Dissertation: Formative Communities and Public Ritual Space, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

在James Brown博士的指导下，Robin Beck先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将研究导致复杂社会在玻利维亚的的喀喀湖盆地兴起的过程，该盆地是南美洲最早的国家级社会之一。其目的是评估一个假设，即在形成中期（公元前900-250年），一个集中的等级形式的社会组织已经出现。先前的考古研究表明，此时奇里帕考古遗址的村民建造了一个巨大的土平台，在视觉上主导了他们的社区。在这个平台上，他们建立了一个仪式区的石头和土坯结构安排在一个下沉的法院周围的八角形。在奇里帕建造这个区长期以来被认为是社会复杂性发展的一个重大发展。然而，在最近完成对该地区的全面调查后，考古学家在附近的几个地点发现了类似的建筑。通过对其中三处进行密集的挖掘和系统的测试，贝克先生的项目将为这一公共仪式建筑的性质提供一套比较数据。这提供了一个有价值的方式来调查一体化机构的规模变化，并确定奇里帕的权力的空间范围。如果其他地点的仪式中心与奇里帕同时代，规模也与奇里帕相当，那么它们很可能不属于奇里帕的控制范围。另一方面，如果它们规模较小，不那么复杂，它们很可能从属于区域一体化。在整个形成时期，是否有一个单一的社区作为这个地区的仪式和政治中心？2.几个不同的社区交替作为区域中心吗？3.是中间形成社区在该地区的仪式和政治自治。为了测试这些模型，该项目将使用一组八个变量来衡量仪式空间组织的差异：中心性，持久性，可达性，可见性，规模，普遍性，功能和时间。贝克先生将进行密集的挖掘，以产生一个可供比较的数据库，以便进行遗址间的比较。这项研究很重要，因为它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它将增加对复杂社会如何产生的理解，并有助于培养有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. James Brown, Mr. Robin Beck will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will examine the processes which led to the rise of complex society in Bolivia's Lake Titicaca Basin , home of one of the earliest state level societies in South America. The goal is to evaluate the hypothesis that by Middle Formative period (900-250 BC) a centralized hierarchical form of social organization had emerged. Prior archaeological research demonstrated that by this time villagers at the archaeological site of Chiripa built a large earthern platform that visually dominated their community. Atop this platform they erected a ritual precinct of stone and adobe structures arranged in an octagon around a sunken court. The construction of this precinct at Chiripa has long been recognized as a significant development in the development in social complexity. Follow recent completion of a full scale survey of the region however, archaeologists have discovered similar architecture at several nearby sites. By combining intensive excavation and systematic testing at three of these, Mr. Beck's project will contribute a set of comparative data on the nature of this public ritual architecture. This offers a valuable way to investigate changes in the scale of integrative institutions and to determine the spatial extent of Chiripa's power. If ritual centers at other sites are contemporary with and equal to Chiripa in size, then most likely they did not fall under Chiripa's control. If, on the other hand, they are smaller and less complex they most likely are subordinate to it. Mr. Beck's work will test three models of regional integration: 1. Did a single community serve as this area's ritual and political center throughout the Formative period? 2. Did several different communities alternate as regional center? 3. Were Middle Formative communities in the region ritually and politically autonomous. To test these models the project will use a set of eight variables designed to measure differences in the organization of ritual space: centrality, permanence, accessibility, visibility, scale, ubiquity, function and timing. Mr. Beck will conduct intensive excavation to generate a comparative body of data which will allow intersite comparison.This research is important because it will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase understanding of how complex societies arose and assist in training a promising young scientist.