The Cotopaxi Subsistence Project--Phase I

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，George Gumerman和Mary Weismantel将在位于厄瓜多尔西部科迪勒拉山脉西坡的Angamarca地区进行考古研究。他们将考察大约96平方公里的总面积，其中包括重要的史前政治中心安amarca la Vieja。作为一个长期项目，第一个试点阶段的主要目标是测试不同的考古调查技术，以确定文化材料和遗址的范围，并发现在热带环境中定位遗址的最佳技术。该小组将采用分层随机抽样技术来检查三个主要区域：河流、低地和高地。在每个区域内选定的区域将被调查。一旦遗址被确定，他们的边界将被确定，绘制草图，并收集一部分文化材料进行分析。将选择三个多组成部分的地点进行测试挖掘，重点是恢复暂时诊断的文物和生存遗骸。在此基础上，可以构建一个初步的年表，并进行生存重建的第一步。虽然这一地区的考古学并不为人所知，但很明显，以秘鲁为中心的印加帝国向南延伸到这个遥远的北方。Drs。古曼曼和魏斯曼特尔对印加人如何在帝国的边缘维持他们的控制以及当地居民如何适应他们被纳入帝国感兴趣。最终，他们计划研究厄瓜多尔不同的环境区域，并进行跨地区和跨时间的比较。他们将建立一个前印加基线，并以此来确定后印加接触的变化。他们将把重点放在食物的利用上，因为对这一重要资源的操纵既可以作为社会控制的机制，也可以作为地位的标志。然而，在解决这些问题之前，有必要确定如何最好地在这个鲜为人知的地区开展工作，并制定一个详细的年表。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将揭示大型复杂社会是如何发展和维持的。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并发展分析技术，希望这些技术将适用于许多考古情况。它还将进一步推动两位年轻而非常有前途的科学家的事业。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. George Gumerman and Mary Weismantel will conduct archaeological research in the Angamarca region which is located on the western slopes of the Cordillera Occidental of Ecuador. They will examine a total area of ca. 96 square kilometers which includes the important prehistoric political center of Angamarca la Vieja. The main goal of this first pilot stage of what is conceived as a long-term project is to test different archaeological survey techniques both to determine the range of cultural materials and sites present and also to discover the best technique for locating sites in this tropical environment. The team will employ a stratified random sampling technique to examine three primary zones: riverine, lowland and upland. Within each zone selected areas will be surveyed. Once sites are located, their boundaries will be determined, a sketch map drawn, and a fraction of the cultural materials collected for analysis. Three multicomponent sites will be chosen for test excavations which will focus on recovering temporally diagnostic artifacts and subsistence remains. On this basis a tentative chronology can be constructed and the first step of a subsistence reconstruction carried out. Although the archaeology of this region is not well known, it is clear that the Inca empire, centered in Peru to the South, extended this far North. Drs. Gumerman and Weismantel are interested in how, in this fringe of the empire the Inca maintained their control and how local inhabitants adapted to their incorporation into the empire. Ultimately, they plan to study contrasting environmental zones in Ecuador and compare both across regions and across time. They will establish a pre-Inca baseline and use this to determine post-Inca contact changes. They will focus on utilization of food since manipulation of this essential resource can serve both as a mechanism of social control and as a marker of status. Before such issues can be addressed however, it is necessary both to determine how best to work in this little known region and to develop a detailed chronology. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on how large complex societies develop and are maintained. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and develop analytic techniques which, hopefully, will be applicable in many archaeological situations. It will also further the career of two young and very promising scientists.