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Midwest Conference Abstracts
Paper Presentation
Abstracts:
Excavating
Archaeological Data: Reconstructing Chimú Settlement
Patterns in the Lower Moche Valley Robyn E. Cutright
and Sandra Jablonski, Centre College Between 1969 and 1975 the Chan Chan-Moche Valley Project
surveyed the lower Moche Valley and conducted excavations
at Chan Chan under the direction of Michael Moseley and
Carol Mackey. While some data from the survey have been
incorporated into multiple dissertations and articles, a
comprehensive analysis of post-Moche settlement patterns
was never published. Given site destruction in the face of
increasing urbanization around Trujillo and large-scale
irrigation projects in the region, data from the 1970s may
represent our best bet at reconstructing Chimú occupation
of the lower valley outside Chan Chan. In this paper, we
discuss the ongoing process of digitizing and interpreting
this survey data to address two key issues: the emergence
of the Chimú state at the end of the Middle Horizon, and
the political and economic organization of the Chimú
heartland in light of several decades of research in the
empire's northern and southern provinces. Mapping the
City: Constructing the Colonial Image of Cusco, Peru Maps, regardless of accuracy and projection, are not
objective representations of reality but rather illustrate
a particular vision of a bounded space. These ideological
representations reify spatial conceptions, and thus
historical maps provide a lens through which dominant
understandings of past space can be accessed in the
present. Early European maps of the New World centre of
Cusco display 'the city' as regimented, 'civilized' space
within a European understanding of these terms. Through a
comparison of such maps with available archaeological data
conclusions can be drawn on two fronts: 1) what comprised
a late 16th century European ideal of the city as space of
the urban and civilized, and 2) the ways in which such
visual representations contributed to a colonizing
discourse that annexed indigenous spaces, transforming
them visually into familiar European models of urbanity. Camelids,
Consumption, and Ceremony: Preliminary analyses of a
terminal Middle Horizon faunal assemblage at Tumilaca la
Chimba, Moquegua, Peru Caleb Kestle,
University of Illinois at Chicago, and Nicola Sharratt,
Georgia State University 'He who is cruel to animals becomes hard
also in his dealings with men. We can judge the
heart of a man by his treatment of animals
– Immanuel Kant. Though this quote is often
misappropriated by organizations such as PETA, there
remains a kernel of truth in it; animals are part of our
social world, and their placement within it reflects our
own ideas about class, status, and arguably personhood.
Given the role of animals in the creation of social
distinctions, we explore the preliminary results of faunal
analysis from the terminal Middle Horizon (AD 950 – 1150)
site of Tumilaca la Chimba. Our results suggest that while
animal use there was broadly similar to neighboring Middle
Horizon sites, and although domestic contexts are
generally characterized by low faunal diversity, with
camelids dominating assemblages, differences across the
site suggest internal social distinctions in the Tumilaca
community. Analyses reveal variations in diversity and
taphonomic treatment of animal remains between households.
