Doctoral research student

Hermann Gorbahn (Germany, 1980)

M.A. in Pre- & Protohistory, Ancient History & German Philology.

hgorbahn@gshdl.uni-kiel.de

The Archaic Site of Pernil Alto, Peru, and the Emergence of Sedentism and Agriculture in Peru in Comparison to Similar Processes in the Old World (working title)

The starting point of this PhD project is the archaeological site of Pernil Alto dating from 3800 to 3000 BC. This site is located in the fertile river valley of the Río Grande in the arid desert zone of Southern Peru between the Pacific Coast and the Central Andes. The site dates to the last part of the preceramic Middle Archaic Period (7000 - 3000 BC). During this period sedentary life emerged and the domestication of plants and animals took place in the Central Andes. Based on the innovations of the period, complex societies with sites of first monumental architecture developed. While the most known sites of the Middle Archaic Period are either stations of still mobile groups in the highlands with first plant and animal cultivation or permanent settlements on the coast, whose subsistence was based on marine resources, Pernil Alto is located between these two main regions 60 km from the coast and 50 km from the Central Andes. This site offers excellent possibilities to analyse the emergence of a productive subsistence and settled life, as it consists of the remains of 16 tent-like huts, 34 burials, and numerous features and artefacts.

The analyses and interpretation of structures, economy, long-distance-relations, mobility and social structures will form the main part of this project. Research is carried out with archaeological methods such as excavations, surveys, artefact-analysis, and intra-site-analysis. Furthermore, these methods will be supported with results of isotope-analysis, radiocarbon-dating, anthropological and aDNA-analysis, the analysis of botanical macroremains and pollen as well as the results of paleoclimate research. This analysis will be carried out by colleagues from the Andeantransect project of the KAAK at the DAI to which the current Ph.D. project is connected. The results of the latter will be collated with the recent stage of research about the Middle Archaic Period and comparisons will be made with similar processes in the Fertile Crescent that took place during the Epipaleolithic and the PPNA Periods.

So far, Pernil Alto can be seen as a structured hamlet with a possible center and court-like, arranged dwellings. The subsistence was based on a mixed economy consisting of the use of probably cultivated plants, hunting, and the use of marine resources. Thus, at least parts of the population had to go to the coast.

The Graduate School has had a very positive impact on the current research, especially in communicating knowledge about methods and correlations concerning paleobotany, paleoclimate, and modelling radiocarbon dates. Deeper insights into other research projects led to the formulation of new questions and viewpoints for the above mentioned research.

Since June 2009
Member of the Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes” at the Christian- Albrechts-University Kiel.

2008
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany. Magister Artium in Pre- and Protohistory, Ancient History and German Philology. Thesis: “Die Verbreitung “westischen” Feuersteins während des jüngeren Neolithikums Westfalens”. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. A. Jockenhövel

2005 – 2008
Course of studies at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany. Fields of study: Pre- and Protohistory, Ancient History, German Philology.

2004 – 2005
Course of studies at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Field of stuy: Archaeology.

2002 – 2004
Course of studies at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany. Fields of study: Pre- and Protohistory, Ancient History, German Philology.

2002
Intermediate Examination at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany

2000 – 2002
Basic course of studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany. Fields of study: Pre- and Protohistory, European Ethnology, Anthropology.

2008
Direction of an archaeological excavation carried out by the Commission for the Archaeology of Extraeuropean Cultures (KAAK) of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) within the project Andean Transect I at the Archaic settlement site of Pernil Alto, Peru

2008
Participation in archaeological excavations carried out by the Department for Archaeology of the City of Münster, Germany, in Münster, Germany.

2005
Participation in an archaeological excavation carried out by the State Office for Culture and the Preservation of Ancient Monuments Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin, Germany on a slavonic-medieval wallcastle in Parchim, Germany

2004
Student assistant at the Department for Eastern-European History of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

2003 and 2005
Participation in an archaeological survey carried out by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in cooperation with the Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Germany, and the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, on the Plajá-Peninsula, Greece

2003 – 2004 and 2004 – 2006
Student assistant at the Seminar for Ancient History / Institute for Epigraphy of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

2002
Participation in an archaeological excavation carried out by the Department for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments at the Regional Administration of Weser-Ems, Oldenburg, Germany, at an Iron Age dated farm in Cloppenburg, Germany.

2001
Participation in archaeological excavations carried out by the State Office for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin, Germany, in the project “Archaeological Investigations in the Course of the Autobahn A 20 Section Schönberg – state frontier (VKE 2811)”

2001
Participation in an archaeological excavation carried out by the Lower Saxony Institute of Historical Coastline Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on the Bronze Age dated settlement site of Rodenkirchen-Hahnenknooper Mühle, Germany.

2001
Internship at the Department for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments at the Regional Administration of Weser-Ems, Oldenburg, Germany.