For decades, archaeologists have explored the emergence of social complexity, typically utilising monumental architecture as a marker for increased urbanisation and social stratification associated with chiefdoms and state-level societies. The current volume questions these traditional models by incorporating case studies from the Central Andes during the first and second millennia BC. Edited by three leading scholars on Early Andean developments, this volume is the culmination of a session held at the Fifty-Fourth International Congress of Americanists in 2012. It comprises contributions from a diverse range of researchers currently conducting active and innovative research throughout Peru. The period of focus, commonly referred to as the Peruvian Formative, is divided into the Initial and Early Horizon periods, and has traditionally been classified by the onset of complex monumental centres, shared religious iconography and the appearance of pottery in the archaeological record. The case studies in this volume are utilised to model shifts in power through monumental architecture, site orientation, pottery style and technology, exchange in copper and obsidian, mortuary architecture, religious iconography and patterns in faunal remains.
Contributions cover distinct centres from three geographic and ecological environmental zones: the coast, the Highlands and Ceja del Selva (cloud forest), making this volume one of the most comprehensive—geographically and chronologically—for the Peruvian Formative. Each chapter speaks to one of five distinct themes: architectural trends and site orientation; exchange/reciprocal networks explored through trade items; ceramics; faunal remains; and mortuary architecture and burials.
Jason Nesbitt's recent archaeological excavations at the Caballo Muerto complex, located on the north coast of Peru, utilise a ‘wealth in people’ model for labour organisation in the construction of monumental sites. Volunteer labourers constructed monuments for spiritual benefit, a sense of communal identity and shared religious ideologies. While the Caballo Muerto complex demonstrates privatised compounds and restricted-access areas within the larger mounds, these were designated more for specialised spiritual leaders, and not necessarily for redistribution or the accumulation of wealth associated with traditional chiefly classes.
Burger and Burger's chapter on Cardal contributes new archaeological evidence for the spatial orientation of early centres. The ritual use of the site can be divided into three different arenas, which were essentially architectural reflections of a ‘dispersion of power’ at multiple levels. The site orientation replicated broader society: larger public spaces associated with central plazas; smaller scale rituals taking place on the lateral mounds (or ‘arms’) that form the U-shape of the complex, designated to different moieties; and the arms of the complex divided still further into clan or ayllu/secret societal spaces associated with smaller, circular sunken plazas. Similarly, in the middle Lurin Valley, Christopher Milan's recent investigations at the site of Anchucaya remind researchers of the importance of focusing not only on large-scale ceremonial centres. Milan's research was carried out in three distinct sectors of the site, revealing that Anchucaya was not its own ceremonial complex, as previously interpreted, but a hamlet associated with the nearby, U-shaped complex of Malpaso.
Eisei Tsurumi's chapter on the Tembladera cultural tradition within the middle Jequetepeque Valley focuses on mortuary architecture in association with the closing of older temples, in an attempt to influence site access and continuation through the ancestors. Similarly, Seki et al.'s chapter describes a purposeful continuation of site orientation and axis by the architects of the Highland site of Pacopampa through three distinct temple phases. This construction incorporated not only elite tombs and earlier religious ideologies, but also the landscape itself into an expression of power that reinforced control by the new leaders at the site. Control of copper object production for long distance exchange also corresponded to the emergence of a more socially complex and hierarchical society at the centre. The authors of this chapter also touch upon the elite female burial found within one of the platforms, referred to as the Lady of Pacopampa, and her association with a distinctively female stone monolith also found at the centre.
Sakai et al. likewise contribute a chapter on Pacopampa, their investigations also focusing on use of the site for control, but, in this case, the layout and orientation of the site are viewed as a means for architects to control access to astronomical observations, and therefore to control esoteric knowledge associated with the planning of harvests and planting.
Inokuchi and Druc's chapter explores stylistic and technological changes in ceramic production at the Highland centre of Kuntur Wasi. Through petrographic and stylistic analysis the authors are able to distinguish changes in long-distance trade and distribution networks for the differing phases at the ceremonial centre. Kuntur Wasi is also the focus for Uzawa's contribution on understanding mortality profiles at this Highland centre; the author identifies a shift from hunting deer to herding camelid—a change which may be associated with contemporaneous environmental degradation.
Ryan Clasby's article on the long-term occupation and developments within the site of Huayurco in the Jaen region—an area in northern Peru that borders Ecuador—illustrates the expansive reach of the socio-political phenomenon occurring in the Central Andes. Ceramic analysis at Huayurco, while still demonstrating links to broader-reaching networks, also points to the importance of more localised traditions in this region: the Jaen region reveals a significantly different and more localised pattern than is seen throughout the Highlands and coast.
Matsumoto's study brings insights from the southern coast and central highland's incorporation of the Chavín tradition. Chavín is the name of the religio-political phenomenon associated with the Highland site of Chavín de Huántar—a monumental religious centre that was the core of religious and economic life and ideologies throughout Peru from the Initial Period. Matsumoto explores the southern extent of Chavín's influence and how its powerful network impacted sites to the south. By 800 BC, the southern complex known as Campanayuq Rumi had transformed into a more hierarchical centre, rejecting earlier local traditions, as evidenced through an exchange in obsidian from the centre of Campanayuq Rumi to Chavín de Huántar. Matsumoto argues that as Campanayuq Rumi became more integrated into the Chavín religio-network of interaction, the site itself became more structured and hierarchical, shifting away from interaction with centres in the south that did not adopt the Chavín tradition. Consequently, by 500 BC, when Chavín's influence began to wane, so too did the site of Campanayuq Rumi, a once independent centre that was now tied to the power and influence of Chavín.
Overall, this volume is an essential new edition not only for Andeanists but also for scholars interested in alternative approaches to the emergence of social complexity and trade/interaction networks.
