The Role Of Competition In The Development Of Societal Complexity

这项研究和类似的考古学研究的基本目标是了解复杂社会产生的过程。在技术简单的社会中，将成千上万的个人联系到功能性政治和经济网络中的社会实体是如何出现的？考古学，因为它可以追踪这些发展，往往超过千年，提供了一个重要的洞察力来源。这项研究将有助于通过记录重要的史前中美洲政体来理解早期的国家权力，并评估它是作为一个单一的国家出现还是与新认识的更大的中心竞争。这项研究的第一阶段首次记录了遗址的范围。国家科学基金会的支持还允许在三个相邻的环境中记录不断变化的总体占领水平，并通过八个较低级别的纪念碑中心提供了区域政治组织的一瞥。第二阶段的研究将确定初期国家权力的性质。首席研究员Robert Rosenswig博士将收集激光雷达（遥感区域图像）数据，并进行一个实地调查季节的行人定居调查，以记录墨西哥Soconusco地区Izapa州的出现。这是研究的第二阶段，建立在现有的激光雷达数据和由NSF资助的行人调查数据的基础上。激光雷达是一项令人兴奋的新技术，它利用光脉冲穿透厚厚的热带植被，并绘制下面的陆地特征。伊萨帕遗址长期以来一直被认为是一个重要的中心，包括100多个土丘和公共艺术的区域风格的心脏。研究将确定伊萨帕是否是该地区唯一的政治中心，或者它是否与新发现的Las Viudas中心竞争。为了评估这些替代的可能性，所有形成时期（公元前850年至公元100年）的纪念碑中心将被绘制成地图，以确定它们与伊萨帕和拉斯维乌达斯的区域分布。使用激光雷达将非常准确地记录每个低阶中心（估计还有30个中心有待记录）的方向和内部布局，从而可以在区域范围内重建场地规划模式。除了西班牙人占领该地区外，这些激光雷达数据还将记录具有重要经济意义的索科努斯科的溪流、小溪和河流的水文情况。该地区位于马德雷山脉的底部，容易发生洪水，并在2005年斯坦飓风后遭到破坏。这些新的数据将有助于确定过去受到侵蚀和目前面临侵蚀风险的河流缓冲区。有了这些信息，考古遗址和现代社区都将面临未来洪水侵蚀的风险，并与当地官员分享这些信息。

The fundamental goal of this and similar archaeological research is to understand the processes through which complex societies arise. How in technologically simple societies do social entities which bind thousands of individuals into functioning political and economic networks arise? Archaeology, because it can trace such developments, often over millennia, provides an important source of insight. The research will contribute to understanding incipient state power by documenting the important prehistoric Middle American polity and evaluating whether it emerged as a single state or in competition with the newly recognized larger center. The first phase of this research documented the extent of the site for the first time. NSF support also allowed the documentation of changing overall occupation levels in three adjacent environments and provided a glimpse of regional political organization through eight lower-order monumental centers. The second stage of research will determine the nature of incipient state power.The principal investigator Dr. Robert Rosenswig will collect lidar (remotely sensed areal imagery) data and undertake one field season of pedestrian settlement survey to document the emergence of the Izapa state in the Soconusco region of Mexico. This is the second stage of research and builds on existing lidar data and pedestrian survey data funded by the NSF. Lidar is a new and exciting technology that employs pulses of light to penetrate thick tropical vegetation and map terrestrial features below. The site of Izapa has long been recognized as an important center consisting of 100s of mounds and the heart of a regional style of public art. The research will determine whether Izapa arose as the only political center in the region or if it developed in competition with the newly discovered center of Las Viudas. To evaluate these alternate possibilities, all Formative period (850 BCE - CE 100) monumental centers will be mapped to determine their regional distribution in relation to Izapa and Las Viudas. The orientation and internal layout of each lower order centers (of which there is an estimated 30 more to be documented) will be very accurately documented using lidar, allowing for site planning patterns to be reconstructed at a regional scale. In addition to Prehispanic occupation of the region, these lidar data will document the hydrology of streams, creeks and rivers in the economically important Soconusco. Located as it is at the base of the Sierra Madre, the region is prone to flooding and was devastated following Hurricane Stan in 2005. These new data will allow the identification of river buffer areas eroded in the past and subject to current erosion risk. With this information, both archaeological sites and modern communities at risk from future flood-related erosion will be identified and this information shared with local officials.