Urban Planning, Neighborhoods, and the Organization of Residential Space at the Early Horizon Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash, Peru

Summary

This paper examines and compares the spatial organization of residential compounds in order to reconstruct patterns of neighborhood and urban life at the Early Horizon of Caylán (800-1 BC), Nepeña Valley, north-central coast of Peru. Systematic surface mapping combined with limited horizontal excavations indicate that the urban core of the ancient city was composed of more than 40 residential complexes articulated through a series of streets and corridors. Detailed first-hand mapping of streets and accessways indicate that each compound had an independent entrance linked to one of the dozen or more cross-cutting streets at the site. In this paper, we analyze the location, spatial organization, and architecture of the different residential compounds in order to evaluate intra-site variability and potential social differences between Caylán co-resident neighborhoods. Results from test units and block excavations from various compounds help in assessing the contemporaneity of the different sectors of the site and possible changes through time. Gamma analyses of the depth and complexity of residential complexes across the co-resident neighborhoods shed light on the heterogeneity of Early Horizon cityscapes in the Central Andes.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Theorizing and Excavating Neighborhoods

Keywords

Spatial Coverage