Dissertation Research: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Sogamoso Valley

在Robert D.Drennan博士的指导下，博士生Sebastian Fajardo将在哥伦比亚东部高地的Sogamoso山谷进行一项定居模式研究。16世纪到达哥伦比亚的西班牙征服者将哥伦比亚这一地区的穆伊斯卡酋长大致描述为南美洲北部土著最富有和最有权势的尺子之一。这些社会的考古记录表明，从一个穆伊斯卡酋长领地到另一个穆伊斯卡酋长领地，其发展的性质和程度存在很大的差异。特别是，它提出，穆伊斯卡地区南部的酋长在公元1000年之前就开始巩固对地区政治的权力，这一权力建立在对集约化粮食生产的基本资源的控制上。这种情景符合这样一种观点，即对经济资源的控制为在有权势的领导人的领导下发展特别大规模的政治一体化提供了条件。相比之下，穆伊斯卡地区北部考古上已知的酋长领地似乎出现得较晚，规模较小，总体上比南部欠发达。有人认为，这表明了主要基于宴会、社会义务和宗教权威的权力发展的局限性，因为北部穆伊斯卡地区缺乏随时可以强化和控制的农业资源。尽管重点放在过去的社会上，但在当今的背景下，潜在的相关性很大。这项研究的基本目标是洞察指导复杂的传统社会发展和维持的因素，这是当今世界许多地区的特征。最北端的穆伊斯卡地区的主要中心是索加莫索，西班牙殖民故事描述它是一个重要的中心，重点是由一位酋长主持的一座宏伟的太阳神庙，他的权力来自于对较小政体联盟的宗教权威。如果这些描述是准确的，这些描述表明，与南部穆伊斯卡酋长领地的想象相比，一条与主要权力发展道路截然不同的道路有相当大的空间-一条更多地基于宗教信仰而不是经济控制的道路。除了太阳神庙本身及其周围的发掘，索加莫索地区几乎没有进行过考古研究。法哈多先生将进行的定居点研究将记录当地和区域范围内太阳神庙周围人类社区的规模和性质。它将评估在多大程度上出现了一个以主要中心位置为中心的大规模巩固的地区政治。这将使人们能够比较穆伊斯卡地区北部和南部最大和最令人印象深刻的主要是中心社区和地区政治，并更有效地评估它们的发展程度。作为学位论文的研究，对博士生的培养至关重要。同时，它将为哥伦比亚几所大学的考古学本科生提供实地和实验室方法方面的经验和培训。它将通过在Sogamoso博物馆Arqueológico de Sogamoso展示研究的初步结果，向学校学生和普通公众展示新的考古信息，Museo Parque Arqueológico de Sogamoso是学术研究与当代社区之间协同关系的区域地标。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, doctoral candidate Sebastian Fajardo will conduct a settlement pattern study in the Sogamoso Valley of the eastern highlands of Colombia. The Muisca chiefs in this part of Colombia were broadly described by the Spanish conquerors who arrived in the sixteenth century as among the richest and most powerful rulers of indigenous northern South America. The archaeological record of these societies suggests considerable variability from one Muisca chiefdom to another in the nature and extent of their development. In particular, it has suggested that chiefs in the southern part of Muisca territory began to consolidate power over regional polities before 1000 AD, and that this power was founded on control of basic resources for intensive food production. This scenario fits with the idea that control of economic resources provides for the development of especially large-scale political integration under powerful leaders. In contrast, archaeologically known chiefdoms in the northern part of Muisca territory, seem to emerge later, and remained small in scale and generally less developed than those of the south. It has been argued that this demonstrates the developmental limitations of power based largely on feasting, social obligations, and religious authority, since the northern Muisca area lacks readily intensifiable and controllable agricultural resources.Although the focus is on one past society the potential relevance is significant in a present day context. The underlying goal of the research is to gain insight into the factors which guide the development and maintenance of complex traditional societies which are characteristic in many regions of the world today.The principal chiefly center in the northernmost Muisca area was at Sogamoso, and Spanish colonial accounts describe it as in important center indeed, focused on a grand Temple of the Sun presided over by a chief whose power derived from religious authority over a confederation of smaller polities. If accurate, these accounts suggest considerable scope for a rather different pathway to the development of chiefly power than that imagined for southern Muisca chiefdoms - a pathway based more on religious belief than on economic control. Except for excavations in and around the location of the Temple of the Sun itself, little archaeological research has been carried out in the Sogamoso region. The settlement study to be carried out by Mr. Fajardo will document the scale and nature of the human community surrounding the Temple of the Sun, at both local and regional scales. It will assess the extent to which a large-scale consolidated regional polity with a major central place emerged. This will make it possible to compare the largest and most impressive chiefly central communities and regional polities of the northern and southern parts of Muisca territory and assess more effectively their degrees of development.The project will also have broader impacts. As dissertation research, it is vital to the training of the doctoral candidate. At the same time it will provide experience and training in field and laboratory methods to undergraduate archaeology students from several Colombian universities. It will present new archaeological information to school students and the general public by presenting preliminary results of the study in the Museo Parque Arqueológico de Sogamoso, a regional landmark for synergistic relations between academic research and contemporary communities.