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Ritual and power in the urban hinterland : religious pluralism and political decentralization in late Moche Jequetepeque, Peru /
Abstract
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, June 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract. Photocopy.
... Some of these fortified sites were temporary defensive localities for populations living at larger sites, or individual refuge sites for rural hinterland centres (Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004;Wai 2019). Hilltop forts in the foothills of the Santa and Moche Valleys vary in their degree of design complexity, incorporating settlement and ceremonial zones (Topic & Topic 1987;Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004). ...
... Some of these fortified sites were temporary defensive localities for populations living at larger sites, or individual refuge sites for rural hinterland centres (Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004;Wai 2019). Hilltop forts in the foothills of the Santa and Moche Valleys vary in their degree of design complexity, incorporating settlement and ceremonial zones (Topic & Topic 1987;Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004). Many would suffice only as temporary refuges from conflict, while others are considerably more complex arrangements with domestic and ritual architecture. ...
... Evidence of community defence is clear in the presence and form of massive stone defensive walls and rock cut ditches at the Jequetepeque Valley sites of Cerro Chepen, Cerro Faclo and Cerro Prieto Espinal (Swenson 2004;Dillehay et al. 2009;Wai 2019). But it is far more difficult to identify weapons used in attack and, in truth, there is minimal evidence of these sites ever having been raided. ...
The north coast of Peru is among the most extensively surveyed regions in the world, yet variation in research questions, sampling strategies and chronological and geospatial controls among survey projects makes comparison of disparate datasets difficult. To contextualise these issues, the authors present a systematic survey of satellite imagery focusing on hilltop fortifications in the Jequetepeque and Santa Valleys. This digital recontextualisation of pedestrian survey data demonstrates the potential of hybrid methodologies to substantially expand both the identification of archaeological sites within difficult terrain and, consequently, our understanding of the function of defensive sites.
... Las investigaciones arqueológicas en el valle de Jequetepeque más allá de San José de Moro indican tanto el dinamismo como la diversificación de las prácticas religiosas moche durante el Horizonte Medio, hacia los intensificados contactos con las organizaciones políticas de la sierra, más notablemente Cajamarca, inmediatamente al este (Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004;Swenson et al. 2010;Castillo 2010; Watanabe, este número). Adicionalmente, la investigación de los asentamientos rurales construidos sobre colinas litorales, sugiere que la división por géneros de las prácticas políticas y religiosas estructuraban las dinámicas sociales intrarregionales. ...
... Dillehay y Kolata han alcanzado conclusiones similares, y su prospección indicó que el Periodo Moche Tardío en la región estaba definido por el conflicto intestino y la descentralización (Dillehay 2001;Dillehay y Kolata 2004;Dillehay et al. 2009). Mi investigación sobre el ritualismo rural y las prácticas arquitectónicas corrobora adicionalmente la fragmentación política de Jequetepeque, que fue testigo de una popularización sin precedentes de las prácticas religiosas moche (Swenson 2004(Swenson , 2006(Swenson , 2008. La ascendencia del culto de la Sacerdotisa en el norte y la involución general del poder político estuvieron indudablemente relacionadas a las ya mencionadas fluctuaciones ambientales y demográficas (Dillehay y Kolata 2004;Moseley et al. 2008). ...
... Durante nuestras dos primeras temporadas de excavación fueron recuperados una gran cantidad de cerámica de Línea Fina, ornamentos de cobre, concha Spondylus, y variados restos de alimentos nutritivos. De hecho, se ha recuperado más cerámica de Línea Fina y objetos de cobre en Huaca Colorada que en todas las excavaciones en sitios Moche Tardío con arquitectura ceremonial del territorio en conjunto (Swenson 2004). El descubrimiento de artefactos de cobre, moldes de cerámica, escoria, y herramientas de fundición indican adicionalmente que el sitio sirvió como un importante centro de producción metalúrgica (Fig. 5). ...
En este capítulo, argumento que los desarrollos que caracterizan el Periodo Moche Tardío en el valle de Jequetepeque, incluyendo tanto la adopción de estilos artísticos serranos en San José de Moro, así como la proliferación de arquitectura religiosa moche a través del territorio, estuvieron significativamente influenciados por las interacciones con las sociedades serranas, incluyendo Wari y Cajamarca. Sostengo esta tesis examinado la reconfiguración de la economía política basada en la chicha y la intensificación de los festines competitivos en la región que acompañaron la ascensión del culto de la Sacerdotisa en Jequetepeque. También sostengo que un marco cosmológico específico, de oposición costa-sierra, basado en la complementariedad de los sexos masculino y femenino, evidente al momento de la conquista, aparenta haberse enraizado durante el Horizonte Medio. En otras palabras, nociones culturalmente construidas y mediadas de geografía, alteridad, e interdependencia, pueden explicar parcialmente el tenor de las relaciones moche-sierra y las sutiles transformaciones de las prácticas rituales y relaciones políticas moche. Los datos sugieren que el culto de la Sacerdotisa puede haber estado promovido por las organizaciones políticas de la sierra, incluso indirectamente, porque se conformaba a comprensiones geocosmológicas emergentes de las dependencias costa-sierra.
... Highly decorated stirrup spout bottles have predominantly been excavated as funerary gifts in supposed elite tombs and in special rooms of ritual/ceremonial/administrative centers [14], but simple, less elaborate specimens have also been found, making its use by ordinary people and peasants living in the rural hinterlands of urban settlement agglomerations likely as well [15]. ...
