Fortification and Infrastructures of Security in the Late Prehispanic Colca Valley - Arequipa, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Warfare: Global Perspectives on Defense and Fortification" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fortifications are among the most enduring material records of warfare in the archaeological past. Studies of fortification often emphasize the importance of defensive walls, not only in preventing enemy intrusion, but also in controlling movement and delineating insiders and outsiders. This focus on enclosure draws our attention to the space within the walls, conveying an image of fortification as a static locus of control and refuge. The process of fortification, however, involves a defense of space that extends beyond defensive walls through lines of sight, surveillance, and the channeling of movement. This paper reconceptualizes fortification as infrastructures of security: dynamic networks of built features that facilitated the flow of people, plants, animals and goods under conditions of insecurity. We apply this perspective to a cluster of defensive settlements, outposts, and landscape features in the Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru) dating to the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1450), a period of Andean prehistory marked by warfare. Taking a microregional and multi-site perspective, we argue that fortification here formed an infrastructure centered on food security. This expanded view situates fortification as a generative process of securing the landscape that transforms and produces the spaces of daily life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Theorizing Warfare: Global Perspectives on Defense and Fortification

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50899