Road Networks of Southern Peru: Connecting Landscapes of Colonialism

Summary

Increasingly relevant to studies of geopolitical state expansion is the role of infrastructure: the networks of communication, travel, and commerce that embed local human landscapes within broader processes of imperialism. In pre-industrial communities, formal roads and highways were often the only localized presence of an overarching state, promising greater interconnectivity and shaping the colonial experience. I utilize geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing applications to model diachronic changes in road/path networks between the Ocoña and Majes Valleys in southern Peru. Ground truthing of roads and waystations suggest a deep prehistory of camelid caravan activity later coopted by the intrusive Wari and Inca highland states. While human settlement on the arid coast is considered to be relegated to the lush river valleys that descend from the highlands, this research suggests major lateral travel occurred across the desert pampa and was supported by associated waystations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Colonial Encounters in the Prehispanic Andes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage