GIS Analysis of Monumental Structures at the Late Moche Site of Galindo

Summary

The site of Galindo was a major center of the Southern Moche Region during the Late Moche Period (600-900 A.D.) and represents an important temporal transition between Moche-style polities and the Chimú Empire in the Moche Valley. During Galindo’s occupation, monumental construction shifted from adobe mound complexes to walled administrative centers known as cercaduras, suggesting a possibly larger socio-political change in how political power was being negotiated by elites. Working off of the concept of "architecture as artifact", this project aims to examine architectural investment in monumentality during the last years of the waning Moche political tradition. To do this, a 3D map was created using aerial photographs taken with a quadcopter drone and photogrammetry software. The various structures at Galindo were then identified and analyzed using GIS software to attain the necessary data on volume and form to create informed site reconstructions. Site reconstructions were then utilized to understand changes in labor investment, elite access to labor pools, and the form of monumentality through the site’s occupation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21042