The Cotopaxi Subsistence Project--Phase I

在国家科学基金会的支持下，George Gumerman博士和Mary Weismantel博士将在位于厄瓜多尔西部科迪勒拉山脉西坡的Angamarca地区进行考古研究。他们将检查总面积约96平方公里，其中包括重要的史前政治中心Angamarca la Vieja。这一被认为是长期项目的第一个试点阶段的主要目标是测试不同的考古调查技术，以确定现存文化材料和遗址的范围，并发现在这种热带环境中确定遗址的最佳技术。该小组将采用分层随机抽样技术来检查三个主要区域：河岸、低地和高地。在每个区域内，将对选定的地区进行调查。一旦确定了遗址的位置，就会确定它们的边界，绘制一张示意图，并收集一部分文化材料进行分析。将选择三个多组分遗址进行测试挖掘，重点是恢复临时诊断文物和生存遗骸。在此基础上，可以建立一个暂定的年表，并进行生计重建的第一步。虽然这一地区的考古学并不广为人知，但很明显，以秘鲁为中心向南延伸的印加帝国向北延伸了这么远。Gumerman博士和Weismantel博士感兴趣的是，在这个帝国的边缘，印加人是如何保持他们的控制的，以及当地居民是如何适应他们融入帝国的。最终，他们计划研究厄瓜多尔不同的环境区域，并在不同地区和不同时间进行比较。他们将建立印加之前的基线，并利用这一基线来确定印加后联系的变化。他们将把重点放在粮食的利用上，因为操纵这一基本资源既可以作为一种社会控制机制，也可以作为地位的标志。然而，在解决这些问题之前，有必要确定如何最好地在这一鲜为人知的区域开展工作，并制定一份详细的年表。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为大型复杂社会如何发展和维持提供新的线索。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并开发分析技术，希望这些技术将适用于许多考古情况。这也将促进两位年轻而非常有前途的科学家的职业生涯。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. George Gumerman and Mary Weismantel will conduct archaeological research in the Angamarca region which is located on the western slopes of the Cordillera Occidental of Ecuador. They will examine a total area of ca. 96 square kilometers which includes the important prehistoric political center of Angamarca la Vieja. The main goal of this first pilot stage of what is conceived as a long-term project is to test different archaeological survey techniques both to determine the range of cultural materials and sites present and also to discover the best technique for locating sites in this tropical environment. The team will employ a stratified random sampling technique to examine three primary zones: riverine, lowland and upland. Within each zone selected areas will be surveyed. Once sites are located, their boundaries will be determined, a sketch map drawn, and a fraction of the cultural materials collected for analysis. Three multicomponent sites will be chosen for test excavations which will focus on recovering temporally diagnostic artifacts and subsistence remains. On this basis a tentative chronology can be constructed and the first step of a subsistence reconstruction carried out. Although the archaeology of this region is not well known, it is clear that the Inca empire, centered in Peru to the South, extended this far North. Drs. Gumerman and Weismantel are interested in how, in this fringe of the empire the Inca maintained their control and how local inhabitants adapted to their incorporation into the empire. Ultimately, they plan to study contrasting environmental zones in Ecuador and compare both across regions and across time. They will establish a pre-Inca baseline and use this to determine post-Inca contact changes. They will focus on utilization of food since manipulation of this essential resource can serve both as a mechanism of social control and as a marker of status. Before such issues can be addressed however, it is necessary both to determine how best to work in this little known region and to develop a detailed chronology. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on how large complex societies develop and are maintained. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and develop analytic techniques which, hopefully, will be applicable in many archaeological situations. It will also further the career of two young and very promising scientists.