Dissertation Research: Settlement Organization of a Major Pre-Columbian Polity: Archaeological Survey at Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala

Demarest 在亚瑟德马雷斯特博士的指导下，奥斯瓦尔多·钦奇利亚先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。 在以前工作的基础上，他将在危地马拉太平洋沿岸的皮埃蒙特地区进行一次定居点调查。这一地区以古罗马时期（公元500-1000年）的Cotzumalguapa文化遗址以及与之相关的精美雕塑和文字系统而闻名。尽管自19世纪以来人们就开始关注这一地区，但目前的知识仅限于年代学、建筑和雕塑。很少有人致力于理解社会和政治组织。钦奇利亚先生将在三个最大的已知地点附近进行系统的区域调查。他将定位和记录来自较小中心的数据，绘制它们的位置和地理分布图，并根据结果分布重建定居点和社会系统。他还将进行有限的挖掘，以比较表面和地下材料。通过这个过程，他将确定表面分布如何准确地反映掩埋材料以及表面数据可能包含哪些潜在的偏差。 美国中部以复杂的社会而闻名，这些社会是在一个常常不适宜居住的热带环境中发展起来的。 考古学家希望了解导致这些复杂实体出现和发展的过程，以及最终导致其衰落的过程。在危地马拉的皮埃蒙特进行的系统工作很少，尽管考古遗迹的复杂性和精细性表明值得给予这种关注。钦奇利亚的研究将为复杂社会的兴起提供新的线索。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并协助培训一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Demarest Under the direction of Dr. Arthur Demarest, Mr. Oswaldo Chinchillia will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Building on previous work he will conduct a settlement survey in the piedmont area of the Pacific coast of Guatemala. This region is well known for the classic period (500-1000 AD) sites ascribed to the Cotzumalguapa culture and for the elaborate sculptures and writing system associated with it. Although attention has been drawn to this area since the nineteenth century, current knowledge is restricted to chronology, architecture and sculpture. Little effort has been devoted to understanding social and political organization. Mr. Chinchillia will conduct a systematic regional survey in the immediate environs of the three largest known sites. He will locate and record data from smaller centers, map their position and qize, and based on the resultant distributions reconstruct both settlement and social systems. He will also conduct limited excavations in order to compare surface and subsurface materials. Through this process, he will determine how accurately suface distributions mirror buried materials and what potential bias surface data might contain. Middle America is famous for the complex societies which developed in an often inhospitable tropical environment. Archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led to the emergence and development of these complex entities and which ultimately resulted in their downfall. Very little systematic work has been done in the piedmont of Guatemala even though the complex and elaborate nature of archaeological remains indicates that such attention is merited. Mr. Chinchillia's research will shed new light on the rise of complex society. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in the training of a promising young scientist.