Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory - Anthro 490.3: Class 16
The Middle Horizon: Wari, a flash of empire
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Copyright Bruce Owen 2003
- Ayacucho basin setting
- north (and west) of the Titicaca altiplano area
- moderately high intermontaine valleys
- steep, scrubby land that needs terracing, plus canal irrigation in some places for consistent yields
- Origins in Huarpa culture
- an Early Intermediate Period culture, about 300 - 650 cal AD
- pottery style shows strong similarities to Nasca
- presumably some interaction, exchange, or other connection
- the highland culture (Huarpa and the Wari that followed) seems to have adopted some of the impressive Nasca pottery motifs and technology
- maybe these were useful to an emerging elite that needed to differentiate itself from common folks and legitimate its special status
- significant corporate (?) effort used to build terrace systems
- up to 100 terraces high
- with spring-fed and river-fed canals, small reservoirs, etc.
- canals up to several km long
- some relatively well built, with clay linings (?) and up to 1.6 m wide
- mostly relatively small villages
- plus Nawimpukyo, a larger town
- on a hilltop
- fancier "H" style fieldstone (not cut) masonry
- focussed on "several platforms" with some presumably administrative buildings, open courts, and high-status residences
- has its own small spring-fed canal system
- presumably the seat of a complex chiefdom that incorporated the immediate valley region
- Beginning of the Middle Horizon, traditionally dated 600 - 1000 cal AD
- Moseley emphasizes a long, severe drought shown in ice cores from 562-594 AD
- estimates precipitation down about 30%
- dust in cores suggests significant erosion
- presumed decline in agricultural productivity, maybe by a third
- Moseley describes the decline of Moche as a result
- we won't pursue that further here, for lack of time, but the reading is good
- Moseley's story for the origins of Wari
- Huarpa began to use high springs and river water sources, canals, and terraced mountain slope fields
- these were mostly unused at the time
- picking water out of sources high up gives you first claim over those using them downstream
- also increases total usable amount of water, due to less travel and loss by seepage and evaporation
- so Huarpa weathered the drought better than valley-bottom or coastal irrigating groups
- perhaps a related argument could be made for Tiwanaku's rise to prominence at the same time
- Huarpa developed into Wari, and the Wari "package" of ideology, technology, social organization for labor mobilization, iconography, etc. spread
- Dates are still being debated (is this sounding familiar?)
- Chronology based on ceramics
- many were exceptionally fine, borrowing from Nasca traditions
- Middle Horizon Epoch 1: thought to be a first large wave of expansion
- best estimate: 650-750 cal AD
- elaborate Wari pottery was used in many parts of the Andes of what is now Peru, alongside the local ceramics of each place
- Middle Horizon Epoch 2: a second wave of expansion
- best estimate: 750-950 cal AD
- somewhat different Wari pottery was widespread in mostly the same area
- maybe associated with rebuilding of some provincial sites
- Epoch 3: collapse
- best estimate: 950-1100 cal AD
- fancy Wari pottery changed somewhat, and less of it is found
- Epoch 4: decline, mostly in heartland
- the real patterns may not have been this clear-cut...
- Wari's chronological relationship to Tiwanaku
- contemporary, maybe starting a bit later
- but that depends on what you consider "starting" to be
- early sunken rectangular court at Wari, with cut stone walls
- reminiscent of Tiwanaku courts
- dates 560 ±60 to 720 ±60 AD
- refloored numerous times
- then ritually buried and built over
- Moseley takes this and the iconographic similarities as suggesting Wari "borrowed" ideology and iconography from Tiwanaku
- both appear to have declined at around the same time, roughly 1000 cal AD
- The capital at Huari
- Another odd spelling convention
- "Huari" is used for the capital site and things relating specifically to it
- "Wari" is used for the culture, state, pottery style, etc.
- not everyone sticks to this convention, though
- Huari was a big, urban center
- 3-4 square km
- estimated 20,000 - 30,000 population
- on a big flattish area well above the valley floor
- this area was originally farmed, later covered by urban sprawl
- with very high, long walls dividing the city into sectors
- and large, multistory rectangular buildings
- some clean, suggesting administrative or other special uses
- some contain domestic debris, suggesting occupation
- construction was mostly uncut fieldstone
- rows of projecting stones to hold up floors
- bottom floor often elevated several feet above, making a low cellar or crawl space under the first floor... why?
- some special buildings had cut stone walls and/or floors, but not as massive nor as widespread as at Tiwanaku
- plans tend to involve long, narrow buildings along one or more sides of a roughly square, walled courtyard
- roofs probably peaked and made of thatch
- as suggested by a ceramic model of a multistory building with its square, walled courtyard
- some building compounds were apparently used for specialized craft production
- ceramics
- beads
- lithic points
- another had lots of decorated service and drinking vessels
- suggesting ritual feasting and drinking
- as known from the Inka
- Moseley suggests an overall pattern of segregation
- implying lots of class, rank, kin, and occupational differentiation
- some ritual sectors
- unlike Tiwanaku
- no elevated mound
- little use of sunken rectangular courts except for one early one that might indicate that Tiwanaku had a role in the early development of Huari
- no carved monoliths
- little or no emphasis on huge cut stonework
- instead, D-shaped rooms or temples
- door in the flat side
- flat prepared floor
- surrounded by rooms and walls, usually some running right up to the outer walls of the D-shaped temple
- so the D-shaped rooms were apparently not meant to be particularly impressive from the outside
- but rather, the inside was the point
- the biggest one at Huari: Vegachayoc Moqo
- in a complex with walls that had big niches
- which contained upright seated human burials: originally mummy bundles, like the Inka venerated?
