The Ties That Bind (and Break): Persistence and Upheaval in the Post-Chavín Landscapes of the Carabamba Plateau and Moche/Virú Chaupiyungas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "After the Feline Cult: Social Dynamics and Cultural Reinvention after Chavín" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Following the dusk of Chavín, the traditional narrative for the Virú and Moche Valleys—as well as many parts of the Northern Andes—has been one of conflict and upheaval. Though the late Early Horizon (~500–200 BCE) and Early Intermediate period (~200 BCE–600 CE) landscapes in these areas surely saw an explosion of fortified and defensive settlements that suggest rampant conflict, overemphasizing such patterns is done at the risk of overshadowing the many examples of persistence and continuity in these same landscapes. Indeed, the post-Chavín highland landscapes of the Carabamba Plateau and Moche/Virú chaupiyungas are rich with evidence for wide interregional networks of exchange, the florescence of large highland demographic and political centers, and the expansion of permanent highland colonies into the chaupiyungas. This paper explores these themes using a landscape perspective that synthesizes the authors’ previous research in the chaupiyungas with a recent highland drone survey conducted during the first season of the Carabamba Archaeological Research Project (CARP). Using these data, we reconstruct and articulate some of the ties that bound these post-Chavín highland and chaupiyunga landscapes together while also calling to attention how such ties perhaps began to unravel with the coastal landscapes below.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• After the Feline Cult: Social Dynamics and Cultural Reinvention after Chavín   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38251.0