Peru (Other Keyword)
26-50 (71 Records)
The sequence of landscape transformation across the area of the Ascope Canal System in the Chicama Valley involved both natural and anthropogenic events and processes that unfolded in nonlinear ways. We argue that early events were crucial in determining transformations later in the sequence. In the arid environment of the North Coast, water availability plays a key role in landscape histories. This paper highlights evidence for El Niño events, water management, and changing ecologies for the...
Hunter’s Paradise or Hypoxic Wasteland? Recent Research in the Pucuncho Basin, Peru (2016)
Mountain regions above 4000 m have been considered marginal because of low temperatures and low primary productivity compounded by the physical stress of hypoxia. Yet, the archaeological record of the puna (grasslands above 3800 m) of the Andes demonstrates widespread, persistent occupations by hunter-gatherers. The intensity and seasonality of these occupations offer insights into these regions of Peru and of the entry of people into South America more generally. New excavations at the...
Identifying Use and Consumption Patterns through a Quantitative, Qualitative, and Comparative Analysis of Mollusks at Huaca Menocucho, Moche Valley Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at Huaca Menocucho in the Moche Valley, Peru, revealed occupation sequences from the Initial period to the Middle Horizon with large amounts of malacological remains. Quantitative, qualitative, and comparative analyses are being conducted to interpret the role of gastropods, bivalves, and other mollusks at the site. A quantitative analysis will...
The Importance of the Initial Period in the Development of Early Peruvian Civilization (2016)
Research over the past 50 years has demonstrated the importance of the Initial Period (2100-1000 B.C.) societies that thrived along the Peruvian coast over 3000 years ago. The Initial Period, once viewed as a mere continuation of the subsistence-oriented Late Preceramic Period (3500-2100 B.C.) with the addition of pottery, is now widely considered to be a time of dynamic cultural change, witnessing the development and maturation of many of the social, political, and economic institutions that...
The Inca Dogs and their Ancestors (2017)
The goal of this paper is to elucidate the social role of the dog in ancient Peru as an artifact, a physical manifestation of culture, produced by humans, through archaeological and iconographic interpretation. The large numbers of dogs available for study are a neglected archaeological resource, and one that can provide a wide variety of information on human life and cultures in ancient Peru. Through the examination of archaeological dog remains and dog iconography from differing temporal and...
Incas in the Northern Highlands: Late Horizon Evidence at Ichabamba in the Condebamba Valley (2017)
The Condebamba valley, covering the southern part of the Cajamarca-Huamachuco road, constituted the privileged scenario of the interaction among local groups and foreign empires. Several surveys along this part of the Inca road have established the cultural sequence in the region and the main features of its settlements. One of these sites, Ichabamba, exhibits stone walls in a rectangular layout, with two narrow subdivisions framing a large central space. Due to its architectural features,...
Initial Investigations at the Multicomponent Cajamarca site of Callacpuma (2016)
Here I present the results of an initial season of fieldwork at the multicomponent Cajamarca site of Callacpuma (Qayaqpuma). Cerro Callacpuma is a large site located along the northeastern edge of the Cajamarca basin. The multicomponent site encompasses a number of architectural and other spatial zones, arrayed along the 2.5 km spine of the ridge and on its north and south slopes. Initial fieldwork focused on survey and mapping of the architectural core of the site, located along the Inca trunk...
The Initial Period from the Perspective of the Casma Valley on the Northern Peruvian Coast (2016)
During the Initial Period (2100-1000 B.C.), the largest platform mound in the New World was constructed at Sechin Alto site in the Casma Valley. Measuring 300 m x 250 m x 35 m tall, this mound served as the administrative center for the Sechin Alto Polity which included over a dozen sites, most with monumental architecture. Our current understanding of the Sechin Alto Polity and how it functioned comes from decades of fieldwork by other researchers and by us, and this research is ongoing. This...
Inka and Local Elite Interaction as Reflected at the Inka Site of Incahuasi, Cañete, South Central Coast of Peru (2018)
Incahuasi, located at the mid-valley of the Cañete river, is the largest Inca administrative center reported from Peru's Central Coast. Although first built as a military base by the Inca Tupac Yupanqui in his war against the Guarcos, the site was completely transformed into an administrative center with an extense and prominent storage facility. Recent research at the site has focused in Sector B, described as an elite residential complex. Excavations have found a significant number of finished...
