The Chincha Valley, Peru: Analyzing Its Settlement Patterns and Urban Centers

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From the Paracas Culture to the Inca Empire: Recent Archaeological Research in the Chincha Valley, Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The study of settlement systems is an important component in archaeologists’ efforts to understand how valley-wide or multi-valley polities change over time. Settlement studies often rely on site size, site location, site layout, and site chronologies to determine the changing relationships among sites and to explore changes to political and socioeconomic organization. This presentation discusses (1) the degree of centralization of the Chincha polity through time and (2) the changes that occurred during the Late Horizon (AD 1470-1532, the time period of Inca occupation). The Chincha Valley provides a rich opportunity to explore settlement systems due to its history of archaeological surveys and excavations. In addition to utilizing the data from those surveys and excavations, I draw on other cases throughout the world and my own excavations at the site of Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley. Data from Las Huacas’ Complex N1 demonstrate that large-scale changes occurred in the economic organization and activities conducted there during the Late Horizon. The presentation concludes by comparing the Chincha case to the north coast of Peru.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Paracas Culture to the Inca Empire: Recent Archaeological Research in the Chincha Valley, Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23470