Wari imperialism, bronze production, and the formation of the Middle Horizon: Complicating the picture

Abstract

In Middle Horizon Peru (AD 600–1100), there was a wide circulation of Wari-style objects that were highly valued as prestige goods. Some of these nominally Wari objects were produced by the state as part of a wealth finance system, but others may have been produced outside of the state’s purview by local specialists engaging with the period’s introduced technologies, motifs, and forms. Using data from 53 excavated bronze objects from two sites in southern Peru, we suggest that bronze was likely not part of a Wari wealth finance system in this region and emphasize the need to carefully disentangle stylistic horizons like Wari from the more restricted reach of the early states that often helped to generate these horizons.