Beyond exotic goods: Wari elites and regional interaction in the Andes during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000)

Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Silvana A. Rosenfeld ◽  
Brennan T. Jordan ◽  
Megan E. Street
Keyword(s):  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Regional Interaction ◽  
The Andes

Abstract

The Middle Horizon

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina A. Conlee
Keyword(s):  
Residential Area ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Large Region ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Extensive Area ◽  
The Andes ◽  
The People

Across the Andes major changes occurred in the Middle Horizon (A.D. 650–1000) as the highland Wari and Tiwanaku states exerted their influence over a large region. The people of the Nasca drainage, like many groups, experienced major shifts in settlements and sociopolitical organization, which is the focus of this chapter. Interactions and entanglements between Wari and Nasca people are examined throughout the region and at the site. At La Tiza there was a small residential area and an extensive area of mausoleums where elites were buried. The new mortuary practices indicate the development of new elite kin groups tied to the Wari state. Foreigners were found at the site in this period and buried in the tombs. The chapter also discusses the collapse of Wari and the abandonment of the Nasca region.

Prehispanic Highland Textile Technologies: A View from the First Millennium AD at Hualcayán, Ancash, Peru

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
M. Elizabeth Grávalos ◽  
Rebecca E. Bria
Keyword(s):  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Textile Production ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Moist Environment ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Arid West

The exceptional preservation of perishable artifacts on the arid west coast of the Andes has led to an abundance of knowledge on prehispanic textile production. Yet comparatively little of this knowledge is based on highland examples due to their poor preservation in the moist environment of the Andean sierra. Systematic excavations in 2011–2012 at the archaeological complex of Hualcayán in highland Ancash, Peru, revealed surprisingly well-preserved textiles and cordage from four partially looted machay-style tombs. In this article we provide an overview of textile forms, production techniques, and iconography from a sample of 292 textile and cordage fragments, equaling 20% of Hualcayán's assemblage. This work contributes to a better understanding of ancient Andean weaving in general and interregional interaction during the Early Intermediate period and Middle Horizon (ca. AD 1–1000) in particular. Significantly, we document variability in cotton yarn and a general uniformity in camelid yarn and weaving techniques in the overall sample. These findings, in combination with similarities in weaving techniques and style between coastal examples and Hualcayán's fabrics, suggest a coastal–highland relationship.

Shifting Local, Regional, and Interregional Relations in Middle Horizon Peru: Evidence from La Real

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Jennings ◽  
Tiffiny A. Tung ◽  
Willy J. Yépez Álvarez ◽  
Gladys Cecilia Quequezana Lucano ◽  
Marko Alfredo López Hurtado
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
The Andes ◽  
A Site ◽  
Long Distance Movement ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

The Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 600-1100) was a period of great change in the Andes, with much of Perú connected through long-distance exchange and widely shared Wari styles and practices. Recent research has begun to detail the transformations that occurred within the period, leading to questions about the development of the Wari state and its shifting relationships with outlying areas over time. This article expands this research by exploring the temporal differences within a funerary assemblage at La Real, a site in the Majes Valley of southern Perú. The artifacts and human remains from La Real are used to explore Middle Horizon dynamism in relation to both the surging interregional interaction of the period and emergent social stratification in the valley. Mortuary profiles and sublethal violence remain fairly constant throughout the period, but lethal violence significantly increases in the late Middle Horizon. There are also significant changes over time in the presence of exotic goods and other items, reflecting an increase in craft specialization, the adoption of Wari-related styles and practices, and the development of a more regionally oriented economy. The role of the Wari state in these changes, although unclear, may relate to attempts by Wari leaders to manipulate the long-distance movement of a restricted group of artifacts and resources.

