The Effect of Imperial Conquest on Regional Settlement Patterns: A Case Study from the Peruvian South Coast between ca. 1000–1532 CE

Summary

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

Archaeological research clearly demonstrates that imperial expansions have significant effects on regional settlement patterns. One region where imperial conquests affected social life is the Peruvian south coast. During the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, ca. 1000–1450 CE), the region was controlled by localized polities such as the Chincha and Huarco. With the expansion of the Inka empire and the beginning of the Late Horizon (LH, ca. 1450–1532 CE), these local polities either submitted to Inka hegemony or were otherwise incorporated into the empire. This shift in power should be reflected in settlement patterns across the south coast as people dispersed, aggregated, or moved to adapt to life under Inka rule. While previous archaeological research in the region has traditionally focused on a single site or valley, this analysis casts a wider net in order to explore macro-regional patterns by synthesizing decades of survey data concerning the LIP and LH in the Cañete, Topará, Chincha, and Pisco Valleys. This exploration forms the foundation of a developing geospatial analysis that examines how and why settlement patterns on the south coast shifted after Inka expansion.

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): 24678