Styles, Technology and Identities: Origins and Uses of Provincial Inca Ceramics in Pueblo Viejo-Pucará, a Huarochiri’s Mitmaquna Settlement in the Lurin Valley

Summary

Distribution analysis of provincial Inca pottery in different layers of the residences of Pueblo Viejo-Pucará, including the palace of the curaca, will serve as a starting point to define the differences in access to diverse vessel forms and observe the contexts of use in domestic, funeral, public and ceremonial areas. The excavations in residential and ceremonial architecture carried out in Pueblo Viejo-Pucará, a Late Horizon (1470-1560 A.D.) urban settlement, provided rich and varied evidence of the privileged participation of this mitmaquna population in the distribution network of artifacts that are considered sumptuary. We will contrast evidence of ceramic production to the manufacture of metal artifacts. Previous studies of clays -regarding its origins, pastes and pottery types- suggest that the source materials for provincial Inca ceramics were obtained from the neighboring Rimac valley along with a large number of workshops that also produced ceramics in local styles. The coexistence of architecture, agricultural technologies, pastoralism and funerary behaviors that are typical of the Huarochirí highlands, along with the coastal ceramics and elements of the Inca imperial material culture, demonstrates the complexity of acculturation processes, with multiple identities unfolding during the Inca period.

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): 21305