08.12.2020

Central Andean archaeology in the light of recent perspectives from linguistics and molecular anthropology

Colloquium by Dr. Matthias Urban

Title:

Central Andean archaeology in the light of recent perspectives from linguistics and molecular anthropology.

Joint work with former fellow Dr. Chiara Barbieri.

Speaker:

Dr. Matthias Urban, who’s Emmy Noether Group „The Language Dynamics of the ancient Central Andes“ is associated with the Center.

Time:

Tuesday, 8th December 2020, 1pm sharp

Zoom-Link:
Thema: Words Bones Genes Tools Colloquium
Uhrzeit: 8.Dez.2020 01:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien

Zoom-Meeting beitreten
https://zoom.us/j/97723721384?pwd=bDNoTXZvZEFOQlMwOTh5SGtjdzdqUT09

Meeting-ID: 977 2372 1384
Kenncode: 154392

Abstract: 

Reporting on joint work with Dr. Chiara Barbieri, in this talk, I present an overview of recent activities in historical linguistics and molecular anthropology. Both suggest that the ancient Central Andes, a region of the world with a deep and rich cultural prehistory involving complex state-level societies, had an internal north-south structure in linguistic and demographic structure. I contextualize these findings with the cultural trajectory as evidenced in the archaeological record, which suggest two largely independent hotspots of cultural development, a coastal, maritimely adapted one on Peru’s North Coast, and a highland-based agropastoralist core in the southern highlands of Peru and the Titicaca basin. I discuss how simulations of the emergence of the molecular evidence suggest that the emergence of differentiated genetic profiles appears to predate the emergence of cultural complexity, creating distinct demographic substrates on which it began to flourish in north and south.