... Latest since the 1980s archaeologists acknowledge that stirrup spout bottles and other decorated fineware pottery were not just funerary offerings, since sherds are also found in household contexts, though at far lower ratio compared to utilitarian pottery remains [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Most probably, if not deposited in caches, special architectural features, cult centers and sanctuaries [14], intact stirrup spout bottles have been passed into the tomb of its respective owner as his/her personal property being indispensable in the afterlife. ...
... Any simple tool, instrument, or vessel can be designed for a particular function in a cultural domain (Figure 3), but the agent may also situationally shift its use from one domain with one functionality to another domain with the same or different tasks (e.g. "ritual domestic wares" [15] ). Most funerary offerings on a global scale through time, e.g. the various ash and bone containers, ollas, pots, urns, have probably not been destined by the potters as specialized (sacred) grave goods, but were made and used for an ordinary utilitarian task, and only later in its use-life, and demand driven, these artifacts have been applied in another context and domain [10,39]. ...
Anthropological art and culture theory, neurobiological cognition theory, comparative religious studies, form-function analysis as well as archaeological and pictorial scenic context information are used to identify the hitherto unknown functionality of the stirrup spout bottle, a predominant pre-Hispanic vessel type at the Peruvian north coast, and to allocate this and further spouted bottle types to its presumed cultural domain: the religious-cosmological realm. The inferential limits of ethnographic analogy and of traditional art historical approaches of artifact interpretation are considered, as well as the caveats of meta-level inferences from archaeological finds without written context, and how to deal with the epistemological ambiguity of material produces as results of human intentional acts. Ethnographic, ethnohistorical and the limited archaeological evidence points to ritual consumption of hallucinogenic drugs in the pre-Hispanic Andes, which the spouted vessels may have been involved in as containers and administering devices. However, in the absence of residue analyses and without proof of psychoactive alkaloids or its degradation products, even an occasional use of the spouted bottles as containers for drug storage and administration stays hypothetical.
... 650-800) is associated with the environmenincluding settlement shifts inland near the uptakes of irrigation canals. Within the Jequetepeque Valley, the LMP was characterized by political decentralization and shifting alliances among competitive polities that emerged along divisions in the extant irrigation systems (Castillo 2010;Castillo et al. 2008;Swenson 2004). At this time, most of the southern Jequetepeque Valley settlements were abandoned or only intermittently occupied due to dune encroachment (Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004;Dillehay et al. 2009;Eling 1987;Hecker and Hecker 1982), and there was a simultaneous proliferation of hinterland settlements, each with its own highly varied, localized ritual platforms and feasting wares (Castillo 2000a(Castillo , 2003(Castillo , 2007(Castillo , 2009(Castillo , 2010Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004;Dillehay et al. 2009;Hecker and Hecker 1995:78;Johnson 2011;Swenson 2004:726, 732-727;2007). ...
... The site consists of successively built monumental structures (including three huaca mounds [a sacred place or material in the Andes, often used to refer to monumental adobe pyramids or platforms on the north coast of Peru], a rectangular enclosure, and numerous outbuildings) and hillside domestic settlements Moche Period and continues through the Moche collapse and subsequent Transitional and Late Intermediate periods (a.d. 1000-1476) (Eling 1987;Keatinge and Conrad 1983;Swenson 2004;Zobler 2014Zobler , 2016aZobler , 2016b. ...
... One such quincha structure (Building B) contained evidence for craft production of Copyrighted Material -Uncorrected Page Proof A Tale of Two Cities 495 raw quartz. Additional LM occupation on the nearby hillside (Talambo Este), which included multiple small feasting platforms, is consistent with a broader pattern of hinterland settlement noted at other sites in the coastal valley (Swenson 2004(Swenson :403-404, 2007(Swenson , 2014. ...
The Maya. The Romans. The great dynasties of ancient China. It is generally believed that these once mighty empires eventually crumbled and disappeared. A recent trend in archaeology, however, focusing on what happened during and after the decline of once powerful societies has found social resilience and transformation instead of collapse. In Beyond Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformation in Complex Societies, editor Ronald K. Faulseit gathers scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present innovative approaches to understanding the decline and reorganization of complex societies.
Essays in the book are arranged into five sections. The first section addresses previous research on the subject of collapse and reorganization as well as recent and historic theoretical trends. In the second section, contributors look at collapse and resilience through the concepts of collective action, eventful archaeology, and resilience theory. The third section introduces critical analyses of the effectiveness of resilience theory as a heuristic tool for modeling the phenomena of collapse and resilience. In the fourth section, contributors examine long-term adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric societies to cope with stresses. Essays in the fifth section make connections to contemporary research on post-decline societies in a variety of time periods and geographic locations.
Contributors consider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated phenomena but as integral components in the evolution of complex societies. Using archaeological data to interpret how ancient civilizations responded to various stresses—including environmental change, warfare, and the fragmentation of political institutions—contributors discuss not only what leads societies to collapse but also why some societies are resilient and others are not, as well as how societies reorganize after collapse. The implications of the fate of these societies for modern nations cannot be underestimated. Putting in context issues we face today, such as climate change, lack of social diversity, and the failure of modern states, Beyond Collapse is an essential volume for readers interested in human-environment interaction and in the collapse—and subsequent reorganization—of human societies.
