Justin Jennings

Understanding Middle Horizon Peru: Hermeneutic Spirals, Interpretative Traditions, and Wari Administrative Centers

During the Middle Horizon (A.D. 600-1000), the Wari state extended its influence over much of Peru. One popular view of the Wari expansion is that the state constructed a system of administrative centers that ruled through an idiom of generalized reciprocity and extracted, stored, and redistributed goods from local groups. This paper considers how this model of the Wari periphery was constructed over the last 100 years, and argues that interpretations that fit within this model have been given added weight in academic literature because they fit our expectations of what the past should be like. I suggest that there are significant problems in this understanding of the Wari periphery that need to be addressed, and offer an alternative model that better fits the available evidence.

Urbanization, State Formation, and Cooperation: A Reappraisal

Since at least the Enlightenment, scholars have linked urbanization to state formation in the evolution of complex societies. We challenge this assertion, suggesting that the cooperative units that came together in the earliest cities were premised on limiting outside domination and thus usually acted to impede efforts to create more centralized structures of control. Although cities often became the capitals of states, state formation was quicker and more effective where environments kept people more dispersed. Data from the Andes and Polynesia are used to support this argument. In the Lake Titicaca Basin, household- and lineage-based groups living in the city of Tiahuanaco structured urban dynamics without the state for the settlement’s first 300 years, while similarly organized Hawaiian groups that were isolated in farmsteads were quickly realigned into a state structure. By decoupling urbanization from state formation, we can better understand the interactions that created the world’s first cities.

Architecture, Local Elites, and Imperial Entanglements: The Wari Empire and the Cotahuasi Valley of Peru

Abstract One of the enduring problems in the archaeology of ancient states and empires is the recognition of different forms of regional consolidation in the archaeological record. Among the clearer markers of direct control over an area is thought to be the construction of an administrative facility. Our recent research on the impact of the Wari Empire (A.C. 750–1000) in the Cotahuasi Valley of Peru, however, suggests that facilities built by and for local elites may emulate so many aspects of state facilities that they can be misinterpreted as intrusive sites. We demonstrate how the Cotahuasi sites diverge from the architectural canon found at Wari administrative facilities and suggest why this convergence of local and imperial architectural styles occurred.

Catastrophe, Revitalization and Religious Change on the Prehispanic North Coast of Peru

Although archaeologists have become increasingly interested in disaster, collapse and regeneration, there has been insufficient attention paid to the social and psychological impact of disasters. Disasters can stimulate far-reaching religious changes. This article is a case study of the fall of the Middle Sican polity of northern Peru ( ad 900–1100) that draws on both archaeology and oral tradition. Middle Sican cosmology was centred on the Sican Deity, which did not survive the politys collapse. The gods demise and the revitalization movement that followed the Middle Sican can only be understood by considering both how many of the people of the region conceptualized their world and the disasters that occurred.

THE INCA CONQUEST AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE COTAHUASI VALLEY OF SOUTHERN PERU

Abstract This article combines historical records and data from archaeological survey and excavations to describe the Inca occupation of the Cotahuasi Valley of southern Peru. The empire constructed an administrative center, established private estates dedicated to the sun and the Inca, built an Inca road through the valley, and created a ceremonial center from a local ritual site. The high Inca investment in Cotahuasi was likely due to the valley’s natural resources, its position as a transportation corridor, and its low level of political complexity preceding the conquest. Cotahuasi provides a good case study of how imperial power was mediated through local elites.

Ancient pathways and geoglyphs in the Sihuas Valley of southern Peru

Anthropogenic pathways and geoglyphs comprise two of the most recognisable pre-Colombian features of the Peruvian Andes. Although often found in close proximity, there has been no quantitative investigation of the relationships between these types of landscape features. To investigate, the authors performed spatial analysis and simulation modelling on a combination of unmanned aerial vehicle and surface reconnaissance data from the Sihuas River Valley pampa in southern Peru. The results suggest that these pathways and geoglyphs were closely tied, forming part of travellers’ rituals to propitiate local deities and ensure a successful journey.

The Huarhua Rock Salt Mine: Archaeological Implications of Modern Extraction Practices

This chapter uses data on recent rock salt mining in the Cotahuasi Valley of southern Peru to provide some preliminary insights into how rock salt could have been managed and controlled in earlier periods. Until a few years ago, the mine was worked by a collective of miners. Members of this collective and their family members had rights to a particular part of the mine and each group worked the mine with very little hierarchical control. The exploitation of the Cotahuasi source is reminiscent of how other salt sources have long been exploited in the Andes. Salt was considered an open access resource that was not owned by the state of surrounding communities. The infrastructural investments like pans or mines that were often needed to get the salt, however, were privately controlled.