Ancient pre-Columbian Peru, Bolivia and Mesoamerica

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles R. Ortloff
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Canal Irrigation ◽  
Late Intermediate Period ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
The Many

Irrigation agriculture is a transformational technology used to secure high food yields from undeveloped lands. Specific to ancient South America, the Chimú Empire occupied the north coast of Peru from the Chillon to the Lambeyeque Valleys (Figure 1.1.1) from800 to 1450 CE (Late Intermediate Period (LIP)) and carried canal reclamation far beyond modern limits by applying hydraulics concepts unknown to Western science until the beginning of the 20th century. The narrative that follows examines hydraulic engineering and water management developments and strategies during the many centuries of agricultural development in the Chimú heartland of the Moche River Basin. The story examines how Chimú engineers and planners managed to greatly expand the agricultural output of valleys under their control by employing advanced canal irrigation technologies and the economic and political circumstances under which large-scale reclamation projects took place. The following time period conventions are used in the discussion that follow: Preceramic and Formative Period (3000–1800 BCE) Initial Period (IP) 1800–900 BCE Early Horizon (EH) 900–200 BCE Early Intermediate Period (EIP) 200 BCE–600 CE Middle Horizon (MH) 600–1000 CE Late Intermediate Period (LIP) 1000–1476 CE Late Horizon (LH) 1476–1534 CE. Chimú political power and state development was concentrated in Peruvian north coast valleys. Each valley contained an intermittent river supplied by seasonal rainfall runoff/glacial melt water from the adjacent eastern highlands. Over millennia, silts carried by the rivers from highland sources formed gently sloping alluvial valleys with fertile desert soils suitable for agriculture. An arid environment tied the Chimú economy to intravalley irrigation networks supplied from these rivers; these systems were supplemented by massive intervalley canals of great length that transported water between river valleys, thus opening vast stretches of intervalley lands to farming. The Chimú accomplishments and achievements in desert environment agricultural technologies brought canal-based water management and irrigation technology to its zenith among ancient South American civilizations, with practically all coastal cultivatable intervalley and intravalley lands reachable by canals brought under cultivation.

Prehistoric Llama Breeding and Herding on the North Coast of Peru

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody Shimada ◽  
Izumi Shimada
Keyword(s):  
North Coast ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The North ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Range Of Functions ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

There is no clear-cut consensus or reliable body of published data in the Andean literature indicating whether llamas were bred and herded on the prehistoric North Coast of Peru or periodically imported from the highlands. Based on four lines of evidence—ethnographic, archaeozoological, physiological, and ethnohistoric—we argue that llamas (and perhaps even alpacas) were successfully bred and maintained on the North Coast from the early Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 600) and perhaps since the Early Horizon. More specifically, we discuss population structure, representation of body parts, climatic and dietary adaptability, and abundance of coastal forage. Both llamas and alpacas are physiologically well-adapted for the coastal environment and can efficiently process a wide range of forage. By the Middle Horizon, domestic camelids served a wide range of functions including transport, sacrifice, tools, and meat. Species identification, coastal herd management, effects of disease vectors, and other related issues are also discussed.

Some Formal Correspondences between the Imperial Architecture of the Wari and Chimu Cultures of Ancient Peru

1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon F. McEwan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Culture History ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
History Of

The degree and nature of the influence of the Middle Horizon Wari empire (ca. A.D. 540-900) on the culture history of Peru's north coast has been a topic of much heated debate over the past two decades. The arguments have tended to polarize around the issue of whether or not there was a Wari invasion of the north coast. Those arguing against the invasion hypothesis have claimed that there was no direct Wari influence on north coast cultural history. Those arguing in favor of the invasion hypothesis have attributed nearly all changes evident in the archaeological record to the results of a Wari military conquest. An attempt is made here to decouple the issues of Wari influence and Wari invasion. In an analysis of the architecture of the Wari imperial administrative sites and the ciudadela architecture of Chan Chan, capital of the north coastal Chimu empire, some remarkable similarities are seen. The shift from the pre-Middle Horizon Moche (ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 650) pattern of pyramid-dominated ceremonial centers to the Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 900-1476) ciudadela form of the Chimu is seen as a result of conscious imitation of the prestige Wari imperial style. It is argued that this imitation is a likely result regardless of whether or not there was a Wari invasion.

Chimú Art and Architecture

Art History ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Pillsbury
Keyword(s):  
North Coast ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Late Intermediate Period ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The North ◽  
North Coast Of Peru ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
La Luna

The Chimú culture flourished on what is now the north coast of Peru from around 1000 ce to c. 1470, when the polity was conquered by the Inca. The Chimú state, sometimes referred to in the historical sources as Chimor, dominated a length of approximately one thousand kilometers of the coast, from nearly what is now the border between Peru and Ecuador to just north of the modern capital of Lima. The Chimú were the most powerful entity in the period known as the Late Intermediate period but drew upon cultural traditions developed in the same region in earlier periods, particularly the Moche and the Lambayeque (also known as Sicán). Indeed, the capital of the Chimú state, Chan Chan, was constructed just a few kilometers away from the earlier Moche center of Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol, in what is now the outskirts of the modern city of Trujillo. There is a fair amount of published archaeological research on the Chimú, although in recent years, in the wake of the spectacular finds at the Moche site of Sipán, Chimú studies have been eclipsed by Moche-focused projects. The literature specifically on Chimú art and architecture, however, is far less abundant. As yet there are no dedicated journals to Chimú studies, nor are there specific bibliographies, anthologies, reference works, or textbooks.

