This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075) provides $254,784 to the University of Illinois to conduct collaborative research on the processes that guided the emergence of ancient imperial societies. The research team will excavate and analyze five public religious and funerary complexes in a site that saw the transformation from an independent city-state into a tributary city under an expanding ancient empire. By examining continuous cultural practices and variations in traditions, the project aims to gain insights into how local communities responded to the imposition of external ideologies and governance systems during imperial expansion. This multi-year effort involves fieldwork, mapping, dating analyses, and community engagement to strengthen the relationship between current local and indigenous populations and their archaeological heritage. The research results are expected to inform our understanding of how indigenous communities adapt to contemporary global expansions.
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