Proyecto Arqueológico Cochasquí-Mojanda


Location: Cochasqui, Pichincha, Ecuador

Season: 
July 15, 2019 to August 18, 2019

Deadline Type: 
Contact for details

Website: 
https://ifrglobal.org/program/ecuador-cochasqui-mojanda/

Flyer: PDF icon syllabus-ecuador-cochasqui-2019.pdf

Program Type

Field school

RPA certified

no

Affiliation:

Institute for Field Research, Connecticut College

Project Director:

Dr. David O. Brown, Ryan Hechler, William S. Pratt, Estanislao Pazmiño

Project Description

Parque Arqueológico Cochasquí lies in the northern Ecuadorian highlands at an elevation of approximately 3,000 meters on the southern slope of the extinct Mojanda volcano. The site commands an impressive view of the Interandean Valley and some of its most majestic volcanoes. Cochasquí (ca. 950-1550 A.D.) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Ecuador. The people of Cochasquí built some of the largest pyramids in the Andes and famously resisted the Inka conquest for some years, yet surprisingly little is known about the site or its occupants. Nonetheless, the site occupies a revered status in the national narrative. Even today, Cochasquí serves as a symbol of Ecuadorian national legitimacy and power with newly elected officials symbolically granted the mantle of their office in a ceremony conducted atop one of the pyramids. But what changes led to development of a site like Cochasquí? Who were it occupants, how did they live, and how was their society structured? And what ultimately led to the site’s abandonment and disuse?

Since 2016, Proyecto Arqueológico Cochasquí-Mojanda (PACM) has conducted some of the most technologically advanced fieldwork in South America to contextualize the site within the broader region by examining both the monumental center of Cochasquí and the broader zone along the slopes of Mojanda. Students at PACM will learn the basics of archaeological excavation, archaeological theory, geoarchaeology, historical and ethnohistorical research, data collection, and analysis, as well as how to utilize drone and remote sensing data to better understand archaeological sites.

Period(s) of Occupation: Cara/Inka, (950-1550 AD)

Project size: 
1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Five weeks

Minimum age: 
18

Experience required: 
None

Room and Board Arrangements

Cost of room, board, and project related in-country travel are included in student tuition. Students will stay in relatively comfortable field accommodations in 3-persons per-room onsite cabins with Wi-Fi, bathrooms, hot showers, and laundry facilities. Nighttime temperatures can be near freezing around the cabins, which are not heated, so students are encouraged to bring a sleeping bag in addition to the blankets that will be provided. Breakfasts will generally be informal, and lunches will consist of sandwiches and field food prepared by students themselves from foods provided, while dinners will be eaten as a group in the small site cafeteria, prepared by local cooks. Local foods are very heavily potato and rice based but can be accompanied by a variety of fruits, vegetables, and proteins. Some accommodations can be made for vegans, vegetarians, and students with allergies or special dietary restrictions, but other specific dietary restrictions such as kosher or halal meals may not be feasible.

Cost: 
The cost of meals, rooms, and project related in-country travel are included in the price of student tuition.

Academic Credit

Name of institution offering credit: 
Connecticut College
Number of credits offered 8 Credit Hours
Tuition: 
$4,650

Location

Contact Information
Institute for Field Research
2999 Overland Ave. Suite 103
Los Angeles
California
United States
90064
info@ifrglobal.org
Telephone: 
4242091173
Recommended Bibliography: 

Athens, J. Stephen 1992 Ethnicity and Adaptation: The Late Period-Cara Occupation in Northern Highland Ecuador. In Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction. Edward Schortman and Patricia Urban, eds. Pp. 193-219. New York: Plenum Press.

Black, Stephen L., and Kevin Jolly 2003 Archaeology by Design. Archaeologist’s toolkit, Vol. 1. AltaMira Press.

Bray, Tamara 2005 Multi-Ethnic Settlement and Interregional Exchange in Pimampiro, Ecuador. Journal of Field Archaeology 30(2):119-141.

Bray, Tamara 2008 Late Pre-Hispanic Chiefdoms of Highland Ecuador. In Handbook of South American Archaeology. H. Silverman and H. Isbell, eds. Pp 527-543, Vol 3. Springer, New York.

Bray, Tamara L., and José H. Echeverría Almeida 2014 The Late Imperial Site of Inca-Caranqui, Northern Highland Ecuador: At the End of Empire. Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology 34(2):177-199.

