Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Prehistoric Urbanism and Lithic Technological Organization During the Middle Horizon: A Case Study from Conchopata, Ayacucho, Peru

在William Isbell博士的指导下，Catherine Bencic女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将对从秘鲁中部阿亚库乔山谷的孔丘帕塔考古遗址出土的大约1万件石器文物进行深入的考古分析。这项研究将展示石器的生产和使用是如何融入孔乔帕塔居民的日常生活的，并将从阿亚库乔地区的国内角度提供关于城市化兴起的新信息。史前的城市定居点孔丘帕塔距离南美洲最早的大城市之一——华里的首都大约10公里。华日文化可以追溯到中地平线时期（公元550-1000年），孔乔帕塔被认为是一个大规模的、专门生产礼仪陶器的中心，可能在华日掌权之前就开始了。最近的发掘揭示了有关皇室精英、工艺生产和复杂仪式活动的新信息。还发现了新的区域，表明有广泛的家庭活动，这是以前未被探索的孔乔帕塔生活的一个方面。安第斯山脉的史前城市化通常通过研究区域定居模式和精英物质文化（如礼仪陶器和纪念性建筑）来研究。很少有人研究日常的家庭器物，然而，像石器这样的世俗器物揭示了大量关于基本的家庭和仪式活动的信息，以及所有阶层的人在社会和经济上的差异程度。这项研究将是对安第斯山脉中部地平线遗址进行的石质文物的首次完整分析之一。对安第斯山脉的石器制品的研究仍然主要集中在正式的、高度修改的工具上，强调它们的类型分类。然而，大多数的石器制品组合是由随意生产的未经修饰或稍微修饰的薄片组成的，这些薄片用于大多数家庭活动。由于类型学对正式工具的强调，许多研究忽略了绝大多数的石器制品及其所能提供的信息。这项研究对于提供石器是如何使用和生产的新信息以及对秘鲁早期城市中史前安第斯人日常生活的新视角非常重要。这将有助于为分析和解释其他石质文物收藏建立一个基线，不仅适用于华里遗址，也适用于安第斯山脉南美洲的其他考古文化和中心。这项研究还将有助于提高人们对安第斯考古学国内背景的兴趣，并将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. William Isbell, Ms. Catherine Bencic will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct an intensive archaeological analysis of approximately 10,000 stone artifacts excavated from the archaeological site of Conchopata in the Ayacucho Valley of central Peru. This research will demonstrate how the production and use of stone tools was integrated into the daily lives of Conchopata residents, and will provide new information on the rise of urbanism from a domestic perspective in the Ayacucho region. The prehistoric urban settlement of Conchopata is located approximately 10 kilometers from the Huari capital, one of South America's first great cities. The Huari culture dates to the Middle Horizon (A.D. 550-1000) and Conchopata is believed to be a center of large-scale, specialized production of ceremonial pottery, perhaps beginning before Huari came to power. Recent excavations have revealed new information about royal elites, craft production and complex ritual activity. New areas suggesting extensive domestic activity were revealed as well, a previously unexplored aspect of life at Conchopata. Andean prehistoric urbanism has typically been investigated through studies of regional settlement patterns and elite material culture, such as ceremonial pottery and monumental architecture. Few have studied everyday domestic artifacts, yet mundane artifacts such as stone tools reveal a great deal about essential domestic and ritual activities and the degree to which all classes of people were socially and economically differentiated. This research will represent one of the first complete analyses of stone artifacts conducted at Middle Horizon sites in the Andes. Studies of stone artifacts in the Andes still mainly focus only on formal, highly modified tools, emphasizing their typological classification. The majority of stone artifact assemblages, however, are composed of casually produced unmodified or slightly modified flakes that were used for most domestic activities. As a result of the typological emphasis on formal tools, many studies have ignored the vast majority of stone artifacts and the information they can provide. This research is important for providing new information on how stone tools were used and produced as well as a new perspective on the daily lives of prehistoric Andean peoples in Peru's early cities. It will help develop a baseline for the analysis and interpretation of other stone artifact collections not only for Huari sites, but also for other archaeological cultures and centers throughout Andean South America. This research will also contribute to the growing interest in domestic contexts in Andean archaeology, and will assist in training a promising young scientist.