Evaluating Wari Impact on Regional Trade Networks: Patterns of Obsidian Exchange in Cusco, Peru before and during the Middle Horizon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Middle Horizon (600-1000 CE) in the Central Andes was a time of important changes due to the expansion of the Wari and Tiwanaku states. Many scholars have argued that these polities, the Wari in particular, had a major economic impact on local communities, including the disruption of regional exchange networks and the reorientation of long-distance trade to the benefit of state elites. Obsidian data are particularly well suited to test this idea since provenience studies can trace the exact origin of obsidian artifacts. In this paper, we present new obsidian data from three sites in the Cusco region dating from the Late Formative to the Middle Horizon (Ak’awillay, Yuthu, and Bandojan) to document the organization of trade networks through time and Wari impact on the local economy. A portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer was used to determine the provenance of obsidian items recovered in horizontal excavations. Results indicate the emergence of trade with Wari-affiliated partners in the Middle Horizon, but also continuity in exchange networks through time, including those associated with the Titicaca Basin despite Wari presence in Cusco. These data suggest that, like other early states worldwide, the Wari polity had a limited impact on regional trade.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24000