Beyond Borders at the End of a Millennium: Life in the Western Andes circa 500–50 BCE

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Beyond Borders at the End of a Millennium: Life in the Western Andes circa 500–50 BCE" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Borders and boundaries—political, temporal, environmental, stylistic—have shaped the trajectory of Andean archaeology. While archaeologists seek to communicate beyond such boundaries, the late Early Horizon/Final Formative (ca. 500/400–200/50 BCE) remains a period in Andean history in which geographic boundaries continue to shape dialogue. This session moves beyond the invisible boundaries and opens dialogue across western South America. The only boundary suggested for this session is to address contexts dating to part of the ca. 500/400–200/50 BCE date range. Generally, findings on this time range have identified intensification of trade, exchange, and migration; marked differences in food patterns, metallurgy, and craft work (beyond gold); increased fortifications; and the emergence of social inequality. This session seeks to move beyond relationships with / events following the collapse of Chavín. It is productive to identify what groups shared across the Andes to truly appreciate their local differences and what those differences mean for the trajectory of Andean history. This session brings archaeologists of various regions, specialties, and countries together to explore the commonalities and differences beyond temporal, political, environmental, and stylistic boundaries to have regionally robust dialogue.