We also discuss faunal assemblage from a non-domestic
unit. Situating these data in the context of other
excavation and material evidence, we suggest that the
structure may represent collective ceremonial space, or
some other community focused activity area. Legacies of war:
the transformation of hilltop fortifications during the
Late Horizon, Colca Valley, Peru Lauren Kohut,
Vanderbilt University In contrast to many other highland regions, the arrival
of the Inka to the Colca Valley did not signal a
significant shift in overall settlement patterns. Nearly
all settlements, including fortified ones, continued to be
occupied in the Late Horizon; a pattern which has
suggested that incorporation into the Inka state was
locally-mediated. Results from two seasons of survey and
excavation of hilltop fortifications (pukaras) in the
valley suggest a more complicated mix of continuity and
transformation. This paper examines how the use and
significance of fortified settlements changed as the
region became integrated into the Inka state. While a
majority of fortified settlements continued to be occupied
and even grew throughout the Late Horizon, there is
evidence of significant rebuilding episode which
transformed domestic settlement in at least one of the
sites. Curiously, the defensive walls from the LIP were
maintained, rather than dismantled, at these sites. I
suggest that the significance of these massive
constructions changed along with the realities of life at
the sites' changing form defensive markers of allies and
enemies, into social and political marker reflecting the
new political reality. Tracing the Inka
Past: Movement and Memory in Ancient Cusco Steve Kosiba,
University of Alabama In creating Cusco, the Inkas assembled a sacred
landscape of monuments and ritual pathways that embodied
their myths and encoded their social principles. But how
did Cusco's landscape, which was invested with pre-Inka
meanings and memories, become Inka? This paper presents recent
archaeological survey and excavation data from Cusco to
explore the ritual practices and processions through which
Cusco's people recognized their past and affirmed their
social roles during the height of Inka rule. It examines
how the pathways and places of Cusco – the processions of
the Qhapaq Raymi
ceremony, the mythical environs of Inka wakas such as
Wanakauri, and the architecture of Inka centers such as
Ollantaytambo – engendered multiple and often
contradictory perspectives of Cusco's past. My principal
argument is that the inhabitants of ancient Cusco staked
different claims to the past by walking particular routes
and engaging in theatrical rites that invoked indigenous
or Inka social memories. In tracing these routes, the
paper takes an experiential approach and moves beyond top-down Inka myths of
divine origins to explore what I term 'cultures of
articulation' the complicated ways that indigenous
landscapes and memories may obstruct or become entangled
with a state's pretensions. What Kind of
Text is Guaman Poma's Warikza arawi? Bruce Mannheim,
University of Michigan It is commonplace to treat the sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century South American sources as primarily
referential, to mine them for specific information that
they bring to bear on their subjects – be they colonial or
pre-conquest. Within this vision, a historiography of
these sources is primarily external – to understand the
relationships they have with other texts from the same
period, to identify the social and political position of
the author within the colonial world; and to trace the
lines of influence from one writer to another. In this
paper I take on a different angle of colonial
historiography, by focusing on three internal, linguistic
aspects of the Nueva corónica: specificity;
production format; and genre. I do so by
exploring the textuality of a single page of the Nueva
corónica - Guaman Poma's description of a ritual
that took place each autumn in Inka Cuzco, which – I hope
to show – is not a description at all, but a template for
the ritual. In the process, I discuss a new tool that can
be used in the historiography of the colonial Andes.
Compositional
analysis of food vessels from the Middle Sicán Great
Plaza Go Matsumoto,
Southern Illinois University
Located in the Cordillera Negra (at 2600 M.A.S.L)
mountains at the headwaters of the Nepeña River, the Cosma
Archaeological Complex was first reported by a team of LSU
archaeologists in 2013. The prehistoric remains at Cosma
include three platform temple mounds, a domestic area,
agricultural terraces, and an Early Horizon hilltop
fortress. The small basin, which contains most of the site
components, has witnessed repeated episodes of occupations
spanning the Initial Period through the Spanish conquest.
In this paper I present results of our mapping efforts as
well as initial excavation data to evaluate the presence
of the Cosma complex as a persistent place in the
surrounding region. Overall, results of the 2014 season
bring significant insights into the development of a
previously unknown locus for ceremonial life and
monumental constructions in north-central Peru. This data
allows for preliminary considerations of upper valley
communities in the development and maintenance of
inter-regional spheres of interaction during the Initial
Period and Early Horizon.
Dennis Ogburn,
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Historical descriptions of the making and use of khipu
indicate that khipu makers worked in pairs at every level,
keeping duplicate accounts to ensure accuracy. However,
the material data we have on the actual making and use of
khipu are almost all derived from the study of single
examples rather than from pairs that were produced
together. Here I discuss insights gained from analysis of
four khipu that I have discovered to comprise two
remarkable matched pairs, which change our understanding
of how khipu functioned. The most notable observations
come from a pair of khipu that share a sequence of over
180 pendant cords containing matching values. These reveal
that the khipu were not simply fixed records, but were
actually edited over time, with pendants either broken off
or removed in order to change the data within the record.