Integrated Geophysical Surveys at Archaic and Formative Archaeological Sites in Tumbes, Peru (2015)
In this poster, we interpret data collected through nondestructive geophysical methods at the prehistoric sites of Santa Rosa and El Porvenir in the northern region of Tumbes, Peru. In late May and early June 2014, a program of integrated geophysical survey incorporating magnetometer and ground penetrating radar sought to identify subsurface archaeological features at the two sites. Previous excavations at these sites provided material data dating from 4750 BC and revealed architectural shifts...
Irrigation Systems as a Chronological Proxy? Continuous Occupation at the Valley Edge, Chicama Valley, Peru. (2015)
The extension of irrigation systems from valley centers into the desert margins has been used by archaeologists in the Virú, Moche and Chicama valleys both as a form of relative dating and as a measure of societal complexity. Chronological periods in these valleys have become tied into uniform evolutionary sequences: the expansion of irrigation systems is correlated with population growth, technological advancement, and social hierarchy in the form of increased levels of bureaucracy and the...
Local food, exotic sacrifices: the tentative summary of the animal management in Castillo de Huarmey. (2017)
Even through the majority of faunal remains so far recovered at Castillo de Huarmey site derived from ceremonial contexts (i.e. main mortuary mausoleum and adjacent palatial complex), studies demonstrate that at the very least, the site’s elite inhabitants extensively exploited local resources, and simultaneously benefited from developed trade connections. At the core of animal management was the extensive camelid husbandry. The standard zooarchaeological analysis and mortality profiles...
Long-Distance Adoption of Exotic Cultigens in Northwest Peru: Problems and Processes (2015)
By 7,000-6,000 BP on the coast and in the western highlands of northern Peru, several long-distance food crops, whether domesticated or not, were adopted by local communities. Most of the crops are derived from Neo-Tropical environments far to the north, perhaps in the Ecuadorian and Colombian lowlands, or from the eastern side of the Andes. The technological, demographic and economic mechanisms and processes by which this adoption process took place is considered for several archaeological...
Nuance, Brilliance and Sheen: Textile color qualities in the Andean World (2016)
Andean textile artists transformed fibers and dyes from nature to create complex color palettes attuned to the aesthetic of their time and place. Creating unique qualities not only of value and hue, qualities of color—in nuance shades, degree of sheen and brilliance-- Andean dyers, spinners and weavers built a vocabulary of color that contributed to the meaning and value of textiles in their social, political and creative context. From Chavin religious and supernatural figures created through...
Otolith Metrics and Fishing Strategies on the North Coast of Peru (2017)
In this paper I compare Otolith metrics from two coastal sites in the Moche Valley, Gramalote and Cerro La Virgen. This comparison is aimed at evaluating possible shifts in fishing strategies as reflected in the range and normative values of fish size over time. Gramalote is a small politically autonomous fishing village occupied during the Initial Period. Cerro La Virgen is a large town occupied as part of the expanding political empire of the Chimu during the Late Intermediate Period. The two...
Paleoethnobotany at Cerro la Virgen: Exploring the Lives of People and Plants at a Chimu Town in the Hinterland of Chan Chan (2015)
This paper explores the roles of plant foodways in the social, political, and economic organization of Cerro la Virgen, a Late Chimu site in the Moche Valley of North Coastal Peru. Located in the hinterland of Chan Chan, the capital the Chimu Empire (AD 1000-1460), Cerro la Virgen comprised a diverse community of craftspeople, farmers, and fisherfolk. Recent paleoethnobotanical investigations of assemblages from different household contexts afford a closer look at the diverse economic strategies...
Paleoindian Shellfishing and Feminist Agency at Quebrada Jaguay-280 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Occupants of the southern Peruvian site of Quebrada Jaguay 280 (QJ-280) maintained consistent preferential resource procurement practices for 4,000 history, from ~12,000-8,000 cal yr BP. Site deposits demonstrated that hunter-gatherers focused on capturing two fish species and one mollusk, Mesodesma donacium. Such intense specificity conflicts with...
