An Alternative Pattern of Coalescence: A Study of Architecture and Organization at a Non-fortified, Pre-Inca Town in the Southern Highlands of 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 presents a detailed analysis of architecture and spatial organization at Maukallaqta de Nuñoa, a pre-Inca site in the highlands of southern Peru. Maukallaqta was constructed at a time when societies across much of the central Andean highlands were constrained by persistent threats of violence and political decentralization, as indicated by the coalescence of large communities perched atop hills with large man-made walls, reinforced natural defenses, sweeping views to survey the surrounding landscape, and often very little in the way of permanent architecture other than relatively simple ‘round-house’ foundations and defensive walls. Contrasted by its immediate neighbors which all conform to these patterns, Maukallaqta’s residential sector is distinguished by the presence of over 400 well-made domestic structures of relatively uniform size, form, construction, and orientation along with several dozen above-ground chullpa burial towers scattered throughout. The organization and spatial relation of these structures in addition to the site’s non-fortified nature provide immediate clues as to the exceptional use of this space during this time. Preliminary results based on site-wide architectural mapping and further GIS analysis focus on comparing site planning, use of space, and nature of social life at Maukallaqta with that of contemporaneous hillforts in the Andes.

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): 26078