Characterizing the Relationship Between Two Early States of the Andes: The Moche, The Wari and the Product of their Contact. An Archaeological and Archaeometric Perspective

Summary

This paper explores from an archaeological, anthropological, and archaeometric standpoint the relationships between two early states in Andean prehistory: the Moche of the North Coast (AD 400 - 850) and the Wari of the Southern Highlands of Peru (AD 600 – 1,000.) In spite of many theoretical models that have been proposed to explain the nature of this relationship, little attention has been paid to analyzing the material expressions of such interaction. This paper focuses on one such expression of this contact: the Moche-Wari hybrid ceramic styles found at the archaeological site of San José de Moro (SJM), an important Moche ceremonial center located in the Jequetepeque Valley.

An archaeometric analysis on a set of Moche as well as hybrid pieces coming from SJM was conducted in order to characterize, chemically and structurally, these styles and their technological relatedness. The methods employed in this study were OM, CL, SEM, XRD and pXRF. Our results revealed that new technological styles emerged not only as a consequence of interchanging design motifs, but also as a product of the technological transfer of raw materials, and manufacturing, decoration, and firing techniques that occurring in the context of high dynamism and variability in the Andes.

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Cite this Record

Characterizing the Relationship Between Two Early States of the Andes: The Moche, The Wari and the Product of their Contact. An Archaeological and Archaeometric Perspective. Luis Armando Muro, Nino Del Solar, Luis Jaime Castillo, Remy Chapoulie. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 396353)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -93.691; min lat: -56.945 ; max long: -31.113; max lat: 18.48 ;