Skilled Craftsmen, Ancestors Cult, and Hegemonic Strategies of the Wari Empire

Summary

The comparison of new evidence obtained from Pachacamac and Castillo de Huarmey sites sheds new light on the character of Wari presence on the Peruvian Coast. Both sites are contemporary (Late Middle Horizon, ca. 800 - 1100 AD) and most new information comes from funerary contexts. In both cases, imitations of foreign styles, originated in the south coast and highlands, as well as the local ones are present in the iconography found in the offerings. Recent analyzes lead us to the conclusion that most artifacts were locally produced by local and foreign artisans, except for rare portable items such as wooden artifacts and textiles. Additionally, the character of the iconography corpus does not correspond to the hypothesis of the existence of Wari religious proselytism since the local traditions prevail in the forms and possible iconography content known from both sites. Rather, the presence of an imperial power with hegemonic character manifests in the reorganization of production, symbols of power, and in the diffusion of new funerary paradigm.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21659