Dissertation Research: Dietary Reconstruction: Trace OrganicAnalysis of Tiwanaku Ceramics. Implications in Form, Function, and Social Status

在Henry Bunn博士的指导下，威斯康星大学的研究生Michael Marchbanks先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将从玻利维亚的蒂瓦纳库遗址和周边地区组装陶瓷。所有这些都是在仔细的考古发掘中收集的，因此来自已知的文化背景。然后，他将进行脂质分析，试图确定在这些容器中储存、烹饪或食用的食物和其他有机物质。为此，他还将从当地居民和市场获取现代样本和人种学信息，以提供一个可控的基线。有了这些数据，就有可能回答关于蒂瓦纳库居民的生存习惯和社会组织的一些重要问题。蒂瓦纳库是一个重要的纪念性建筑遗址，占地面积约8平方公里。大约从公元前1000年到公元1200年，它见证了安第斯山脉最早的王国的崛起。由Alan Kolata博士领导的芝加哥大学团队进行的研究重建了该遗址的大部分历史，这为Marchbanks先生的工作提供了更广泛的背景。他的分析应该达到几个目标。首先，它将增加关于生存实践的知识，因为某些类型的食物很可能经过长途贸易进入该地区。其次，它将有助于阐明贸易在这个早期帝国的崛起中所起的作用。这项工作还将深入了解Tiwanaku的内部组织，因为根据特定类型食物的分布，应该有可能确定居住在该遗址不同地区的个人的社会地位。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将有助于开拓分析化学技术的应用，希望这些技术将用于许多考古情况。最后，它将有助于培养一个极有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Henry Bunn, Mr. Michael Marchbanks a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will assemble ceramics from the site of Tiwanaku and immediate surrounding environs in Bolivia. All were collected during careful archaeological excavation and thus derive from known cultural contexts. He will then conduct lipid analysis in an attempt to determine the foods and other organic materials which were either stored, cooked or consumed in these vessels. To do this he will also acquire modern samples and ethnographic information from local inhabitants and markets to provide a controlled baseline. With such data it should be possible to answer a number of important questions about the subsistence practices and social organization of Tiwanaku's inhabitants. Tiwanaku is a major monumental architectural site, occupying an area of approximately 8 square kilometers. Inhabited from approximately 1000 BC to AD 1200 it saw the rise of the earliest kingdom in the Andes. Research conducted by a University of Chicago team headed by Dr. Alan Kolata has reconstructed much of the history of the site and this provides the broader context within which Mr. Marchbanks work will take place. His analysis should accomplish several goals. First it will increase knowledge of subsistence practices because it is likely that some types of food were traded into the region over long distances. Secondly, it will help to elucidate the role which trade played in the rise of this early Empire. The work will also provide insight into the internal organization at Tiwanaku because, on the basis of the distribution of particular types of food it should be possible to determine the social status of individuals who inhabited different parts of the site. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also help to pioneer the application of analytic chemical techniques which, hopefully, will be of use in many archaeological situations. Finally it will help to train an extremely promising young scientist.