Water, Huacas, and Ancestor Worship: Traces of a Sacred Wari Landscape

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Glowacki ◽  
Michael Malpass
Keyword(s):  
Arable Land ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Rock Formations ◽  
Productive Land ◽  
Bodies Of Water ◽  
And Control

During the Middle Horizon (A.D. 540–900) the Wari of the central highlands Ayacucho region expanded their control into many parts of the Andes. While different motives have been cited for Wari state expansion, we suggest that a severe and prolonged drought during the sixth century may have played a significant role. We posit that the Wari responded to this environmental crisis not only by seeking practical solutions, such as securing productive land outside the heartland, but also by implementing religious practices intended to cosmologically restore fertility to drought-stricken areas and validate acquisition of arable land in foreign territories. Using a model of Inka ideology developed by Peter Gose, we propose that a strong religious complex involving ancestor worship, huacas, and the cosmological control of water led the Wari to seek out and control locations where water could be drawn from supernatural sources. The presence of large bodies of water near major Wari administrative sites as well as other natural phenomena, particularly certain mountains, rock formations, and large stones, and site offerings of Spondylus, copper, and stone figurines support this model. A sacred Wari landscape is thus seen as complementary to the established political landscape and providing a supernatural justification.

The First Millennium ad in North-Central Peru: Critical Perspectives on a Linguistic Prehistory

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE F. LAU
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
North Central ◽  
North West ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Cultural Heterogeneity ◽  
Regional Interaction ◽  
First Millennium

This chapter reviews archaeological evidence for culture change during the first millennium ad in north-central Peru, and its implications for the spread of language(s). Important developments deriving from regional interaction typified the first centuries ad (north-west Ancash), the seventh century ad (Callejón de Huaylas), and the end of the Middle Horizon (across departments). If major language expansions can be pegged to transformations in material style, they should be sought in these periods and areas. Many different Amerindian languages are known from the region (Culle, Mochica, Quingnam, Quechua, Aymara), although most are now extinct. The cultural heterogeneity in north-central Peru during the Early Intermediate Period may indicate considerable time-depth for such linguistic diversity. The subsequent Middle Horizon marks a period of widespread interaction, though varying in nature and impact through time. This elicits issues for future research in the linguistic prehistory of the central Andes.

scholarly journals Broadening Our Horizons: Towards an Interdisciplinary Prehistory of the Andes

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID BERESFORD-JONES ◽  
PAUL HEGGARTY
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
Plausible Candidate ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Satisfactory Correlation ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Founding Principle

This chapter proposes a new and more coherent interdisciplinary prehistory of the Andes, based firstly on a long overdue re-examination of the relationships between the various regional ‘dialects’ within the Quechua language family; and secondly on a more satisfactory correlation with the archaeological record. The founding principle is that language families necessarily reflect past expansive processes, whose traces should also be clear in the archaeological record. It provides a logic by which to assess correspondences between archaeological and linguistic patterns, on the three levels of when, where, and why particular language expansions occurred. In the Andes, the horizons thus offer the most natural explanations for the major Quechua and Aymara dispersals. With the Incas too late for the time-depth of either family, the Wari Middle Horizon emerges as the most plausible candidate for the first major expansion of Quechua, and not (as per traditional linguistic thinking) of the Aymara family, here tentatively associated with the Early Horizon instead.

scholarly journals Engineering Resilience to Water Stress in the Late Prehispanic North-Central Andean Highlands (~600–1200 BP)

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 3544
Author(s):  
Kevin Lane
Keyword(s):  
Water Stress ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
North Central ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Complex Solutions ◽  
Infrastructure Rehabilitation

The Andes are defined by human struggles to provide for, and control, water. Nowhere is this challenge more apparent than in the unglaciated western mountain range Cordillera Negra of the Andes where rain runoff provides the only natural source of water for herding and farming economies. Based on over 20 years of systematic field surveys and taking a political ecology and resilience theory focus, this article evaluates how the Prehispanic North-Central highlands Huaylas ethnic group transformed the landscape of the Andes through the largescale construction of complex hydraulic engineering works in the Cordillera Negra of the Ancash Province, North-Central Peru. It is likely that construction of these engineered landscapes commenced during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000), reaching their apogee under the Late Intermediate Period (Huaylas group, AD 1000–1450) and Inca (AD 1450–1532) period, before falling into disuse during the early Spanish colony (AD 1532–1615) through a combination of disease, depopulation, and disruption. Persistent water stress in the western Pacific-facing Andean cordillera was ameliorated through the construction of interlinked dams and reservoirs controlling the water, soil, and wetlands. The modern study of these systems provides useful case-studies for infrastructure rehabilitation potentially providing low-cost, though technologically complex, solutions to modern water security.

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