Middle Horizon Cusco and Long-Distance Networks: Reconciling Spatial Variation through a Zooarchaeological Lens at Ak’awillay, Peru

Summary

The ten years of research at the Middle Horizon site of Ak’awillay in the Cusco region of Peru have attested that local elites were the main interlocutors of trade with Wari colonists (Bélisle, 2013). In the era of interdisciplinary research, zooarchaeological methods have the capacity to shed new light on patterns that are seen in other material remains. In the case of the Middle Horizon (AD600-1000) contexts of Ak’awillay, new insights into the extent of trade networks and long-distance interaction are visible through the faunal record. The presence of sea lion, penguin, and coastal shell within house contexts dominated by New World camelids demonstrates that the villagers of Ak’awillay had access to long-distance exchange networks. A comparison between the public building and house contexts further reveals that these exotic species where not exclusively used and discarded in public areas but also kept within private domestic spaces. This paper will argue that the presence and use of exotic species, which could have been distributed by local elites to their loyal followers during large feasts, are possible evidence for the interconnectedness of Ak’awillay to coastal and highland communities without the dominance of Wari influence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20849