The Early Horizon Site of Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Pozorski
Keyword(s):  
Initial Period ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Architectural Planning ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

From 1973 to 1974, investigations were carried out at a series of Initial Period and Early Horizon sites known as the Caballo Muerto complex, located in the Moche Valley on the North Coast of Peru. One site, Huaca de los Reyes, contains numerous adobe friezes that are noted both for their wide variety and early date. The amount of labor investment and the degree of architectural planning of the site strongly imply ranked societal divisions of the people responsible for its construction. Differential frieze distribution also supports this contention.

Singa Transitional: Rock-art Saywas Marking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Landscape Feature

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200 bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad 0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was considered saywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitional saywas served to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Exploring the Technology and Meaning behind Early Ceramic Figurines from the Casma Valley, Peru

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-130
Author(s):  
Shelia Pozorski ◽  
Thomas Pozorski
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Andean Archaeology ◽  
The North ◽  
Early Ceramic ◽  
North Coast Of Peru ◽  
Stone Carvings ◽  
The Temple

The Sechín Alto Polity, centered in the Casma Valley on the north coast of Peru, constructed the largest mound structures in the New World during the Initial Period (2100–1000 B.C.). The polity united at least six inland sites and three coastal satellites into a political and economically cooperative unit within which different sites and different monumental structures had distinct, but complementary, functions. Prominent among the artifacts that define the Sechín Alto Polity are ceramic figurines. Examples are consistently from domestic or residential contexts; most (more than 350 fragments) were recovered from Sechín Alto site, the polity capital, where they were likely manufactured. Iconography within Andean archaeology of the figurines connects them with warrior figures and victims depicted in the Cerro Sechín stone carvings and by extension with anthropomorphic friezes that adorn the temple mound of Moxeke within the Sechín Alto Polity. These data suggest that the Casma figurines may represent distinct groups of people who in turn reflected sacred vs. secular aspects of Casma Valley society.

THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS AND ECONOMIC INTERACTIONS OF THE HOUSEHOLDS AT GRAMALOTE, A SMALL-SCALE RESIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT DURING THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC ON THE NORTH COAST OF PERU

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 532-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Productivity ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Interactions

Excavations at the small-scale domestic settlement of Gramalote between 2010 and 2014 allowed the exploration of the social dynamics and economic interactions in the second millennium BC on the Peruvian North Coast. Detailed excavations and materials recovered during the intervention contribute a unique opportunity to explore domestic aspects of early settlements in the Andes. This study presents new data on the public sectors of Gramalote's settlement, house-to-house differences, and evidence that the extended family was a unit of economic productivity and collective action. This analysis assesses the degree of overlap, and lack thereof, in the economic activities of each house during the Initial Period (1500–1200 cal BC). A new model for social and economic interactions is proposed, with the aim of exploring alternative models from the bottom-up perspective for the emergence and consolidation of social complexity in the Central Andean Region.

Early Watertable Farming on the North Coast of Peru

1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael West
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Early Intermediate Period ◽  
Northern Peru ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

An archaeological example of simple watertable farming dating to the beginning of the Early Intermediate period in the Viru Valley, northern Peru, is reported. This technique was deployed by functionally differentiated segments of a single community, one stressing fishing and the other farming. Analyses of pollens indicate that Zea, Leguminosae, and Solonaceae were grown in two separate field systems.

A Reevaluation of the Absolute Chronology of Cabuza and Related Ceramic Styles of the Azapa Valley, Northern Chile

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Korpisaari ◽  
Markku Oinonen ◽  
Juan Chacama
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Bayesian Probability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Intermediate Period ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The Absolute

The nature and extent of the political and cultural influence of the Tiwanaku state (ca. A.D. 500—1100) in the Azapa Valley of northern Chile are debated topics. The absolute chronology of these contacts also remains somewhat unclear. Much of the debate has centered on the origins and chronological position of the Tiwanaku-related black-on-red ceramic style called Cabuza. In order to reevaluate the chronological position of the Cabuza, Maytas-Chiribaya, and San Miguel ceramic styles and associated cultural phases of the Azapa Valley, we obtained a total of 16 new radiocarbon dates for the Azapa-6, Azapa- 71a, Azapa-141, and Azapa-143 cemeteries. All but one sample dated to the Late Intermediate period (ca.A.D. 1000-1450). We compare our results with previously published radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates and carry out Bayesian probability calculations, establishing the most likely chronological ranges for the three ceramic styles. Based on this research, we argue that the undeniable Tiwanaku influence seen in the Azapa Valley more likely reflects processes set in motion by the collapse of the Tiwanaku state rather than an attempt to colonize or indirectly control the Azapa Valley during the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 550-1000).

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