Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Hearths, often the center of a home, reveal where people gathered, what they consumed, and what they valued. In many early Andean societies, hearths were also focal points of public ritual, placing them at the center of both family and community life during the first several millennia of social and political complexity. This session broadly explores and compares the role that hearths—whether functioning as ceremonial, domestic, or straddling the line between the two—played in the lives of people dwelling in the Andes between the Middle Preceramic and Initial Periods (6000 BC–900 BC). It specifically emphasizes the creation, use, and social meanings of hearths during this period, including but also beyond the well-known Kotosh Religious Tradition. Through this focus on the hearth as both a socio-spatial anchor of ancient activity and the principle unit of our analysis, the session aims to create a dialogue between scholars working across the Andes, and in so doing, reevaluate the role of the hearth at the dawn of Andean civilization.