Peru (Other Keyword)
1-25 (71 Records)
Los Morteros is a preceramic mound located on the North Coast of Peru composed of anthropogenic structures interlayered with aeolian deposits. A study combing multidisciplinary approaches and methodologies was used to evaluate the hypothesis of mound construction through intentional aeolian sand deposition via manipulation of strong winds across the desert environment. Wind velocities were measured across the site and in the surrounding valley. A complex wind model was created utilizing these...
Alternative Strategies in Confronting Looting and Trafficking in Defense of Peruvian Portable Heritage. (2015)
In this presentation I aim to address two issues: first, the state of looting and trafficking of monumental and portable heritage in Peru today, and, second, to propose new strategies to contribute to solving the problem of looting and trafficking. The novel strategies I propose are only part of the solution: they should be compounded and should help strengthen the effectiveness of old, tried and partially successful enforcement strategies. The diversification of options is urgent amidst...
Archaeological data vs Historical Accounts. The Inca occupation of Incahuasi, the New Cusco, Cañete, Peru (2015)
This paper presents the results of recent research at the archaeological Inca site of Incahuasi located at the Cañete valley, Peru. Although Incahuasi is frequently mentioned in the archaeological literature and by spanish chronicles (it is considered a New Cusco) little research have been done at the site. New data from archaeological excavations allows to compare historical accounts about the nature of Inca's occupation of the site, showing significant differences between both; challenging the...
Archaeology not only for archaeologists: Examples of integration of archaeology and rural communities in Perú (2015)
Many people in our society misunderstand the nature of archaeological fieldwork. The misunderstanding often results from a lack of open access with the public by professionals in our discipline. An aggressive shift to providing the public with information and education about archaeological research and the value of cultural heritage will address this concern. In the highlands of Ancash, Perú, a central objective of PIARA (Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológico Regional Ancash) promotes...
Archaeometry and Mural Paintings in Ancient Peru: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Apprehend the Prehispanic Artisan Painters (2015)
Mural art is an artistic expression common to most of the Prehispanic societies and it was often investigated though iconographic point of view. Nevertheless, the recent researches particularly on Moche mural paintings (1st-8th century) have demonstrated the archaeometry contribution to study these polychromic vestiges. Indeed it constitutes a valued tool to apprehend these ancient societies and to preserve its exceptional painting patrimony. Thus, until 2012, a new research project is...
Architecture and Spatial Organization of Urban Cercaduras at the Early Horizon Center of Caylán, Nepeña Valley, Peru (2017)
This poster presents architectural and spatial data from monumental urban compounds or cercaduras at the Early Horizon center of Caylán (800-1 B.C.), Nepeña Valley, Department of Ancash, Peru. Caylán is interpreted as the primary center of a multi-tiered polity that developed in the littoral portion of the Nepeña Valley and reached its peak during the second half of the first millennium BC. Recent fieldwork at Caylán revealed the existence of more than 40 cercaduras interpreted as...
The Biggest Party of All? Zooarchaeological Analysis of an Oversized Late Inca Banquet at Pachacamac (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pachacamac is a major archaeological site on the central coast of Peru, occupied from the 5th to the 16th centuries, AD. This paper reports the results of an interdisciplinary study of a late Inca context discovered in building B4, excavated in 2016 and 2018 by the Ychsma Project (ULB). A series of analyses were conducted, including zooarchaeological ones,...
The Challenges of Bioarchaeological Research in Peru: Archaeological Field-School Project "Pachacamac Valley" (1991-) (2017)
The archeological study of human burials presents many special challenges. Deterioration begins or accelerates with the exposure to new environmental conditions after recovery. In many cases, the context has to be analyzed in situ by bioanthropologists to record information before the removal of the materials to the laboratory and storage area. Continuous participation of bioarchaeologists is also vital for subsequent analysis of the funerary context many months or years after the end of the...