Carneiro, Robert L. 1998 What Happened at the Flashpoint?: Conjectures on Chiefdom Formation at the Very Moment of Conception. In Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. Elsa M. Redmond, ed. Pp. 18-42. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Davis, Jera R., Chester P. Walker, and John H. Blitz 2015 Remote Sensing as Community Settlement Analysis at Moundville. American Antiquity 80(1):161-169.

DeBoer, Warren R. 1995 Returning to Pueblo Viejo: History and Archaeology of the Chachi (Ecuador). In Archaeology in the Lowland American Tropics: Current Analytical Methods and Recent Applications. Peter W. Stahl, ed. Pp. 240-259. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Doyon, Leon G. 2002 Conduits of Ancestry: Interpretation of the Geography, Geology, and Seasonality of North Andean Shaft Tombs. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 11(1):79-95.

Duncan, Ronald J. 1992 Precolumbian Art and Design in Nariño Ceramics. In Arte de la Tierra: Nariño. María Victoria Uribe Alarcón and Ronald J. Duncan, eds. Pp. 27-31, 20-21. Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura, Banco Popular.

Hester, Thomas R., Harry J. Shafer, and Kenneth L. Feder 2009 Field Methods in Archaeology. 7th ed. London and New York: Taylor & Francis.

Lippi, Ronald D. 2003 Some Clues to the Prehispanic Expansion of Barbacoan Populations in Northwestern Ecuador. Paper presented at the symposium “Breaking Down Boundaries in the Intermediate Area: Toward a New Macro-Chibchan Synthesis,” Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee, WI.

Nesbitt, Jason 2018 Wealth in People: An Alternative Perspective on Initial Period Monumental Architecture from the Caballo Muerto Complex. In New Perspective on Early Andean Civilization: Interaction, Authority, and Socioeconomic Organization during the 2nd and 1st Millennia B.C. Richard L. Burger, Yuji Seki, and Lucy C. Salazar, eds. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology.

Oberem, Udo 1974 Trade and Trade Goods in the Ecuadorian Montaña. In Native South Americans: Ethnology of the Least Known Continent. Patricia J. Lyon, ed. Pp. 346-357. Boston: Little, Brown.

Oberem, Udo 1981a Algunas características arquitectónicas de las pirámides de Cochasquí. En Cochasquí: Estudios Arqueológicos. Udo Oberem, ed. Pp. 59-69, Vol. 1. Otavalo: Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología.

Oberem, Udo 1981b Los montículos funerarios con pozo. En Cochasquí: Estudios Arqueológicos. Udo Oberem, ed. Pp. 125-142, Vol. 1. Otavalo: Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología.

Pauketat, Timothy R. 2007 Chapter 1: Principles and Principals. In Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions. Pp. 7-30. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.

Rapp, George and Christopher L. Hill 2006 Geoarchaeology. 2nd ed. Yale University Press: New Haven and London.

Rowe, John Howland 2011 Ecuador under the Inca Empire: The Incas in Quito. In Costume and History in Highland Ecuador. Ann Pollard Rowe, ed. Pp. 70-84, 318-320. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Salomon, Frank 1987 A North Andean Status Trader Complex under Inka Rule. Ethnohistory 34(1):63-77.

Trigger, Bruce G. 1990 Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behaviour. World Archaeology 22(2):119-132.

Trigger, Bruce G. 2006 Chapter 9: Pragmatic Synthesis. In A History of Archaeological Thought. Pp. 484-528. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 10: The Relevance of Archaeology. In A History of Archaeological Thought. Pp. 529-548. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Uhle, Max 1939 Las Ruinas de Cochasquí. Boletín de la Academia de Historia 18(54):5-14.

Uhle, Max 1954 The Aims and Results of Archaeology. In Max Uhle, 1856-1944: A Memoir of the Father of Peruvian Archaeology. John H. Rowe, ed. & trans. Pp. 54-100. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Original from 1923]

Uribe Alarcón, María Victoria 1992 The Archaeology of the Nariño Altiplano. In Arte de la Tierra: Nariño. María Victoria Uribe Alarcón and Ronald J. Duncan, eds. David M. Stemper, trans. Pp. 24-26, 20-21. Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura, Banco Popular.

Villamarín, Juan A., and Judith E. Villamarín 1999 Chiefdoms: The Prevalence and Persistence of “Señoríos Naturales” 1400 to European Conquest. In The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz, eds. Pp. 577-667, Vol. 3: South America, Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.