Understanding the Evolution of Social Organization in Pre-Inka Cusco, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Understanding past landscape use in Peru can provide important insights into human social organization. This research takes systematic regional survey data and maps likely settlements and patterns of travel using Geographic Information System. Specifically, the transition to agropastoral village life in the Cusco region during the Late Formative (600 BCE-200 CE) may help make inferences about human behaviors. This data looks at potential locations of prehistoric settlement — their estimated size, visibility, and types of artifacts found on the surface — in the Sacred Valley and surrounding areas. Using viewsheds and catchment areas of 1, 2, and 4 hours, we estimate the potential areas of interaction between each of the eight largest sites in the survey areas. Further, our results show that the location of sites may have affected their long term success on the landscape. Studying pre-Inka societies and what they left behind allows exploration of the evolution of social organization. This research offers a better understanding of how sites were connected to each other and their overall persistence through time. This study aids in understanding where humans historically settled, why they settled in these areas, and how far they needed to travel for resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52996