regional context. The current NSF award will permit the team to conduct a pedestrian survey of a last survey area and to finish analyses of survey data and associated artifacts. These final steps will permit the analysis of both regional settlement patterns, allowing investigation of temporal shifts in site location, size and function, and of patterns of setttlement growth and social transformation over time. The research is important because it will give new insight into the process of demographic growth as well as change in subsistence and the accompanying development of cultural complexity which took place in this tropical area of northern Ecuador. Although such complex societies arose in the tropics many times in different parts of the world, the underlying processes are not well understood. Ecuador is known to be rich in prehistoric remains, but little archaeological research has been conducted there. This project will help to remedy that situation.