Also, the analysis indicates that there were two more ways
to record the value of zero in addition to using a pendant
without knots, and allows us to address the question of
standardization in the making and use of khipu.
Militarism and
Cultural Development of the Mapuche Culture,
South-Central Chile and Western Argentina Jacob Sauer,
Vanderbilt University The Mapuche of south-central Chile and western Argentina
are the only Native American group to successfully
militarily engage and defeat both the Inka and Spanish
Empires, maintaining their independence for more than 400
continuous years. According to Spanish documents from the
16th and 17th centuries, fortifications played a major
role in Mapuche warfare and military success, but very
little is known about the nature of Mapuche
fortifications. More than their military nature,
fortifications reveal information about ethnic,
geographic, political, economic, social, and religious
orientations as well as the way cultures view and use
their surroundings. Here I present ethnohistoric data on
Mapuche fortifications, what is known about their role in
Mapuche culture, and the possible connections with
northern Andean groups. I then suggest avenues for
archaeological research that provide important information
on culture contact, community interactions, cultural
development, violence, and warfare which can be compared
to other indigenous cultures in the Andes and other parts
of the world. Wari Power and
Expansion: A View from the South Maeve Skidmore,
Southern Methodist University Abstract: The idea that the Wari built the first Andean
empire has faced increased scrutiny in the past decade,
but with little consensus on how to revise models of Wari
political organization. This paper considers how
changing perspectives on state and imperial power,
especially in expansionary contexts, alters how
archaeologists view Wari actions undertaken across Peru.
It argues that a focus on state control over foreign
groups and territories tends to neglect the agency of
other groups from within state societies and those at
state peripheries. Social and geographic limits to
the implementation of Wari power in foreign lands must be
accounted for. Critical examination of the Wari
archaeological record in the Southern Andes is used to
illustrate that while a multi-regional Wari state is still
a viable model, much of Wari expansion cannot necessarily
be linked to or explained by central state administration.
The Mercury Road: Huancavelica to Potosi Douglas K. Smit,
Brian S. Bauer, and Antonio Coello Rodríguez, University
of Illinois at Chicago
The central Andes has the world's largest deposits of
silver at Potosi (Bolivia) and one of the world's largest
deposits of mercury at Huancavelica (Peru). When mercury
and silver-bearing ores are mixed, the mercury
amalgamates, or binds, with the silver, drawing out the
metal from the surrounding matrix. Together, these two
world-famous mineral deposits provided the Spanish crown
with vast amounts of wealth for over two hundred
years. However, Potosi and Huancavelica are located
more than 1250 aerial kilometers from each other. In
this paper, we discuss how the Spaniards overcame this
great distance and transported thousands of tons of
mercury from Huancavelica to Potosi along what we are
calling the Mercury Road. Location,
Location, Location: Exploring the Distribution of
Trepanations and Cranial Fractures at Kuelap,
Chachapoyas, Peru Trepanation (the surgical removal of cranial vault bone)
is often seen as a novel find in the archaeological record
even when over 900 examples from the Andean region have
been examined in recent investigations. Clearly it was a
successful practice in some regions, yet its purpose still
remains unclear. Commonly assumed to be associated with
traumatic injuries to head, this paper explores the
relationship between the location of trepanations and both
healed (antemortem) and unhealed (perimortem) cranial
injuries from a single site. If trepanation were a medical
treatment for cranial fractures then there should be a
consistent correlation in approximate location.
