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

Brian R. Billman

doi:10.2307/972222

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

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/972222 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 371-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 68

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.

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Determining Site Function: A North Peruvian Coastal Example

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279464 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 86-97 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Robert R. Kautz ◽

Richard W. Keatinge

Keyword(s):

North Coast ◽

Marine Resources ◽

Moche Valley ◽

The North ◽

Plant Cultivation ◽

Site Function ◽

Subsistence Activities ◽

North Coast Of Peru ◽

Comparative Information ◽

Shed Light

It has long been recognized that certain macro and microanalyses of soil and midden constituents can aid archaeologists in determining the strategy and evolution of subsistence activities as well as in dealing with questions of site function and intra-site variability. Applied to the site of Medaños la Joyada (El 102) located in the Moche valley on the north coast of Peru, these techniques: (1) shed light on a subsistence strategy characterized by plant cultivation and the exploitation of marine resources found associated with the phenomena referred to as “sunken gardens” (Parsons 1968; Rowe 1969; Moseley 1969; Parsons and Psuty 1975); (2) provide comparative information for the data collected by Parsons and Psuty (1975) in their excavation of sunken garden sites located in the Chilca valley on the central coast of Peru; and (3) call into question the utility of the “small site methodology” as outlined by Moseley and Mackey (1972).

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The Management of Late Andean Irrigation Systems on the North Coast of Peru

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/280017 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 227-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Patricia J. Netherly

Keyword(s):

Settlement Patterns ◽

Large Scale ◽

North Coast ◽

Canal System ◽

Sociopolitical Organization ◽

Irrigation Systems ◽

The North ◽

Canal Maintenance ◽

North Coast Of Peru ◽

Political Groups

Documentary research combined with field study has made possible the reconstruction of the sociopolitical organization of the Late Prehispanic Chimu and Chimu-Inca polities of the North Coast of Peru. Many aspects of the management of the large-scale irrigation networks of the region are integrated into that organization. Rights to the water of a particular canal–and to the lands it watered–can be shown to have been vested in socio-political groups which occupied different hierarchical positions according the size of the canal. Maintenance, repair, and distribution of the water were carried out by these groups; there was no centralized state bureacracy to oversee hydraulic affairs. Understanding the organization of the canal system permits a series of hypotheses for the reconstruction of ancient territorial units and the organization of settlement patterns within them.

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The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity

Maritime Communities of the Ancient Andes ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813066141.003.0009 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 247-264

Author(s):

Richard C. Sutter ◽

Gabriel Prieto

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Identity ◽

Genetic Relationship ◽

Initial Period ◽

North Coast ◽

Economic Activities ◽

Moche Valley ◽

The North ◽

Northern Peru ◽

Dental Traits ◽

North Coast Of Peru

Chapter 9 discusses ethnogenesis on the north coast of Peru from the perspective of bioarchaeology at the Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal B.C./3450–1350 cal BP) in the Moche valley in northern Peru. The authors examine the genetic relationship between fishing and contemporary, nearby populations using dental traits. They conclude that Gramalote contrasts sharply with preceding maritime populations of the Peruvian Preceramic Period and exchanged mates with farming populations in the adjacent valley. Ethnic identity here is not coterminous with genetics but rather a result of shared economic activities.

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Economy of a Prehistoric Urban Context: Commodity and Labor Flow at Moche V Pampa Grande, Peru

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279490 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 569-592 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Izumi Shimada

Keyword(s):

Functional Analysis ◽

Sampling Design ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

North Coast ◽

Urban Context ◽

Royal Ontario Museum ◽

The North ◽

Analysis Application ◽

North Coast Of Peru ◽

Pampa Grande

AbstractAs a step toward delineation of prehistoric urbanism on the North Coast of Peru, Royal Ontario Museum teams have conducted intensive structural-functional analysis of “urban context” at the site of Pampa Grande, much of which was last occupied by a Moche V population (ca. A.D. 600-700). Such analysis entails, among other requirements, rigorous temporal control and a systemic conception of archaeological sites, emphasizing interlinkage of various activity loci. The multistage excavation-sampling design devised for the task was based on codification of architectural forms in terms of access pattern and on the belief that ceramically defined “contemporaneity” is inadequate for functional analysis. Application of the method showed that the site contained dispersed loci of low-output craft production, with a labor force commuting from elsewhere and fed by spatially segregated kitchens. An extensive network of corridors and formal storage complexes further attests to a concern with the control of commodity and labor movement.

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

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/971938 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 95-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

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.

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Statecraft and expansionary dynamics: A Virú outpost at Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley, Peru

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1609972113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (41) ◽

pp. E6016-E6025 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jean-François Millaire ◽

Gabriel Prieto ◽

Flannery Surette ◽

Elsa M. Redmond ◽

Charles S. Spencer

Keyword(s):

North Coast ◽

Territorial Expansion ◽

Moche Valley ◽

Political Processes ◽

Regional Control ◽

Delegation Of Authority ◽

The North ◽

Potential Case ◽

Chicama Valley ◽

North Coast Of Peru

Interpolity interaction and regional control were central features of all early state societies, taking the form of trade—embedded in political processes to varying degrees—or interregional conquest strategies meant to expand the polity’s control or influence over neighboring territories. Cross-cultural analyses of early statecraft suggest that territorial expansion was an integral part of the process of primary state formation, closely associated with the delegation of authority to subordinate administrators and the construction of core outposts of the state in foreign territories. We report here on a potential case of a core outpost, associated with the early Virú state, at the site of Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley, located 75 km north of the Virú state heartland on the north coast of Peru. This site is discussed in the context of other possible Virú outposts in the Moche Valley, Pampa La Cruz, and Huaca Las Estrellas, and as part of a broader reflection on expansionary dynamics and statecraft.

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The Early Horizon Site of Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279663 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 100-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Thomas Pozorski

Keyword(s):

Initial Period ◽

Societal Implications ◽

North Coast ◽

Early Date ◽

Moche Valley ◽

The North ◽

The People ◽

Early Horizon ◽

Architectural Planning ◽

North Coast Of Peru

From 1973 to 1974, investigations were carried out at a series of Initial Period and Early Horizon sites known as the Caballo Muerto complex, located in the Moche Valley on the North Coast of Peru. One site, Huaca de los Reyes, contains numerous adobe friezes that are noted both for their wide variety and early date. The amount of labor investment and the degree of architectural planning of the site strongly imply ranked societal divisions of the people responsible for its construction. Differential frieze distribution also supports this contention.

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