Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: 'el Proyecto Arqueologico Lago Suches: Rural Land Use, Sedentary Pastoralism and Ecology in the Andean High Puna'

在诺曼·哈蒙德博士的指导下，本杰明·维宁先生将研究秘鲁南部安第斯山脉最高地区之一从大约公元前6000年到公元1450年的土地利用历史。他将重点关注盆地考古记录中聚落类型和位置的变化，这些变化反映了过去几千年来的社会和气候变化。苏奇斯湖盆地位于海拔4600米的边缘环境，对人类活动有一些限制，包括极端寒冷、缺氧和不可预测的低水平降水。盆地的早期居民通过发展以驯养大羊驼和羊驼为主的独特的畜牧经济来适应这些限制。安第斯骆驼专家通过长途社会和经济关系购买非畜牧商品来补充他们的经济，这种关系随着蒂瓦纳库和印加国家的兴衰而变化。本研究考察了分散的农村社区（在考古文献中代表性不足）与国家级经济体系的关系。通过记录Suches盆地的聚落和物质文化，该项目考虑了使Suches独特的“农村”的一些因素，以及该社区的农村历史如何与安第斯地区的其他农村和城市社区联系起来。萨奇的牧民依靠独特的高山湿地为生，这种湿地被称为bofedales，它为这个原本不适合居住的地区的家畜提供了全年的牧草和水源。先前的研究表明，bofedales对气候变化非常敏感，而这种敏感性可能因降水少和水资源短缺而加剧，这使得它们在最近的条件下处于边缘地位。了解全新世气候变化对了解这些地区古代土地利用具有重要意义。该项目将通过在湖泊沉积物中发现的气候证据来调查古气候条件，并利用这些数据以及卫星图像和雨量站的数据来模拟现代条件下湖泊中可用植物生物量的通量。这些数据将用于评估过去干湿气候阶段对畜牧资源的潜在影响。因此，该项目解决了两个具有重要现代意义的问题。它检查并扩展了我们对农村社区的人类学理解，农村社区包括许多国家的大多数人口，但仍然被边缘化。本研究还探讨了安第斯高原的全新世气候变化，并考察了干湿交替循环对该地区牧民的影响。这些问题与秘鲁安第斯山脉的农村发展和水资源管理直接相关。该项目的信息已经并将继续以印刷和数字形式直接传播给当地牧民社区；预计这些信息将有助于发展农村经济。结果也将提交给学术考古，人类学和地质学的参考出版物和在线地理空间数据库。实地考察将为培训美国和秘鲁的研究生和考古学家提供廉价、高科技的地理空间研究方法的机会。

Under the direction of Dr. Norman Hammond, Mr. Benjamin Vining will land-use history in one of the highest regions of the Andean cordillera of southern Peru from approximately 6000 BC to AD 1450. He will focus on shifts in settlement types and location in the archaeological record of the basin which reflect social and climatic changes over the past millennia. The Lake Suches basin is in marginal environment located at 4600 meters above sea level that presents several limitations to human occupation, including extreme cold, hypoxia, and low levels of unpredictable precipitation. Early inhabitants of the basin adapted to these limitations by developing a distinctive pastoral economy focused on domesticated llamas and alpacas. Andean camelid specialists supplement their economy with non-pastoral commodities procured through long-distance social and economic relations, which changed through the rise and decline of the Tiwanaku and Inca states. This research examines the relationships that dispersed rural communities (who are underrepresented in archaeological literature) have to state-level economic systems. By documenting settlement and material culture in the Suches basin, the project considers some of the factors that make Suches distinctly "rural" and how the rural history of this community is connected to other rural and urban communities in the Andean region. Pastoralists in Suches rely on unique alpine wetlands, called bofedales, which provide year-round sources of browse and water for domestic stock in an otherwise inhospitable region. Previous research suggests that bofedales are highly susceptible to climatic changes, and this sensitivity may have been exacerbated by low precipitation and water shortages that make Suches marginal under recent conditions. Understanding Holocene climate change is important for understanding ancient land-use in Suches. The project will investigate palaeoclimatic conditions through climatic evidence found in lake sediments and is using these data, along with data from satellite imagery and rainfall stations, to model the flux in available plant biomass in bofedales under modern conditions. These will be used to assess the potential impact of wet-dry climatic phases on pastoral resources in the past. This project thus addresses two issues of considerable modern relevance. It examines and expands our anthropological understanding of rural communities, which incorporate the majority of the population in many countries but which nonetheless are marginalized. This research also addresses Holocene climate change in the high Andes and examines the impacts that alternating humid and dry cycles had on pastoralists living in this region. These issues are directly relevant for rural development and water resource management in the Peruvian Andes. Information from this project has been and will continue to be directly disseminated to local herding communities in print and digital formats; it is anticipated that this information can help to develop the rural economy. Results also will be presented to the academic archaeological, anthropological, and geological in refereed publications and on-line geo-spatial databases. The fieldwork will provide the opportunity to train US and Peruvian graduate students and archaeologists in inexpensive, high-technology geospatial research methods.