... Paleoclimatic data point to an extended period of drought for the region that is dated between 650 and 730 AD (Shimada et al. 1991; Thompson et al. 1985). Within the Jequetepeque Valley, the LMP was characterized by political decentralization and shifting alliances among competing polities that emerged along divisions in the extant irrigation systems (Castillo 2010; Swenson 2004). During the LMP, the southern Jequetepeque Valley settlements might have been abandoned or only intermittently occupied as a result of dune encroachment (Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Eling 1987; Hecker and Hecker 1982 ), while there was a simultaneous proliferation of hinterland settlements, each with their own highly varied, localized ritual platforms and feasting wares (Castillo 2000Castillo , 2003Castillo , 2007Castillo , 2009Castillo , 2010 Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Hecker and Hecker 1995:78; Swenson 2004:726, 732–737;). ...
... During the LMP, the southern Jequetepeque Valley settlements might have been abandoned or only intermittently occupied as a result of dune encroachment (Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Eling 1987; Hecker and Hecker 1982 ), while there was a simultaneous proliferation of hinterland settlements, each with their own highly varied, localized ritual platforms and feasting wares (Castillo 2000Castillo , 2003Castillo , 2007Castillo , 2009Castillo , 2010 Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Hecker and Hecker 1995:78; Swenson 2004:726, 732–737;). In some instances, these settlements—typified by multiple fortifications and piles of sling stones—were located at distances of up to 3 km from associated unfortified farming hamlets and water sources, leading Swenson (2004 Swenson ( , 2007) to suggest that the fortified sites represent hinterland refuges from internecine warfare, whereFigure 1 . Moche regions of influence (after Castillo and Quilter 2010:3). ...
... The consensus is that extended periods of drought were ultimately responsible for the social unrest and political decentralization that occurred throughout the north coast in the LMP (Castillo and Uceda 2008; Dillehay 2001; Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Pino 2004; Shimada et al. 1991). Specifically, within the Jequetepeque Valley, independent surveys and analyses of Late Moche settlements undertaken by Swenson (2004) and the San José de Moro Archaeological Project ( Cusicanqui and Barrazuetea 2010; Ruiz 2004) have identified covariation in hinterland fortified communities with both feasting wares and ritual platforms that are associated with divisions in the Late Moche irrigation systems. Rosas (2010:841) suggests that the extended drought during the LMP likely increased the demands for irrigation water in the lower Jequetepeque and directly contributed to the Moche's demise and apparent political balkanization along preexisting canal systems. ...
Population structure analyses and biodistance comparisons for Middle Moche (AD 550 - 700), Late Moche (AD 700 - 850), and Transitional (AD 850 - 950) period skeletal samples from San José de Moro with a previously reported Middle Moche period sample from Pacatnamú, a nearby Jequetepeque Valley site, and eight samples from Huaca de la Luna and Cerro Oreja, two sites in the Moche Valley, suggest that substantial levels of extra-local gene flow into the Jequetepeque Valley from the adjacent highlands to the east occurred during the collapse of the Moche polity there, strongly corresponding to evidence for a temporal increase in exotic grave offerings at San José de Moro during the Late Moche and subsequent Transitional periods. The broader implications of these results for our understanding of the collapse of the Moche are discussed.
... The analysis will be based on a comparison of the differential use and sociospatial context of a specific tradition of ceremonial architecture that long served as an important stage for elaborate religious and political rites on the North Coast of Peru. This particular architectural complex, consisting of an elevated platform with ramp, constituted a preeminent symbol of authority and sacred space in the Jequetepeque region for more than 1000 years, spanning at least three temporal-cultural phases, including Late Formative, Moche and Lambayeque-Chimú (300 bc-ad 1400) (Donnan & Cock 1986;Swenson 2004;2007a,b;2008a;Warner 2010). ...
... These platforms are the only examples not constructed on the staging terrace, and they likely regulated movement in and out of the monumental courts. The platforms built on the staging terrace and overlooking the plazas undoubtedly staged important religious and political rites given that similar structures with ramps would become prominent spaces of ceremonialism in both urban and rural settlements during the Late Moche and Lambayeque Periods (Swenson 2004;2007a;2008a) (see below). In fact, comparable platforms are depicted as key arenas of elaborate ritual events in both Late Formative and Moche ceramic art (Fig. 5) (Wiersema 2010, 262). ...
... It is significant that Jatanca's ramped platforms differ markedly from comparable ceremonial structures dating to the Middle and Late Moche period found throughout the hinterland of the Jequetepeque Valley (Castillo 2010;Castillo et al. 2009;Swenson 2004;2007a;2008a). The numerous Moche structures were built and used 600-800 years after the abandonment of Jatanca (see below). ...
Archaeological investigations of public spectacle as mediated architecturally can provide an effective means to interpret culturally specific power asymmetries in prehistoric societies and the essential role of ritual performance in the creation of diverse forms of political subjectivity. A diachronic study of Late Formative (300–100 BC) and Moche (AD 550–800) ceremonial architecture from the Jequetepeque Valley in northern Peru demonstrates that archaeologists can approximate how power relations were materialized, conceptualized and contested in the Andes through their theatrical performance. Ultimately, a comparison of the performative construction of power with traditional archaeological indices of class-based inequalities reveals intriguing contradictions that both complicate and enrich our understanding of changing political structures in ancient Jequetepeque.
... Utilitarian ceramics changed notably from the Moche to Late Intermediate Periods in functional as well as stylistic terms. Several forms such as the high face-neck jars of the Moche disappeared, and other forms such as ceramic bowls and plates appeared and became common in household assemblages (Cutright 2009;Swenson 2004). Interestingly, a similarly clear break in household ceramics did not occur after Chimú conquest. ...
