General Section: The Andean Past

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.

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.

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.

Esta ponencia pretende presentar los resultados de un trabajo etnoarqueológico basado en una serie de entrevistas hechas con personas de la comunidad de Magdalena de Cao (Costa Norte del Perú). La intención del trabajo fue entender los impactos del descubrimiento de la líder Moche, Señora de Cao, en la ciudad. Las temáticas de interés fueron: los cambios urbanos, económicos y sociales; los impactos del turismo; los cambios en las relaciones de género; el empoderamiento femenino; las consecuencias en las prácticas chamánicas de la región y cómo los discursos promovidos por el Museo Cao tratan la identidad Moche.

The Necrópolis de Wari Kayan at the Paracas site, in the coastal desert of south-central Peru, is a well-preserved mortuary complex of the late Formative/ initial Early Intermediate Period. Loose yarns from textiles of tomb 12 (bundle 382) were collected by Anne Paul in 1985 for dye analysis and dating. We currently sequence state-of-the-art analytic procedures to assess fiber and dye composition, radiocarbon age, and stable isotope fractionation values from a single yarn fragment. Six embroidered mantles from the outer bundle layer radically differ in their techniques, imagery, and colors. Do they represent different time periods or different producer groups?

This study analyzes 190 radiocarbon dates from 13 Formative sites on the Andean Central Coast, Peru, and 59 dates from Chavín de Huántar using Bayesian methods via OxCal. The findings show the coexistence of Formative and Late Archaic sites, with a prevalent U-shaped architectural tradition peaking between 1500–1000 cal BC. A chronological hygiene framework categorizes dates into four reliability levels, leading to the development of four Bayesian models: Model Ancón, Model Mina Perdida, Model El Tanque, and Model Malpaso. This multi-model approach improves data reliability, facilitates comparative analysis, and refines interpretations of overlapping cultural phases.

CThis paper considers the spatial and temporal distribution of collective mortuary monuments on the western escarpment of the northern Cordillera Blanca to address the evolving role of ancestor veneration in social reproduction. The location of major necropoles is presented and linkages with the social organisation of irrigation farming considered. Relative placement and architectural stratigraphy of collective tombs -all invariably looted- are argued to indicate a preoccupation with places and paths in the landscape that articulate water management through rituals in which soundscapes and flowing water played major roles.

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.