Power and the Emergence of Complex Polities in the Peruvian Preceramic

Abstract

This chapter looks at the role of irrigation agriculture, warfare (lack thereof), and religion in the origins and development of the power relationship in an extraordinary early political system. Data are drawn from a cluster of small valleys on the north‐central Peruvian coast–a region known as the Norte Chico–where recent research has revealed a pattern of more than 20 large sites. These sites all have major monumental architecture and were occupied in the third millennium B.C. This concentration of major residential and ceremonial centers, thriving between 3000 and 1800 B.C., serves as an ideal laboratory for studying the florescence and subsequent development of one of the first complex, centralized political systems to arise in the Andean region. These sites are directly associated with the introduction of irrigation in the area and a rapid transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. In what appears to be a truly “pristine” situation, this complex of sites provides a window into how leaders first emerged in early centralized polities and how those leaders came to exercise significant power over their respective subject populations.

Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Sites (3000–1800 B.C.) in the Pativilca Valley, Peru

“…The work of the PANC expands on this antecedent work and effectively confirms that the Pativilca Valley was a major center of large ceremonial centers with terraced platform mounds and associated sunken circular plazas on the coast of Peru during the Late Archaic. The presence of this group of centers in Pativilca fits a similar pattern found in the Fortaleza Valley to the north (Vega-Centeno et al, 1998;Haas et al, 2005;Vega-Centeno, 2005) and the Supe Valley (Williams & Merino, 1979; to the south. Recent survey has shown the presence of yet another group of Late Archaic sites in the Huaura Valley, just south of Supe (Nelson & Ruiz, 2005).…”

“…Carbon-14 analysis of one of these fragments yielded a calibrated date of 2220 B.C. (Haas et al, 2003).…”

“…The close proximity of these sites to each other has interesting implica¬ tions in terms of possible intersite relations as well as raising pressing questions in terms of chronology. The physical placement of these sites as well as their proximity points to a lack of any kind of direct conflict or warfare (Haas et al, 2005). The sites are positioned on open terraces next to the river floodplain.…”

“…(Fig. 32, Table 10) (Haas et al, 2003). The forward-facing pose of the individual, headdress, extended arms ending in fingers or claws, the fanglike teeth, and large eyes are all elements found in later iconography, especially that associated with the Staff God (Demarest, 1981, pp.…”

The Archaeology of Place in Ebtún, Yucatán, Mexico

“…Vega centeno , 2007. altogether, the transformation of culture in the third millennium bc involved significant numbers of people living in residential-ceremonial centers, centralized organization of labor for monument construction, organized religion as manifested in prescribed canons of public ceremonial architecture and the use of huancas, and distinct differences in social ranking or classes (Haas et al 2005;shady 2004).…”