Collaborative Research: Residential Variability as an Indicator of Social Complexity in the Late Archaic (3000 to 1800 B.C.) in the Fortaleza Valley, Peru

在美国国家科学基金会的赞助下，Winifred Creamer，Alvaro Ruiz和Jonathan哈斯组成的国际团队正在调查南美洲复杂社会进化的初始阶段。 在美洲任何地方出现的最早文明之一的早期发展阶段，可以在秘鲁太平洋海岸的一小簇山谷中找到，称为北奇科。以前的NSF支持的工作有助于确认在北奇科30多个主要的礼仪中心的存在，所有被占用之间3100和1800 BC该项目的智力价值将是测试当前的理论关于经济组织的作用在复杂的社会的起源通过集中在北奇科这个古老的职业的两个方面：饮食和社会地位。 关于秘鲁海岸复杂的中央集权社会的起源，一个主要问题是海洋资源（鱼类和贝类）与驯化植物（玉米、豆类、南瓜和水果）在公元前3千年的饮食中的相对重要性。为了恢复过去饮食的遗迹，将在北奇科的两个地点的家庭住房中进行挖掘。 在这个沙漠景观垃圾保存完好，这些古老的房屋将产生广泛的材料，可以分析重建饮食。 这些包括植物和动物的遗骸，以及不太明显的证据，如花粉，植硅石（矿化植物遗骸），淀粉粒和粪化石（粪便）。 这些遗迹将为重建人们的饮食结构、揭示驯化植物和海洋资源的相对重要性提供科学基础。该项目的第二个重点是了解这些中心的社会组织性质。 两个目标地点的表面迹象表明，可能存在三种不同的社会阶层：一个精英群体，有正式的建筑群，大房间是用精心砌成和涂上灰泥的石墙建造的;一个中等阶层的房屋，有用石头、泥土和藤条建造的较小房间;一个较低阶层的临时房间是用藤条席子建造的。 将在每个地点挖掘每种类型住房的样本，并分析建筑和人工制品的结果，以审查三种类型住房之间活动和消费的可能差异。 通过这项工作，将回答一系列广泛的问题：不同类型的工具是否与一种类型的房屋有关，而不是与其他类型的房屋有关？ 有些家庭吃得更好还是吃不同的食物？ 有些人全年都住在这些地方，而有些人是季节性的吗？ 在北奇科的研究有一个更广泛的影响超出了该地区的历史。 最终目标是提供洞察人类社会如何以及为什么会出现社会分层和政治集中。 这些发掘将直接研究农业生产和海洋开发在新兴复杂经济中的各自作用，并展示社会如何通过不同的领导者和追随者群体进行社会排名。

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the international team of Winifred Creamer, Alvaro Ruiz and Jonathan Haas are investigating the beginning stages in the evolution of complex societies in South America. Early stages of development of one of the first civilizations to arise anywhere in the Americas, is to be found in a small cluster of valleys on the Pacific coast of Peru, known at the Norte Chico. Previous NSF-supported work helped to confirm the presence of more than 30 major ceremonial centers in the Norte Chico, all occupied between 3100 and 1800 B.C.The intellectual merit of the project will be to test current theories about the role of economic organization in the origins of complex societies by focusing on two aspects of this ancient occupation in the Norte Chico: diet and social status. One of the major questions concerning the beginnings of complex, centralized society on the coast of Peru is the relative importance of marine resources (fish and shellfish) vs. domesticated plants (corn, beans, squash and fruits) in the diet of the 3rd millennium B.C. To recover the remains of past diet, excavations will be made in domestic housing at two sites in the Norte Chico. In this desert landscape refuse is well-preserved and these ancient houses will yield a wide range of materials that can be analyzed to reconstruct diet. These include remains of plants and animals, as well as less obvious evidence such as pollen, phytoliths (mineralized plant remains), starch grains, and coprolites (feces). Together these remains will provide a scientific foundation for reconstructing the diet of the people and revealing the relative importance of domesticated plants and marine resources.The second focus of the project will be to gain knowledge about the nature of social organization in these centers. Surface indications at the two target sites point to the possible presence of three different social ranks: an elite group with formal complexes of large rooms constructed of carefully masoned and plastered stone walls; a middle rank of houses with smaller rooms constructed of stone, mud and cane; and a lower rank of temporary rooms constructed of cane matting. A sample of each type of housing will be excavated at each site and the architectural and artifactual results will be analyzed to examine possible differences in activities and consumption between the three types of housing. A broad range of questions will be answered through this work: Are different kinds of tools associated with one type of house and not the others? Do some families eat better or eat distinct foods? Do some people live at the sites year-round while others come in seasonally? The research in the Norte Chico has a broader impact extending beyond the history of the region. The ultimate goal is to provide insight into how and why human societies came to be socially stratified and politically centralized. The excavations will directly examine the respective roles of agricultural production and marine exploitation in an emerging complex economy and show how societies come to be socially ranked with distinct groups of leaders and followers.