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Abstract By combining scholarship on modernity, urbanization and territory, this paper analyses how urban-based visions and ambitions have been realized in hydropower development and specific water access and control arrangements in the Rímac watershed in Lima, Peru. The discourses that sustained and promoted hydropower plant construction and associated development projects in the watershed are scrutinized, showing how the dream of conquering nature through engineers' technical skills was enmeshed with political agendas and visions of modernizing not only nature, but also people. Besides the historical analysis, the paper also explores how historical physical-ecological, legal, social and symbolic reconfigurations continue to shape hydrosocial relations between the city of Lima and the Rímac watershed. Analysing the current management of the watershed's highland lakes and community water use from the hydropower company's tunnels shows how the history of the Rímac is not a clear cut story of water deprivation but rather of complex, entangled, multidimensional relations and dependence. In the context of increasing pressure on water resources, the socio-territorial arrangements and the watershed's history itself are becoming matters of discussion. Highlights • Explores urban modernization as a territorial project. • Analyses how hydropower development was shaped by modern civilizing visions. • Shows how today's water governance is rooted in the Rímac watershed's historical geography. • Studies how growing competition for water leads to contestations over history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern rivers of Peru originate in the Andes Mountains and flow in a southwestern direction to the Pacific Ocean through one of the most hyper-arid regions of the world. During each sub-equatorial summer from December to February, rains and snow melt in the Andes increase the streamflow in these rivers, even as they pass through the 100 km arid zone to the ocean. This study quantified seasonal dynamics of 34 trace metal elements (TM) and other constituent concentrations in four southern river basins of Peru (Chili-Quilca, Tambo, Camana-Majes-Colca, and Ocoña) during 2019–2020. Consistent with previous studies, we observed that: (1) the river water in the southern basins had relatively high concentrations of B, As, Fe, Al, Mn, P, Pb and Ni, with As the most ubiquitous toxic TM in all the basins, often detected at concentrations surpassing Peruvian and USEPA regulated concentrations; and (2) basins with the most to least toxic TM contamination were the Tambo > Chili-Quilca > Camana-Majes-Colca > Ocoña. Seasonal streamflow strongly influenced the concentrations of twenty TM, with 15 TM (Al, Au, Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Gd, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, Ti, Yb and Zr) consistently higher in the wet season, and with As, B, Ge, Li, and Pd higher in the dry season. Our results improve the understanding of seasonal variability and vulnerability in western Andes superficial water sources, which are highly influenced by both local geogenic and anthropogenic conditions. A Spanish translation of this paper is available in the online Supplementary Material. [Display omitted] • Arsenic is the most ubiquitous contaminant in surface waters of Southern Peru. • Al, Fe, As, B, Mn, P, Pb, and Ni exceeded the Peruvian water quality regulation. • Out of 34 metals studied, 14 showed a strong seasonal behavior (e.g., As, Pb and B). • Total recoverable metals trended better rather than dissolved metal with season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Botanical data elucidate plant use under Inka and Spanish rule in the Andes. • Plant availability was stable under Inka and Spanish rule, but land use practices changed changed. • Agrarian workers ensured persistence by altering plant procurement practices. • By doing so, those workers participated in regional ecological change. In the Andes, successive waves of Inka and Spanish imperialism reshaped local ecologies and transformed agricultural practices between the 14th and 17th centuries. As the Inka (ca. 1450–1532CE) consolidated control over the region they co-opted existing resources, directed the development of new farmland, and imposed new labor obligations on Andean people. In turn, Spanish colonizers (1533-1824CE) introduced foreign flora and fauna, created new tributary regimes, and reorganized agricultural production around forcibly resettled communities and Spanish-owned haciendas (agrarian estates). In this paper, we explore how agricultural workers managed this extended period of upheaval through analysis of botanical data from recent excavations at the site of Simapuqio-Muyupata, in Peru's Cusco region. We track how agriculturalists living at the site altered patterns of plant use—and, by extension agricultural practice—across the period of Inka and Spanish Colonial governance. These farmers remained reliant on a similar suite of cultivated plants under both political regimes, but shifted practices of land management to conserve labor when confronted with the structural conditions of servitude to Spanish landlords. By altering agricultural practices, these agriculturalists re-shaped the agroecological context in which they lived and worked to ensure survival in the face of political upheaval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Shell horn production for Andean rituals shifted between conch and ceramic over millennia. • In the early colonial period shell horns were used in propitiatory pilgrimages. • Ceramic shell horns were complex musical instruments crafted by itinerant specialists. • Technological hotspots indicate independent invention and long-distance interaction. • Performance in ensembles shaped the soundscapes of ceremonial centers. This