... The Jequetepeque River flows from the western edge of the Cajamarca Basin down to the Pacific, carving through the western slopes of the Andes until it passes the valley neck at Talambo, flows onto the wide coastal plain, and reaches the Pacific Ocean (figure 8.1). The lower valley had been intensively occupied since the inception of irrigation agriculture, by successive Formative, Moche, Lambayeque, and Chimú societies, and was eventually incorporated into the expanding Inka Empire around ad 1470 (Castillo Butters 2010; Dillehay et al. 2009;Hecker and Hecker 1990;Swenson 2004;Warner 2010). During the early part of the Late Intermediate Period (~ad 1000-1300), the Lambayeque polity occupied the lower Jequetepeque. ...
... In contrast to the Gallinazo, the Mochica are known for the vast array of exceptionally fine-crafted metal, as well as ceramic objects that they interred with high-status functionaries in monumental tombs (e.g., Alva 1994Alva , 2001Alva and Donnan 1994). At their major centers, Mochica groups orchestrated impressive and large-scale public spectacles such as the hosting of competitive feasts (Swenson 2004(Swenson , 2006 and performance of large-scale human sacrifices (Bourget 2001;Uceda and Mujica 1994). The presence of several major urban centers and availability of a very large corpus of Mochica ceramics in multiple museums and private collections in and out of Peru contributes to their widespread popularity (see Evans 1968; Shimada 1994). ...
... Here, observed in a Middle Moche period cemetery, a number of burials that included Gallinazo-style face-neck jars were documented. These burials contrast significantly with those a Pacatnamú (e.g., Huaca 31) in terms of the number and kind of artifacts present (Swenson 2004 instead (see Wilson 1988:151-198 Table 1). ...
AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF: Kayeleigh Sharp, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology, presented on April 12, 2019, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
TITLE: RETHINKING THE GALLINAZO: A NORTHERN PERSPECTIVE FROM THE MID-ZAÑA VALLEY, PERU
MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Izumi Shimada
The long-standing tradition of grave lot analysis and tomb excavation in Peru began over a century ago. By emphasizing funerary monuments and artistically appealing artifact collections, however, the patterned lifeways that characterize groups like the Gallinazo on the north coast of Peru have long been overlooked. Traditionally, the Gallinazo (or Virú Valley polity) have been credited only with a small set of hand-modeled pottery forms and high-quality negative-paint finewares which led to the Virú polity’s designation as the Negative-Paint Culture or Cultura Negativa. Several competing views from different valleys have developed over the past several decades. From the characterization of the Gallinazo as the first multi-valley state in the Andes to a mere substratum of Mochica society to more recent view as a pan-north coast utilitarian tradition or non-cultural entity, these views are inadequate when applied to evidence from the Lambayeque region. The snapshot of quotidian life from the Zaña Valley that I present here challenges several longstanding assumptions and conceptions about the people who manufactured and used the broadly defined art style known as Gallinazo and adds a productive new line of evidence for resolving long-standing debates.
The focus of this research is the Zaña Valley, Lambayeque region, north coast Peru. This area is home to the best-known funerary monuments and largest urban centers of the first millennium, which are the sites of Sipán and Pampa Grande. The Songoy-Cojal site sits on the north bank of the Zaña River nearby. Songoy-Cojal is linked to the once major site of Sipánii Collique which lies along a pre-Hispanic canal 18 kilometers to the northwest. 14 kilometers due north of Songoy-Cojal is the temporally overlapping northern, Moche V (Late Moche) capital at Pampa Grande which is accessible through several roads and pathways. The Huacas Songoy monument is strategically positioned on a prominent point that overlooks the entire Zaña Valley and intervalley corridors. Combined with other lines of irrigation, mineralogical and craft production evidence, it is suggested that Songoy-Cojal and people living there held some importance in the region during the first millennium of the Common Era. Although originally characterized as a site of Mochica cultural affiliation, however, Songoy-Cojal is strongly Gallinazo as well.
This investigation tests the validity of the assumption that Gallinazo and Mochica coexistence is characterized by interrelated social asymmetries that functioned as social counterweights that fostered long-term interdependencies. Indications of such types of axes of differentiation is found in complex administrative systems known as the time of Spanish conquest and in asymmetrical moiety organization at Pampa Grande. In general, and based on multiple lines of evidence, it is possible to suggest that people living at Songoy-Cojal during the eighth century were more than simple commoners acting in isolation were. In fact, this investigation shows that users and manufacturers of pottery objects in the Gallinazo style were people who likely lived and worked alongside those who built and used the funerary monuments at Sipán and identified as the Mochica, and may have constituted an important part of the workforce performing labor-tax duties at Pampa Grande. Long-term social relations were maintained through complementary economic systems focusing on mining, irrigation and multicraft production industries, a phenomenon that I define as economical complementarity.
Although originally considered to be an early civilization with dates ranging from 200 BCE to 350 or 400 CE, new radiocarbon dating of Cojal samples show that the residential and multi-craft producing sector of the site endured much later. The updated temporal and regional vision of quotidian life at a Gallinazo-Mochica community in the mid-Zaña Valley challenges traditional view of this group and opens new dialogues about the inner-working complexities of the Gallinazo. In stark contrast to the overly simplistic vision their decorative art style implies, particularly in relation to the Mochica, this group played an important complementary economic role in the Lambayeque region during the first millennium of the Common Era.
