Collaborative Research: Political Integration of the Formative Period Rio Viejo State, Oaxaca, Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Barber博士和Joyce博士将在墨西哥瓦哈卡太平洋沿岸的Río Verde山谷下游进行为期两年的跨学科考古研究。 该研究小组包括美国，墨西哥和美洲原住民学者专门从事考古学，地质学和体质人类学，他们将共同研究早期国家形成和在里奥维耶霍遗址崩溃的过程。 公元前400年至公元250年，在瓦哈卡的高地和低地发展起来的十几个相互作用的新生国家中，里奥别霍州是其中之一。 然而，尽管这些早期国家同时代且邻近，但它们在地理范围、寿命、城市化规模和长期历史轨迹方面存在显著差异。 里奥别霍是这些州中最大的州之一，无论是在政治中心还是地理区域，但也是最短命的州之一，仅在150年后就崩溃了。 它也是已知的仅有的两个在瓦哈卡沿海低地发展的早期国家之一。 该项目的目标是确定里奥别霍州的统治形式和政治一体化程度，以此解释为什么一些早期国家能生存下来，而另一些却不能。该项目将在数据和理论方面做出宝贵的智力贡献。 该项目产生的数据将为索科努斯科以西的中美洲太平洋沿岸的早期国家提供第一个强有力的政治组织描述，并将为中美洲及其他地区关于社会因素如何影响古代国家历史轨迹的更广泛的辩论提供信息。由于它邻近其他重要的新生国家，如瓦哈卡山谷的蒙特阿尔班，里奥别霍州是更广泛的社会变革（如国家形成和崩溃）的组成部分，这些变革一直受到中美洲考古学家和社会科学家的普遍关注。由于研究的重点是统治者和政治一体化，数据需要从位于其宏伟的中央卫城的里奥别霍的行政中心。 该项目将极大地扩展对雅典卫城用途的认识：1）确定与治理有关的设施，如宫殿或会议霍尔斯; 2）确定是否存在对生产，再分配和市场交换等经济活动的政治监督; 3）确定普通民众参与政府赞助的仪式的程度;（4）量化政府设施建设所需的劳动力。 实地考察将包括考古发掘和探地雷达。更广泛的影响包括产生新的数据，将扩大对早期国家的认识。 综上所述，瓦哈卡的早期国家宏观区域数据集将提供无与伦比的洞察力，在不同的环境中不同的政治轨迹不同的环境同质的南部玛雅低地或美索不达米亚。 该项目将通过在三所美国和两所墨西哥大学培训研究生和本科生来开发美国和墨西哥的科学资源，同时在美国和墨西哥学者之间建立新的国际合作。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Barber and Joyce will direct two years of interdisciplinary archaeological research in the lower Río Verde Valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. The research team includes U.S., Mexican, and Native American scholars specializing in archaeology, geology, and physical anthropology who together will examine the processes of early state formation and collapse at the site of Río Viejo. The Río Viejo state was one of more than a dozen interacting nascent states that developed in the highlands and lowlands of Oaxaca between 400 B.C. and A.D. 250. Despite their contemporaneity and proximity, however, these early states varied significantly in terms of geographic extent, longevity, scale of urbanism, and their long-term historical trajectories. Río Viejo was one of the largest of these states based on both population at the political center and geographic area but was also one of the shortest-lived, collapsing after only 150 years. It was also one of only two known early states to develop in Oaxaca's coastal lowlands. The goal of the project is to determine the form of rulership and the degree of political integration for the Río Viejo state as means of explaining why some early states endured and others did not.The project will make valuable intellectual contributions in terms of both data and theory. The data generated by this project will provide the first robust description of political organization for an early state on Mesoamerica's Pacific coast west of the Soconusco and will inform broader debates in Mesoamerica and beyond on how social factors influenced the historical trajectories of ancient states. With its proximity to other important nascent states, such as Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca, the Río Viejo state was integral to broader social changes like state formation and collapse that are of ongoing interest to Mesoamerican archaeologists and social scientists more generally. Because the research focuses on rulers and political integration, data are required from the Río Viejo's administrative center located on its monumental central acropolis. The project will greatly expand knowledge of the uses to which the acropolis was put by: 1) identifying facilities associated with governance such as palaces or assembly halls; 2) determining whether there was political oversight of economic actions like production, redistribution, and market exchange; 3) determining the degree to which the general population was involved in government-sponsored rituals; and 4) quantifying the amount of labor needed to construct government facilities. Fieldwork will include archaeological excavation and ground penetrating radar.Broader impacts include the generation of new data that will expand knowledge of early states. Taken together, Oaxaca's macro-regional dataset of early states will offer unparalleled insight into divergent political trajectories in a heterogeneous environment unlike that of the more environmentally homogenous southern Maya lowlands or Mesopotamia. The project will develop scientific resources in United States and Mexico by training graduate and undergraduate students at three U.S. and two Mexican universities while creating new international collaborations between U.S. and Mexican scholars.