Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Transportation in Complex Society Organization

Field Museum Of Natural History, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Field Museum Professor Ryan Williams, David A. Reid, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, along with colleagues in Peru, will investigate the role of road infrastructure in the political economy of expansionary states and its impact on borderland communities. This project focuses on the relationship between imperial expansion and consolidation and the networks of long-distance communication, travel, and commerce, of which road and waystation infrastructure were the direct conduits. As mobility routes are consistently reused over time, the discipline of archaeology is well positioned to understand how changes in infrastructure relate to broader socio-economic and political shifts on long time-scales. In what ways do expansionary states rely on local knowledge to coopt and develop networks of infrastructure? How does greater economic connectivity between a state center and borderland societies contribute to changes in ideology and social identity? As modern networks of travel and communication become increasingly accelerated and connected, the researchers will investigate the deep roots of interregional connectivity and the role of infrastructure in the processes of state-building. This project contributes to the professional training of undergraduate and graduate students from both the United States and Peru. Results of this research will be shared through articles published in both Spanish and English, conference papers, and through community outreach activities. Reid and his research team will examine how roads, including sites that served as rest stops and places of exchange, were implemented by both outside state agents and local communities. This research will be conducted in the Majes Valley of Arequipa, a key corridor of travel between the Andean highlands and Peru's southern coastal valleys. This region was an important borderland of Peru's first empire: the Wari whose material culture and customs spread across much of Peru during the Middle Horizon (ca. AD 600-1000). The researchers will analyze archaeological materials recovered from excavations of four caravan waystation sites that indicate both a local and Wari foundation for this road network. A diverse set of materials and methods will be employed, including material provenance analyses to understand the movement of trade goods such as ceramics and obsidian, botanical analysis to reconstruct past foodways, and C14 dating to understand the chronology and development of the waystation system. The presence of ritual spaces, including a Wari temple, at the road waystation sites also inform us on the role of religion and ritual in processes of state expansion. Consequently, this project examines how road infrastructure and associated sites facilitate processes of economic exchange, ritual practice, and socio-political integration of local communities into projects of the state. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.