The Character of Conflict Research Project
Objectives: This study uses osteological and radiocarbon datasets combined with formal quantitative analyses to test hypotheses concerning the character of conflict in the Nasca highlands during the Late Intermediate period (LIP, 950 – 1450 C.E.). We develop and test osteological expectations regarding what patterns should be observed if violence was characterized by intra-group violence, ritual conflict, intermittent raiding, or internecine warfare. Materials and methods: Crania (n = 267)...
Charki and Red Currant Jam: Provisioning Extractive Industries in Republican Highland Peru (2017)
With the current boom in the archaeology of the colonial period in the central Andes, we risk losing sight of the potential for archaeological investigation of the colonial aftermath. Following important work further afield in the Southern Cone, I argue for the particular relevance archaeology could have in exploring trade liberalization, emancipation, and the new commodity booms of the 19th century. Drawing on the recent investigation of a series of Republican tambos (roadside inns) in the...
The Chicama Valley in Time and Space (2017)
The Chicama is one of the largest valleys of the Peruvian coast, was part of the "heartland" of Moche culture, and a frontier between different cultural and linguistic regions at the time of Spanish arrival. This paper will review past and recent research in the valley and and their problems and potentials. Particular attention will be paid to landscape archaeology and the history of irrigation systems and land use through time, themes to be addressed in the other papers of the session.
The "Coastal Cajamarca" Style Did Not Come from the Coast (2016)
The "Coastal Cajamarca" style of painted bowls was first documented by Disselhoff in the 1950s at the site of San Jose de Moro (Lower Jequetepeque Valley, Peru). There are two competing hypotheses with regard to the origin of this ceramic style: (1) it originated from the coast or (2) it was produced in the middle valley or chaupiyunga zone, an intermediate area between the coast and the highlands. In this paper I present evidence from the site of Las Varas, located in the Middle Jequetepeque...
Documenting Dietary Effects of Imperial Collapse and Drought: Bioarchaeology and Stable Isotope Analysis at Huari-Vegachayoq Moqo, Peru (2017)
This study examines the diets of 32 individuals who were deposited in the Vegachayoq Moqo sector at the site of Huari, the capital of the Wari Empire. The commingled skeletal remains date to the second half of the Late Intermediate Period (LIP), long after the empire’s collapse circa 1100 CE. This was also a time of an extended drought. The diets, reconstructed from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from bone collagen, are compared among the individuals and to those of earlier Wari populations...
Early Fishing on the Atacama Desert Coast of Southern Peru (2017)
The coastal Atacama Desert in southern Peru has some of the oldest and best documented fishing sites in western South America, including Terminal Pleistocene through Early Holocene components at Quebrada Jaguay and Quebrada Tacahuay and Early to Middle Holocene components at the Ring Site and Quebrada de los Burros. These sites have offered insight into the antiquity and variability of the early fishing tradition, the antiquity and features of coast-highland interaction, and coastal settlement...
Elemental Analysis of Human Bone using a non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (2016)
Peru is commonly known for having the largest empire in pre-Columbian America but relatively less is known about the subsistence and migratory patterns of the pre-Inca communities that existed from the Initial Period through the Early Intermediate Period. During the Initial Period, interaction and trade was prevalent among coastal, inland, and highland populations with trade interactions intensifying later in time with peoples from the highlands. Our research tests the hypothesis that increased...
Excavations at Vilcabamba (2016)
After the Incas failed to regain control of their capital city from the Spaniards in 1536, many Inca loyalists withdrew into the Vilcabamba region. Over the next 40 years of organized indigenous resistance to Spanish rule, much of the Inca royal court was centered in the town of Vilcabamba and a host of critical events occurred in the region. Despite the important role that the city of Vilcabamba held in the final years of the Inca Empire, there have been few archaeological projects aimed at...
Explorations of Public Space at the Site of Panquilma (2015)
This work discusses and explores the results of excavations performed in the public sector of the site of Panquilma, located in the Lurin Valley on the central coast of Peru. It was a complex multicomponent community dating to the Late Intermediate Period, which has been divided into three sectors based on use. The first sector, containing three ramped pyramids, was used for ritual and administrative purposes. This work provides an examination of what is known about the uses of the public areas,...