paper addresses the enchainment of skills and interactions for the production of ceramic shell horns, and the meaning of these musical instruments whose sounds have shaped the ritual soundscapes of the central Andes since the boom in public architecture in the second millennium BC (early Formative Period c. 3800–3300 BP). Linguistic and ethnohistoric reviews shed light on performance practices and meanings at the time of conquest. Contextual analysis of thin sections of ceramic shell horns excavated in Keushu (Yungay, Ancash, Peru) and dated to the Early Intermediate Period and early Middle Horizon (c. 2200–1600 BP) suggests the agency of specialist itinerant potters. Crafting processes are reconstructed by bringing together material analysis (petrography, X-ray tomography, X-ray diffraction), bioarchaeology, studies of instrument organology, and ceramic ethnoarchaeology. Informed by experimental reconstruction distinct modeling techniques are distinguished and crossed with available provenience data to suggest three independently arising traditions or hotspots in northern Ecuador, on the central Andean coast, and in the highlands of northern Peru. The ritual sounds and soundscapes of the latter area are discussed. Like earlier conch horns, ceramic shell horns played a pivotal part in ritual performances that accompanied the development of irrigation-dependent agrarian and pastoral lifeways in the Andes. Enduring symbolic linkages between shell horn sounds, the sea and irrigation water may indeed represent a powerful embodiment of the voice of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Forty bone wind instruments (aerophones) produced from camelids and condors were recovered from La Real, Arequipa. • Recreating a chaîne opératoire can illustrate the way these instruments were produced and played by all members of society. • Use of these instruments is abandoned in the later Middle Horizon overlapping with Wari expansion into the region. • Condor and camelid bone related to the symbolism of Andean mobile agropastoral communities and gender complementarity. • Cessation of making and playing these bone instruments attests to shifting ideologies about musical experiences. Musical performance and audience participation are important activities in both group celebrations and funerary practices. This paper considers the intersection of music and ritual in shifting local mortuary traditions during state expansion in the southern Peruvian Andes. It addresses musical activities and burial rites during the Middle Horizon (MH) (600–1000 CE), a period defined by social change, population expansion and greater influence of the Wari state. We present new evidence for shifting sound-making practices from the site of La Real in the Majes Valley of Arequipa. We mobilize morphological and acoustic analyses to determine the variation in instrument production and the likely idiosyncratic ways that participants played these objects. There is a musical tradition of manufacturing wind instruments from animal bone in the early MH (600–850 CE) followed by abandonment of these practices in the late MH (850–1000 CE). We suggest this shift correlates to a higher valuation of formalized acoustic aesthetics over collective instrument production and group musical performance. Instead of playing their own instruments at mortuary events, communities listened to music as spectators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the leading global source of mercury pollution. Efforts to reduce or eliminate mercury use in ASGM have produced limited results, in part because they do not engage the complex socio-technical nature of mercury issues in ASGM. The paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to understand the mercury issue with a socio-technical lens, pairing sampling of mercury in soils with surveys of miners' and residents' perceptions of mercury pollution and its dispersion. The research was conducted in Secocha, an ASGM boomtown in southern Peru. Mercury levels in soils exceeded relevant standards in both industrial zones (average of 72.6 mg/kg, versus the Peruvian standard of 24 mg/kg) and residential/urban zones (average of 9.5 mg/kg, versus the Peruvian standard of 6.6 mg/kg). Mercury levels were highest where processing and gold buying activity were concentrated. Surveys revealed that miners and residents correctly assumed mercury pollution to be highest in those areas. However, respondents seemed to underestimate the extent of mercury pollution in other parts of town, and many believed that only those who handle mercury directly were affected by it. Respondents also placed low priority on reducing mercury pollution. Miners' and residents' partial knowledge about mercury contamination and the low priority accorded to the issue suggest that mercury reduction efforts would likely be met with indifference and potentially resistance. • Soil mercury levels on average exceed Peruvian standards in both industrial and urban zones of Secocha. • Concentrations are highest near processing areas and gold shops where mercury-gold amalgam is burned. • Surveys reveal residents' knowledge about mercury contamination, especially near processing areas. • Survey respondents underestimate mercury exposure in other parts of town and for those who do not handle it directly. • Mercury pollution is a low priority concern for miners and residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the leading global source of mercury pollution. Efforts to reduce or eliminate mercury use in ASGM have produced limited results, in part because they do not engage the complex socio-technical nature of mercury issues in ASGM. The paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to understand the mercury issue with a socio-technical lens, pairing sampling of mercury in soils with surveys of miners' and residents' perceptions of mercury pollution