Collaborative Research: Political Integration of the Formative Period Rio Viejo State, Oaxaca, Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，巴伯和乔伊斯博士将在墨西哥瓦哈卡太平洋海岸的下里奥维德山谷指导为期两年的跨学科考古研究。研究小组包括美国、墨西哥和美洲原住民学者，他们专门研究考古学、地质学和体质人类学，他们将共同研究里奥维埃霍遗址早期国家的形成和崩溃的过程。在公元前400年到公元250年之间，瓦哈卡的高地和低地发展起来了十几个相互影响的新兴国家，里奥维约州就是其中之一。然而，尽管它们是同时代的和接近的，这些早期国家在地理范围、寿命、城市化规模和它们的长期历史轨迹方面都有很大的不同。根据政治中心和地理区域的人口计算，里奥维埃霍是这些国家中最大的州之一，但也是寿命最短的州之一，仅过了150年就崩溃了。它也是瓦哈卡沿海低地仅有的两个已知的早期发展州之一。该项目的目标是确定里奥维约州的统治形式和政治融合程度，以此来解释为什么早期的一些国家挺了下来，而另一些国家没有。该项目将在数据和理论方面做出宝贵的智力贡献。该项目产生的数据将为索康努斯科以西的中美洲太平洋海岸早期国家的政治组织提供第一个强有力的描述，并将为中美洲和其他地区关于社会因素如何影响古代国家历史轨迹的更广泛辩论提供信息。由于毗邻其他重要的新兴州，比如瓦哈卡谷的蒙特阿尔班州，里奥维约州是更广泛的社会变化中不可或缺的一部分，比如国家的形成和崩溃，这些都是中美洲考古学家和更广泛的社会科学家持续关注的问题。由于研究重点是尺子和政治融合，因此需要来自里奥维埃霍位于其不朽的中央卫城的行政中心的数据。该项目将通过以下方式极大地扩展对卫城用途的了解：1)确定与治理相关的设施，如宫殿或大会堂；2)确定是否存在对生产、再分配和市场交易等经济活动的政治监督；3)确定普通民众参与政府赞助仪式的程度；以及4)量化建造政府设施所需的劳动量。田野工作将包括考古挖掘和探地雷达。广泛的影响包括产生新的数据，将扩大对早期国家的了解。总而言之，瓦哈卡早期各州的宏观区域数据集将提供无与伦比的洞察，让人们了解不同环境中不同的政治轨迹，不同于环境更同质的南玛雅低地或美索不达米亚。该项目将通过培训三所美国大学和两所墨西哥大学的研究生和本科生来开发美国和墨西哥的科学资源，同时在美国和墨西哥学者之间建立新的国际合作。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Barber and Joyce will direct two years of interdisciplinary archaeological research in the lower Río Verde Valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. The research team includes U.S., Mexican, and Native American scholars specializing in archaeology, geology, and physical anthropology who together will examine the processes of early state formation and collapse at the site of Río Viejo. The Río Viejo state was one of more than a dozen interacting nascent states that developed in the highlands and lowlands of Oaxaca between 400 B.C. and A.D. 250. Despite their contemporaneity and proximity, however, these early states varied significantly in terms of geographic extent, longevity, scale of urbanism, and their long-term historical trajectories. Río Viejo was one of the largest of these states based on both population at the political center and geographic area but was also one of the shortest-lived, collapsing after only 150 years. It was also one of only two known early states to develop in Oaxaca's coastal lowlands. The goal of the project is to determine the form of rulership and the degree of political integration for the Río Viejo state as means of explaining why some early states endured and others did not.The project will make valuable intellectual contributions in terms of both data and theory. The data generated by this project will provide the first robust description of political organization for an early state on Mesoamerica's Pacific coast west of the Soconusco and will inform broader debates in Mesoamerica and beyond on how social factors influenced the historical trajectories of ancient states. With its proximity to other important nascent states, such as Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca, the Río Viejo state was integral to broader social changes like state formation and collapse that are of ongoing interest to Mesoamerican archaeologists and social scientists more generally. Because the research focuses on rulers and political integration, data are required from the Río Viejo's administrative center located on its monumental central acropolis. The project will greatly expand knowledge of the uses to which the acropolis was put by: 1) identifying facilities associated with governance such as palaces or assembly halls; 2) determining whether there was political oversight of economic actions like production, redistribution, and market exchange; 3) determining the degree to which the general population was involved in government-sponsored rituals; and 4) quantifying the amount of labor needed to construct government facilities. Fieldwork will include archaeological excavation and ground penetrating radar.Broader impacts include the generation of new data that will expand knowledge of early states. Taken together, Oaxaca's macro-regional dataset of early states will offer unparalleled insight into divergent political trajectories in a heterogeneous environment unlike that of the more environmentally homogenous southern Maya lowlands or Mesopotamia. The project will develop scientific resources in United States and Mexico by training graduate and undergraduate students at three U.S. and two Mexican universities while creating new international collaborations between U.S. and Mexican scholars.