A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Andes has long been cited as one of the few global regions in which a pristine state emerged. Alongside Moche, archaeologists commonly position the Middle Horizon polities of Wari and Tiwanaku as the candidates poised to claim this distinction. Influential arguments frame these latter cities as geopolitical rivals at the center of expansive empires. However, expected networks of imperial administrative centers have not materialized. New empirical evidence suggests that Wari or Tiwanaku did not control expansive regions. These developments coincide with growing tendency to question the validity of the “state” concept more generally. Many archaeologists have responded to such critiques with novel theories. However, the idea of the neoevolutionary state has long shaped archaeological narratives. Andeanists have largely interpreted data in accordance with these models. Without underestimating the influence of Wari or Tiwanaku, we ask participants in this session to reexamine patterns in the archaeological data. We urge participants to propose new models of Middle Horizon polities and interregional interactions that attend to the construction and eventual abandonment of historically specific political institutions, discourses of authority, and notions of community. We encourage a focus on the motivations and desires that could have shaped these processes.

Other Keywords
Andes: Middle Horizon • Social and Political Organization: States and Empires • Dating Techniques • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Mortuary Analysis • Survey • Mobility • Ceramic Analysis • Craft Production • Collapse

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 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • Anarchy, Heterarchy, and the Bioarchaeological Evidence of Labor in the Tiwanaku “State” (AD 500–1100) of Bolivia and Peru (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Becker.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early explorers thought that Tiwanaku was a ritual or pilgrimage center because of its heartland location in the high-altitude, seemingly inhospitable altiplano of Bolivia. Years after “progressing” beyond a ceremonial center, Tiwanaku was fit into the “state” category within a political...

  • Beyond Wari Empire and Inka Analogy: Refining Reconstructions of Wari Power in Middle Horizon Cusco (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Veronique Belisle.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Cusco region of southern Peru, the Middle Horizon has generally been interpreted as a period during which a strong Wari imperial state conquered and then tightly controlled local populations and resources. Research conducted at the large Wari installation of Pikillaqta and at other...

  • Cosmopolitics and Community Reformation in Middle Horizon Jequetepeque (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward Swenson.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In his analysis of Shang authority structures, Campbell attacks the search for ancient states in the archaeological record as founded on “an illusory and anachronistic projection of modern political contingencies” (2009:821). Indeed, a narrow focus on rational leadership strategies or the...

  • The End of Tiwanaku (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexei Vranich.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The manner in which a polity collapses reveals a crucial facet of the relationship between the residents of the site and the surrounding population. For example, a brief, destructive end could indicate an adversarial relationship that boils over into a violent outbreak against an...

  • Local People and the Circulation of Nonlocal Animals and Objects: Rethinking Interregional Mobility in the Arequipa Yunga during the Circum-Wari Era (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Beth Scaffidi. Aleksa Alaica. Luis Manuel Gonzalez La Rosa. Kelly Knudson.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Wari imperial era (ca. AD 600–1000) is known for heightened interregional interaction, evinced by the relative abundance of nonlocal artistic styles throughout the Andes. Wari-era sites generally show greater variability in human 87Sr/86Sr (a marker for nonlocal origins) than other...

  • Political Organization of the Tiwanaku Polity: A View from Copacabana (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stanislava Chavez.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tiwanaku has been described as an expansive state by archaeologists working in the first half of the twentieth century. At that time, the idea of a powerful empire in Bolivian prehistory aided and reinforced the nationalistic political narrative. However, archaeological data does not...

  • Wari and the Southern Peruvian Coast: A Reevaluation (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Jennings. Matthew Biwer. Christina Conlee.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The coast of southern Peru from the Nasca to Moquegua has played a pivotal role in distinct interpretation of the Wari polity. A hard imperial frontier, for example, ran through the region in 1960s models. Nasca and Moquegua were home to important administrative centers in the “mosaic of...

  • What Was Tiwanaku, Really? (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Roddick. Erik Marsh.

    This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 30 years ago, Garth Bawden wrote a prescient review on the "Andean State as a State of Mind." He critiqued Andean scholars for focusing on the state as an analytical unit. He complained that much good scholarship was being ruined due to the "albatross of the state," and urged...