Mammalian Microfaunal Remains from Khonkho Wankane (Late Formative Period), Mollo Kontu (Middle Horizon Period) and Pukara de Khonkho (Late Intermediate Period) in the Bolivian Altiplano

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Pokines
Author(s):  
Charles R. Ortloff

Irrigation agriculture is a transformational technology used to secure high food yields from undeveloped lands. Specific to ancient South America, the Chimú Empire occupied the north coast of Peru from the Chillon to the Lambeyeque Valleys (Figure 1.1.1) from800 to 1450 CE (Late Intermediate Period (LIP)) and carried canal reclamation far beyond modern limits by applying hydraulics concepts unknown to Western science until the beginning of the 20th century. The narrative that follows examines hydraulic engineering and water management developments and strategies during the many centuries of agricultural development in the Chimú heartland of the Moche River Basin. The story examines how Chimú engineers and planners managed to greatly expand the agricultural output of valleys under their control by employing advanced canal irrigation technologies and the economic and political circumstances under which large-scale reclamation projects took place. The following time period conventions are used in the discussion that follow: Preceramic and Formative Period (3000–1800 BCE) Initial Period (IP) 1800–900 BCE Early Horizon (EH) 900–200 BCE Early Intermediate Period (EIP) 200 BCE–600 CE Middle Horizon (MH) 600–1000 CE Late Intermediate Period (LIP) 1000–1476 CE Late Horizon (LH) 1476–1534 CE. Chimú political power and state development was concentrated in Peruvian north coast valleys. Each valley contained an intermittent river supplied by seasonal rainfall runoff/glacial melt water from the adjacent eastern highlands. Over millennia, silts carried by the rivers from highland sources formed gently sloping alluvial valleys with fertile desert soils suitable for agriculture. An arid environment tied the Chimú economy to intravalley irrigation networks supplied from these rivers; these systems were supplemented by massive intervalley canals of great length that transported water between river valleys, thus opening vast stretches of intervalley lands to farming. The Chimú accomplishments and achievements in desert environment agricultural technologies brought canal-based water management and irrigation technology to its zenith among ancient South American civilizations, with practically all coastal cultivatable intervalley and intravalley lands reachable by canals brought under cultivation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Korpisaari ◽  
Markku Oinonen ◽  
Juan Chacama

The nature and extent of the political and cultural influence of the Tiwanaku state (ca. A.D. 500—1100) in the Azapa Valley of northern Chile are debated topics. The absolute chronology of these contacts also remains somewhat unclear. Much of the debate has centered on the origins and chronological position of the Tiwanaku-related black-on-red ceramic style called Cabuza. In order to reevaluate the chronological position of the Cabuza, Maytas-Chiribaya, and San Miguel ceramic styles and associated cultural phases of the Azapa Valley, we obtained a total of 16 new radiocarbon dates for the Azapa-6, Azapa- 71a, Azapa-141, and Azapa-143 cemeteries. All but one sample dated to the Late Intermediate period (ca.A.D. 1000-1450). We compare our results with previously published radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates and carry out Bayesian probability calculations, establishing the most likely chronological ranges for the three ceramic styles. Based on this research, we argue that the undeniable Tiwanaku influence seen in the Azapa Valley more likely reflects processes set in motion by the collapse of the Tiwanaku state rather than an attempt to colonize or indirectly control the Azapa Valley during the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 550-1000).


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (03) ◽  
pp. 529-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Sharratt

As in other examples of state collapse, political disintegration of the Tiwanaku state circa AD 1000 was accompanied by considerable cultural continuity. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the location of the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the altiplano, settlements and practices associated with this postcollapse cultural continuity are termed Tumilaca. Previous research indicated that Tumilaca was short-lived, with all vestiges of Tiwanaku gone from Moquegua's archaeological record by the thirteenth century when the valley was subsequently characterized by Estuquiña-style materials. This article discusses radiocarbon dates from Tumilaca la Chimba, a village established as the political authority of the Tiwanaku state waned. The 21 absolute dates from Tumilaca domestic, public, and funerary contexts span at least 350 years, from the late tenth to the mid-fourteenth centuries AD. They suggest that (1) Tiwanaku-affiliated communities endured well into the later Late Intermediate Period (AD 1200–1470); (2) ongoing debates about the emergence of Estuquiña communities must consider the role of terminal Tiwanaku populations; and (3) analyses of postcollapse continuity can be enhanced by considering peripheral locales and the particularities of continuity.


