Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Environmental Dynamics and Cultural Processes at Cajamarquilla, Central Coast of Peru

在岛田泉博士的指导下，拉斐尔·塞古拉将收集和分析秘鲁中部海岸卡哈马奎拉主要前西班牙城市遗址的考古发掘数据。具体而言，该项目将从跨学科的角度调查在大约800年的时间跨度内推断的主要水文干扰在当地和区域文化进程中的作用。先前对安第斯山脉中部的古环境重建表明，在中期（MH，约公元550-1000年）和中期晚期（LIP，约1000-1470年）发生了异常和长期的干旱和洪水。这些现象会迫使人们发展出适当的适应性反应，在某些情况下，还会以不同的方式加速文化变革。因此，有人假设，中部海岸的快速种群核化和/或地点遗弃事件反映了对水文剧变的重要适应。然而，严重的空白仍然破坏了对所提到的自然文化过程的理解。特别是，该区域缺乏可靠的相对和绝对年表；对当地古环境历史和过程的系统研究才刚刚开始。此外，过度关注一种文化-一个时期阻碍了对古环境变化与人类短期和长期反应之间联系的评估。Cajamarquilla为解决这些问题提供了良好的环境，因为它具有经济战略意义，但地理位置危险，并且在MH和LIP上保存相对完好的多元文化，包括相关的运河和推断的水库和储存设施。为了验证在MH和LIP期间严重的环境波动决定了卡哈马奎拉的建立、废弃和重新占领的主要假设，塞古拉先生将进行以下工作：(1)收集放射性碳样本，以通过-à-vis假设的自然现象来完善职业历史；(2)对自然和文化特征的沉积沉积物（包括薄片显微镜分析）和微植物遗迹（花粉粒、淀粉粒和植物岩）进行分析，如附近干涸河道的河岸暴露、废弃的运河和水库以及房屋地板；(3)对选定的水渠、水库和贮坑的结构和功能特征进行评价；(4)废弃和建筑重建事件的表征与-à-vis破坏性洪水或严重缺水的特征。本研究将产生更广泛的影响，超出了所提出的研究课题。首先，它将提高对历史上受洪水和干旱影响地区潜在风险的认识和评估，特别是在全球变暖的背景下。这将与预防措施和城市规划相关，因为现代人生活在遗址周围和世界其他地方的古老河道上。其次，由于该项目注重结合文化和自然数据，因此将促进代表不同学科的专业人士和学生之间的协同国际合作，从而提高他们的技能以及他们自己的学科和跨学科知识和鉴赏力。最后，这项研究将丰富和传播我们对卡哈马奎拉的知识，卡哈马奎拉是中部海岸仅有的两个保存完好的大型城市遗址之一。这将加强对该遗址的未来保护，防止不受控制的现代城市增长。

Under the supervision of Dr. Izumi Shimada, Rafael Segura will collect and analyze data from archaeological excavations at the major pre-Hispanic urban site of Cajamarquilla on the Peruvian central coast. Specifically, the project will investigate the role of inferred major hydrological disturbances during a time span of ca. 800 years in local and regional cultural processes from an interdisciplinary perspective.Previous paleonvironmental reconstructions in the central Andes indicate the occurrence of extraordinary and prolonged droughts and floods during the Middle Horizon (MH, ca. AD 550-1000) and Late Intermediate Period (LIP, ca. 1000-1470). These phenomena would have compelled people to develop appropriate adaptive responses and, in some cases, differentially accelerated cultural change. Thus, it has been hypothesized that rapid population nucleation and/or site abandonment episodes on the central coast would reflect crucial accommodations to hydrologic upheavals. However, serious voids still undermine understanding of the referred natural-cultural processes. Particularly, the region lacks reliable relative and absolute chronologies; systematic studies of local paleoenvironmental history and processes have barely started. In addition, excessive focus on one culture-one period impedes an assessment of links between paleoenvironmental variation and short and long-term human responses. Cajamarquilla provides an excellent setting to address these concerns because of its economically strategic but hazardous location and relatively well preserved multicultural occupation over MH and LIP, including associated canals and inferred reservoirs and storage facilities. To test the primary hypothesis that severe environmental fluctuations conditioned the foundation, abandonment, and reoccupation of Cajamarquilla during the MH and LIP, Mr. Segura will conduct the following: (1) collection of radiocarbon samples to refine occupational history vis-à-vis the postulated natural phenomena; (2) analysis of sedimentary deposits (including thin section microscopy analysis) and microbotanic remains (pollen grains, starch grains and phytoliths) from natural and cultural features, such as bank exposures of a nearby dry water course, abandoned canals and reservoirs, and house floors; (3) assessment of the structural and functional characteristics of selected canals, reservoirs and storage pits; and (4) characterization of abandonment and architectural reconstruction events vis-à-vis signatures of destructive flooding or severe water shortage. This research will have a broader impact beyond the research topics presented. Firstly, it will improve knowledge and appreciation of potential risk in an area historically impacted by floods and droughts, especially in the context of global warming. This will be relevant for preventive measures and urban planning as modern populations live on ancient channels around the site and elsewhere in the world. Second, because of its focus on combined cultural and natural data, the project will foster synergetic international collaboration of professionals and students representing different disciplines that will enhance their skills as well as their own disciplinary and cross-disciplinary knowledge and appreciation. Finally, the research will enrich and disseminate our knowledge of Cajamarquilla, one of the only two still-preserved large urban sites on the central coast. This will enhance future protection of the site against uncontrolled modern urban growth.