Dissertation Research: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Sogamoso Valley

在Robert D. drenan博士的指导下，博士候选人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世纪到达哥伦比亚这一地区的西班牙征服者将穆伊斯卡酋长概括为南美洲北部最富有、最强大的土著统治者之一。这些社会的考古记录表明，从一个穆斯卡部落到另一个穆斯卡部落，在其发展的性质和程度上有相当大的差异。特别是，它表明Muisca领土南部的酋长在公元1000年之前开始巩固对地区政治的权力，这种权力建立在对集约化粮食生产的基本资源的控制之上。这种情况符合这样一种观点，即对经济资源的控制为强大领导人领导下的大规模政治一体化的发展提供了条件。相比之下，考古学上已知的Muisca领土北部的酋长领地似乎出现得较晚，规模较小，总体上不如南部的酋长领地发达。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的发展局限性，因为Muisca北部地区缺乏易于集约化和可控的农业资源。虽然重点是一个过去的社会，潜在的相关性是显着在今天的背景下。这项研究的基本目标是深入了解指导复杂传统社会发展和维持的因素，这些因素是当今世界许多地区的特点。穆伊斯卡地区最北端的主要中心在索加莫索，西班牙殖民时期的记载把它描述为一个重要的中心，它集中在一个宏伟的太阳神庙上，由一个酋长主持，他的权力来自于宗教权威，而这个酋长的权力来自于一个较小的政治联盟。如果准确的话，这些描述表明，在发展主要权力的道路上，有相当大的空间，而不是南方穆斯卡酋邦所想象的那样——这条道路更多地基于宗教信仰，而不是经济控制。除了在太阳神庙内部和周围进行挖掘外，在索加莫索地区几乎没有进行考古研究。法哈多先生将进行的定居点研究将记录太阳神庙周围人类社区的规模和性质，包括地方和区域两方面。它将评估一个具有重要中心地位的大规模统一区域政体的出现程度。这样就有可能比较musica领土北部和南部最大和最令人印象深刻的主要是中部社区和区域政治，并更有效地评估它们的发展程度。该项目还将产生更广泛的影响。作为论文研究，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Museo Parque Arqueológico de Sogamoso博物馆（学术研究与当代社区之间协同关系的区域地标）展示研究的初步结果，向学校学生和公众展示新的考古信息。

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.