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<p>Archaeological research on chiefdoms in the Intermediate Area has long struggled to compare communities across regions because settlement patterns vary considerably between sequences. This paper addresses this comparability problem by proposing a multi-method analytical protocol that integrates scales of social interaction based on landscape frictional travel cost. I apply this protocol to four pre-Columbian occupational sequences in Colombia and Panama (Río Frío, Fúquene lagoon, Parita valley, and Río Tonosí), combining density interpolation (IDW), density-based clustering (HDBSCAN), and network analysis (k-NN/Leiden). Methodologically, this study demonstrates that community is a scalar phenomenon; different methods capture distinct but complementary scales of social aggregation. Comparatively, high network segmentation (modularity) emerged as a structural feature common to all four sequences, yet organizational strategies varied fundamentally. The main axes of variation were spatial hierarchy, site size, and degree of spatial agglomeration (clustered, random, or dispersed), which proved to be independent variables. The protocol successfully distinguishes between interaction networks and compact communities without strong sociopolitical hierarchy (Río Frío), dispersed but clustered with weak hierarchy (Fúquene), random with spatial hierarchy (Parita), and dense but spatially dispersed (Tonosí).</p>

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Settlement Patterns and Community Delimitation in Chibcha Chiefdoms of Colombia and Panama

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月16日

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  • Luis Miguel Soto Rodríguez

摘要

Archaeological research on chiefdoms in the Intermediate Area has long struggled to compare communities across regions because settlement patterns vary considerably between sequences. This paper addresses this comparability problem by proposing a multi-method analytical protocol that integrates scales of social interaction based on landscape frictional travel cost. I apply this protocol to four pre-Columbian occupational sequences in Colombia and Panama (Río Frío, Fúquene lagoon, Parita valley, and Río Tonosí), combining density interpolation (IDW), density-based clustering (HDBSCAN), and network analysis (k-NN/Leiden). Methodologically, this study demonstrates that community is a scalar phenomenon; different methods capture distinct but complementary scales of social aggregation. Comparatively, high network segmentation (modularity) emerged as a structural feature common to all four sequences, yet organizational strategies varied fundamentally. The main axes of variation were spatial hierarchy, site size, and degree of spatial agglomeration (clustered, random, or dispersed), which proved to be independent variables. The protocol successfully distinguishes between interaction networks and compact communities without strong sociopolitical hierarchy (Río Frío), dispersed but clustered with weak hierarchy (Fúquene), random with spatial hierarchy (Parita), and dense but spatially dispersed (Tonosí).