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From its capital in the Ayacucho highlands of Peru, the Wari Empire spread its influence over 1300 lateral kilometers from Cajamarca in the north to Cuzco and Moquegua in the south. Along its southern periphery, Wari presence has been documented most convincingly between 1000 and 3000 meters in elevation in valleys such as the Ocoña, Majes, Sihuas, Vitor, Chili, and Moquegua, where archaeological survey has been carried out in parts of this 300-kilometer stretch of the southern Peruvian sierra. In this paper, I examine the evidence for a Wari southern road and the settlements that connected the far southern part of Peru and eventually to the Ayacucho heartland to the north. I argue that the quichua ecological niche is a primary focus of Wari cultural landscapes and dictated the placement of the principal Wari road network. I further examine the organization of settlement along the proposed royal road, as well as the symbolic and demographic components of its route. Finally, I investigate the role of the Wari road in promulgating a Wari imperial political economy in the far south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ceramic sequence for the Early Intermediate Period in the Central-South coast is poorly known. The excavations undertaken at the archaeological site of Huaca Malena, in the Asia-Coayllo Valley, as well as the survey of the lowerand mid-valley posit the presence of a ceramic style that may have been shared with the neighbouring valleys of Mala and Cañete. This paper presents the first stylistic sequence for the Asia-Coayllo Valley, which appeared at the beginning of the Early Intermediate Period, spread over the Unchor sector in the middle valley, and was succeeded by a tri-colour style that has been identified at Huaca Malena (in the lower Asia-Coayllo valley). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural continuum methodology was created in 2011 during archaeological and cultural management intervention in the Mateo Salado archaeological complex (Cercado de Lima). This methodology proposes that all activities evinced into a monument along the time have same value as life styles, connecting in this way pre-Columbian archaeology, historic archaeology, archaeology of the contemporaneity, and public archaeology. It challenges temporal criteria must be determinant because it privileges an epoch at the expense of other ones and trends to select events for a grandiloquent diffusion. Likewise, the cultural continuum allows addressing contemporary and controversial issues in a monument usually seen as only pre-Hispanic. For showing these features, this paper presents cultural continuum applications in investigation, conservation and restoration, and cultural management towards community in Mateo Salado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses data from the pioneering and the latest research in Serranópolis, Goiás, Brazil. It focuses on subjects such as landscape, mobility, territoriality, distribution of rock art sites, lithic material, anthropic action, and natural processes as elements that impact archaeological sites. The approach includes the hunter-gathering groups from the Itaparica (Paranaíba Phase) and Serranópolis (Serranópolis Phase) Traditions from Upper to Middle Holocene, which are characterized by their set of lithic artifacts. Therefore, some data resulting from research that took place between 2000 and 2020 by several researches were included in the previous study from 1980 to 2000 by Schmitz and his crew. The key element is the landscape analysed within a multidsciplinary approach through the Landscape Archaeology. This paper emphasizes some subjects that must be reanalyzed through current techniques and sustains that new excavations need to take place with a special attention to the relation between the landscape and the data developed under a geoarqueological point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a methodological proposal of geoarchaeological nature, at a macro-regional scale in the territory of the province of San Luis (Argentina). We seek to establish hypotheses about the properties that the potential archaeological record would have in the provincial territory, from the analysis of the represented landscape units, the geomorphological balance in them and the recent anthropic impacts. The methodological proposal combines the use of bibliographic information and geomorphological maps with the soil charts of the province. Due to the initial nature of this research, this article presents the geomorphological and pedological characteristics of two selected units in the province: the Eastern Depression and the Sierra de San Luis. Next, hypotheses are derived about the potential properties of the archaeological record in the subunits identified within them. Subsequently, in order to evaluate these hypotheses, the study of the stratigraphic profiles is carried out in two similar localities in these subunits: El Morro (in the Eastern Depression) and Casa Pintada del Sololosta (in the Sierra de San Luis). This investigation allowed us to evaluate some initial hypotheses regarding the geomorphological context in which the potential archaeological record is located and the properties that these materials will have in different areas of the province (especially in contexts of slopes, high plains and foothills plain). In addition, it made it possible to propose loci of possible concentration of archaeological materials either for anthropic (i.e. potentially attractive places for human occupation) or natural reasons (e.g. accumulation processes on slopes). Likewise, we observe that this methodology saves time invested in research and it results as a source of data for archaeological impact assessment. Finally, we make a recommendation regarding the use of soil charts as a data source that we consider to be very useful for evaluating recent geomorphic processes on broad scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a broader research project focused on analyzing rockshelters and shallow caves located in different regions and geological contexts in Argentina. The main goal is to evaluate patterns and peculiarities in the development of their morphologies and stratigraphies from a geoarchaeological perspective. These sites provide restricted environments with particular dynamics that form, evolve, fill up, and collapse in many different ways that need to be studied at a regional scale to interpret the archaeological and taphonomic records they contain. In one same area, these geoforms can be found at different steps of evolution; but the velocity of this change process, as well as their characteristics, are poorly known for different regions of the country. Thus, 24 case studies, located