The Use of Balances in Late Andean Prehistory: Merchants or Bureaucrats?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Political Economies on the Andean Coast" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In prehistory, scales were used by both merchants and bureaucrats and their use had profound impacts on economic and administrative practices. Research in the Andes has not critically addressed the role of balances in political economies, but their presence throughout the Andean coast highlights the need to explore how they were used and by whom. This paper describes research on Andean balances from the Chincha Valley and museum collections that reveals variation in Andean balances that is linked to how they were used. Furthermore, the paper presents the first dates of Andean balances, demonstrating that they were used in the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1100–1400), Late Horizon (AD 1400–1532), colonial period (AD 1532–1821), and into the modern day. To conclude, the paper explores how balances could have been used by merchants and bureaucrats and highlights the importance of understanding the use of balances alongside research on currency, storage practices, long-distance exchange, and community integration on the coast. Alongside the major political transformations that occurred from AD 1100 to 1821, the use and prevalence of balances also shifted.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Political Economies on the Andean Coast   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35919.0