The Road to Rayan Is Paved with Good Intentions

Summary

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

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Wilfredo Gambini, the then mayor of the Caceres District (upper Nepeña River Valley) Ancash, Peru, encouraged local campesinos to bring him any artifacts that were found in their local hamlets for his private collecting. From these interactions he compiled a database of archaeological complexes for the region, despite only visiting a small percentage of centers in person. Gambini paid special attention to the area surrounding the village of Rayan. Ceramics from this area can be traced mostly to the Early Intermediate Period, specifically to the Recuay culture. Gambini believed the origin of many of the complete ceramic vessels came from a multistoried Chullpa known as “el Castillo." Survey work and interviews with local community members conducted in 2016, 2019, and 2022 however have revealed a number of additional sites surrounding Rayan, including a clustering of smaller chullpa, a domestic ridge complex, and at least two hilltop mounds. This poster presents on the archaeological vestiges documented during the 2016–2022 survey, and the presence of “Recuay” groups in the upper Nepeña River Valley, expanding on Gambini’s original theories on the provenance of the ceramic vessels which are now part of the Gambini private collection.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37725.0