Pattern and Meaning in Prehistoric Peruvian Architecture: The Architecture of Social Control in the Chimu State

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
North Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
Architectural Element ◽  
Access Patterns ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
North Coast Of Peru ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Archaeologists have studied buildings for decades, but a very narrow range of analytical approaches has been applied to prehistoric architecture. This paper presents a basic theory of architectural meaning, which has as its principal focus the role of access patterns within buildings as a medium of social control. On the north coast of Peru, Andeanists have held an implicit notion about the relation between access patterns and social control, but have lacked the analytical tools to explore this question further. A set of basic tools borrowed from graph theory and locational geography is presented, and discussed, and then applied to a specific set of Prehispanic constructions—the monumental compounds of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu state (A. D. 900-1470). The methods illuminate differences and similarities in the organization of access within the compounds, and they are used to test a hypothesis about the role of a specific architectural element—the U-shaped room—in controlling access within royal compounds at Chan Chan. The results have implications for understanding the nature of social control in the Chimu state and suggest the potential that new analytical methods may have for the study of prehistoric constructions.

scholarly journals Irrigation and the Origins of the Southern Moche State on the North Coast of Peru

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Billman
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
State Evaluation ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

In this paper, I examine the role that irrigation played in the formation of the Southern Moche state in the Moche Valley, Peru. Specifically, I attempt to test Wittfogel and Steward's hydraulic model, which postulates that in certain arid environments, the managerial requirements of construction and maintenance of irrigation systems played a crucial role in the formation of centralized polities. I formulate and evaluate four hypotheses concerning the role of irrigation systems in the Moche Valley. Those hypotheses are then evaluated using settlement pattern data drawn from two surveys that cover the entire coastal section of the valley and provide information on 910 archaeological sites. Based on those data, I present a sequence of political development for the valley from the formation of the first autonomous village in the Late Preceramic period (2500–1800 B. C.) to the zenith of the Southern Moche state. Evaluation of the four hypotheses indicates that the managerial requirements of irrigation were relatively unimportant; rather, warfare, highland-coastal interaction, and political control of irrigation systems created opportunities for leaders to form a highly centralized, territorially expansive state sometime between A. D. 200 and 700.

scholarly journals The Role of the Disaster Preparedness Group in Adapting Abrasion to Communities Affected by Abrasion on the North Coast of Rembang, Central Java

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewi Liesnoor Setyowati ◽  
Puji Hardati ◽  
Andi Irwan Benardi ◽  
Nur Hamid ◽  
Yohanes Dwi Anugrahanto
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
North Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Java

Huaynuná, a Late Cotton Preceramic Site on the North Coast of Peru

1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Pozorski ◽  
Shelia Pozorski
Keyword(s):  
North Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

BIOLOGICAL DISTANCE PATTERNS AMONG THE NORTHERN MOCHE LORDS: DENTAL PHENOTYPES AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN ANCIENT PERU

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haagen D. Klaus ◽  
Walter Alva ◽  
Steve Bourget ◽  
Luis Chero
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Biological Distance ◽  
R Matrix ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The North ◽  
Limited Gene Flow ◽  
Dental Traits ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

Between AD 100 and 800, the Moche culture emerged on the north coast of Peru. Diverse debates surround the nature of Moche territorial and political centralization, sociopolitical identities, and the internal social diversity of Moche society. Here we address some of these issues in a biodistance study based on phenotypic variation of inherited dental traits within and between 36 individuals in the royal tombs of Sipán (Lambayeque valley), Úcupe (Zaña valley), and Dos Cabezas (Jequetepeque valley). Metric and nonmetric dental trait data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster and R-matrix analyses. The results independently indicate that the highest-level Sipán and Dos Cabezas lords likely represented different endogamous kin groups, while limited gene flow occurred between groups of Moche lower nobility between the Lambayeque and Jequetepeque regions. Although biology and material cultural link the Lord of Úcupe to Dos Cabezas, many objects in his tomb demonstrate his participation the world of the Sipán elites. These Moche lords were, on some levels, bioculturally interconnected. Nonetheless, the data broadly lend support to a “many Moches” model of sociopolitical structure, further casting doubt on earlier one-dimensional visions of a centralized hegemonic Moche polity.

A levee breach induced by internal erosion in Western Australia.

2021 ◽  
pp. qjegh2021-037
Author(s):  
Scott Davidson ◽  
Paul Baker
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Internal Erosion ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Sandy Gravel ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The North ◽  
Levee Breach ◽  
Piping Erosion ◽  
A Site

This case study presents a levee breach induced by piping erosion under cyclonic conditions in 2019. The levee is a 2.5 m high, 500 m long, mass earth fill embankment; with no cut-off trench, core, or ancillary structures. Located near Port Hedland on the north coast of Western Australia; its purpose is diversionary, to redirect cyclonic surface water away from the nearby Great Northern Highway. The levee was founded directly on Alluvium in 1987; and formed of locally sourced clayey sandy gravel. In 2003, the levee was partially excavated to enable the placement of a buried pipeline through the levee.Following a cyclonic event in 2019, a 27 m length of the levee breached, resulting in significant scour of the foundation and downstream soil. A site visit and investigation were conducted shortly thereafter, where in situ testing and laboratory soil tests on the levee and foundation materials were conducted.Analysis of the site observations and laboratory testing data led to the probable failure mechanism being theorised as having been initiated within the foundation by piping erosion within sand-rich beds of Alluvium. The large quantity of water ponding upstream of the levee then caused a progressive washout and breach of the levee.Thematic collection: This article is part of the Role of water in destabilizing slopes collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/Role-of-water-in-destabilizing-slopes

The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-128
Author(s):  
Tom D. Dillehay
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Human Presence ◽  
Social Correlates ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chicama Valley ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

Chapter 4 summarizes the construction, subsistence, and social correlates of Huaca Prieta, a mound site in the lower Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru, from the earliest evidence of human presence in the Late Pleistocene (ca. 12,500 14C BP) through abandonment at 3,800 14C BP. Marine resources were important throughout the sequence, which saw an early advent of agriculture and increasing population, complexity, and monumentality.

Life, Death, and Burial of Children on the North Coast of Peru

2018 ◽  
pp. 126-170
Author(s):  
Haagen D. Klaus
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Hispanic Children ◽  
Contextual Data ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
Cultural Perception ◽  
The North ◽  
Blood Sacrifice ◽  
Health Burdens ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

This chapter examines bioarchaeological data funerary patterns, and other contextual data derived from a sample of nearly 900 subadults who lived and died in the Lambayeque region of Peru's north coast from A.D. 900 to 1750. Paralleling various ethnohistoric perspectives, stark paleodemographic under-representation of the young in cemeteries and the preference for children as blood sacrifice victims points to the possibility that late pre-Hispanic Lambayeque childhoods involved meanings, symbolisms, and identities radically different from that of adults. Pre-Hispanic childhood may have been a liminal state, bridging supernatural and human realms. Following the Spanish conquest, indigenous experiences of childhood changed radically. Multiple skeletal indicators show that, when compared to pre-Hispanic children, many Colonial children bore much greater health burdens. Practices of childcare also changed, as millennia-old cradle boarding practices ceased rapidly in some areas. Alterations of childcare and inclusion of children into Colonial cemeteries indicates distinct changes in the cultural perception of childhood. However, the differential mortuary treatment of various children suggests that the young were still somehow distinct, as probably conceptualized in a hybrid Euro-Andean framework into the mid-18th century.

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