Alternatively, if trepanations were performed for more
psychosomatic purposes (such as ritual practices or to
treat mental illness), then we may expect a different
distribution. The large cranial collection from Kuelap
(n=238) provides an excellent sample to explore the
relationship among the distribution of antemortem (n=50)
and perimortem (n=98) cranial injuries, and trepanations
(healed n=12 and unhealed n=4). Interestingly,
trepanations at Kuelap focus in two distinct cranial
locations, one of which may support traumatic injuries
(left side of the head), the other which suggests
intentional purpose (at bregma). Ancient Chachapoya
medical practitioners at Kuelap appear to have performed
these operations for under different circumstances. Water Management
and Agriculture in Atacama Desert: The Politics of
Communities between the Late Intermediate and Inka
Periods (A.D. 900 – 1530) Andrés Troncoso,
Universidad de Chnile, Frances Hayashida, University of
New Mexico, Diego Salazar, César Parcero Oubiña and
Pastor Fábrega, Universidad de Chile The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on earth. In this
challenging environment, past and present inhabitants of
the Atacama must establish an adequate and rational
management of the resource most basic to life: water. During the Late
Intermediate Period (ca. 900 – 1400 AD) complex social
systems developed in the area, with aggregated populations
that depended on a mixed farming and pastoral economy.
They managed water through the construction of complex
irrigation systems and terraces and the careful management
of soils and crops. Large-scale agriculture in the area
served not only as the basis for biological reproduction
but for the social and political reproduction of the
community as well. Sometime during the first half of the
15th Century the Inka established its rule over the
Atacama based on a territorial strategy, which implied a
highly controlled extraction model. The main attraction
for the Inka of the Atacama was its mineral wealth, but
imperial mining operations had to be provisioned with
surplus food produced at agricultural loci. In this paper
we discuss the evidence of pre-Inka and Inka organization
of water management and agricultural production in the Loa
River Basin, specifically as seen at the sites of Topaín
and Panire. We seek to understand and explain the
strategies developed by local communities to manage water
and agriculture under two distinct sociopolitical
contexts, focusing on the social, technological, and
political dimensions of production and their changes from
a community specialization system to state control of
production. Ethnicity,
Ritual, Game Theory: Conflict and Cooperation in the
Andes Howard Tsai, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies University of Michigan
Impressive
archaeological features in the Andean landscape -
extensive canal systems, hilltop forts, imperial
installations, and monumental ritual structures – are in
fact fossilized evidence of interactive and strategic
decisions made by self-interested actors as individuals or
groups. In this paper I discuss the application of game
theory to various aspects of Andean prehistory and
ethnohistory, covering topics that include the vertical
archipelago, Inca imperial strategies, community
cooperation, and state collapse. I conclude with the
argument that ritual provided a mechanism for seemingly
conflictive actors to extract information and truthfulness
from each other, in this case Andean ethnic groups whose
interaction conferred the benefits of resource exchange
across ecological niches, but at the same time was fraught
with the risks of sabotage and betrayal. Game theory
provides us with an alternative to the simple dichotomy of
conflict versus cooperation; it gives us a tool to model
the actors' "playing field" (Pierre Bourdieu) in creating
and shaping social structures. New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cranial
Vault Modification during the Late Intermediate Period
in the Colca Valley, Peru Matthew C.
