The Force Awakens: The Nature and Chronology of Wari Presence in the Huarmey Valley

Summary

Since the fundamental work of Dorothy Menzel, it has been suggested that a new center of power and prestige arose on the North-Central Coast of Peru during the late Middle Horizon, and that its focal point was probably located in the Huarmey Valley. Unfortunately, this hypothesis has not been empirically confirmed for more than 40 years, due to the lack of strong evidence based on systematic archaeological research. Since 2010 an international team of scholars performs multidisciplinary research at Castillo de Huarmey, a Middle Horizon coastal provincial center and Wari necropolis, where imperial mausoleum with the first undisturbed Wari high elite women’s multiple burial was discovered. Using a broad methodological spectrum, including bioarchaeological and biogeochemical analyses, archaeometry, geoarchaeology, 3D HDS scanning and architectural analysis, the archaeologists brought to light local Middle Horizon cultural panorama and the nature and chronology of Wari imperial presence in its northwestern province.

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): 20648