... Paleoclimatic data point to an extended period of drought for the region that is dated between 650 and 730 AD (Shimada et al. 1991; Thompson et al. 1985). Within the Jequetepeque Valley, the LMP was characterized by political decentralization and shifting alliances among competing polities that emerged along divisions in the extant irrigation systems (Castillo 2010; Swenson 2004). During the LMP, the southern Jequetepeque Valley settlements might have been abandoned or only intermittently occupied as a result of dune encroachment (Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Eling 1987; Hecker and Hecker 1982) , while there was a simultaneous proliferation of hinterland settlements, each with their own highly varied, localized ritual platforms and feasting wares (Castillo 2000Castillo , 2003Castillo , 2007Castillo , 2009Castillo , 2010 Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Hecker and Hecker 1995:78; Swenson 2004:726, 732–737;). ...
... During the LMP, the southern Jequetepeque Valley settlements might have been abandoned or only intermittently occupied as a result of dune encroachment (Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Eling 1987; Hecker and Hecker 1982) , while there was a simultaneous proliferation of hinterland settlements, each with their own highly varied, localized ritual platforms and feasting wares (Castillo 2000Castillo , 2003Castillo , 2007Castillo , 2009Castillo , 2010 Dillehay, Kolata, and Moseley 2004; Dillehay, Kolata, and Swenson 2009; Hecker and Hecker 1995:78; Swenson 2004:726, 732–737;). In some instances, these settlements—typified by multiple fortifications and piles of sling stones—were located at distances of up to 3 km from associated unfortified farming hamlets and water sources, leading Swenson (2004Swenson ( , 2007) to suggest that the fortified sites represent hinterland refuges from internecine warfare, where local feasting, ancestor worship, and other Moche rituals occurred during the LMP (see fig. A4). ...
Population structure analyses based upon deciduous tooth traits for 55 subadults from Middle Moche (550-700), Late Moche (700-850), and Terminal (AD 850-950) period graves at San José de Moro, Jequetepeque Valley, Perú, are reported here. The three temporal subadult samples considered here produced an unbiased Fst=0.037 (S.E.=0.038) and are highly correlated with results derived from permanent dentitions from the same site (r=0.997; p=.001) and are similar to the regional population structure analysis and biodistance results reported by Sutter and Castillo (2015), which indicate that biological distances between the three temporal samples increase through time as do indicators for extralocal gene flow into the Jequetepeque Valley. Based upon these results we suggest that population structure estimates derived from deciduous dentitions are useful and represent a largely underutilized form of data.
... Ideological discourse and materializations in rituals, monuments and artifacts, weakened by environmental instability and foreign threats, were unable to legitimate the structure of society, the unequal distribution of socially produced wealth and the monopoly that the elites had in the direction of society. The study of Late Moche sites such as Pampa Grande (Day 1978;Shimada 1994), Galindo (Bawden 1977;Lockard 2005) or San Idelfoso (Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004) have produced quite differentiated pictures of the last days of the Mochicas. What follows is an account of the process as recorded in long-term occupation sites, the Huacas of Moche and San José de Moro, sites that not only account for the end of the Mochicas, but that place this process in a continuous occupation. ...
... Wari ceramics, of excellent quality, are found almost only in San José de Moro, while Cerro Chepén exhibits what seems to be highland architecture (Rosas 2005). Other Late Moche sites, like San Idelfonso (Swenson 2004), or Portachuelo de Charcape (Johnson, ms), reveal a situation that seems to be more standard, that is to say, where the Mochica occupation ceased and the site was abandoned. These differences seem to be an outcome of the previously discussed fragmentary configuration of the valley, where each local polity was free to establish alliances and affiliations with local or foreign societies, and thus show different kinds and intensities of affinities in their artifactual compositions. ...
... El discurso ideológico y las materializaciones en los rituales, los monumentos y los artefactos, debilitados por la inestabilidad del medio ambiente y las amenazas externas, fueron incapaces de legitimar la estructura de la sociedad, la distribución desigual de la riqueza producida socialmente y el monopolio que las élites tenían en la dirección de la sociedad. El estudio de lugares Moche Tardío como Pampa Grande (Day 1978;Shimada 1994), Galindo (Bawden 1977;Lockard 2005) o San Idelfoso (Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004) han producido imágenes bastante diferenciadas de los últimos días de los Mochicas. Lo que sigue es un recuento del proceso registrado en dos lugares de ocupación continua, las Huacas de Moche y San José de Moro. ...
... La cerámica Wari, de excelente calidad, prácticamente sólo se halla en San José de Moro, mientras que el Cerro Chepén muestra lo que parece ser una arquitectura serrana (Rosas 2005). Otros lugares del Moche Tardío, como San Ildefonso (Swenson 2004), o Portachuelo de Charcape (Johnson, ms), muestran una situación que parece ser más estándar, es decir, donde cesó la ocupación Mochica y el lugar fue abandonado. Estas diferencias parecen ser el resultado de la configuración fragmentaria del valle previamente discutida, donde cada organización local era libre de establecer alianzas y afiliaciones con sociedades locales o externas y mostrar de esta forma diferentes tipos e intensidades de afinidades en la composición de sus artefactos. ...
