Economy, Monumentalism, and Paleoecology at Huaca Prieta, Peru

由考古学领域领导、范德比尔特大学汤姆·D·迪勒海博士和一个由秘鲁考古学家和古生态学家组成的团队领导的跨学科研究将研究秘鲁北部海岸沙漠中人类与环境的长期互动。研究小组由考古学家、地质学家、遗传学家、植物学家、动物学家和其他科学家组成，他们将在全新世中期(约7,000-4,000年前)的Huaca Prieta遗址研究海洋/内陆猎人和采集者以及园艺家混合的社会经济和环境系统的长期动态。该遗址不仅包含保存完好的考古和古生态记录，为了解古代猎人/采集者/农民的各种早期社会和生态互动提供了洞察，还提供了早期安第斯文明的开端。这一早期沿海遗址的人们如何适应剧烈的环境变化(即干旱、厄尔尼诺洪水、地震、海啸)，以及哪些因素导致社会和经济复杂性增加，以及海洋/内陆觅食和园艺经济相辅相成，是具体研究的主题。对这些问题的更好理解将提供与世界其他地区在其他时期类似和不同的人与环境相互作用的比较。拟议的研究将记录全新世中期人类人口的狩猎采集和早期农民的生存、社会组织、土堆建设和技术。正是在这一时期，人们认为，对各种环境资源带(太平洋沿岸、沙漠平原、安第斯山脉山脚)的逐渐适应引发了一些事件，这些事件产生了早期的社会和经济特征，为后来的安第斯文明奠定了一些基础。关键的研究问题包括：密集的景观是如何由诸如时间和空间气候变化等关键因素塑造的？海洋/陆地生态系统的强化利用对自然资源产生了什么样的累积影响？在这种情况下，海洋和陆地强化与人类人口统计学如何相互作用和影响？长期的海洋和陆地粮食生产与社会行为系统，特别是殡葬习俗和纪念性景观的建设有何关系？最后，我们如何评估这一特定社会生态系统随着时间的推移的潜在可持续性？这些问题不仅具有广泛的人类学意义，也是经济史、人类生态史和农业史上长期争论的中心，也是我们今天对人类与环境相互作用的理解的核心。出版物将以英语和西班牙语编写并提交给学术期刊，但其他信息将以电子形式提供。该网站的双语数据库将链接到范德比尔特大学的网站。计划对秘鲁(特鲁希略国立大学和天主教大学)和其他学生进行培训，并计划与附近的马格达莱纳德曹镇开展社区外联方案，以帮助发展生态旅游和考古旅游。

Interdisciplinary research, headed by the field of archeology and directed by Dr. Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University and a team of Peruvian archeologists and paleo-ecologists, will study the long-term interaction of humans and environments on the desert north coast of Peru. The research team is comprised of archeologists, geologists, geneticists, botanists, zoologists, and other scientists who will study the long-term dynamics of the socio-economic and environmental systems of mixed maritime/inland hunters and gatherers and horticulturalists at the middle Holocene (ca. 7,000-4,000 years ago) site of Huaca Prieta. This site not only contains a well-preserved archeological and paleo-ecological record that offers insights into varied early social and ecological interactions of ancient hunters/gatherers/farmers but also into the beginnings of early Andean civilization. How people at this early coastal site adapted to drastic environmental changes (i.e., droughts, El Nino floods, earthquakes, tsunamis), and what factors led to increased social and economic complexity and to a complementary maritime/inland foraging and horticultural economy are the specific subjects of study. A better understanding of these issues will afford comparison with similar and dissimilar human and environmental interactions in other areas of the world during other time periods.The proposed study will document hunter-gatherer and early farmer subsistence, social organization, mound-building, and technology of a human population during the middle Holocene period. It is during this period that gradual adaptation to varied environmental resource zones (Pacific littoral, desert plains, foothills of the Andes) are believed to have set in motion events that gave rise to early social and economic features, which laid some foundations for later Andean civilizations. Among the key research questions are the following: How are intensive landscapes shaped by such key factors as temporal and spatial climate variation? What kinds of cumulative impacts to natural resources arise from the intensified use of the maritime/terrestrial ecosystems? How do maritime and terrestrial intensification and human demography interact and influence each other in this context? How does long-term maritime and terrestrial food production relate to social systems of behavior, especially mortuary practices and the construction of a monumental landscape? Finally, how can we assess the potential sustainability of this particular socio-ecosystem over time? These questions are not only of widespread anthropological interest; they also lie at the center of long-standing debates in economic, human ecological, and agricultural histories and in our understanding of human and environmental interactions today.The proposed research has broader impacts as well. Publications will be prepared and submitted to academic journals in English and Spanish, but additional information will be presented in electronic form. A bilingual database for the site will be linked to Vanderbilt University's web site. The training of Peruvian (Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and Pontificia Universidad Católica Perú) and other students and a community outreach program with the nearby town of Magdalena de Cao is planned to help develop ecotourism and archeological tourism.