The Extraordinary Case of the Late Preceramic Norte Chico

Summary

The Late Preceramic Period was a time of dramatic cultural transformations in the Central Andes. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C., at least 30 large, sedentary agricultural settlements with monumental architecture appeared between the Huaura and Fortaleza river valleys in a region known locally as the "Norte Chico" ("Little North"). Since the publication of Moseley’s The Foundations of Maritime Civilizations (1975), the north central coast of Peru has been viewed as an exceptional case in global prehistory. Although this precocious development has been a subject of study since that time, research has focused almost exclusively at the site-level. Such a narrow focus has obscured the analytical value of the Norte Chico region as a regional phenomenon. By adopting a broader perspective, I will demonstrate what the Late Preceramic cultural landscape of the Norte Chico region can tell us about social interaction, power relations, and cultural complexity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20089