Conchopata Archaeological Analyses, 2003

在国家科学基金会的支持下，由威廉·H·伊斯贝尔博士指导的康乔波塔考古分析-2003将完成对1998年至2001年在康乔波塔出土的文物收藏品的实验室研究。在安第斯城市革命和原始帝国形成的最初阶段，康乔波塔是秘鲁中部高地的第二大城市。康乔波塔被认为是重要的宗教发展中心，可能促进了帝国主义和城市生活，我们的新发掘表明，该遗址由宫殿、坟墓和寺庙组成，以及密集的住宅聚集在这些重要建筑周围。这个新项目将汇集来自美国、秘鲁、阿根廷和加拿大的考古学家，共同努力更多地了解安第斯山脉最早的城市之一的早期城市生活，从权力、宗教意识形态、阶级差异到生存和劳动组织。1998年至2001年间，在伊斯贝尔博士的指导下，考古学家挖掘出了有史以来为秘鲁早期中地平线高地城市暴露的最大面积的史前建筑遗迹。暴露的建筑中有文物，从食物残骸到墓葬供品，记录了S远古时期人们的生活方式。对这些遗骸的细致分析将教会我们这些居民是如何养活自己的，他们从事的是什么样的行业，他们的宗教仪式，他们的政府制度，权力是如何巩固的，以及象征性交流和意识形态在秘鲁早期城市革命相关的深刻变化中的作用。这些结果对于理解历史和现在的文化变迁、社会差异的产生以及中央集权政治权威的产生具有广泛的意义。在文化复杂性的演变以及不同财富和权力的生产方面，所有社会都遵循相似的道路吗？一些学者认为，所有的文化都是沿着相似的路线发展的，而另一些学者则坚持认为，安第斯中部的文明是独一无二的，所以文化变化的过程是历史性和偶然性的。根据对我们出土的孔乔普塔遗迹的初步检查，这座古城似乎与新旧世界的其他早期城市有一些共同的特征，特别是在生存和经济组织领域。另一方面，孔乔帕塔的核心似乎由连续占据的小宫殿组成，这些宫殿是意识形态、政治和手工艺品制造的中心，直到成为殡仪馆纪念碑。也许，第一批精英还专门制造礼仪供品陶器等东西，上面充满了高度象征性的肖像。这可能是安第斯美洲原住民独有的模式。这些分析将发现更多关于康乔波塔生活的信息，展示这座早期安第斯城市如何符合或不符合当前关于普遍文化变化和过程进化的理论。

With National Science Foundation support the Conchopata Archaeological Analysis - 2003, directed by Dr. William H. Isbell, will complete laboratory study of artifact collections excavated at Conchopata between 1998 and 2001. Conchopata was the second largest city in Central Highlands Peru during the initial stages of the Andean urban revolution and formation of pristine empires Conchopata has been recognized as a center of important religious developments that may have promoted imperialism and city life, and our new excavations suggest that the site consisted of palaces, tombs and temples, plus dense concentrations of residences clustered around these important buildings. This new program will bring together archaeologists from the USA, Peru, Argentina and Canada in a coordinated effort to learn more about early urban life in one of the first Andean cities, from power, religious ideology and class difference to subsistence and the organization of labor. Between 1998 and 2001, under Dr. Isbell's direction, archaeologists excavated the largest area of prehistoric architectural remains ever exposed for a highland Peruvian city of early Middle Horizon date. The buildings exposed contained artifacts, ranging from food remains to burial offerings that document the way people lived during Conchopata s apogee. Painstaking analysis of these remains will teach us about how the residents supported themselves, what kind of industries they practiced, their religious rituals, their system of government, how power was consolidated, and the role of symbolic communication and ideology in the profound changes associated with Peru's early urban revolution. These results have broad significance for understanding culture change in the past and present, the production of social difference, and the emergence of centralized political authority. Do all societies follow similar paths in the evolution of cultural complexity and production of differential wealth and power? Some scholars argue that all cultures have developed along similar lines, while others insist that Central Andean civilizations were unique, so processes of culture change are historical and contingent. On the basis of preliminary examinations of our excavated remains from Conchopata it appears that this ancient city shared some features, particularly in the domain of subsistence and economic organization, with other early cities of the New and Old Worlds. On the other hand, it appears that the core of Conchopata consisted of small palaces, occupied serially, that were centers from which ideology, politics and craft manufacturing were organized, until the became mortuary monuments. Perhaps, the first elites also specialized in manufacturing things like ceremonial offering pottery, replete with highly symbolic iconography. This may be a pattern unique to Andean Native America. The analyses will discover much more information about the lives lived at Conchopata, showing how this early Andean city does or does not conform to current theories of universal culture change and processual evolution.