Dissertation Research: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Sogamoso Valley

在Robert D. Drennan博士生塞巴斯蒂安法哈尔多将在哥伦比亚东部高地的Sogamoso山谷进行定居模式研究。16世纪抵达哥伦比亚的西班牙征服者将这一地区的穆伊斯卡酋长广泛地描述为南美洲土著北方最富有和最强大的统治者之一。这些社会的考古记录表明，穆伊斯卡酋长领地之间在发展的性质和程度上存在着相当大的差异。特别是，它表明，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，这种权力是建立在控制密集粮食生产的基本资源的基础上的。这种情况符合这样一种观点，即对经济资源的控制有助于在强大的领导人领导下发展特别大规模的政治一体化。相比之下，穆伊斯卡地区北方的考古学上已知的酋长似乎出现得较晚，规模仍然较小，总体上不如南部的酋长发达。有人认为，这表明了权力的发展局限性，主要是基于盛宴，社会义务和宗教权威，因为北方Muisca地区缺乏容易集约化和可控的农业资源。这项研究的根本目标是深入了解指导当今世界许多地区复杂传统社会发展和维持的因素。最北端的穆伊斯卡地区的主要中心是索加莫索，西班牙殖民地的记录将其描述为重要的中心，集中在一个宏伟的太阳神庙，由一位酋长主持，他的权力来自于对一个较小政治联盟的宗教权威。如果准确的话，这些描述表明，与南部穆伊斯卡酋长的想象相比，酋长权力的发展道路有相当大的空间--这条道路更多地基于宗教信仰，而不是经济控制。除了在太阳神庙及其周围进行的挖掘外，在索加莫索地区几乎没有进行过考古研究。法哈尔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在地方和区域两级的规模和性质。它将评估在多大程度上出现了一个具有主要中心地位的大规模的统一区域政体。这将有助于比较穆伊斯卡县北方和南方最大和最引人注目的主要中心社区和地区政治，并更有效地评估其发展程度，该项目还将产生更广泛的影响。作为学位论文的研究，对博士研究生的培养至关重要。与此同时，它将向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，这是学术研究与当代社区之间协同关系的区域里程碑。

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.