Peru´s Cultural Heritage Management, Structural Discrimination, and Communities´ Relationship with Their Past. (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Global Archaeologies and Latin American Voices: Dialogues Transcending Colonizing Archaeologies", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this presentation, I explain how western-centered ideologies of discrimination are articulated in legal approaches to cultural heritage across the history of Peru. Moreover, I illuminate how this structural problem has been transferred to the cultural heritage management...
Petroglyphs in Context: Documenting and Interpreting the Chillihuay Archaeological Complex, Southern Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With over 1,000 individual pictorial elements, Chillihuay is among the largest and most impressive concentration of petroglyphs in southern Peru. Carved on geologically distinct rock outcrops high above the Chorunga Valley, these anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, abstract, and geometrical designs were distributed along narrow trails and hard-to-reach canyons...
Political and Economic Dynamics of Maritime Communities of the South Coast of Peru During the First Millenium BC: The Excavations of the Paracas Archaeological Project at Disco Verde and Puerto Nuevo (2016)
Extensively excavated by Frederic Engel in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Disco Verde and Puerto Nuevo are very well known in the archaeological literature of the south coast of Peru for their occupations dating back to the first millennium BC. Recent excavations by the Paracas Archaeological Project in these two sites have resulted in the recovery of crucial information to improve our understanding of the role maritime communities played in the expansion and intensification of long-distance exchange...
The Political Ecology of Camelid Pastoralism by Wari and Tiwanaku Colonists in the Moquegua Valley, Peru (2017)
The Moquegua Valley in southern Peru was the locale where the rival early imperial states of Wari and Tiwanaku established provincial colonial centers. Both Wari and Tiwanaku colonists concentrated their settlements in the low to mid-sierra elevations of the valley, elevations that are not modern zones of camelid husbandry. The political ecology of imperial settlement at this elevation fostered the development of local systems of camelid pastoralism that were significant economic components for...
Precolonial irrigation systems and settlement Patterns in the valley of Rimac - Peru. (2017)
This investigation is an archaeological analysis of the lower Rimac River Valley, located in the Peruvian Central Coast, where several irrigation channels, that were originated from the River allowed the cultivation of a great extension of land in this valley. The objectives of this study were to establish the occupation sequence and settlement pattern in those artificial valleys in Precolonial times and their relation with this irrigation system. Modern and old maps and aerial photos were used...
A Preliminary Comparison of Paleoethnobotanical Remains from Cerro Baul and Cerro Mejia in the Upper Moquegua Valley, Peru (2015)
This paper presents preliminary analysis of macrobotanical remains from the Middle Horizon Wari Imperial sites in the Upper Moquegua Valley, Peru. Plant remains from the sites Cerro Baúl and Cerro Mejía are compared to begin contracting a baseline for Wari residential subsistence at the colony, and the greater Empire. Additionally, paleoethnobotanical remains from the sites are compared to further develop archaeological interpretations of Wari social practices surrounding food. SAA 2015...
Really ugly Nasca pots of ancient Peru, and why they are important. (2017)
Polychrome ceramics of the Nasca culture (south coast of Peru, c. 100 BC - AD 600) are world renowned as one of the most colorful and artistically complex creations of the ancient Americas. Up to ten distinct colors depicting fabulous supernatural creatures adorn unique vessel forms with eggshell thin walls fixed in perfect oxidizing firings. Such masterpieces fill art books and spawn enthusiastic but fanciful speculations about Nasca society and its artisans. This paper rounds out the view of...
The Reitz Stuff: A Faunal Perspective on El Niño from Coastal Peru (2016)
For the last thirty years, zooarchaeological data from coastal Peru have provided groundbreaking insight into the Holocene history of El Niño, the interannual climatic phenomenon that affects global climate and human societies. Elizabeth J. Reitz has authored important studies with both of us on El Niño and faunal biogeography, and she served as a mentor to one of us in developing biochemical proxies for El Niño. In this paper, we review the history of faunal studies of El Niño and analyze...