in different areas, are analyzed in this contribution to start evaluating patterns and recurring processes. So far, some interesting regularities have been observed, regarding the sites themselves (morphologies, types, and dimensions) as well as their sedimentary deposits (characteristics and chronologies). The preliminary results obtained, begin to offer useful information for their archaeological and taphonomic interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper deals with the preliminary results obtained from the application of the microstratigraphic technique, as a tool for the conservation and management of archaeological pigments. The risks of impact, deterioration and loss of data that may occur on the pigment material during the data collection for the development of research works, led us to reflect on the procedures put into practice and the need to preserve the information that contain. At the same time that the formation of a database for the registration and documentation of material and associated studies is conceived, as part of the archaeological heritage management, with a view to solving problems of sampling, preventive conservation and storage. Both criteria are based on sampling and conservation protocols, articulating issues related to archaeological research with analytical perspectives supported by an interdisciplinary work, in compliance with the relevant regulations applied in the conservation of cultural heritage at the international level and in Argentina. The cases of application correspond to pre-Hispanic ceramic collections from the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Argentine northwest, which come from both archaeological excavations and collections stored in the storage areas of regional museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chachapoya have come to be seen as a peripheral cultural entity in relation to the broader pre-Columbian Andes. While the material culture associated with the Chachapoya developed prior to AD 1000, it is unclear how uniform this process was on a regional level. In the pre-Columbian Andes, the development of centralized and partitioned monumental architecture has been commonly used as evidence for social and political transformations. Furthermore, the incursions of the Inka and Spanish conquests likely imposed radical changes in the labor, economic, and religious practices of conquered ethnic groups, yet little work has addressed how social practices changed under different regimes. This paper utilizes a scalar perspective to understand the implication of these changes for the Chachapoya region. To better understand the development of Chachapoya communities, this paper addresses the significance of centrality for one such community, Purun Llacta de Soloco, and the role that the construction of its architecture and changes to the surrounding settlement rendered in its social and political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the first investigations, the Paracas and Nasca have been considered as two of the most representative social formations of the Peruvian south coast. Elements indicating interaction with the highlands were identified only for the latest phases of the stylistic sequence of Nasca pottery, especially those related to the characteristic ceramic style of the Wari state that emerged near the modern city of Ayacucho, during the Middle Horizon. However, in the last years, fieldwork carried out in the Palpa valleys and its tributaries resulted in increasing evidence of Paracas and Nasca sites in the highlands. This new evidence forces us to reconsider our traditional concepts of Paracas and Nasca settlement patterns and socioeconomic structures, including the transitional epoch between them. Since 2006, members of the Palpa-Lucanas Archaeological Project conducted intensive fieldwork in the catchment area of the northern tributaries of the Nasca drainage, especially in the highest sections of the Palpa and Viscas valleys. The surveys reached up to the highest points of the western slope of the Andes, at an altitude of 4300 m above sea level. Thus, the inventory of the archaeological sites on the west side of the Andes, including coastal, yunga, and highlanders, now comprises about 1500 sites belonging almost to all time periods. In this paper we present the results of our studies in the highlands, emphasizing those related to the Paracas and Nasca, and especially to the transition between them, which shows strong relationships with the Topara tradition. Excavations on Cutamalla and Huayuncalla sites provide relevant stratigraphic data to the theme presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological evidence documented in the Palpa valleys indicates that at the end of the Formative period, between the decline of the Paracas and the beginning of the Nasca, there was transition period in which important changes took place in the sociocultural process that affected the apparent links of continuity between both sociopolitical entities. This time period, known as Proto-Nasca or Initial Nasca in the Rio Grande basin, is closely related to the sudden appearance of elements related with the Topará, a social group which seems to have exercised political and religious control of the southern coast at the end of the Formative period, configuring a new scenario in which typical traits of the Paracas and Nasca were combined. In this sense, the discussion focuses on the implications of the Topará had in this transition process, in which only the so-called «Paracas» textiles of the Necrópolis phase represent the ties of continuity between both sociopolitical entities. This continuity evidently had strong religious and ideological connotations. In this paper the archaeological evidences (settlement patterns, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pottery, etc.) that set this new stage in the valleys of Palpa will be presented, on the basis of which we discuss the characteristics that the Paracas-Nasca transition had in the Río Grande basin and its implications in the regional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the potentialities of «entanglement theory» in archaeology. Entanglement theory proposes that humans and things develop bidirectional relations that generate ever-growing interdependencies through time. To display this theoretical approach the author uses entanglement to explore technological innovations in the Middle East during the Neolithic period. Using things such as the sickle, spinning, the wheel and ceramics the author discusses issues such as the directionality of development, progress and complexity. Following this line, the author asks: Is the human species destined to develop in a specific direction? If so, which theory better illustrates this directionality? