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.

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.

Quechua’s Southern Boundary: The Case of Santiago del Estero, Argentina

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH DeMARRAIS
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The South ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
North West ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Continued Use

This chapter examines the far southern boundary of Quechua's spread throughout the Andes. It argues that Quechua reached north-west Argentina in Inka times and that it was widely used during the colonial period as well. The rationale for this argument is based primarily on evidence for (1) the extent of Inka resettlements in Argentina; (2) the nature of Inka relations with local peoples in the far south; and (3) continued use of Quechua under the Spaniards, as described in the documentary sources. Less clear are the precise population movements that brought Quechua speakers initially to Santiago del Estero, as the archaeological record suggests that the Inka frontier lay higher up the slopes in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, and Catamarca, where the majority of Inka installations are found. The documents reveal that activities of the Spaniards had further, far-reaching consequences for Quechua's presence in the south Andes, and that ultimately Quechua was replaced in most of north-west Argentina by Spanish.

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.

Applied Archaeology in the Andes: The Contribution of Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Terracing to Environmental and Rural Development Strategies

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Early Arrival ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Raised Fields ◽  
Cultural Developments

Patterns of civilization in the Central Andes can be seen to have fluctuated over the last 5,000 years in relation to climate changes. Starting with the first American civilization at Caral, on the Peruvian coast, other impressive coastal centres and cultural areas followed and subsequently the highland cultural areas and civilizations took over in what now seems to have been at least partly a response to periods of climate changes. While the early coastal environment offered economic advantages of maritime resources and made it easy to adapt and benefit from the early arrival of imported cultigens, greater effort was required to develop agriculture from wild local species at high altitudes in rugged terrains. However, by the first millennium BC, following adverse effects of droughts in coastal areas, the highland religious centre at Chavin de Huantar developed an influential impact in the Early Horizon Period (c.500–c.200 BC), expanding through trade networks to adjacent regions and southwards towards Paracas on the southern coast. Following the centre’s demise around 200 BC (due to the increasing impoverishment of the highland environment) impetus returned to a new surge of coastal developments, notably the emergence of the Mochica and Nazca cultures on the northern and southern coasts respectively, and at Pucara in the altiplano. Here Rowe’s chronological system of Intermediate Periods characterized by regional states and Horizon Periods characterized by broader dominating cultures can be seen to be influenced by the swings of past climate. Temperature and precipitation have been shown to be prime influences underlying the sustainability of cultural developments, driven by agricultural developments, at key centres of Andean power (Kendall and Rodríguez 2009),. Early economic and cultural developments centred on Lake Titicaca in the southern altiplano were supported by agricultural systems, including cocha (ponds) networks developed for specialized cultivation (Flores Ochoa and Paz 1986) and camellones or wayru wayru (raised fields) around wetland shores (Erickson 1985).

North and South: Hunter-Gatherer Communities in the Andes Mountains in Central Chile

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis E. Cornejo B. ◽  
Lorena Sanhueza R.
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
Andes Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Central Chile ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Social Units ◽  
North And South ◽  
Chilean Andes

AbstractOne of the most serious limitations in studies of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies based on the archaeological record has been the difficulty of establishing distinctions among groups that inhabited a given area at the same time. This article suggests that, at least during a period ranging from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1000, the Central Chilean Andes, specifically the Maipo River Valley, was occupied by two groups of hunter-gatherers that were distinct enough for us to propose that they were actually two different social units.

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.

Tiwanaku's Legacy: A Chronological Reassessment of the Terminal Middle Horizon in the Moquegua Valley, Peru

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (03) ◽  
pp. 529-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Sharratt
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Middle Horizon ◽  
State Collapse ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Intermediate Period ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Moquegua Valley

As in other examples of state collapse, political disintegration of the Tiwanaku state circa AD 1000 was accompanied by considerable cultural continuity. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the location of the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the altiplano, settlements and practices associated with this postcollapse cultural continuity are termed Tumilaca. Previous research indicated that Tumilaca was short-lived, with all vestiges of Tiwanaku gone from Moquegua's archaeological record by the thirteenth century when the valley was subsequently characterized by Estuquiña-style materials. This article discusses radiocarbon dates from Tumilaca la Chimba, a village established as the political authority of the Tiwanaku state waned. The 21 absolute dates from Tumilaca domestic, public, and funerary contexts span at least 350 years, from the late tenth to the mid-fourteenth centuries AD. They suggest that (1) Tiwanaku-affiliated communities endured well into the later Late Intermediate Period (AD 1200–1470); (2) ongoing debates about the emergence of Estuquiña communities must consider the role of terminal Tiwanaku populations; and (3) analyses of postcollapse continuity can be enhanced by considering peripheral locales and the particularities of continuity.

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.

Child Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Blom
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Portable Art

While reports of child sacrifice in the ancient Andes are often sensationalized to captivate popular audiences, the study of the practice provides archaeologists with an important means of investigating power and sociopolitical dynamics in antiquity. This chapter discusses the significance of the terms ‘child’ and ‘sacrifice’ in the Andes and examines the evidence of child sacrifice from ancient contexts in Andean regions of modern-day Peru and Bolivia. It considers data on sacrificial practices from dives sources, such as descriptions in ethnohistorical documents, representations in architectural design and portable art, and direct evidence found in the archaeological record. Finally, various approaches to the study of these sacrifices and possible avenues for future analyses are outlined.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document