Meeting Program

La expansión del estado inca en del actual Noroeste argentino implicó una serie de políticas que variaron a nivel local y regional. En las quebradas altas del sector medio del valle Calchaquí, Salta se ha postulado una ocupación del territorio y una apropiación de lugares con historia previa, una estrategia de incorporación que pudo estar acompañada por la legitimación de espacios a través de la memoria. Las investigaciones permiten señalar nuevos modos de habitar el espacio; un distintivo paisaje agrícola; la instalación de asentamientos en puntos estratégicos y la manufactura y circulación de una cultura material no conocida en la zona. La cerámica de estilo inca estuvo estrechamente vinculada a actividades políticas y fue una vía importante de difusión ideológica que articuló procesos políticos de producción, consumo e identidad.

Toro Muerto, located in the desert part of the Majes River valley in southern Peru, is one of the largest and best known complexes of rock art in South America. Unfortunately, it has undergone considerable changes and been partially destroyed due to human and natural factors over the last centuries. Its documentation was incomplete until recently.

In this presentation we would like to report some of the results of the fieldwork of the Polish-Peruvian project conducted at Toro Muerto, discuss the hypotheses that have guided our research, and make some remarks about the (hopefully better) future of this magnificent site.

Bioarchaeological investigations of the catastrophic death assemblage from Kuelap, Chachapoyas, capture dietary variation from a single moment in time using stable isotope analyses. We compare the victims of the mass killing to the rest of the Kuelap burial sample using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen from bone collagen to reconstruct dietary patterns for each group. Massacre victims’ dietary variation produces similar δ13C values, yet distinct δ15N values from others buried from early burials at the site. This suggests victims were likely members of the local community as well as a possible dietary shift with the Inca occupation of the region.

We present a meta-analysis of the effects of climate change on violence in the south-central Andes, 470 – 1532 CE. Ice core data from the Quelccaya glacier is our proxy for environmental conditions, and cranial trauma among bioarchaeological populations is our proxy for interpersonal violence. Generalized linear mixed models show significant relationships between climatic conditions and interpersonal violence for the sample. These relationships are more clear in the highlands, where precipitation predicts cranial trauma incidence. Lowland and midland populations may have had access to a wider diversity of resources buffering the impact of drought and decreasing the likelihood of violent conflict.

We present evidence from two “new” Kotosh Religious Tradition (KRT) sites, La Seductora and Macabalaca. The site of La Seductora is in La Libertad’s highlands and Macabalaca is on the Huarmey coast. Excavations at la Seductora identified a circular structure with an underground ventilation shaft while at Macabalaca, a rectangular structure with niches on its walls; both with a central hearth. We argue that authorities used KRT structures as mediators of political and social dynamics, concealing their interests under careful religious practices. We call this strategy “embedded religiousness” where social and political relations were embedded in the KRT religious system.

In 1949 Henri Reichlen and the French Ethnological Mission proposed a first cultural sequence for the Cajamarca basin, which opened the door to understanding both local developments and interregional connections. Mostly unpublished, their materials awaited in museums in Lima, Cajamarca and Paris until 2018, when the analysis of the Lima portion of the collection started. Since then, a multidisciplinary study of artifacts and documents allowed us to address information gaps and to reconstruct the biography of the Reichlen Collection. This paper presents preliminary results, focused on the Caolin Cajamarca vessels, and situates this dataset in the context of both Peruvian and Cajamarca archaeology during the key decades of 1940’s and 1950’s.

This talk will discuss the dog burials from the Middle Horizon (600-1000 CE) site of La Real, Arequipa. We explore the role of dogs in the daily and ritual activities of local communities and foreign delegates through zooarchaeological analysis and osteometric methods. Age profiles and size variation of more than a dozen dogs reveals puppies and older dogs were cared for at this site. Also, several possible breeds were used in herding practices, as companions and as ritual offerings incorporated into final closing ceremonies that involved disarticulating dogs, camelids, parrots, and humans.

The IAS recently implemented the IAS Code of Conduct and Related Policies which will be referenced in the Bardolph et al. poster "Power, Politics, and Public Secrets: Assessing the Impacts of Sexual Misconduct in the Andean Studies Community." For a short statement and to download the Code of Conduct and Related Policies document, please click here.

El objetivo la ponencia es entender la distribución espacial de la red de caminos y centros inca, mediante análisis de redes y jerarquía de asentamientos, en la Depresión/Deflexión de Huancabamba (Piura - Cajamarca - Amazonas).

La red de caminos conectaba una decena de centros provinciales y estuvo conformada por tres ejes longitudinales que recorrían la chaupiyunga, la sierra y la ceja de selva, y eran interconectados por caminos transversales. En un nodo territorial durante el Horizonte Medio se instaló un centro wari/cajamarca de patrón ortogonal y posteriormente los inca construyeron el centro provincial de Caxas y la fortificación de Huancacarpa.

By understanding how and when Chavín de Huántar’s monumental architecture grew, we can better investigate the emergence of social authority within the Formative Andes.

This talk begins by reviewing Chavin’s architectural sequence and its chronometric dating, presenting thirty-two radiocarbon dates from samples collected directly from mortar within the site’s monumental buildings. Results indicate that Chavín’s ceremonial core grew largely over 400 years, approximately 1200-800calBC, during which the vast majority of Chavín’s characteristic elements developed. Massive and intensive construction occurred 1000-800calBC, and around 800calBC the center’s physical layout stabilized. Little growth occurred 800-500calBC but the temple’s buildings were carefully maintained as they continued to function.

