Dissertation Research: Regional Settlement Patterns in Prehistoric Oruro, Bolivia

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Under the direction of Dr. Marc Bermann, Mr. Timothy McAndrews will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological research in the highland La Joya region in Bolivia. The objects of his project are threefold: to conduct an intensive survey of this area which is known to contain early Formative period mound sites; to collect surface materials which will allow the assessment of variability within each site; to excavate test units at selected sites to explore stratigraphy and surface/subsurface relationships. In fulfilling these objectives, the settlement pattern data thus collected will allow questions of settlement dynamics and sociopolitical and economic organization will be obtained. To accomplish these goals Mr. McAndrews will employ a 15% systematic random transect sampling strategy which will permit generalization to the broader area. At this altitude there is very little vegetation to obscure prehistoric remains, so survey can proceed rapidly. Systematic random samples of surfaces remains - mostly potsherds - will be taken at all sites which date from the Formative period. Judgementally placed test pits will be excavated at selected sites to provide a relative chronology based on diagnostic artifacts from distinct occupational levels. A geographic information system will then be employed to visually display the data, to relate population distributions to ecological variables and to determine how this changes over time. The Formative Period (2000 B.C. - 300 A.D.) in the south-central Andes is characterized by the first sedentary lifeway, the domestication of plants such as the potato, the earliest pottery and metal technologies and the emergence of complex social organization. It was during this period that the stage was set for the development of one of the most complex precolumbian civilizations in the New World which joined together regions as far separated as Bolivia and Equador into a single empire. Archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led to such complexity and Mr. McAndrews research should shed light on this. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase understanding of the earliest stages in the development of civilization and will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.