Programa de la Reunión

This essay joins a wave of new studies regarding colonial reducciones by bringing the Jauja Valley into the conversation. Using a combined methodology of deep archival research to make up for the missing visita records and intensive field-walking archaeological surveys associated with the early reducciones, we will show that, within a single valley, and in response to local conditions, two distinct solutions were gradually applied to the problem of resettlement, generating two distinct reducción landscapes. One required reusing previous settlements; the other, building in unoccupied spaces that, nevertheless were linked to roads, bridges, waystations, and indigenous forms of social organization. Thus, reducciones were both an old and a new phenomenon in the valley.

Marcahuasi es una meseta volcánica habitada en el Intermedio y Horizonte Tardío, donde las sociedades prehispánicas gestionaron el agua mediante cochas, facilitando actividades agro-pastoriles. Su paisaje arqueológico incluye asentamientos, espacios sacralizados y estructuras hídricas, reflejando una memoria hidrosocial que sobrevive en la comunidad local. Sin embargo, factores como migración, cambio climático y un turismo y gestión territorial inadecuados están deteriorando este patrimonio y memoria. Tras la pandemia, la comunidad de San Pedro de Casta ha buscado recuperar Marcahuasi mediante la construcción de cochas y la reorganización del turismo, enfrentando desafíos en la gobernanza de este patrimonio natural y cultural.

This lecture explores the construction and destructuration of social landscapes, at conceptual and material levels, linked to the memory and power of the elites of the Cuzco Valley during the Inka period through a study of the micro-basin of Chakan, located in the extreme northwest of the city. The social and religious implications of the landscape created by Hanan Cuzco are explored through the analysis of a colonial myth. The ritualized destructuration of the landscape is explored, based on the available archaeological record, thanks to excavations conducted at the Archaeological Complex of Chakan. The results support the presence of events of ritual abandonment of their ceremonial architecture, as material effects linked to the cosmogonic restructuration of the known world because of the Hispanic presence in the area, or as part of a more complex phenomenon of historical awareness and social change.

Scholars working in the Lake Titicaca region are using new C14 dates to tease apart the timing of Tiwanaku. This work is resulting in new perspectives on the earliest phases of this urban center. Our current project uses visualization techniques to produce new knowledge about the Late Formative phases at "proto-urban" Tiwanaku. In this paper, we revisit the most well-known Formative space at Tiwanaku, the semi-subterranean temple. We present archival evidence, new photogrammetry results, and artistic renderings to query what is known and what remains uncertain about this under-examined enclosure.

The Chimú capital, Chan Chan, has been looted since Colonial times. Using drone imagery, we identified areas of the southern cemetery of Chan Chan with minimal evidence of looting. Excavations revealed a mix of contexts, including a relatively undisturbed domestic context and an in-situ camelid burial. Though no undisturbed human burials were recovered, one  context contained remains of at least seven individuals and a near-complete ceramic shaped like a reed boat. We hypothesize this could represent a secondary ossuary context or a looting event that occurred prior to modern day, raising questions of placemaking and use of space over time. 

Comunidades campesinas en Pasco, Perú están movilizando su patrimonio arqueológico para crear nuevos caminos al desarrollo económico. Iniciativas comunitarias en monumentos prehispánicos ayudan a enfrentar una situación de precariedad social-ambiental causada por la contaminación minera de agua y el descuido institucional del estado. Durante nuestra colaboración peruano-estadounidense para excavar los sitios de Chawin Punta-Kunturay, y Guellayhuasin, hemos encontrado que pueblos quechuas como Pallanchacra y Chaupimarca promuevan sus propias formas de museología en monumentos y plazas de armas. Esas intervenciones indígenas hacen cuestionar desde que perspectiva se debe plantear las “mejores prácticas” para un patrimonio participativo pasqueño.

Our analysis characterizes the chemical composition of Sama-Cabuza ceramics from Los Batanes (Sama Valley, Tacna) and explores the possibility of long-distance ceramic exchange networks among agropastoralists during the late Terminal Middle Horizon. We report on neutron activation analysis (NAA) data of 18 Sama-Cabuza ceramic sherds conducted at MURR’s archaeometry lab.  Our results show considerable compositional variation within the sample from Los Batanes, suggesting a lack of standardization in resource procurement and technologies employed by the makers of Sama-Cabuza pottery. Additionally, two of the analyzed Sama-Cabuza-style sherds are chemically distinct from the rest of the samples, potentially indicating a non-local origin.

In the uplands of the Sacred Valley (Cusco), autochthonous groups constructed hilltop villages and thrived before and during consecutive Inka and Spanish colonial regimes. Studying rural built environments and construction techniques helps reconstruct non-state social organization, as well as resilience under state occupation. In Huama (Lamay District), community members have cultivated evolving architectural traditions since the pre-contact period. This poster presents the results of a collaborative, community-serving project that documented the construction of a wankar wasi (drum-shaped house). This work celebrates Huama’s history and traditional knowledge while illuminating the technological choices and relationships engaged in production practices, past and present.

The onset of social stratification during the Archaic period in the Lake Titicaca region has been the topic of recent debate. Zooarchaeological analysis can add another line of evidence to assess status through ritual sacrifice and feasting associated with funerary practices. Excavation of the burial site of Kaillachuro (5300-3000 BP), located inthe southern Lake Titicaca Basin (Peru), yielded a faunal assemblage of 1,978 bone fragments. Although the collection is heavily burned and highly fragmented, there is still much to discern from the assemblage. Most of the identifiable remains correspond to artiodactyls, of which, camelids and cervids are the highest-value wild game in the region. Evidence of processing and/or cooking is present in the form of spiral fractures and cutmarks on ~20% of the identifiable assemblage. Camelids comprise a much higher proportion (85%) of the identified artiodactyls than cervids (15%).  These results add to previous isotopic data that reflects a human diet consisting mainly of C3 plants, with some meat. Human burial mounds associated with butchered and cooked camelid and cervid remains could be a signifier of the social capital these individuals had during their lives.