Understanding the ceja de selva in relationship to the Central Andean coast and highlands during the Early Horizon

Summary

Andean archaeologists have long debated the degree to which the ceja de selva or eastern Andean montane forest was involved within the larger historical processes that led to the development of sociopolitical complexity in Central Andean highlands and coast. For some scholars such as Julio C. Tello and Donald Lathrap, the apparent tropical forest influence in Chavín iconography as well as the similarity of eastern slope ceramics to contemporary highland and coastal assemblages suggested that the region was well connected to events happening in the Central Andes during the Initial Period and Early Horizon. While this debate was long hampered by a lack of research, a recent surge of investigations in the ceja de selva have provided new insights into the type of societies that developed in the region. This paper will attempt to synthesize these results using new evidence from the site of Huayurco in the northeastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes to better contextualize the role of the ceja within Early Horizon interaction networks. Particular emphasis will be placed onto the degree to which the ceja participated within the Chavín sphere of interaction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Social Complexity in the Central Andean Region: Current Research on the Initial Period and Early Horizon Part 2

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