Through the Forest: North-South Interregional and Intraregional Interaction along the Eastern Edge of the Andes during the Early Intermediate Period

Summary

This paper will examine the intensification of long distance intraregional interaction networks among eastern slope (also known as ceja de selva) populations during the late Early Horizon and Early Intermediate Period. The centuries following the decline of the Chavín and Chorrera cultures are thought to represent a period of balkanization and (eventual) regionalization throughout much of the Central and Northern Andean coastal and highland valleys as previously established interregional interaction networks were discarded in favor of localized self-sufficiency. However, recent archaeological data from the site of Huayurco in the Jaén Region of the northeastern Peruvian Andes suggests that ceja de selva (and some highland) populations from Ecuador and northern Peru continued to engage in both interregional and intraregional long distance exchange through the end of the Early Intermediate Period. Based on the broad patterning of material culture, these networks were seemingly oriented around the Marañón River and its major tributaries. Through a diachronic comparison of the Huayurco data to artifact assemblages from the ceja de selva and Ecuadorian highlands, I will examine the nature of these intra and interregional exchange networks, the mechanisms that held them together, and their impact on long term cultural change within the Andes.

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): 22618