A compositional perspective on the origins of the “Nasca cult” at Cahuachi

Pilgrimage as costly signal: Religiously motivated cooperation in Chaco and Nasca

“…This is clearly the case with regards to raw stone material, where access to obsidian seems to drop significantly with the advent of Early Nasca (Eerkens et al, 2008). Ceramic diversity in terms of stylistic and compositional groups appears to go down as well, suggesting decreased availability (Van Gijseghem and Vaughn, 2008;Vaughn and Van Gijseghem, 2007). Other items of material culture decreasing in diversity during Early Nasca include textiles (if spindle whorls are an appropriate proxy), domestic foodstuffs such as marine goods, and other exotics such as Spondylus shell and metals (see, for example, assemblages of Early Horizon and Late Intermediate period sites (Conlee, 2003;Van Gijseghem, 2006)).…”

“…It was not until approximately 100 BC that the site began to emerge as a center of regional importance (Vaughn and Van Gijseghem, 2007) by taking on characteristics of a pilgrimage center. The ''Cahuachi Cult'' as it has been named appears to be a new belief system, one of several competing cults that arose as new migrants entered the Nasca region from the north (Van Gijseghem, 2006;Vaughn and Van Gijseghem, 2007). The emergence of Cahuachi as a regional center also coincides with very unstable and unpredictable climatic conditions during the Proto-Nasca period (Fig.…”

“…In the previous Paracas period, textiles had played a more important role. The shift from textiles to ceramics, along with the technological shift from painting ceramics with post-fired organic dyes to more permanent pre-fired mineral pigments, were important components in making this medium of religion more portable and efficient to produce (see Vaughn and Van Gijseghem, 2007). Recent geochemical work by Vaughn and colleagues has demonstrated that 81% of the polychrome pottery found in the Nasca region was actually produced at Cahuachi (Vaughn et al, 2006); in contrast, 54% of utilitarian ceramics such as cooking vessels were made locally (Vaughn and Neff, 2000, Table 5; Vaughn et al, 2006, p. 686).…”

Iron isotope analysis of red and black pigments on pottery in Nasca, Peru

“…This material is the best candidate we have for a pre-fired pigment material used in the Nasca region (see Natural iron oxide samples section above for more details). Previously, one of us (KJV) has argued that the majority (approximately 80 %) of Early Nasca polychrome finewares, a pottery type found at residential sites in the southern Nasca region, were produced at Cahuachi (Vaughn et al 2006;Vaughn and Van Gijseghem 2007). In particular, the clay pastes of these Nasca finewares are similar in chemical composition to a clay adobe collected near Cahuachi, but unlike clays collected elsewhere (Vaughn and Neff 2004).…”

A pilot compositional analysis of Nasca ceramics from the Kroeber collection

“…For historical reasons the Early Nasca phases have been most frequently evaluated (see Schreiber and Lancho Rojas, 2003;Vaughn, 2009). During this time the famous geoglyphs (commonly referred to as the "Nasca Lines") reached their greatest extent, Cahuachi, the region's civic-ceremonial center, was constructed and occupied, and a distinctive style of ceramics developed (Lambers, 2006;Proulx, 2006;Vaughn and Van Gijseghem, 2007).…”