Investigating Huari Urban Residences: An Overview of the 2017-18 Excavations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Seeing Wari through the Lens of the Everyday: Results from the Patipampa Sector of Huari" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations in an ancient non-elite area of Patipampa, Huari reveal remarkable new information about vernacular environments of the early city. Architectural remains consist of a limited range of very distinctive buildings, where life was probably ground-oriented, and experience of the city emphasized dark and enclosed spaces communicated via labyrinthine routes. However, residents ate well, probably feasting frequently in elaborate social and religious rituals. Quotidian life may have been organized around mortuary rooms where local ancestors were interred, although none of these tombs have been found intact. Huari residential buildings experienced complex histories of occupation, abandonment, and re-purposing that resulted in deep stratigraphy, complex sequences of floors and multiple occupation surfaces. Water was apparently a problem in the city, and carefully constructed canals are found below numerous floors. What was probably "common space" in patios shows multiple remodelings, suggesting dynamic processes governing some kinds of space, through time. These new characterizations provide a basis for comparing Huari residential buildings at other Wari and non-Wari architecture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Seeing Wari through the Lens of the Everyday: Results from the Patipampa Sector of Huari   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24391