The Fellow's project, entitled "New Insights into Warfare: Developing Methods in Geographic Information Systems and Applying them to a Regional Archaeological Analysis of Central Andean Fortifications", will examine the construction and use of fortifications in prehispanic Perú in a 15,000 km2 region of the coast, a study that builds off of her prior dissertation research. Warfare changes society, and is a spatial phenomenon that generally occurs at regional scales. The spatial patterning of fortifications informs archaeologists on where people are threatened by war or where warfare occurred, but has until recently been difficult to assess regionally. This research addresses the need for systematic data collection on defensive sites in a large region to better permit assembly of scholarly contributions, and more rigorous comparison. The Fellow?s examination of fortifications on the coast of Perú will address two time periods during which war is rampant: the Early Horizon (ca. 900-200 B.C.) during which a pan-Andean cult ideology is widely adopted, and the Late Intermediate Period (ca. A.D. 1000-1476) during which the Chimú Empire expands southward. During the fellowship tenure the Fellow will establish a database of information on fortifications, and develop new methods and theories in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to apply to a regional archaeological analysis of warfare.
The Fellow will spend one year in Perú carrying out fieldwork to systematically identify and map all hilltop forts from 11 coastal valleys. She will spend 2 months doing a remote survey of forts by analyzing aerial photographs at the Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional in Lima. This remote survey will prepare her for 10 months of fieldwork during which she will visit each fort to collect data. The Fellow will also date a sample of the fortifications using radiocarbon dating. Using these data she will address the following questions: 1. How many forts are there, where are they, and how big are they? 2. what are the dates of each, how are they constructed, and is there any indication of attack? 3. Where are the water sources (river, lagoon, and ocean)? 4. What are the best routes and travel times between forts, valleys, and the coast and highlands? and 5. What are the changes in patterns of fortification over time? Regional analysis using GIS and spatial statistics will be carried out to rigorously test models of the relationship between human settlement, landscape use, and warfare as a social phenomenon. The Fellow will integrate theoretical knowledge from anthropology, archaeology, and GIS, and technical mastery of computer applications so that GIS tools can be programmed to assess models of human interaction, fort use, and war. The Fellow will by mentored by Dr. David Webster and Dr. George Milner of the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). PSU is a leader in both GIS research and the anthropology of warfare. The Fellow will have access to computing infrastructure and advanced analytical training that will permit new methods to be developed to examine the regional problem outlined. Advanced GIS training will include the construction of geodatabases, knowledge of map algebra, and learning Python and other script languages to develop and automate new analytical processes, and carry out very complex spatial analyses of visibility, movement, and surfaces over a very large region. Based in the Department of Anthropology, the Fellow will be guided in the application and forging of new methodological and theoretical ground in GIS and archaeology. Intellectual Merit: The broad impact of this research will be improved knowledge of indigenous warfare and its variability, and a better understanding of prehispanic Central Andean society and social dynamics. The results will provide new insights into the spatial and social dimensions of warfare. The research will contribute toward cross-cultural investigations of war and society, a topic of heightened anthropological interest in today's world. The research is significant for methodological and theoretical improvement of the use of GIS in archaeology. The Fellow will acquire advanced technical command of GIS. She will gain a high level of expertise to employ advanced and newly developed GIS techniques tailored to archaeological questions, transforming understandings of warfare and methods of regional analysis. Broader Impacts: The fellowship will aid in the Fellow?s long-term research goal of explaining the causes of warfare and understanding its varied social dimensions. The database created will be shared with other investigators to provide a basis for more intensive future investigations by the Fellow and colleagues. Radiocarbon dates will enhance current chronologies for the Central Andes, improving temporal control in the region. Spatial control of the distributions of fortifications and calculated routes will sharpen the ability of archaeologists to further examine individual sites within a broader context. The Fellow?s training will bridge anthropological archaeology and GIS, and provide her the knowledge and skills to enable her to teach this cross-disciplinary approach to the next generations of anthropologists and archaeologists.
Warfare is one of humanity’s greatest threats. Archaeology is uniquely suited to examine warfare as a long-term process, with the potential to elucidate causes and consequences well beyond the immediate timeframe surrounding discrete conflicts. Models of war posit causes related to environmental shortages, population pressure, or changes in group organizational structure. The role of environment, population dynamics, or sociopolitical complexity, however, in understanding the origins and subsequent outbreaks of war cannot be adequately evaluated without suitable datasets of where and when war takes place. The research was designed to quickly collect new data for testing models of why and how warfare occurs, and for understanding the consequences of war for societies from a diachronic perspective. The primary objective was to systematically locate and map all fortifications in a large survey area (25,000 km2) along the central coast of Perú. Fortifications are overt indicators of conflict, and are used as a proxy for measuring the intensity and nature of conflict in any given region. The coastal environment of Perú, coupled with traditions of megalithic defensive architecture, result in a reasonable degree of preservation of this type of site, making this region well-suited to such a study. The most significant finding of this research is the number of fortifications identified in the study area. Using remote imagery (satellite images and air photos), 635 anomalies were identified in 12 coastal valleys, many more than initially anticipated. 158 anomalies in two valleys were fieldchecked, resulting in the documentation of approximately 80 fortified site complexes. A conservative assessment puts the success rate for remotely identifying fortifications at 82%. Based on these results, the number of fortifications for the 12-valley research area could increase fivefold over what is currently known. The sheer number of fortifications identified forces a complete reconsideration of the role of warfare in the study region for the last three millennia. The project holds great intellectual merit by transforming our current understanding of the origins, density and intensity of fortification building, and thus of warfare, through time in one of the world’s centers of early civilization - Perú. The results clearly demonstrate the under recognition of conflict as a major variable in historical developments in the Central Andean region. This case study has more broad implications for the anthropology of warfare and conflict. The project results underscore the importance of regional studies of fortifications for understanding war as a human activity that takes place across vast expanses of territory. The data indicate that conflict is a key variable for understanding the long-term trajectory of human societies. It joins a burgeoning field of regional warfare studies that seek to better explain conflict based on the assembly and querying of very large spatial datasets with a deep temporal component. The methods employed in executing the field component of the research show great promise for quickly remedying incomplete knowledge of human settlement patterns. Prior pedestrian surveys in the region failed to locate most hilltop and mountaintop fortifications. In addition, seemingly marginal areas in extreme terrain that are not typically included in pedestrian surveys yielded fortifications. The results demonstrate that remote survey using satellite imagery and air photos coupled with ground verification is an effective method for identifying fortifications. Analyses based on these new data will dramatically transform archaeological understandings of settlement patterns, the development of complexity, the relationship of war and environmental variables, and the interplay of war with social, political, and economic processes. Preliminary results of the major findings of the project, as well as a treatment of the methods employed, have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Further publications based on the results and analyses of the project will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals to the scientific community. Collaborative ties established and strengthened during this project with Peruvian colleagues and students have contributed to the participation of underrepresented groups in archaeology. The fellow received advanced training in field and laboratory methods, including the use of global positioning systems, photogrammetry, space-borne remote sensing, and spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Dr. Brown Vega has developed a long-term program (Awqa Pacha) to continue the research over the course of the next decade. The datasets produced from the project will be used in future teaching and training of undergraduate and graduate students once the fellow secures a tenure-track teaching/research position. The fellow is committed to recruiting and mentoring women and minority students, and training them in archaeological methods, anthropology, and GIS.