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss the strategies of social reproduction set in motion for the maintenance of domestic autonomy for almost a millennium in the Tafí Valley (NW Argentina). I present explanatory arguments about the motives, factors and relationships that led a population to perpetuate non-hierarchical political relations based on small-scale groups amalgamated by kinship ties. To support this statement, I study the role that played in the reproduction of autonomy with an emphasis on the types of social interaction that the material expressions of the ancestors enabled, organized, promoted, reinforced and fostered. Then, two scenarios with revered ancestors are described: the case of the mounds and the case of residential areas with a special attention placed on the courtyards and the presence of stone sculptures as well as of sepulchers or cists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of skeletal indicators of physical morphology reconstructed from burials recovered from Kuelap to test proposed models of the nature of the Chachapoya people whose characteristics have been mythologized from secondary historical documents based on Inka perceptions. Broadly defined as strong and fierce, but also fair and beautiful, this research explores Inka concepts of the physical distinctiveness of the Chachapoya people. Using skeletal data gathered from a large sample of over 600 burials from Kuelap, we examine estimations of stature, limb proportions, indicators of robusticity, body mass estimates, cranial modification, and traumatic injuries to reconstruct aspects of the physicality of the Chachapoya men and women. Comparisons can be made to the limited published literature to consider if the Chachapoya were distinct from other pre-Columbian populations either on the coast or in highland areas. While this is the first approximation of a morphometricprofile of this Andean region, the Chachapoya's reputation is not overwhelmingly supported by a physical distinctiveness, although there are some specific features that distinguish them from other groups. The biocultural identities of past populations can be tested using various indicators to consider the influence of bio-geographical and cultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The built environment played a central role in policies intended to build a new colonial Andean society. The Spanish approached urbanism as a precondition and generator of the civic community. From precedents in the Mediterranean world, the staging of spectacle was integral to the design and construction of Spanish urban space, especially through the forms of the plaza and the church. Such associations and forms have analogies in the late prehispanic Andes, and in the colonial policies of Tawantinsuyu in particular. This paper traces out how these spatial forms, ideologies, and practices articulated through the Spanish invasion, with a focus on the (re)construction and (re)use of ritual spaces in the context of the Colca Valley (southwestern highlands of Peru). Specifically, analysis of how the configuration of kallanka/pata translated to church/plaza since the first evangelization in Franciscan doctrinal settlements, through the general resettlement of Indians (reducción general de indios) under the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo. This exploration reveals a long and punctuated trajectory of centripetal processes and events from the Inka era through the reducción, and the centrality of these ritual spaces in them. What emerges is a picture of mutual appropriation more than domination through compulsory urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who studies and creates the narratives that surround the city of Lima's archaeological sites, known locally as huacas? Traditionally, this has been the responsibility of professional archaeologists, who in their research and conservation efforts, as well as in their efforts to convert sites into open-air museums, tend to focus almost exclusively on the prehispanic period, when these sites were initially designed, built, used, and transformed. This approach marginalizes and even renders invisible the role these huacas had during the Colonial and Republican periods. This particular narrative is problematic, since it subjectively "freezes" sites into limited time frames, and implies that the value and significance of sitez lies solely in a very specific past. Following this narrative, huacas become static entities, instead of dynamic spaces that change over time, in which all historical periods contributed significantly to their current state. Inspired by the research, conservation, and conversion of Huaca Huantinamarca (in Lima's San Miguel district) into a public space and open-air museum, this paper proposes to go beyond the traditional narrative and include all historical periods, including those periods perceived as "despised history", in order to construct a narrative that is more comprehensive, authentic, and inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent excavations of two important areas of the Pachacamac Monumental Sector, the foot of the principal facade of the Old Temple and the area beneath the hall of the main entrance at the Temple of the Sun, have allowed the authors to determine the relative chronology of the first construction at this site during the Early Intermediate Period. The ceramic fragments recovered share similar technological, formal and iconographic characteristics with the Lima Medio ceramics (Lima 4-5 in the Patterson sequence) from Chancay, Chillon and Ancon. This paper concurs with the hypothesis that after the conquest of the lower Rimac and Lurin valleys, there was an emerging regional multi-valley political entity which could relate to a complex chiefdom or an "Andean State." However, during the Lima occupation of the Pachacamac site there is no evidence of an administrative center with urban residential zones. Instead, Pachacamac seems to have been a low-ranked local ceremonial center compared with the sites of Maranga, Pucllana or Cajamarquilla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of an analysis of ceramics from the site of Huaca Pucllana carried out by Isabel Flores, director of the Huaca Pucllana Archaeological Project. This research is approached from the perspective of chronological differentiation, arriving at the continuities and changes that occurred in ceramics at the site during its construction and occupation by the Lima society from 530-650 AD. Five pottery types were identified that relate to three constructive phases and a final occupational phase. This paper describes the technological, formal, and decorative aspects of said pottery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]