War and Peace and the Origins of Political Control in the Central Andean Coast: 3000 BC–AD 600

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The central Andes has a long history of the rise and fall of centralized political organizations, beginning with construction of the first large-scale ceremonial centers in the New World between 3000 and 1800 BC. Some see these early centers as pilgrimage centers, lacking significant political power, while others argue they were urban capitals of the first states in the New World. Likewise, the nature of armed conflict is point of significant debate with some researchers proposing a long period of peaceful social interaction. Drawing on case studies from the Moche and Casma Valleys and the Norte Chico, this paper presents an analysis of the structure of early polities and the role that warfare played in the development of those polities. Analysis of settlement pattern data and excavations at early centers indicates there was considerable variation in the degree of political control at centers. Further, key material correlates of armed conflict, such as fortification and shifts in settlement to defensible settings, are absent until after 500 BC. Although these data are consistent with an absence of armed conflict, we cannot yet exclude the possibility that warfare might have played a role in the formation of early polities in the central Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Warfare and the Origins of Political Control   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35761.0