Hillfort Horizons: Rethinking Violence and Egalitarianism during the Andean Late Intermediate Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Central Andes, the era immediately prior to the consolidation of the Inca Empire is known as the Late Intermediate period (LIP, ca. AD 1000–1450), traditionally seen as a "stateless" time between episodes of political centralization. Both Inca and Spanish accounts from the early colonial period cast it in a very negative light; a time beset by chaos, violence, and barbarism. Obviously, such sources must be read in a propagandistic light, seeking to justify both Inca and Spanish imperialism by presenting them as agents of "order" and good government. And yet, the archaeological record for the Late Intermediate period does not permit us to entirely dismiss these accounts, at least with respect to their claims about incessant conflict. One of the more distinctive features of the LIP was an unprecedented and widespread proliferation of hillforts, typically interpreted as reflecting an increase in petty warfare and associated political "balkanization." In this paper, I ask: What kind of social order actually underlay the hillfort horizon of the LIP? In particular, I will explore the archaeological evidence that suggests a link between militarism and the emergence of surprisingly egalitarian LIP polities, some of which might even warrant the label "urban."

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36044.0