and its dispersion. The research was conducted in Secocha, an ASGM boomtown in southern Peru. Mercury levels in soils exceeded relevant standards in both industrial zones (average of 72.6 mg/kg, versus the Peruvian standard of 24 mg/kg) and residential/urban zones (average of 9.5 mg/kg, versus the Peruvian standard of 6.6 mg/kg). Mercury levels were highest where processing and gold buying activity were concentrated. Surveys revealed that miners and residents correctly assumed mercury pollution to be highest in those areas. However, respondents seemed to underestimate the extent of mercury pollution in other parts of town, and many believed that only those who handle mercury directly were affected by it. Respondents also placed low priority on reducing mercury pollution. Miners' and residents' partial knowledge about mercury contamination and the low priority accorded to the issue suggest that mercury reduction efforts would likely be met with indifference and potentially resistance. • Soil mercury levels on average exceed Peruvian standards in both industrial and urban zones of Secocha. • Concentrations are highest near processing areas and gold shops where mercury-gold amalgam is burned. • Surveys reveal residents' knowledge about mercury contamination, especially near processing areas. • Survey respondents underestimate mercury exposure in other parts of town and for those who do not handle it directly. • Mercury pollution is a low priority concern for miners and residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New radiocarbon dates from area II of the Rapayán site confirm the Late Intermediate Period origin of surface stone architecture, notably house structures and multi-story buildings. • Centrally located above-ground and tall multi-storied tombs housed specific founding ancestors within residential settlements. • Selected families constructed their house structures at the foot of some multi-storied tombs and thereby monopolized access to the community's mummified founding ancestors. • Political authority was legitimized through privileged interactions among high status individuals and primordial ancestors. • The data presented evidence more individualized expressions of political authority as opposed to corporate forms of governance documented elsewhere in the Andes at the same time. This paper addresses the cosmological foundations of political authority in the Rapayán-Tantamayo region of the highlands of Peru during the Late Intermediate Period (1000–1450 CE). The people of this region organized their residential settlements around large and elaborate multi-storied tombs where mummified founding ancestors dwelled. The evidence presented reveals that selected families at each settlement built their houses at the foot of these above-ground tombs. By doing so, they controlled the access to the communities' founding ancestors who were thought to hold cosmological vitalizing energy necessary for the reproduction of the collectivity. Using ethnohistorical analogy, I argue that the heads of such households, through privileged interactions with potent deceased, acted as intermediaries between the life-giving force of primordial ancestors and the well-being of their community. The manifestations of political authority built around the relationship of specific individuals with powerful ancestors represent one of the main contributions of this investigation as the relational agency among these protagonists has proven difficult to identify in the archaeological record elsewhere in the Andean highlands. The results of our investigation therefore contrast with interpretations emphasizing the collective agency of "ancestors" in the legitimization processes of depersonalized cooperate political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we characterize the production and circulation of Early Green Glazed (EGG) Ware, an innovative variety of lead-glazed ceramics produced in Peru's North Coast region in the wake of the Spanish colonization of the Andes. INAA of pastes and LA-ICP-MS of glazes of EGG Ware samples collected from sites in Peru's Zaña, and Chicama river valleys reveal contrasting patterns of composition. While paste characterization via INAA identified a great deal of compositional diversity, LA-ICP-MS data from glazes falls into two discrete groups. We interpret these results as evidence of 1) disperse production of pastes, employing either a wide variety of source materials and/or recipes, mirroring the production of Late Prehispanic paddle-stamped wares, and 2) more nucleated collection of materials for glaze production, perhaps from distinct sources of lead ore. We interpret the presence of small numbers of samples with glaze compositions characteristic of the Zaña valley in Chicama Valley assemblages as evidence of possible trade between indigenous communities in artisanal goods and/or raw materials during the late 16th century CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kamayoq are promoted as culturally appropriate drivers of ethnodevelopment in the Peruvian Andes. Kamayoq have existed for centuries under different forms of political-economic organization, including as agricultural experts (in irrigation, animal husbandry, or agricultural techniques), craft specialists (skilled weavers), and privileged administrators (accountants for Inka nobility). Today, kamayoq are conceived as community-based specialists within government and non-government programmes of farmer-to-farmer technical extension. In this paper 1 address the shortcomings of research into the kamayoq, whereby historical scholarship has been subsumed within broader narratives of the Inka state, and contemporary scholarship has suffered from a lack of historic perspective, thereby romanticizing pre-Hispanic, indigenous institutions. I develop a historical analysis of the role of kamayoq within processes of