COPING WITH CONFLICT: DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES AND CHRONIC WARFARE IN THE PREHISPANIC NASCA REGION

Summary

Warfare was a significant sociopolitical practice throughout the Andes during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450). A salient research topic within broader investigations of conflict is how populations cope with chronic warfare. This article utilizes statistical and GIS-based analyses of architectural features and settlement patterns to reconstruct defensive coping mechanisms among fortified settlements in the Southern Nasca region of Peru. Specifically, this research evaluates how populations deployed artificial defenses (fortifications), natural defensibility, and settlement placement to best protect themselves and critical resources from enemy incursions. Results demonstrate that slope was the most significant factor guiding the construction of intra-site fortifications. Patterns in inter-site fortification were primarily driven by population size, whereby the smallest most vulnerable settlements constructed significantly more fortification features. Settlement patterns show that natural defensibility, large viewsheds, and proximity to economic resources dictated the selection of occupation locations. This research demonstrates that LIP populations made optimal trade-offs between competing defensive variables, reveling a pattern of complex and coordinated decisions directed towards regional defensive strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14448