Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper presents new information from funerary contexts in the lower Ica Valley, on the south coast of Peru, spanning two millennia from the end of the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period. Although severely looted, these sites can still yield valuable information. We discuss their architecture and material culture in the context of radiocarbon dates. Among other findings, these cast new light on the poorly understood transition from the Middle Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period, for which a paucity of archaeological data from ca. a.d. 1000–1250 has long been taken as evidence of an environmentally- or socially-induced demographic collapse. Yet the data we present here suggest that the basins of the lower Ica Valley were likely occupied continuously over this period, and that the echoes of Wari influence here may have lasted longer than previously thought.
Highlights
The south coast of Peru is one of the world’s driest deserts but is traversed by lush riverine oases draining the western flanks of the Andes where a number of distinctive and shared cultural trajectories waxed and waned over the millennia that preceded the Spanish conquest
In this study we examine the burial contexts of the lower Ica Valley and their associated material culture for insights they offer into occupation here, and for how they correspond to the wider south coast archaeological record
A number of important conclusions can be drawn from the lower Ica Valley funerary contexts and their associated radiocarbon dates presented here
Summary
The south coast of Peru is one of the world’s driest deserts but is traversed by lush riverine oases draining the western flanks of the Andes where a number of distinctive and shared cultural trajectories waxed and waned over the millennia that preceded the Spanish conquest. Large huarango beams were observed in looter’s spoil, or still in situ supporting barbacoa tomb roofs covered with reeds tied in bundles (FIGURE 7A), which are evident throughout the cemetery Some of these timbers were very large, up to 1.5 m in diameter, far larger than any living trees today in the lower Ica Valley (Beresford-Jones 2011: 113). Artifacts observed on the surface of cemetery 398 include Late Nasca (7/8) and Epoch 2 Middle Horizon pottery fragments (Menzel 1964: plate ix); enormous quantities of raw, unspun cotton; and fragments of dark blue plain-weave textile tie-dyed with red and white diamond shapes, or in green with yellow tie-dyed shapes None of cemetery 1003’s artifacts or features suggest that it was anything other than a cemetery
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