Within this sequence, early galleries illuminate Chavín architects’ emerging strategies for developing authority. A case study compares the growth trajectories of the Lanzón Gallery and the galleries of the NEA, the site’s earliest known building, particularly the Escalinata-Alacenas Gallery complex. It highlights critical design decisions the site’s builders made to change how the site functioned, reflecting the evolving roles of architecture at Chavín.

Two new areas of figurative geoglyphs were identified during 2021 aerial mapping and reconnaissance of the southern summit of Cerro Tajahuana in the middle Ica Valley.  The images correspond to the Late Paracas Phase.  Unlike other areas in the Ica Valley where similar  figurative glyphs appear, Tajahuana is the only site where they occur in association with monumental architecture that includes a large walled enclosure with patio, mound structures, an extensive system of walls and linear and geometric markings.  Together they suggest a non-secular interpretation for much of the summit.  Radiocarbon dates obtained obtained in 2019 excavations suggest a summit occupation from @  400-100 BC.

Los paisajes coloniales del altiplano boliviano y chileno fueron poco estudiados por la arqueología, siendo reconstruidos mayormente desde fuentes históricas que suelen invisibilizar la contribución indígena en su producción. Mediante una metodología interdisciplinaria me propongo evidenciar cómo las comunidades Carangas construyen y transforman el paisaje colonial, en torno a una sección del Camino Real de Potosí, situada en el Altiplano Central Boliviano y el altiplano chileno colindante. El paisaje resultante presenta pueblos, iglesias, cajas reales y trapiches, superpuestos y entremezclados con tambos, pukaras, chullpas y wakas, en un espacio intermedio que fue introducido parcialmente en procesos extractivistas y mercantilistas.

This proposed research explores the resilient ways in which humans adapted to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events at the site of Puerto Malabrigo, Chicama Valley of the north coast, Peru. Puerto Malabrigo is a key place to explore human-ENSO interactions as the site is a strategic forefront of rich marine biodiversity and includes the Paijan-Desert dunes and the irrigated floodplain. Our preliminary findings (August-September 2021) suggest that Puerto Malabrigo was continuously occupied from the Cupisnique (1200-500 BC) to the Chimu (1200-1470 AD) periods, by people who actively engaged with an environment that changed dramatically through these periods.

The Middle Horizon in the central Andes has been characterized by the expansion of the Wari state.   Architecture and pottery of Wari style are evidence of such expansion but present only in a few sites outside of Ayacucho. In highland Ancash most evidence for Wari influence is in the Callejon de Huaylas at sites such as Wilcawain and Honcopampa. However, the situation is completely different in the Conchucos region east of the Cordillera Blanca. Excavations and surveys in the Huaritambo valley of different Recuay sites dating between AD 100 and 900 have revealed architecture usually considered as typical of  Wari, such as patio groups, niched walls, and chullpas.

La zona altoandina de Lambayeque se ubica en la zona de transición entre la costa norte y la vertiente nororiental en el norte peruano, donde, por medio de actividades exploratorias que forman parte del programa arqueológico AYLLUKUNA se han puesto evidencia la existencia de dos rutas primarias -1 y 2-, y cinco rutas secundarias asociadas con el Periodo Formativo Medio y Tardío. En el formativo medio (1200 - 800 a.C.), la ruta 1 se asocia con asentamientos de carácter especializados, mientras que, en el formativo tardío (800 - 550 a.C.) la ruta 2 se vincula con asentamientos de carácter monumental, y figura como la ruta de menor costo.

The IAS recently published the a report summarizing the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Engaging Africans and their Descendants in Andean Studies, which will be discussed in the plenary session "The Blue Ribbon Commission Report and the State of Andean Studies." For a short statement and to download the report, please click here.

The Apu Rumitiana is in the heart of the city of Cajamarca in the north-central Andes of Peru, with a continuous occupation from the Formative to the Late Cajamarca Periods. In this talk I will focus on the Middle Cajamarca Period, (EIP-MHP, AD 450-850) when there is increased ritual use and production of food and beverages on a large scale in the site.  This is an articulated project for and with the Cajamarca population that seeks to approach a comprehensive archaeological process, incorporating a community- and socio-emotional approach to heritage with the aim of recovering the memory of this Apu. 

This presentation aims to characterize the architectural forms of a local entity within the Alto Piura or chaupiyunga. Spatial analysis through aerial photographs and remote sensing imagery conducted at the sites of Piura [La Vieja], Pabur and their surroundings have exposed architectural patterns and landscape modifications that differ from the Sican, Chimu and Inca patterns, on both rural and provincial levels. In the light of these findings, this research will: 1) reassess the idea that the Piura Valley was occupied by passive recipients of imperial infrastructure and goods; 2) characterize the Piuran chaupiyunga polity, which negotiated with successive states/empires.

This presentation proposes a theoretical-methodological approach to the Andean agrarian landscape, in which it is interpreted as a textile in two dimensions: a weaving of practices and their material traces, and as a weaving of narratives. The weaving is not just an analogy, it refers to an Andean ‘ontological attitude’ traced archaeologically, ethnographically and ethnohistorically, which implies weaving with the body by taking up previous elements —in this case, to construct the agrarian landscape. As an example, the results of an investigation focused on four archaeological sites of Cusi Cusi (Puna de Jujuy, Argentina) inhabited since 1300 AD are presented. 

Balance beam scales (balanzas) have been found throughout western South America, but their use and function remain poorly understood. In the historic records they are described as being used to weigh small quantities of metals, coca, and cotton, but exactly how and why balanzas were used to measure these goods remains unclear. This paper presents new data on balanzas recovered through excavations at the site of Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley and artifacts from museum collections. This data will then be integrated with a discussion of systems of weight and measurement in the Andes and throughout the world.