Velasco, Vanderbilt University
Colonial accounts of the inhabitants of the Colca valley
describe cranial modification (CVM) practices as
emblematic of ethnic identity: the upper-valley Collaguas
made their heads long and narrow, while the lower-valley
Cabanas made theirs squat and wide. This distinction
parallels the annular
and tabular
categories commonly employed by physical anthropologists
in the Andes. In their own unique ways, Spanish colonial
accounts and the 'dichotomous approach' to CVM
categorization simplify the complicated reality of
modification practices – the former by presenting CVM as a
static marker of ethnic identity, the latter by
assimilating variation in form and degree into ideal
types. Recent excavations at two cemeteries in the
Collagua heartland have recovered a large sample of
well-preserved human crania (N=211), of which over 40% are
not modified,
undermining a simple correspondence between head shape,
region, and ethnic identity. Individuals with different
modification styles were apparently buried in the same
mortuary chambers alongside unmodified individuals,
although modified crania are disproportionately found in
contexts dating to the latter part of the Late
Intermediate Period (AD 1300-1450). The social and
chronological implications of these data for processes of
ethnogenesis, ethnic complementarity, and imperial
incorporation in the Colca valley are examined. Estefania
Vidal-Montero, Universidad de Chile, and Mauricio Uribe,
Universidad de Chile Almost ten years ago, L.G. Lumbreras stated that the
traditional concept of 'Formative' was unable to account
for the diversity of social processes occurring in the
Central Andes during the last three millennia BCE. The
existence of multiple 'formatives' was proposed in light
of the diverse evidence from different contexts throughout
South America. The purpose of this paper is to contribute
to this discussion through our studies in the Atacama
Desert, Northern Chile, highlighting the particularities
of this phenomenon from the perspective of local histories
that complicate the distinctions made between
hunting-gathering and farming, mobility and sedentism, and
Archaic versus Formative contexts. The material evidence
that we have studied so far – centered on the Pampa del
Tamarugal basin and the adjacent coastline – indicates
that such categorizations are insufficient for
understanding the variability of scenarios that are
reflected on the archaeological record. As a
sociohistorical process, the Formative did not represent
an ideal of progress or technological development, often
explained through economic and social transformations
predicated upon ideas of 'efficiency' and 'complexity'. We
propose, instead, a view that underlines the inherent
contradictions between individuals, society and culture,
hoping to contribute to an alternative understanding of
these transformations. Mimesis and
Convergence in the Southern Jequetepeque Valley:
Mountain Simulators in the Ancient North Coast of Peru John P. Warner, University of South Florida
Sarasota/Manatee, and Edward Swenson,
University of Toronto Recent archaeological research in the Southern
Jequetepeque Valley has revealed that the coastal massif
of Cerro Cañoncillo was venerated as a powerful huaca from
the Late Formative into the Late Horizon Period. The main
objective of this presentation is to examine the evidence
that identifies the role played by Cerro Cañoncillo in
actively shaping the cultural landscape, built
environment, and ritual activities associated with the
nearby, Late Formative period site of Jatanca (500-100
BC). In addition, a study of the relationship between
Cerro Cañoncillo and Jatanca will allow archaeologists to
move beyond generic generalizations of coastal religious
architecture as mimetic mountains, and broaden our ideas
related to the past political and social landscapes that
were anchored by these important landmarks. Ultimately, an
exploration of the mimetic faculty of monumental
architecture at Jatanca permits a critical reappraisal of
the storied concept of the 'ceremonial center' in the
Andes and beyond. Ghosts of the
Haciendas: Memory and Architecture on the Former Jesuit
Wine Estates of Nasca Brendan Weaver,
Vanderbilt University The implementation of the Velasco administration's
agrarian reforms in the 1970s transformed Peru's rural
landscape and the ways in which communities relate to the
physical reminders of the time of the haciendas. Community
engagement during recent archaeological research at
colonial Jesuit wine haciendas in Nasca's Ingenio Valley
has revealed narratives which link historical memory on
the former estates to fantastical imagery of ghosts,
treasure, and mysterious tunnels, which simultaneously
reference multiple attitudes related to a painful past.
This paper ethnographically explores local engagement with
hacienda architecture and memories of the hacienda period,
which formulate a palimpsest of complicated narratives
indexing the modern communities' diversely experienced
relationship to multiple historical events stretching into
the deep colonial past, simultaneously expressing
associated trauma, loss, and hope. Poster Presentation Titles and Abstracts:
Dead Among the
Living: A GIS Network Analysis of the Burials in a
Recuay Residential Complex Corey Bowen,
Vanderbilt University During the the Early Intermediate Period (1-700 CE),
Recuay chiefdoms took power in the highlands of Ancash.
