Coastal-Highland Interactions at the End of Moche: Investigating Vertical and Horizontal Archipelagos as Reflected in Pastoral Strategies in the Cañoncillo Region, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists have conducted important work on long-distance interactions during the Middle Horizon of the south-central Andes (Bélisle et al. 2020; Castillo et al. 2012; Jennings 2010). Camelid herding provided a critical means of exchange along both horizontal and vertical archipelagos facilitating the movement of Cajamarca, Wari, and Moche goods to principal ceremonial-administrative centers during Late Moche period. Isotopic studies that reveal the prevalence of camelids from nonlocal origin demonstrating that foreign herders and delegates were traveling long distances to engage in economic transactions and political negotiations. At the Middle Horizon sites of Huaca Colorada and Tecapa, we have documented evidence of Cajamarca fineware yet limited access to Wari style ceramics. The faunal assemblages from these sites further demonstrate the continued importance of feasting during the Late Moche-Transitional phase. However, despite such continuities, elites maintained greater access to nonlocal camelids that may have arrived from the northern and southern highlands. Despite a lack of dense Wari related material culture in the southern Jequetepeque Valley, I argue that the consistent interaction between Moche elites and delegates from Cajamarca suggest camelids enabled exchange relations that underwrote highland patronage and even cooption of Moche huacas in the late Middle Horizon (Spence-Morrow 2019; Swenson 2012).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32360