Towards an understanding of the transition from Paracas to Nasca from a household perspective: Interpreting changes in ceramic consumption at Uchuchuma

Summary

This paper highlights how the study of ancient dwellings and the activities that occurred within them can help archaeologists better understand the dynamic and complex nature of people, their relationships to each other, and the broader society they live in. In the Rio Grande de Nasca Region, Perú, Andean archaeologists assume that the Nasca (A.D. 1–700) developed directly from the Paracas (800–100 B.C.) based on the continuity of some pottery traits and settlement. While there has been extensive amount of research in this area, archaeologists still do not know how daily life was affected by this transition from Paracas to Nasca. This study tests whether Paracas household organization and domestic activities changed along with the development of the emerging Nasca society by comparing both Paracas and Nasca ceramics from a residential archaeological site. Uchuchuma, located in the Aja Valley, has both a Paracas and Nasca domestic occupation, making it the ideal locale for investigating this transition. This more in-depth analysis of Paracas and Nasca ceramic-making traditions (e.g. morphology, technological composition, and decoration) and domestic consumption will shed light on how economic relations were organized among Paracas households, and test whether practices changed or persisted during the Nasca occupation.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• From Foragers to Empires: Recent Research on the South Coast of Peru

Keywords

Spatial Coverage