... At various points, Vogel mentioned the need to address the hinterland of the Casma polity, yet never truly does so. While this is likely due to the current paucity of research into Casma hinterland sites, some discussion of the work conducted on hinterland sites in the Moche (Billman 2004;Ringberg 2012), Chicama (Koons 2012), and particularly the Jequetepeque (Dillehay 2001;Duke forthcoming;Hahn 2014;Johnson 2011;Swenson 2004Swenson , 2007Swenson , 2008Swenson , 2012Swenson , 2015Warner 2012, 2016) valleys to the north would have added significantly and substantively to this discussion. While these valleys were not part of the Casma polity, these scholars discuss settlement, mobility, and sociopolitical organization of contemporaneous hinterland sites in nearby valleys that, at the very least, would provide a solid background from which to compare future discussions of the Casma hinterland. ...
... Towards the south, in Jequetepeque, several sites in the lower valley seem to have been active until c. AD 750 (Swenson 2004), while other sites such as San Jose de Moro and Cerro Chepén had a Moche presence even after c. AD 800 (Castillo 2010). The post AD 600 period is also marked by the appearance of foreign ceramic styles from the highlands and south coast. ...
This paper discusses the social effects that a very strong El Niño event or events that occurred at the end of the Early Intermediate Period could have had on the Lima culture of the Central Coast of Peru from the perspective of the archaeological site of Huaca 20. This site was a component of the Maranga Complex in the lower Rimac Valley during the Late Lima Period. For this purpose, I use a comprehensive and diachronic approach that takes into account the whole Lima culture occupation documented at this site. Huaca 20 is one of the very few Lima culture sites that has been extensively excavated through several years since the 1970s. I compare the El Niño evidence from Huaca 20 with similar information from several other coastal Early Intermediate Period sites where El Niño impacts have been reported. I use this evidence to discuss how various contemporary coastal cultures had diverse cultural reactions to the same phenomenon.
... Así mismo, su consumo, a las élites Moche que controlaron este valle durante el siglo VII-IX d.C. Este periodo, denominado Mochica Tardío (Castillo & Donnan 1994) ha sido descrito por varios investigadores como un lapso de tiempo caracterizado por una realidad social dinámica, un contexto político fragmentado y una ruptura del eclecticismo cultural y artístico controlado por las élites Moche del valle (Castillo 2000(Castillo , 2001(Castillo , 2010Dillehay 2001;Swenson 2004Swenson , 2008Rosas 2007). Esta apertura cultural y artística, sin precedentes en el mundo Moche, se expresa arqueológicamente por la presencia de múltiples estilos artísticos de cerámica (i.e. ...
El estilo Mochica Tardío de Línea Fina (MTLF) de San José de Moro es uno de los estilos cerámicos más refinados y estilizados alguna vez producidos no solo por los antiguos Moche (200-900 d.C) sino por los antiguos Peruanos. Este estilo cerámico se caracteriza, de manera inconfundible, por los trazos de líneas finas y delicadas de pintu-ra roja sobre fondos y paneles amplios de pintura crema. Por lo general, las vasijas de este estilo con-tienen representaciones complejas en las que múl-tiples personajes (humanos y no humanos) interac-túan en diversas locaciones. Por el dinamismo y complejidad de las representaciones, estas han sido comúnmente consideradas como un expresión legí-tima de arte narrativo Prehispánico (McClelland et al. 2007; Donnan & McClelland 1999) La distribución espacial de botellas del estilo MTLF parece haber estado inicialmente circuns-crita a la porción norte del valle Jequetepeque. Así mismo, su consumo, a las élites Moche que con-trolaron este valle durante el siglo VII-IX d.C. Este periodo, denominado Mochica Tardío (Castillo & Donnan 1994) ha sido descrito por varios investi-gadores como un lapso de tiempo caracterizado por una realidad social dinámica, un contexto político fragmentado y una ruptura del eclecticismo cultural y artístico controlado por las élites Moche del valle (). Esta apertura cultural y artística, sin precedentes en el mundo Moche, se expresa arqueológicamente por la presencia de múltiples estilos artísticos de cerámica (i.e. Chaki-pampa, Atarco, Cajamarca y Nievería) que, siendo contemporáneos a los clásicos estilos Moche, se encuentran presentes en las tumbas de élites. Si bien la típica bicromía y decoración re-cargada del estilo MTLF es un rasgo distintivo para reconocer la presencia de las élites Moche en los 244
... 16-17). Swenson's (2004Swenson's ( , 2007Swenson's ( , 2011 work on rural communities in the Jequetepeque Valley (in part) also examined the effects of the Chimú conquest on local peoples. Based primarily on architectural remodeling of ceremonial space and evidence for ritual practices, he argued for indirect rule in which local communities integrated Chimú state ideology into indigenous religious systems as a means of actively negotiating their place within the Chimú empire. ...
Previously, the Chimú empire was thought to have dominated the north coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period, virtually to the exclusion of other polities. However, new research on sites from this period has not only changed perspectives on the Chimú, but also shed light on two other important coastal polities: the Lambayeque/Sicán and the Casma, providing insights with the potential to reshape our understanding of the development of urbanism and the Andean state. This article presents a critical summary of recent literature, fieldwork, and discoveries. Analyses of these new data address a wide range of topics that can be loosely grouped into four major areas: complexity in political organization and the geopolitical landscape, variations in the urban environment, the intensification of trade and exchange, and dynamic expressions of religion and ideology. The latest interpretation of the north coast Late Intermediate period is a story of three major, competing polities that were eventually subsumed under one.
... Más al sur en el valle de Jequetepeque muchos sitios en el valle bajo parecen haber sido ocupados hasta alrededor cal. 750 d.C. (Swenson 2004), mientras que otros sitios como San José de Moro y Cerro Chepén continuaron con ocupaciones Moche hasta alrededor de ca. 800 d.C. (Castillo 2010). ...
