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

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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.

Other Keywords
Andes: Formative • Architecture • Ritual and Symbolism • Ritual • Dating Techniques • Archaic • Communities of Practice • Material Culture and Technology • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: XRF/pXRF • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Peru (Country) • Republic of Panama (Country) • Republic of Colombia (Country) • Netherlands Antilles (Country) • Aruba (Country) • Republic of Ecuador (Country) • Republic of Chile (Country) • South America (Continent) • South America: Andes

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Astronomical Meanings in Hearths from the Middle Preceramic villages of Paloma and the Late Preceramic site of Buena Vista in Central, Coastal Perú (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bob Benfer.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hearths from over 50 domestic structures at the stratified Middle Archaic fishing villages of Paloma, Chilca Valley, Peru, were found within circles of house poles. Domestic structures were burned and abandoned, sometimes with an old male burned on top. Burials in the last occupation were placed with...

  • Combustion as a Process of Reconfiguration of the Historical Space: The Potrero Mendieta Context in Southwestern Ecuador (~3000 BCE) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Miriam Domínguez.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, the historical processes of the Formative Period in the Ecuadorian Andes are evaluated through the material renderings of fire from the site Potrero Mendieta. In this context, they are associated with a swift restructuring in the use of the circular architectural structures...

  • Early Ceremonial Hearth Use in the Upper Amazon: Santa Anna–La Florida, Palanda, Ecuador (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Francisco Valdez.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the outstanding traits of the Mayo Chinchipe – Marañón culture is the spiral architecture that appears on the mound terraces of at least two major sites of the upper Amazon. In one of them, the vortex of the spiral was a ceremonial hearth that contained a votive cache in its base. The...

  • Early Ritual and Public Hearths in the Casma Valley, Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shelia Pozorski. Thomas Pozorski.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Around 1500 BC, the complex society of the Sechin Alto polity of the Casma Valley, Peru produced a wide variety of architectural forms ranging from large platform mounds to small single room dwellings. Hearths used for public or ritual purposes are frequently associated with some of these...

  • Hearths and the Early Ritual Architecture at Middle Archaic Asana (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Aldenderfer.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Around 7000 years ago, the inhabitants of Asana created what appears to be a kind of ritual structure. Larger and shaped differently when compared to the residential structures nestled around it, the construction contained a hearth wholly unlike those found in its neighbors. Those hearths lit the...

  • The Legacy of Early Fire Rituals: The Social and Spatial Prominence of Hearths after Kotosh at Hualcayán, Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Bria.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars have long considered how the use of ritual hearths in early Andean temples, specifically those part of the Kotosh Religious Tradition, was central to early complex social practices in highland Peru. But what is the legacy of hearths as ritual spaces, objects, and tools for the transformation...

  • No Hearth, No Problem: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Ceremonial Architecture at Two Late Preceramic Sites in the Norte Chico Region (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Piscitelli.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Multi-elemental analytical techniques like X-Ray Fluorescence have been employed to determine the use of space through residues left behind from human activities. In addition, methodologies primarily used in other disciplines such as pollen analysis or micromorphology can illuminate the...

  • The Outside of the Illuminated Temple: Chamber Constructions in the Early Monumental Architecture in the Andes, Kotosh (Huanuco) and Mosquito (Tembladera) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eisei Tsurumi. César Sara. Carlos Morales.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Through the recent excavations at Kotosh, Tsurumi and Sara successfully reconstructed the whole architectural complex of the late Archaic Period. It is composed of complicatedly connected platforms and supposedly each of the platforms was made for the purpose of supporting "temple" constructions...

  • Tales from the Hearth: An Analysis of Formal verses Informal Burning Episodes at the Cosma Complex, Nepeña Valley, Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kimberly Munro.

    This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research at the Cosma Archaeological Complex since 2014 has revealed two multi-tiered mounds with architecture relating to the Kotosh-Mito tradition. Carbon dates from the earliest components in Cosma have dated several ritual structures to between 2900-2400 BCE, well into the early Late Preceramic...