Ecological Variation and Trajectories of Village Settlement in Formative Cusco

Summary

Regional surveys to the north and west of Cusco demonstrate that the earliest villages (c. 1000 BC – AD 300) are found across a wide elevation range, and in varying contexts of local ecological diversity. This paper considers the role that local resource variation and subsistence practices might have played in the long-term stability of these early communities. Using data from 131 Formative Period sites registered across a 1200 square kilometer study region, we evaluate the surrounding settlement patterns and environmental diversity for the region's 10 largest Formative sites. We then compare local landscape differences with long-term occupational trajectories of these large villages. Local ecological variations associated with Formative villages suggest diverse social and economic practices at the community and regional levels, and we consider different models for the development of village life in this part of the Andean highlands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Framing the Local within the Regional: Current Research in the Cusco Region, Peru

Keywords

Spatial Coverage