Resumen Este artículo presenta evidencia de un mega El Niño ocurrido alrededor de ca. 600 d.C. registrada en el sitio arqueo-lógico Huaca 20-Complejo Maranga. Se discute las dinámicas hombre-medio ambiente (ecodinámicas humanas), que pudieron haber sucedido a nes del Periodo Intermedio Temprano en este sitio y en otros asentamientos de los valles de Lima. Se compara también estos datos con información contemporánea procedente de la Costa Norte y se propone que este periodo de stress ambiental pudo haber signiicado un momento de oportunidad para las sociedades del Periodo Intermedio Temprano. Palavras clave: cultura Lima, El Niño, ecodinámicas humanas, Periodo Intermedio Temprano, Costa Central, Andes. Abstract HUMAN ECO-DYNAMICS IN HUACA 20: REASSESING THE IMPACT OF EL NIÑO AT THE END OF THE EARLY INTERMEDIATE PERIOD is article presents evidence of a mega Niño event that transpired around ca. 600 d.C. recovered at the archaeological site of Huaca 20-Complejo Maranga and discusses the human eco-dynamics that could have happened at the end of the Early Intermediate Period in this site and other settlements of the Lima Valleys. is information is compared with contemporary data from the North Coast. I propose that this period of environmental stress could have signiied a time of opportunities for some societies of the Early Intermediate Period.
Este volumen reúne veintisiete ensayos de jóvenes investigadores –muchos de los cuales iniciaron aquí su carrera profesional– dedicados al desarrollo de la sociedad mochica y otras sociedades complejas de la costa norte del Perú. Los trabajos aquí publicados representan una muestra del estado de conocimiento respecto a las prácticas funerarias, los sitemas de produción, las identidades individuales y colectivas y la arquitectura y composición interna de los sitios.
An anthropological archaeology perspective on the role of camelid caravans during the Middle Horizon period (600-1000 AD). We employ zooarchaeology and isotope analyses to examine herd profiles and mobility strategies of Late Moche communities in the Jequetepeque Valley of northern Peru.
The addition of drones to the archaeologist's toolbox has brought about exciting new possibilities, particularly for field research and the conservation and protection of our built heritage. As drones become more widely available and effective, the challenge of precision becomes more important. Better georeferencing and higher-resolution outputs are the current thresholds. In order to achieve the second objective with our current equipment, drones have to fly closer to the ground and, ideally, follow the elevation of the surface. This task can be extremely complicated along the steep surfaces and mountains typical to the Andean region where we work. In this article, we present a recording (flying and photographing) methodology that achieves a higher ground resolution by dividing up the sites into several altitudinal sections, which are flown independently yet processed photogrammetrically as a single set. We have named this methodology “Flying Slopes in Multiple Stepped Polygons.”
Presented here is a meal from a simple cooking vessel, excavated from the Late Moche (AD 600–850) site of Wasi Huachuma on the north coast of Peru. This meal, cooked in a whole, plain vessel and spilled beneath the floor of a domestic structure, was unambiguously marked by a large stone embedded in the floor. It contained diverse plant and animal materials associated with the sea, the coastal plains, the highlands and the jungle. Via its contents and placement, this meal embodies the ways in which the domestic world of exchange and interaction was deeply entangled with the spiritual and political. All at once, this meal was utilitarian, domestic, industrial, ritually charged and politically embedded. Within it, the fruits of communities, geographical regions and ideas were assembled together to be realized as a dedicatory offering within, and potentially to, this domestic structure. I argue that this meal both contains and is contained by a milieu that is eminently local and mundane as well as worldly and supernatural.
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast
of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of
information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the
combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans –
which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this
paper, we discuss some methodological issues in north coast Peruvian archaeobotany,
specifically the over-reliance on macrobotanical analyses and the relative under-use of starch
grain analysis. We discuss starch grain evidence from Wasi Huachuma (JE-64), a Late Moche
site in the Jequetepeque Valley, including traces of potato from a grinding stone and a cooking
pot. Prior to this, no physical evidence of potato had been recovered from Moche contexts
despite Moche iconography featuring potatoes. This indicates that macrobotanical analyses alone
are insufficient for uncovering the spectrum of foodstuffs utilized by the Moche. We argue for a
more rigorous and consistent application of starch grain analysis, in order to obtain as much
information as possible about past plant utilization, rather than relying on macrobotanical
remains alone.
We use survey data on ancient mining obtained from the upper Ica valley in southern Peru to examine the complex and rich relationships that ancient Andean people maintained with the landscape and the resources it yielded. In particular, we provide a preliminary evaluation of archaeological contexts that illustrate historically and ethnohistorically documented mining practices and attitudes toward the mining landscape. The results of this study indicate that mining in the Andean past was embedded in ontologies where economics, status, ritual responsibilities, and relationships of reciprocity between people and landscape intersected. The archaeological data show that mining of copper and copper-bearing minerals, while practiced for some 2 millennia in the region, became increasingly important and formal in the Late Intermediate Period, when new strategies for the legitimization of inequalities were adopted. These included the ownership and exchange of metal items, the control of their production, and the sponsorship of rituals that accompanied the extraction of minerals from the Andes. Since the mountains have long been understood to be the seat of powerful supernatural beings that interceded in human affairs in ways that depended on human actions, we emphasize that the removal of matter from these mountains was a momentous act, and that palliating its potential consequences was rewarded with great prestige.
