Anchoring the Absolute to the Relative: Recent Chronological Research in the Virú Valley, Peru

Summary

For decades north coast specialists worked within a paradigm that viewed the Moche as an expansionist state. Moche fine ware was regarded as a reliable indicator for dating this polity's imperialism over its neighbours, an idea that traces its roots to the Virú Valley Project of the 1940s. Extensive recent field research has led many to question this colonial model, however, and to propose other, more fragmented, geopolitical scenarios. This shift has both undermined the universal usefulness of using fine wares like Moche for building chronologies and constructing political histories, and also underscored the need for refined chronologies in each valley. This shift led us to question the accuracy of the original Virú Valley seriation and to develop a program of radiocarbon dating in Virú. In this paper we present results from this program that sheds light on the political histories and foreign policies of the Virú and Moche polities during the Early Intermediate Period.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Recent Research and a Chronological Reevaluation of the Viru-Moche-Chicama Valleys

Keywords

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