Tradition and Transformation during the Middle Horizon to LIP Transition: Visual and Compositional Analyses of Tumilaca and Estuquiña Pottery in the Moquegua Valley, Peru

Summary

In many Andean regions, the shift from the Middle Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period, or LIP, is archaeologically identified by stylistic changes. In the Moquegua valley, southern Peru, LIP (ca. AD 1250-1476) Estuquiña architecture and portable material culture is starkly different from that associated with terminal Middle Horizon (ca. AD 950-1200) Tumilaca populations. Until recently Tumilaca settlements were thought to have been completely abandoned prior to the appearance of Estuquiña styles. Incorporating both visual analyses of and compositional derived from LA-ICP-MS analyses of Tumilaca and Estuquiña pottery, I complement the long recognized stylistic distinctions by examining the transformation of productive practices and the organization of ceramic production as Moquegua underwent processes of population replacement and cultural change. Drawing in particular on material from Tumilaca la Chimba, a site with an Estuquiña occupation partially superimposing a Tumilaca occupation, I propose that the ceramic data suggest a more nuanced and complex picture of the transition from the terminal Middle Horizon to the LIP which, in tandem with new radiocarbon dates and excavation data, challenges the assumed temporal break between terminal Middle Horizon and LIP occupations in Moquegua and instead raises the possibility of a period of social interaction between communities.

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): 19971