Their artisans crafted ceramic images of chiefs, warriors,
and great forefathers that were used in feasting rituals
outside kin-based sepulchres; a tradition of ancestor
veneration that would continue through later cultural
phases. At the site of Hualcayan in the Huaylas Province,
this transition has been studied through excavations at
Formative Period ceremonial mounds, Recuay plazas, and
burials from both eras. A town also once stood nearby,
though it has received very little study. The 8 hectare
residential sector at Hualcayan contains two primary
domestic complexes. Preliminary survey suggests the area
was a domestic space beginning with the Early Intermediate
Period and continuing until the Late Intermediate Period.
While the majority of the site's burials lie outside this
zone, a half-dozen tombs have been located within it. Some
are free-standing, multi-chambered chullpas, and others
are enclosed machays, dug out beneath large boulders and
integrated into the complexes' walls. This poster examines
the placement of these tombs by comparing their location
with a network map generated for the sector. Using GIS
Network Analysis, I will investigate the relationship
between probably access patterns of the residential
complexes and the location of the burials within them. Extended Arm
Monoliths and Tiwanaku Geopolitics John W. Janusek,
Vanderbilt University, and Anna Guengerich, University
of Chicago Ongoing research on Tiwanaku stone sculpture indicates a
diverse range of contemporaneous sculptural classes in the
Southern Lake Titicaca Basin. By far, most
attention has hitherto focused on so-called Presentation
monoliths, which depict large anthropomorphic personages
who hold, hands pressed against the front torso, a kero in
the left hand what Torres identifies as a snuff tablet in
the right. We
draw attention to a parallel class of monoliths – what we
term Extended Arm monoliths – that hold their arms to
their sides. While
Presentation monoliths are only found as large scale
sculptures at Tiwanaku itself, Extended Arm monoliths vary
from small statuettes to large-scale sculptures and are
found at sites near Tiwanaku. We summarize the
geopolitical implications of this monolith class in regard
to their size range, spatial locations, and relationship
to the better-known Presentation monoliths. A Comparison of
Networks of Movement on Eastern and Western Andean
slopes Brian McCray,
Vanderbilt University Paracas
Necropolis: "outsider" textiles Ann H. Peters,
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and
Archaeology Reconstruction of Paracas Necropolis gravelot
assemblages permits identification of garment types and
image styles that recur in contemporary tombs. In each mortuary
bundle one or two 'home' styles dominate the textile
assemblage, while a range of other 'visitor' styles, more
typical of other bundles, may be present. We have also
identified 'outsider' textiles, distinct in form,
technique and style from the embroideries typical of
Paracas Necropolis, which appear in many of the larger
bundles. What
may these garment forms indicate about the social group(s)
that carried out mortuary rites at the Necropolis of Wari
Kayan and their evolving sociopolitical alliances? Trauma and
Trepanation during the Early Intermediate Period and
Middle Horizon in the Callejón de Huaylas Emily Sharp,
Arizona State University, and Rebecca Bria, Vanderbilt
University Trepanation was practiced in the ancient Andes for over
two millennia; however, this type of cranial surgery has
not been well documented in highland Ancash. This study
presents cranial trauma frequencies and trepanation rates
for two sites, Aukispukio and Hualcayán, in the Callejón
de Huaylas, Peru. As part of the PIARA archaeological
project, the human skeletal remains were collected from
several types of mortuary contexts, including chullpas,
machays, and subterranean tombs, and they likely date to
the Early Intermediate Period and Middle Horizon (AD
1-1000). Nine individuals (6.8% of the observed sample)
showed evidence of trepanation, with the majority of cases
found in association with traumatic injuries. A detailed
analysis of trepanation size and location on the crania is
reported. When sex and age-at-death could be determined,
all affected individuals with trepanation were adult
males. These results, coupled with the high rates of
cranial trauma at both sites, have profound implications
for understanding the development of novel surgical
techniques during times of intensified violence and
warfare. |
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Copyright © 2015
Vanderbilt University |
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