Wari and the Southern Peruvian Coast: A Reevaluation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The coast of southern Peru from the Nasca to Moquegua has played a pivotal role in distinct interpretation of the Wari polity. A hard imperial frontier, for example, ran through the region in 1960s models. Nasca and Moquegua were home to important administrative centers in the “mosaic of control” models of the 1990s. Arequipa was used to emphasize indirect control and influence in 2000s models that questioned imperial reach. These and other models have been useful for understanding the nature of the Wari state, but they often rely on only a few data points to build their case. Extensive research on the southern Peruvian coast and surrounding highlands has occurred over the last 20 years. These data, for the most part, have not yet been assembled and synthesized, limiting our understanding of Wari’s footprint across this broad region. This paper synthesizes the southern Peruvian coast data, and in so doing forces a further reevaluation of Wari political economy that, among other insights, emphasizes the role of preexisting pathways, alliances, ideologies, and non-state actors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32679