How can archaeologists identity different ethnic groups using only their material remains? To investigate interaction and exchange between ethnic groups in the Andes, I excavated Las Varas, an 11th-century village in the Jequetepeque Valley, northern Peru. This dissertation presents the results of my excavation (which uncovered houses, plazas, burials, and a ritual platform) and provides information on the daily life, ceremony, and burial traditions of the inhabitants of Las Varas.
The presence of cist tombs, stone jambs next to entrances, and large quantities of painted bowls at Las Varas indicates influence from the highland culture of Cajamarca. Coastal-style pottery was found concentrated in the western entrance of Las Varas in a ritual platform. Plazas and cist tombs were found at the southern edge of the site, next to a trail that led to the highlands. A cemetery in the northeastern corner of Las Varas yielded three graves with seated individuals accompanied by coastal or Lambayeque-style pottery. From these results I argue that we can detect differences between ethnic groups by using evidence from different contexts such as residences, cemeteries, and ceremonial plazas. The synthesis of such disparate kinds of data provide us with an integrated picture of the process by which ethnic identity was constructed and maintained in the community.
An analysis of copper production, architectural construction, and feasting rites as interrelated ritual activities at the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada suggests that power asymmetries were embedded in a distinctive relational ontology and sacrificial worldview. Power was exercised not by alienating communities from their means of production or excluding the majority lower class from the diacritical symbols of power. Rather, the manufacture of copper items enabled subjects to directly contribute to Moche rites of regeneration and social reproduction; the skilled metamorphosis of copper into finished objects paralleled and symbolically reinforced the ritual re-formation of bodies and political subjectivities at Huaca Colorada. Ultimately, an examination of copper production at Huaca Colorada as a ritual of bodily transformation sheds light on the culturally specific structures of power characterizing the greater Jequetepeque region during the Late Moche Period.
Archaeological evidence recovered at the largest Late Moche fortified settlement in the Lower Jequetepeque Valley Cerro Chepén suggests that a situation of «external pressure» was responsible for the political collapse of the Late Moche communities of the region. Excavations conducted at a series of elite residences located in the Monumental Sector of Cerro Chepen revealed a curious association between Late Moche domestic wares and fine Cajamarca-style elite ceramics within the interior spaces of these structures. An evaluation of this evidence in conjunction with the architectural style of the buildings, the neat defensive design of Cerro Chepens Monumental Sector, the known settlement pattern of the Late Moche communities in the Jequetepeque Valley, and a series of C-14 dates that place the end of the occupation of Cerro Chepen roughly at the close of the Late Moche Phase, leads to the tentative conclusion that a military incursion undertaken by Cajamarca leaders was the main causal factor for the disappearance of the local Late Moche political systems.
The Mochicas (also called the Moche) developed as independent and interacting polities in the northern valleys of coastal Peru between AD 200 and 850 (Figure 36.1). As with most coastal societies, the Mochicas can be understood as a truly successful adaptation to the coastal environment, where maritime resources were combined with an advanced agriculture based on irrigation technology. The large, northern, multi-river Piura, Lambayeque and Jequetepeque valleys contrast with the much smaller southern Chicama, Moche, Virú and Santa valleys. This influenced historical processes, which were quite distinct, and are only now coming into focus as a result of long-term archaeological research projects.
The Mochicas inherited a long cultural tradition, quite distinct from other traditions in the Central Andes. From the precocious coastal societies of the Late Preceramic through to Cupisnique (Chavin’s coastal spin-off), and into a number of small and locally constrained societies such as Salinar, the Mochica tradition experienced a history of success and failure, adaptation and environmental catastrophe, technological mastery in metallurgy and irrigation, and great achievements in art and religious architecture. But because the Mochicas were not one but many independent polities not all achievements, nor every trait or characteristic – be it art or technology – can be attributed to the whole of the Mochicas. The distribution of Mochica cultural features varies from time to time, as do some of their regional expressions.
Ritual plays a fundamental role in the creation of political subjectivity and the materialization of ideological struggles,
and its inextricable relationship to power has been the subject of productive anthropological inquiry (Bell 1992, 1997; Bloch
1989; Cohen 1981; Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 1993; Kelly and Kaplan 1990; Kertzer 1988). Indeed, the analysis of religious
practices, as best inferred from the material record, is critical to interpreting power relations in prehistoric societies
(Brumfiel 1998; A. Joyce et al. 2001). Ritual performance and the manipulation of ceremonial space articulated differing political
dispositions in the ancient Andes that variably shaped hierarchical socioeconomic systems (Moore 1996a). Therefore, political
and ideological structures in prehistoric Peru can only be fully understood through archaeological investigations of the ritual
mediation of power by different communities comprising a given polity.
Environmental perturbations and social unrest are thought to have led to the reconstitution of traditional belief systems and hierarchical political relations on Peru’s North Coast during the Late Moche Period (550–800 AD). Ideological transformations are thus commonly interpreted as adaptive or reactive responses to social, political, and ecological disruptions. Nevertheless, religious practices directly shaped the formation of alternative power structures and ecological systems on the North Coast during the Late Moche Period. This is especially evident in Late Moche Jequetepeque, which witnessed the proliferation of non-elite ceremonial sites and small-scale agricultural facilities throughout the rural hinterland of the valley. Moche-inspired ritual performances orchestrated in the countryside created distinctive new forms of political order which structured economic activities and ecological behavior. In this article, the Jequetepeque case study is mobilized to reassess normative interpretations of the role of religious ideology in cultural adaptation and sociopolitical realignment.
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