Dissertation Research: The Development of Social Complexity at El Dornajo: Conditions of Change in Southwestern Ecuador

在Robert Drennan博士的指导下，Sarah Taylor女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将在位于厄瓜多尔南部扎鲁米拉河上的埃尔多纳霍遗址进行考古发掘。埃尔多尔纳霍很可能成为公元前500年至公元1200年之间的政治中心，并提供了一个背景下，以了解安第斯地区的政治复杂性的出现。这一过程导致了新大陆上一些最复杂的史前社会，如印加人。多尔纳霍位于厄瓜多尔南部热带森林和沿海秘鲁沙漠之间的环境过渡区。它也是北方安第斯山脉复杂的酋长国和中部安第斯山脉广阔的国家之间的文化过渡。传统上，该区域一直被视为区域间互动在社会变革中发挥重要作用的区域。与邻近的发展更为复杂的政治体的互动，以及它们之间贸易路线上的地位，可能使一个精英统治集团通过控制产品的流动而出现。然而，对南美洲西海岸有重大影响的厄尔尼诺事件也可能发挥了重要作用。该区域的史前人口在很大程度上依赖海洋和红树林资源，虽然厄尔尼诺现象会给大部分人口造成生存压力，但也会为在通常干旱的地区从事农业创造可能性。随着降雨量恢复到正常的低水平，农民可能已经开发了其他技术，如灌溉，使他们走上了社会复杂化的道路。为了研究这些替代方案，泰勒女士将在现场进行考古研究。这将包括一个分阶段的地表调查方案，随机抽样以恢复人工制品和生态设施组合，挖掘最大的土丘以评估其建造顺序并确定其发生的速度和时间。最后，将进行小规模的横向挖掘，以寻找住户之间的差异，这一项目还将促进有前途的年轻科学家的培训和职业生涯。它将包括来自美国和厄瓜多尔的学生，从而加强这两个国家之间的考古联系。

Under the direction of Dr. Robert Drennan, Ms. Sarah Taylor will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct archaeological excavation at the site of El Dornajo located on the Zarumilla River in southern Ecuador. El Dornajo very likely emerged as a political center between 500 BC and 1200 AD and provides a context within which to gain insight into the emergence of political complexity in the Andean region. This process led to some of the most complex prehistoric societies in the New World such as the Inka. El Dornajo is located in an environmentally transitional region between the tropical forests of southern Ecuador and the deserts of coastal Peru. It is also culturally transitional between the complex chiefdoms of the northern Andes and the expansive states of the central Andes. Traditionally the region has been seen as one in which inter-regional interaction played a strong role in social change. Interaction with adjacent more complexly developed polities and a position on a trade route between them may have allowed an elite governing group to emerge through control over the movement of products. However El Nino events which have a major impact on the western coast of South America may also have played a significant role. The prehistoric populations of the region would have been largely reliant on marine and mangrove resources and while El Nino events would have created conditions of subsistence stress for much of the population they would also have opened the possibility of agriculture in a normally arid area. As rainfall returned to normal low levels, farmers may have developed other techniques such as irrigation which set them on the path to social complexity. To examine these alternatives Ms Taylor will conduct archaeological research at the site. This will include a staged program of surface survey, random sampling to recover artifact and ecofact assemblages, and excavation of the largest mound to assess the sequence of its construction and determination of the pace and timing with which this occurred. Finally small horizontal excavations will be conducted to look for inter-household variation.This project will also further the training and career of a promising young scientist. It will include students from both the US and Ecuador and thus strengthen archaeological ties between these two countries.