political-economic integration according to distinct modes of production and under different forms of governance, addressing pre-lnka hydro-pastoralism, Inka governance, Hispanic colonialism, and contemporary development networks. Kamayoq did not spring from the ground fully formed (like autochthons); their role as agents of political-economic integration and livelihood change has shifted according to broader trends and pressures in production, governance, exchange, and redistribution. Their role has always been spatially variable, meaning that we cannot assume an internal coherence to indigenous institutions. We need critical, reflexive, and temporal analyses of these historically embedded forms of social practice if they are to be mobilised in ways that do not simply resort to categorical difference-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Archaeological work was carried out at Cerro Arena in the Moche Valley, Peru. • 14C dating indicates that the site was occupied between ~375 and 360 cal BC. • Cerro Arena was a stronghold built by local leaders during a time of insecurity. • Semi-urban settlement was abandoned before it acquired a truly urban character. • Position of the site in the Salinar-phase valley settlement system remains unclear. The archaeological site of Cerro Arena has often been described as the earliest urban settlement on the Peruvian north coast, but until recently it was unclear when the site was founded, how long it was occupied, and what role it could have played in the regional political system. This paper presents results of survey work, excavations, and radiocarbon dating work carried out at Cerro Arena in 2017. Fieldwork revealed that the site was occupied for a very short period of time (between ~375 and 360 cal BC) and that it likely functioned as a semi-urban defensive settlement. These results raise questions about the urban character of Cerro Arena and the reasons behind its foundation, while also forcing us to problematize anthropological interpretations of urban centers as permanent features and to explore the variable and stochastic nature of early urban settlements in the Andes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ratification of the Minamata Convention on Mercury has led to the establishment of Peruvian regulations limiting mercury concentrations in air to 2000 ng/m3over a 24-hr measurement period. As a result, three communities in Madre de Dios, Peru were mapped during October 2017 to determine Hg0 vapor concentrations in the air. The town of Tres Islas exhibited Hg0 concentrations less than 200 ng/m3: the minimum risk level defined by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. These low concentrations were reflective of a town in the region with limited exposure to artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). However, the ASGM communities of Laberinto and Delta One exhibited concentrations of Hg0 vapor that exceeded 2,000,000 ng/m3 surrounding active gold shops, where amalgams and processed amalgams were heated with open flames. Laberinto was reevaluated in May 2018 during which time Hg0 levels on the sidewalks in front of gold shops again exceeded 2,000,000 ng/m3. Within the scope of this paper a rapid mapping technique allows for the detection of sources of Hg0 pollution and identifies neighborhoods that require intervention to decrease Hg0 emissions. In addition, this work highlights the difficulties of measuring total gaseous mercury in ASGM communities with gold shops according to the Peruvian law. • Hg0 concentrations were measured and mapped in three towns in Madre de Dios, Peru • Hg0 concentrations exceeding 2,000,000 ng/m3 were measured in and around gold shops • Air Concentrations of Hg0 from ASGM activities greatly exceed Peruvian standards • Existing ventilation and mercury capture systems in gold shops are ineffective • Gold shops in mining communities are a threat to human and environmental health [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funerary archaeoentomology entails the study of insects from archaeological contexts, in order to examine funerary practices, thanatology and hygiene/sanitation in ancient populations. However, while insects from human mummies have been widely studied, there is a limited literature dealing with archaeoentomology of animal sacrifices. Andean camelid sacrifices are common in ritual contexts, as funerary or foundation offerings. The current paper addresses camelid remains recovered from the archaeological site of Pachacamac, during the 2016 excavation season. The insect fauna was assessed in order to determine the social context of the remains, and the manner in which the camelids were utilised. The carcasses yielded remains pertaining to Diptera and Coleoptera. The presence of Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera, Calliphoridae), Sarcophaga sp. (Diptera, Sarcophagidae) and Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Diptera, Muscidae) suggest an initial colonisation in the open, while other species typical of later phases of the colonisation – including Hydrotaea aenescens (Diptera, Muscidae) and members of the family Phoridae – suggest that the carcasses were subsequently buried. Despite the evident importance of camelids to Andean populations, both historically and archaeologically, this is the first time that entomology has been used to examine animal sacrifice methods in this area, and comprises a watershed in the development of multidisciplinary approaches to sacrificial rites in ancient Peru. • Animal sacrifices play an important role in past culture understanding. • Insects are informative in forensic and archaeological contexts. • This is the first attempt to use insect to explore animal sacrifices in South America. • Fly and beetle remains allowed to test some hypotheses about the sacrifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]