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New
World Archaeology, Development of Sociopolitical Complexity, Political
Interaction, GIS & Remote Sensing, Landscape Ecology, Regional
Analysis; South America (Andes)
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Current Research
- Past Research - Selected Publications
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| Personal
Statement |
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I am an anthropological
archaeologist who works on the earliest expansionist states of South
America. My scholarly interests are focused on the development of
ideological systems associated with early “global”
polities. I am very interested in understanding the material
basis for the interaction between different component groups in first
generation heterogeneous expansive states, and the nature of the
relationships between peer polities at this political scale.
My research has focused on one of the few cases where we can
archaeologically document extensive long term direct contact between
two such polities: Wari and Tiwanaku. I am currently undertaking
research at the only known site of such direct interaction. I
also work with colleagues in other regions under the domination of the
same cultures in order to obtain a comparative perspective on this
relationship.
Finally, I invoke geochemical and geophysical science to create
extensive data sets that test models of political expansion and
multiethnic interaction.
I work with several graduate students in all my research projects and
strive to create independent research opportunities that involve a
stimulating intellectual atmosphere of collegial exchange within our
research team.
See our Andean
Anthropology web page for other UIC and Field Museum
archaeologists working in the Andes. |
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| Current
Research |
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The Cerro Baul Archaeological Expedition
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Since 1997, I have directed research at the Wari colonial outpost of
Cerro Baul. Around A.D. 600, two expansionist states, the Wari and
the Tiwanaku, expanded from their heartlands and became the most
extensive Pre-Inca polities in the Andes. At only one place has direct
co-habitation been documented: the settlement system around Cerro Baul
in the Moquegua Valley of Southern Peru. Our research is focused
on assessing the nature of interaction between these ancient
superpowers and reviewing the role that multiethnic politics plays in
the development of global states.
I am conducting excavations supported by NSF and more recently NEH to
test these issues. Concurrent work with colleagues at Tiwanaku (see
below) and in Wari controlled areas to the north of Cerro Baul extend
this scope even further.
Please see the Field Museum's Proyecto Arqueologico Cerro Baul / Cerro Baul Expedition website for further information. |
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| Past
Research |
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For my Ph.D dissertation work (1995) I examined the impact of ancient
natural disasters on the long-term dynamics of agricultural and social
developments in the Andean highlands. This project featured landscape
survey, mapping and excavation of hydraulic structures, satellite
imaging, and GIS modeling of an entire river valley system to address
the interaction of social and environmental elements on the long term
sustainability of agrarian politico-economic systems in the Andes. A
substantially-revised book based on this and more current research is
in preparation. |
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Another
related area of research is the geochemical analysis of archaeological
remains to establish data on the political economy of ancient
expansionist states. I am the Principal Investigator on a major NSF
instrumentation grant to establish a new multi-million dollar Elemental
Analysis Facility at The Field Museum. The facility will house a
quadropole ICP-MS for rapid characterization of many elements on the
periodic table to parts per billion accuracy and a large chambered
Scanning Electron Microscope with EDS. I will be teaching classes
at UIC in these methods and collaborate with my UIC & Field Museum
colleagues to train students in these technologies.
Please see the Field Museum's Elemental Analysis Lab website for more details.
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My third major methodological focus related to research on the
development of complex social systems focuses on the nature of Andean
urbanism. In addition to the GIS modeling and satellite remote sensing
that characterizes my study of landscape evolution, I am also
co-directing research on the composition of urban structure at Tiwanaku
and collaborating on research at Khonko Wankane in the Bolivian
altiplano. My expertise in this area applies ground based
geophysical methods (GPR, Magnetometry, resisitivity) to mapping out
the buried structure of the city. This work is being supported in
part by the Brennan Foundation.
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| Selected
Publications |
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2003 (With Donna J. Nash) Clash of the Andean Titans: Wari and Tiwanaku at Cerro Baul. In the Field, Summer: 16-17.
2003 Hydraulic Landscapes and Social Conflict in Middle Horizon Peru. In The
Reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes Through Digital
Technologies: Proceedings of the 1st Italy-United States Workshop,
Maurizio Forte and P. Ryan Williams, eds. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2002 A Re-examination of Disaster-Induced Collpase in the Case
of the Andean Highland States: Wari and Tiwanaku World Archaeology.
33(3):361-374
2002 (With Johny Isla C.) Excavaciones Arqueológicas
en el Centro Administrativo Wari de Cerro Baúl. Gaceta
Arqueológica Andina, 26: 87-120.
2002 (With Donna Nash) Imperial Interaction in the Andes: Wari and Tiwanaku at Cerro Baúl. In Andean Archaeology, William H. Isbell and Helaine Silverman, eds. New York: Plenum.
2001 Cerro Baúl: A Wari Center on the Tiwanaku Frontier. Latin American Antiquity, 12(1):67-83.
2001 (With Johny Isla C. and Donna Nash) Cerro Baúl: un
Enclave Wari en Interacción con Tiwanaku. Boletin de Arqueologia
PUCP, 5: 69-88.
2000 (With Michael Moseley and Donna Nash) Empires of the Andes:
A Majestic Frontier Outpost Chose Cooperation Over War. Scientific
American: Discovering Archaeology, March/April: 68-73.
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