Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role Of Frontiers In The Spatial Organization Of Traditional Societies

伊丽莎白·阿库什博士，合作私家侦探。帕特里克·马林斯，将利用国家科学基金会的支持，扩大对边境地区政治权力演变的理解。边界在代表现代和古代国家的空间界限方面具有普遍的重要性，但随着时间的推移，边界会发生很大的变化：从模糊和可渗透到严格控制和分裂。但是，随着时间的推移，边界上的政治权力会如何演变？哪些因素可能导致不同的结果？通过防御建筑关注边境冲突，本研究有助于理解沿政治边界的防御工事和边界墙的长期后果。此外，景观视角强调了某些自然（如矿藏、水源、农田）和人为（如运河、贸易路线、人口中心）特征的重要性，这些特征决定了政治权力可能在景观上表达或竞争的地方。通过揭示边境政治介入和冲突的长期原因和后果，该项目与许多现代国家（如美国）在边境维护和军事行动中面临的一些特殊挑战产生了很好的共鸣。该项目的结果和数据将在比较考古数据库中提供，供更广泛的科学界开放使用，并将成为一个更大的区域数字化倡议的关键部分，该倡议被称为莫切谷古定居点数据库。最后，根据一个合作研究项目，该项目将培训秘鲁和美国的学生掌握几种新的考古技术（如空中无人机测绘），同时通过几次研讨会和公开展示调查结果，积极地将当地人与考古研究实践结合起来。通过对秘鲁北部上莫切河谷边境的考古调查，该项目比较了两个连续政治的边界，即南莫切州（公元200-900年）和奇穆帝国（公元900-1470年），以了解政治权力如何在边境景观中演变。尽管奇穆可以说是在低山谷的莫切人的灰烬中崛起的，但南莫切州是一个更早的“第一代”政体，其统治方式远比中央集权和扩张的奇穆更为间接。作为两国的东部边境，上莫切河谷对两国政治都很有吸引力，因为它提供了重要的运河入口和与金属丰富的高地之间的交换走廊。与此同时，该地区大量的史前堡垒和防御位置或有围墙的城镇表明它是一个高度竞争的边境。但是在这个地区，莫切人和奇穆人的边界有什么不同呢？这些州在边境的参与是如何随着时间的推移而演变的？该项目将通过强调以下因素的相互作用来解决这些问题：(1)国家本身的品质，(2)边境冲突的强度和组织，以及(3)自然和人为景观特征的使用。项目方法将传统的全覆盖调查和受控地面收集与先进的航空图像和通过四旋翼无人机测绘获得的3d站点模型相结合。将这些数据结合成一个地理数据库，将用于重建区域定居、政治边界和防御网络，以了解上莫切边界的演变。

Dr. Elizabeth Arkush, Co-P.I. Patrick Mullins, will use National Science Foundation support to expand understandings of the evolution of political power in frontier zones. Frontiers are universally important in representing the spatial limits of modern and ancient states but can change considerably over time: from ambiguous and permeable to rigidly controlled and divisive. But how may political power on frontiers evolve over time and what factors may lead to different outcomes? Focusing on frontier conflict through defensive architecture, this study contributes to understandings of the long-term consequences of fortifications and border walls along political frontiers. Additionally, a landscape perspective highlights the importance of certain natural (i.e. mineral deposits, water sources, farmland) and human-made (i.e. canals, trade routes, population centers) features in determining where political power may be expressed or contested on the landscape. By shedding light on long-term causes and consequences of frontier political involvement and conflict, this project resonates well with some particular challenges faced by many modern states, like the US, in border maintenance and military action. The results and data from this project will be available in the Comparative Archaeological Database for open-access use by the broader scientific community and will be a key part of a larger regional digitization initiative called the Moche Valley Ancient Settlement Database. Finally, following a collaborative research program, this project will train Peruvian and American students in several new archaeological techniques (i.e. aerial drone mapping) while actively integrating local people with the practice of archaeological research during several workshops and public presentations of the survey results.Through archaeological survey of the Upper Moche Valley frontier in northern Peru, this project compares the frontiers of two sequential polities, the Southern Moche State (AD 200-900) and the Chimu Empire (AD 900-1470), in order to understand how political power may evolve in frontier landscapes. Although the Chimu arguably rose from the ashes of the Moche in the lower valley, the Southern Moche State was an earlier "first-generation" polity with far more indirect methods of rule than the centralized and expansive Chimu. As their eastern frontier, the Upper Moche Valley was attractive to both polities, crucially providing canal intakes and an exchange corridor with the metal-rich highlands. Meanwhile, a plethora of prehistoric forts and defensively located or walled towns in the region point towards it being a highly contested frontier. But how did the Moche and Chimu frontiers differ in this region? And how did the involvement of these states in the frontier evolve over time? This project will address these questions by highlighting the interacting roles of (1) the qualities of a state itself, (2) the intensity and organization of frontier conflict, and (3) the use of natural and human-made landscape features. Project methodology integrates traditional full-coverage survey and controlled surface collection with cutting-edge aerial imagery and 3-D site models attained through quad-copter drone mapping. Combined into a geographic database these data will be used to reconstruct regional settlement, political boundaries, and defensive networks to understand the evolution of the Upper Moche frontier.