1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Parsons ◽  
Charles M. Hastings ◽  
Ramiro Matos M.

We address the general problem of sociopolitical evolution in highland Peru during the Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 1000-1470) from the perspective of changing relationships between herders and cultivators in the Tarama-Chinchaycocha region. First, we use ethnographic and ethnohistoric information to help model central Andean herder-cultivator interaction. Here we emphasize the ecological and sociological foundations for economic specialization, the ritually based integration of pastoral and agricultural groups in the absence of strong state organization, and how the ritually interactive units define and maintain their borders. Second, in the light of these perspectives, we examine archaeological settlement pattern data from our study area in the central highlands of Peru. We conclude that the Late Intermediate period was a time of significant organizational change that included new forms of ritually based local and regional integration of pastoral and agricultural economies. Third, we briefly consider the general implications of our findings for understanding organizational change throughout the central Andean highlands during the Late Intermediate period. We suggest that the largest and most complex Late Intermediate highland polities depended on the full integration of specialized pastoralists and agriculturalists in those regions where both economies could attain maximal combined productivity in the aftermath of the breakdown of large states at the end of the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 600-1000).


2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Rothhammer ◽  
Calogero M. Santoro

The results of an analysis of cranial measurements obtained from 223 skeletal samples, exhumed in 11 archaeological sites of Arica littoral and the Azapa valley, in extreme north Chile are presented. The object of this analysis is to reconstruct the biological history of the prehistoric inhabitants of the coast and the valley, in the context of their interaction with demographically and culturally more developed centers around Lake Titicaca. To this end, an osteological collection exhumed in that region is included in the analysis. The results reveal the microevolution of a coastal population with Andean roots that possibly arrived at the coast of Arica some 9,000 years ago, whose phenotypic features are recognizable until the time of contact with populations of the XVI century. This group gave origin to the inhabitants of the valleys, which during the Formative Period (3,500 B. P.) became farmers. The coastal groups maintained contact with certain groups from the valley (AZ-70). Nevertheless, the characteristic coastal features are accentuated starting from the Late Archaic Period (PLM-7 site), possibly due to genetic drift not compensated for by immigration. During the Formative Period, gene flow occurred from the highlands to the valleys, judging by a decrease in biological distance. This flow reached its maximum intensity in the Middle Horizon and the Late Intermediate Period (AZ-8). It is suggested that the migrations from the highland to the valleys are related to the disintegration of Tiwanaku.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Arkush

In the Late Intermediate Period (ca. A.D. 1000-1450), people in many parts of the Andean highlands moved away from rich agricultural lands to settle in defensive sites high on hills and ridges, frequently building hilltop forts known as pukaras in Quechua and Aymara. This settlement shift indicates a concern with warfare not equaled at any other time in the archaeological sequence. While the traditional assumption is that warfare in the Late Intermediate Period resulted directly from the collapse of the Middle Horizon polities of Wari and Tiwanaku around A.D. 1000, radiocarbon dates presented here from occupation and wall-building events at pukaras in the northern Titicaca Basin indicate these hillforts did not become common until late in the Late Intermediate Period, after approximately A.D. 1300. Alternative explanations for this late escalation of warfare are evaluated, especially climate change. On a local scale, the shifting nature of pukara occupation indicates cycles of defense, abandonment, reoccupation, and wall building within a broader context of elevated hostilities that lasted for the rest of the Late Intermediate Period and beyond.


2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Sutter

This investigation uses a bioarchaeological approach to test the existence of pre-Inka colonists within the Andean coastal valleys of Moquegua, Peru, and Azapa, Chile, as predicted by Murra's (1972) classic model of verticality. The archaeological evidence and biodistance results obtained using genetically controlled dental traits from 859 skeletal and mummified remains indicate that the Late Intermediate period (A.D. 1100-1476) coastal Chiribaya people of the Moquegua Valley, Peru, likely represent descendants of altiplano populations that migrated to the coastal region following the disintegration of the Middle Horizon (A.D. 750-1100) Tiwanaku colony located in the middle Moquegua Valley. In the neighboring Azapa Valley, Chile, genetic change among prehistoric populations was due to gradual in situ microevolution of local populations rather than colonization by altiplano people. Coastal populations of the Azapa Valley maintained biocultural continuity with the Archaic period Chinchorro coastal population. It is concluded that Murra's model of direct verticality should be evaluated using both biological and archaeological data on a case-by-case basis.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.


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