The Wari Occupation of the Site of Kaninkunka in the Cusco Region of Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The nature of Wari presence in the Cusco region of southern Peru during the Middle Horizon (600-1000 CE) is debated. In this area, the Wari state built large installations at Pikillaqta and in the neighboring Huaro Valley. Excavations in the Wari colony have demonstrated the strong Wari identity of its occupants along with their political ambitions, while excavations at sites outside the colony suggest that people living in villages further away were little affected by Wari presence. To further document the nature of Wari presence in Cusco and examine the relationships between Wari colonists and local communities, we excavated at Kaninkunka in the Huaro Valley. Unlike previous descriptions of the site as a Tiwanaku pyramid, our fieldwork revealed several Wari monumental structures, including a niched hall and a series of conjoined rooms. In addition, we uncovered many artifacts of Wari manufacture, such as Wamanga and Chakipampa pottery, large obsidian projectile points from the Quispisisa outcrop, turquoise-colored beads, and worked Spondylus. Results indicate that Kaninkunka was a Wari space used for non-domestic purposes. The small proportion of local material culture further suggests that its occupants sometimes interacted with local communities, albeit at a much smaller scale than those at Pikillaqta.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38325.0