Commensality and Mobility at Pachacamac during the Late Prehispanic Periods

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Movable Feast: Mobility and Commensalism in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

At Pachacamac, the theme of mobility is closely associated with pilgrimage, as well as the reciprocal banquets that occurred at the site during the Late Intermediate period and Late Horizon, across various contexts. In this paper, we present material evidence of these activities from excavations carried out in different parts of the site. Through ongoing zooarchaeological and isotopic analyses, we propose avenues and models for their interpretation. Preliminarily results suggest that significant changes can be identified following the cooptation of the site by the Incas in the fifteenth century. These changes concern the origins of the participants, i.e., the pilgrims, who may have come from more distant regions in the Late Horizon than previously. Additionally, we observe possible changes in scale, with commensal activities under the Incas taking on a greater dimension than before.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• A Movable Feast: Mobility and Commensalism in the Andes

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52464