Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Process of Agricultural Transformation among the Coastal Osmore Springs of Southern Peru

在国家科学基金会的支持下，格雷戈里·扎罗先生将在秘鲁遥远的南海岸进行博士论文研究。 这项研究旨在解释的过程中，在沿海奥斯摩尔地区的南部秘鲁公元300年和1700年之间的农业发展，通过了解文化和生态变量的相互作用，条件农业决策。 先前的研究表明，在整个调查期间，沿海的奥斯莫泉断断续续地生产，今天有些仍在种植，而另一些则完全被遗弃。 几千年来，这个典型的干旱地区的气候经历了周期性厄尔尼诺事件，构造活动和高于和低于正常高原降水的逐渐振荡周期的形式间断中断。 奥斯莫河流域也见证了一段复杂的历史，见证了蒂瓦纳库和瓦里等古代政治势力的兴衰。 要充分了解农业是如何沿着沿着这条极度干旱的海岸线发生变化的，考古学家需要首先确定过去农业活动的往往是短暂的指标，并将其置于文化和生态背景中。 在这项研究中，重点放在保存完好的Wawakiki遗址上，这是沿着沙漠海岸的一系列史前/历史悠久的春季农业系统之一。 该项目将记录瓦瓦基基农业基础设施和作物选择的历时性变化，并将其置于奥斯莫尔河以北邻近泉水系统更广泛的资源开发模式背景下。 将使用ESRI ArcGIS Desktop分析所产生的数据，并最终根据已经确定的奥斯莫尔河流域的社会文化和环境序列进行解释。 在Wawakiki进行的调查旨在产生与Wawakiki农业基础设施和作物选择的年代有关的数据，同时将利用秘鲁考古学家Adan Umire产生的调查数据库，对沿着资源开发的半区域模式进行分析。 瓦瓦基基展示了一系列保存完好的石面梯田、犁沟、苗床和蓄水池，这些特征的年代发展代表了农业技术、工程技术和在一个地点投入的相对劳动力数量。 此外，考古学背景下的植物材料可以直接洞察史前农业生产活动的性质。 作物选择的变化反映了对自给作物的重视程度的变化（例如，玉米），经济作物（例如，棉花）或两者，以及特定植物的相对比例表明农民专门生产特定栽培种的程度。 为了确定史前种植的植物种类，将对Wawakiki古代田野中的植硅体、花粉和大型植物遗迹进行分析。 最后，这些数据将在奥斯莫河流域的区域社会政治和环境背景下进行背景化，以了解在地方一级形成农业决策的文化和生态变量的相互作用。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。 它将突出当地社区在这种极端干旱的环境中维持农业的方式，并解释文化和自然因素在多大程度上促成了沿海奥斯莫尔泉水中农业的衰落和重生。

With National Science Foundation support, Mr Gregory Zaro will conduct doctoral disserrtation research on the far south coast of Peru. The study seeks to explain the process of agricultural development in the coastal Osmore region of southern Peru between AD 300 and 1700 by understanding the interplay of both cultural and ecological variables that condition agricultural decisions. Previous research suggests the coastal Osmore springs fell in and out of production throughout the period of investigation, and today some remain under cultivation while others lie completely abandoned. For millennia the climate of this typically dry region has experienced punctuated interruptions in the form of periodic el Nino events, tectonic activity, and gradual oscillating periods of above- and below-normal highland precipitation. The Osmore drainage also played host to a complex history that witnessed the rise and fall of ancient political powers such as Tiwanaku and Wari. An adequate understanding of how agriculture transformed along this hyper-arid coastline requires archaeologists to first identify the often-ephemeral indicators of past agrarian activities and situate them in their cultural and ecological contexts. For this study, emphasis is placed on the well-preserved site of Wawakiki, one of a series of prehistoric/historic spring-fed agricultural systems along the desert coast. The project will document diachronic changes in agricultural infrastructure and crop selection at Wawakiki, and place them in the context of wider patterns of resource exploitation among its neighboring spring systems north of the Osmore River. The resulting data will be analyzed using ESRI ArcGIS Desktop and ultimately interpreted against already defined sociocultural and environmental sequences from the main Osmore River valley. Excavations at Wawakiki are designed to generate data pertaining to the chronology of agricultural infrastructure and crop selection at Wawakiki, while analyses of semi-regional patterns of resource exploitation along the coast will be achieved using a survey database generated by Peruvian archaeologist Adan Umire. Wawakiki exhibits a well-preserved array of stone-faced terraces, furrows, seedling beds, and water impoundment tanks, and chronological development of these features represents agrarian technology, engineering skills, and the relative amounts of labor invested at a site. In addition, plant materials in archaeological contexts may provide direct insight into the nature of prehistoric agricultural production activities. Changes in crop selection reflect changing emphases on subsistence crops (e.g., maize), industrial crops (e.g., cotton), or both, and relative proportions of specific plants suggest the degree to which farmers specialized their production of particular cultigens. To determine the kinds of plants cultivated prehistorically, phytoliths, pollen, and macrobotanical remains from ancient fields at Wawakiki will be analyzed. Finally, these data will be contextualized within the regional sociopolitical and environmental setting of the Osmore drainage to understand the interplay of cultural and ecological variables that shape agricultural decisions at the local level. This research is important for several reasons. It will highlight the manners in which local communities sustained themselves agriculturally in this hyper-arid environment, and explain the degree to which cultural and natural factors contributed to agricultural decline and rebirth among the coastal Osmore springs.