Los Casma del Sur: Interpreting Domestic Activities at the Southern border of the Casma Polity.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Casma State Material Culture and Society: Organizing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Archaeological Evidence of a Re-emergent Ancient Polity" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeological research conducted at the El Campanario site, located in Peru’s Huarmey Valley, is oriented towards understanding Casma household production and consumption, which has resulted in the identification of various activities linked to pottery production, spinning, and food preparation. While El Campanario was occupied over different periods, absolute dating place the domestic areas between AD 1151 and 1280, which indicates the site’s occupation during the Late Intermediate Period. Possible episodes of rainfall associated with El Niño could have caused the abandonment of these domestic areas at the site. The analysis of pottery sherds shows that the production of ceramic vessels occurred at the household level, whereby potters relied on local raw materials. The most common material in the manufacture of textile was cotton, which was locally produced; however, the presence of cotton-wool and wool textiles indicates the use of alternative materials and a possible long distant exchange with highland communities. Although, it is been argued that the Casma was a centralized state, data from El Campanario suggest that the inhabitants maintained their independence and probably created a separate cultural identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Casma State Material Culture and Society: Organizing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Archaeological Evidence of a Re-emergent Ancient Polity   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24461