Ceramics from Zorropata, a Middle Horizon Las Trancas Habitation Site in Nasca, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Early in the Middle Horizon (c. AD 650-1000), the Wari Empire expanded from its Ayacucho

homeland and established at least three colonies in the SNR: Pacheco, Pataraya, and Inkawasi in the northern valley of the Southern Nasca Region. Pacheco, located in the Nasca Valley, was a probable Wari administrative/ceremonial center. Additional Wari-affiliated sites, including Inkawasi, Pacapacarí, and Lambrasniyoq, are present in the zone upriver from the Nasca valley system leading to Ayacucho. In the Las Trancas Valley just west of Zorropata, Huaca del Loro was the largest Middle Horizon site in the Nasca region. Previously interpreted as a local Nasca stronghold against Wari power, new research suggests that Huaca del Loro has architectural and artifactual traits that link it to the Wari heartland as a colony vital to imperial control. Within this regional context, this paper discusses ceramic vessels at Zorropata employing the typological classification of the assemblage and INAA analyses of polychrome finewares. Previous regional INAA studies observed a pattern of Early Intermediate Period polychrome fineware production near the regional ceremonial center, Cahuachi. INAA results from Zorropata support previous clay source studies and indicate that local polychrome fineware ceramic production continued during the Middle Horizon despite Wari encroachment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36243.0