Neither Up nor Down? The Late Intermediate Period Occupation of the Andes-Amazonia Frontier in Southern Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper will examine the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) occupation of the eastern Andean piedmont (1200-3000 masl) in the Province of La Convención, Peru. Based on data obtained from recent archaeological survey and excavations, it will focus mainly on the distinctive spatial patterns of the LIP settlements in the Amaybamba Valley; an ecologically transitional space lying between the Andean and Amazonian regions. This discussion will include 1) the organization of residential structures within the village sites, and the extent to which artifactual evidence for labor activities can be seen to correspond to particular architectural units and clusters—and 2), the overall LIP settlement pattern within the local landscape, with particular attention to mortuary sites. It will be argued that in certain respects, the Amaybamba Valley had distinctive features that set it apart from other contemporary groups in the piedmont (e.g. in the Vilcabamba and Apurímac drainages). In general, substantial internal diversity appears to have typified the LIP occupation of the piedmont regions, and there were also notable contrasts between LIP groups in eastern slopes versus the highlands proper. The paper will conclude with some discussion as to how some of these variations might have come about.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23574