Dissertation Research: Sacrifice in the Southern Andes During the Inka Period

在William Isbell博士的指导下，John Besom先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。早期的西班牙记录描述了印加帝国在秘鲁、智利和阿根廷所遵循的文化习俗。它们表明人类被印加人献祭有许多不同的原因，在某些情况下，受害者被留在高海拔地区的地面上。在高海拔和低海拔地区都发现了一些这样的“埋葬”和陪葬品。贝松先生将研究所有这些遗骸，并参观三个相关国家的博物馆。他的工作不仅包括检查尸体本身，还包括检查受害者的衣服和相关的陪葬品。贝索姆先生的目标是了解印加人用来建立一个幅员辽阔、包括许多不同语言和种族群体的帝国的策略。印加帝国是人类组织能力的丰碑，因为它所涉及的地区、交流的困难以及印加人既没有书面语言也没有轮式交通工具。民族志和历史文献表明，宗教和对宗教信仰的操纵为政治控制提供了一种重要的方法，而牺牲人类受害者构成了这一制度的重要组成部分。人们注意到许多类型的祭祀——每种祭祀的作用各不相同。通过对所有已知样本的系统和完整的研究，贝索姆先生希望深入了解印加的社会和政治组织。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。它将揭示大型帝国是如何产生和维持的，它将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Isbell Under the direction of Dr. William Isbell, Mr. John Besom will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Early Spanish records describe cultural practices followed by the Inca empire in Peru, Chile and Argentina. They indicate that humans were sacrificed by the Incas for many different reasons and that in some cases victims were left above ground at high altitude sites. A number of such "burials" and accompanying grave goods have been discovered at both high and low altitude situations. Mr. Besom will study all of these remains and visit museums in the three relevant countries. His work will include examination not only of the bodies themselves, but also the clothing of the victim and the related grave goods. Mr. Besom's goal is to understand the strategies which were used by the Inca to establish an empire which extended across vast areas and encompassed many different linguistic and ethnic groups. The Inca empire stands as a monument to human organizational ability given the area involved, the difficulty of communication across it and the fact that the Incas lacked both written language and wheeled vehicles. Ethnographic and historic documents indicate that religion and the manipulation of religious beliefs provided an important method for political control and that the sacrifice of human victims constituted an important part of this system. Many types of sacrifice were noted - the function of each differed. Through a systematic and complete study of all known samples, Mr Besom hopes to gain insight into Inca social and political organization. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on how large scale empires first arose and were maintained and it will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.