EXPLORATORY POLLEN ANALYSIS OF SEDIMENTS FROM LLACTA PATA AND INKA LLACTA, PERU (2002)
Pollen analysis was undertaken on sediments from two terrace systems, Llacta Pata and Inka Llacta in Peru. Sediments were collected in the field by Dr. Inge Schjellerup and submitted for analysis to Paleo Research Institute. This exploratory pollen analysis examined these samples to obtain an idea of the variety of pollen present, to evaluate the relative preservation of pollen within the sediments, and to obtain a record of vegetation in these areas, including any evidence of agriculture.
Exploring Macrobotanicals of Tenehaha from the Cotahuasi Valley, Peru (2015)
In this paper we present macrobotanical data from the Peruvian archaeological site of Tenehaha in the Cotahuasi Valley. Soil samples from archaeological excavation areas were recovered by Justin Jennings and his field crew from the Tenehaha site. These soil samples were floated in order to sieve out the botanical remains of the ancient past lives of Peruvians at a ritual and ceremonial burial site of Tenehaha. Our analysis revealed new insights into site use and the distribution of botanical...
"Feeding the Dead" at Chiribaya Alta (2015)
The inclusion of foods and eating utensils within graves at Chiribaya Alta, a Late Intermediate site ~5 km from the mouth of the Osmore river, Peru suggests that "feeding the dead" during funerary rites was a common practice within the Chiribaya polity. Thus far, however, these foods have not been systematically considered in relation to funerary practices. This study examines food items placed within tombs at Chiribaya Alta (n=307) and considers their potential symbolic meanings within funerary...
First Insights into the Life of Menocucho: Results of the Archaeological Excavations at Huaca Menocucho, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, the authors will present the results of their first excavation season at Huaca Menocucho, in the Moche Valley on the north coast of Peru, exposing the political, religious, and economic activities carried out by the people who lived at the site. This excavation revealed the site was first occupied during the Initial period (1800–500 BC),...
Floods, Famines, and Fagan: Recent Research on El Niño in the Age of Andean States and Empires (2015)
In 1997-98, the first mega-Niño of the internet age devastated vast regions of the equatorial Pacific basin and altered weather throughout the globe; El Niño became a household term. Within two years, Brian Fagan had published "Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilizations", calling global attention to potential impacts of the phenomenon in prehistory. The Peruvian coast is ground-zero for El Niño, and Fagan included a chapter on Peru in his book. Over the last 15 years,...
Gastrointestinal parasites of the camelids of the archaeological site of Huanchaquito (Peru): first results. (2017)
The health status of domestic’s camelids is an original research topic in the past Central Andes. The discovery of more than 200 well preserved camelids in Huanchaquito in the northern coast of Peru was the opportunity to perform paleoparasitological analyses on twenty samples taken from preserved intestines and faeces recovered during the excavations. Extractions of the parasites using RHM standard protocol raised to the observation in 55% of the samples of several helminth taxa belonging to...
Geochemical Evidence for Pigment Sources from El Purgatorio, Peru (2016)
Portable X-ray fluorescence was used to analyze raw pigments as well as paints on ceramics and adobes found at El Purgatorio, the capital city of the Casma state. This analysis showed that, in addition to the common red ochre found in the area, cinnabar was also present. This mercurial compound has a distinctive fluorescence and is not common to area, supporting Casma participation in long distance exchange networks. Further analyses showed manganese present in black paints and calcium in the...
"Good to Eat and Good to Think": Interpreting the Role of Plants in the Tiwanaku Temple of Omo M10, Moquegua, Peru (2015)
Much is known nowadays about the role of plants in Tiwanaku households and political economy, yet, their function in ceremonial contexts is still unclear. Unlike the state's heartland in the Bolivian altiplano, where preservation conditions are not always favorable for the systematic recovery of paleobotanical remains, excavations of Tiwanaku sites in the hyper-arid environment of the Moquegua valley in southern Peru have resulted in the recovery of a wide array of ancient organic finds,...