主要研究 今天

When he was a graduate student at the University of Wyoming, 主要研究 postdoctoral researcher 亚历克斯Garcia-Putnam worked in the Peruvian Andes excavating a circular plaza at a site known as Callacpuma. That site turned out to be the earliest known megalithic circular plaza in the northern Andes and one of the earliest instances of such architecture in the Americas, 根据杂志上最近的一篇文章 科学的进步.

Radiocarbon dating places the initial construction of the plaza around 4,750年前, about 100 years before the Great Pyramids of Egypt and around the same time as Stonehenge. 加西亚-帕特南和其他研究人员知道这个广场, 直径约为18米, 在2018年挖掘开始之前就存在了, 但“我们不知道它会这么老,他说. “这是一个非常重要的地点.”

Garcia-Putnam is a co-author of the 科学的进步 article that details their findings. “It was probably a gathering place and ceremonial location for some of the earliest people living in this part of the Cajamarca valley,第一作者说。 杰森图希怀俄明大学人类学副教授.

现在是一名生物考古学家 人类学系 and co-director of the 主要研究 Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery Lab, Garcia-Putnam’s work at Callacpuma included teaching undergraduate students and overseeing portions of the excavation. “这绝对是一项团队运动. We never could have done it without the support of the local community and the work of our students.” 

This work was funded by the University of Wyoming , the Curtiss T. 玛丽·G. 布伦南基金会，乔治C. Frison Institute, the National Science Foundation (#2114574) and the Rust Family Foundation.