A Comparison of Ceramic Compositions from Canchas Uckro (Ancash) and the Cave of the Owls (Huánuco), Peru: Implications for an Upper Amazon Interaction Sphere

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Despite decades of archaeological research, the economic and social ties connecting the eastern Andes and Upper Amazon remain underexplored. Stylistic and compositional comparison of ceramics from the sites of Canchas Uckro (ca. 1100-850 BCE), a large monumental platform situated above the Puccha River, and the Cave of the Owls, on the Monzón River near modern-day Tingo María, help to clarify the nature of interaction in this region during the late Initial Period. This study reanalyzed ceramics from the Cave of the Owls, housed as the Ross Collection at the University of California Berkeley’s Hearst Museum, using a Dinolite handheld microscope to conduct descriptive paste analysis focused on mineral non-plastic inclusions, clay characteristics, and superficial decorative elements. These results were compared with a prior Dinolite study of stylistically similar sherds from Canchas Uckro characterized by zoned-hatching motifs reminiscent of the Wairajirca style of the upper Huallaga region. While the pottery broadly demonstrate different technological styles, the joint use of similar raw materials may support previous hypotheses of an interaction sphere linking the eastern Andes of north-central Peru and the Upper Amazon during the late Initial Period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32507