Book and Film Reviews Regionally Constant but Societally Varied Sara K. Becker Department of Anthropology, University of California, River- side, California 92521, USA (sara.becker@ucr.edu). 6 III 17 Beyond the Nasca Lines: Ancient Life at La Tiza in the Peruvian Desert. By Christina A. Conlee. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016. Beyond the Nasca Lines does exactly that, goes beyond one of Peru’s best-known modern tourist landmarks to discuss the span of civilizations that survived in one of the driest places in the world, the Atacama Desert. Christina Conlee covers the emergence and reemergence of complex civilizations in this region through an almost 5,000-year period and places her archaeological site of La Tiza within the larger context of ancient societies in Peru. This book is an important diachronic study, noting the long-standing economic, political, and reli- gious complexity that has not always been recognized in this area or, specifically, at La Tiza. Conlee’s book covers multi- ple Andean civilizations and uses the Nasca region as a focal point, providing a dynamic picture of various groups who set- tled, survived, flourished, fell, and rebuilt in what, by some, might be considered a harsh landscape. This book is an important volume that covers change in Nasca-based civilizations, the extended time depth of human habitation in this area, the ecological complications that come with living in this region, and how the evidence of economic, political, and religious identity in this area compares locally, as well as to Andean complexity within Peru. It is accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike, providing a general primer to those new to Andean archaeology using a variety of source materials, while delivering an abundance of detail to those who are familiar with the geography and chronology of the Nasca area. The focus on the site of La Tiza helps keep Con- lee’s volume fixed on a bottom-up evidentiary approach with top-down descriptions to set the spatial and historical perspec- tive in the region. Beyond the Nasca Lines has nine chapters, primarily chrono- logically oriented, that cover various aspects of residents’ life- ways, the regional archaeology, and the theoretical approaches taken by scholars working in the Nasca region and in the Andes generally. The first chapter introduces the volume, placing the reader spatially in the region and describing the unique eco- logical characteristics, such as the unpredictability of the river system or the lack of major, wide-ranging coastal settlements as compared to elsewhere in the Andes. Conlee notes that this For permission to reuse, please contact journalpermissions@press.uchicago.edu. Current Anthropology Volume 58, Number 3, June 2017 unique background, where all higher-elevation feeder rivers drain into one larger river, creating a landscape that “resembles the surface of the moon” (2) when one moves away from the river. In addition, the author introduces the complex questions that span the various time periods for this area, such as the level of complexity achieved, as well as the economic, political, and religious organization of the denizens of Nasca. Stepping away from Nasca explicitly, chapter 2 theoretically orients the reader to the rise, fall, and reemergence of various northern and central complex polities throughout Peru, describing the workforce, resources, and complex irrigation systems in order to survive and farm coastal deserts. From this, chapter 3 further develops the environment and geography of the Nasca, show- ing how the region has been split into northern and southern areas, where both rely less on monsoonal drainage and more on a system of aqueducts. Chapter 4 begins to describe resi- dents in this area, moving chronologically from some of the earliest seasonal hunter-gather settlements and preceramic cul- tivators into chapter 5’s description of regional farming set- tlements and growing political and economic relationships, including the unexpected size of the settlement at La Tiza and the likely status differences (83) during the Early Horizon period. Chapter 6 describes the Nasca culture, whose people were the creators of the geoglyphs and are for whom the area is named, noting more of the earmarks of complex society while also addressing the argument of to what “level” of society (e.g., chiefdom, middle-range, state, empire, etc.) Nasca culture should be designated. While the author leans toward a “middle- range” designation, the following chapter on the Middle Ho- rizon’s Wari state influence leaves no question as to the alter- nation and inclusion of Nasca culture in wide-ranging regional complexity. This chapter also covers some of the best mortuary and osteological evidence from La Tiza, detailing the potential exchange of people and resources. Chapter 8 begins with the Wari collapse of influence across the Andes, while also noting that the largest population at La Tiza is from this Late Inter- mediate Period, moving into Late Horizon Inca influence. Fi- nally, in looking at societal complexity in the Andes, chapter 9 summarizes the rise and fall of Nasca-based societies, as well as briefly introduces and describes documented and familiar post-European contact changes to the peoples of this region. Overall, this book provides an abundance of information for the region and beyond, fitting the peoples of this area into a larger picture of life during precontact times in the Nasca region of southern Peru. Depending on a reader’s focus—be it ceramics, lithics, human remains, the mortuary record, faunal evidence, households, or architecture—Conlee provides any and all evidence found at La Tiza for each sector and each time period within the site, relating it to other sites within the same region/time period and to Andean complexity. However, what information is provided can at times seem like an overabun- dance of data that is difficult to parse, making the book less of a read and more of a reference volume. Various ideas and cultures are discussed but sometimes seem incompletely re-