Beneath the Surface: Steps toward Resolving Gallinazo-Mochica Debates in Peru’s Northern North Coast

Summary

Understanding the role of the widespread yet under-recognized art style known as Gallinazo, its persistence alongside the more conspicuous Mochica art style, and the social factors that facilitated their long-term coexistence on Peru’s North Coast during the first millennium, are primary concerns of this work. Investigation of the Songoy-Cojal site in the mid-Zaña Valley shows that Gallinazo-Mochica coexistence persisted at least until the 8th century CE (based on new C-14 dates). Many problematic assumptions concerning the role of the Gallinazo (e.g., culture, political or non-cultural entity), however, have emerged in recent decades, resulting from the widespread adoption of conventional stylistic and art historical interpretations. In this paper, I operationalize a new practice-based approach which combines concepts of technological style and technological choice, to explore more meaningful dimensions of these artifacts. Combining techno-stylistic, metric and archaeometric (pXRF and NAA) data, and social network analysis (or SNA) techniques, this work takes several steps toward resolving debates over the nature of Gallinazo-Mochica coexistence. Herein, I present new perspectives on the nature of Gallinazo multi-craft production from various work-related activity settings at Songoy-Cojal, finding that long-standing dichotomies between these two distinct stylistic traditions are far more superficial than previously thought.

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): 19972