- looks like a pretty different set of ritual facilities from Tiwanaku, presumably quite different religious ideas
- yet both depicted very similar Staff God figures
- Tiwanaku on the Gateway of the Sun, on the surface of many of the monoliths, on portable objects
- Wari mostly painted on pottery
- Multi-story underground burial structures with massive cut stone construction
- apparently intended to be revisited, albeit not easily
- to add more burials?
- to leave offerings?
- to consult the dead?
- apparently contained very high-status burials
- but mostly badly looted
- example: Cheqo Wasi sector at Huari
- exotic imports
- Spondylus
from Ecuador
- other shells from the (distant) coast
- green stones from unknown sources
- lapis from Chile
- copper, silver, gold from unknown sources
- Conchopata, a major Wari site near Huari
- recent large-scale excavations have uncovered a dense complex of walls, rooms, plazas, and corridors
- also several D-shaped "temples"
- possibly enclosed by straight perimeter walls
- clearly very high-status residences
- William Isbell identifies this as one or more "palaces"
- D-shaped "temple"
- flat, prepared clay floor
- with an upright stone that might have served to cast a shadow (assuming the room was unroofed) like a sundial
- several heaps of sherds from broken, large, fine ceramic vessels laying directly on the floor
- part of the regular use of the structure?
- "closing" offerings?
- destruction?
- lots of evidence of fine ceramic manufacturing
- molds
- plates on which the ceramic stood and was turned during manufacture
- scrapers made from sherds
- a probable firing area (not really a full-fledged kiln)
- The valleys around Huari and Conchopata contain many more Wari sites
- some with planned architecture and cut stone
- many just rural villages
- presumably the people who supported the urban sites
- using both plainer pottery and a subset of the fancy Wari ceramics, but they did have some of the nice stuff
- Wari pottery destruction
- tradition of smashing large, very fine pots
- and burying the pieces in specially-prepared stone-lined pits, or spreading the pieces around on the floor of a room that was then abandoned or had a new floor laid over the offering, etc.
- the smashed vessels usually are similar in form, size, finish, etc., as though they were made to be used (and destroyed?) together
- specific types of pots seem to have been smashed and disposed of in specific ways, suggesting that this was a ritual process, not just wanton destruction
- in some cases, the pattern of breakage suggests that a blow was struck right on the face of the Staff God painted on the vessel
- what sort of ritual was this??
- Pottery decorations may tell us about Wari society
- Urn with pictures of multi-story buildings in walled compounds
- ceramic house model mentioned earlier
- Conchopata vessels that show warriors in elaborate clothes and face paint (?) with shields, axes, bows and arrows kneeling on what are probably reed boats
- a campaign on Lake Titicaca?
- Elaborate textiles
- mostly known from coastal sites where preservation is better
- tapestry shirts with complex geometric and figural designs
- some look like the secondary figures around the Staff God on Tiwanaku's Gateway of the Sun, often with some parts compressed and other parts stretched out... what does this mean?
- 4-pointed hats similar to the Tiwanaku ones
- but both the tunics and hats differ consistently in technical and stylistic details
- they can be told apart in almost every case
- Wari people used quipus
- were they the first to do so?
- did Tiwanaku people also used them? (no indication of that yet)
- Wari peripheral centers and settlement pattern
- compared to Tiwanaku, Wari had outposts in many more places, scattered over a much larger region
- these tend to be very far apart and isolated from each other
- plunked down in the middle of whatever local society was already there
- usually located on big, flattish, open areas
- not particularly defensible spots
- big, planned complexes
- up to 800 m on a side!
- areas with vast numbers of repetitive small rooms in orderly arrays
- some may have been for storage
- some were lived in
- barracks or worker housing?
- if so, mit'a labor?
- open plazas
- long, narrow rooms, some multistory, probably thatched peaked roofs
- high, blank enclosing walls with few entrances
- was this for defense?
- to control traffic, access to the interior, goods?
- irregular architecture in higher-status areas
- most have no D-shaped rooms (Cerro Baúl is an exception)
- often have stone-lined underground canals, probably to handle drainage
- unfinished; some areas were laid out with rows of stone but the walls were never built
- in many areas, few artifacts
- Examples of planned Wari centers
- Pikillaqta
- near Cuzco
- the largest, southernmost, most famous Wari highland center
- Azángaro
- near Huari itself
- many features similar to Pikillaqta
- Viracochapampa
- way up in northern highlands
- has the rectangular courts and long rooms, but lacks the repetitive tiny rooms
- has big niched halls... maybe for storing and venerating mummy bundles?
- right near Marcahuamachuco, a very impressive site of a local northern highlands culture
- which used similar architecture
- maybe even was the inspiration for Wari architecture
- what was the relationship between these two cultures?
- and numerous others, smaller but similar in concept and plan
- what were these peripheral centers for?
- usually had little impact on surrounding areas
- little exchange (few Wari goods found in nearby local sites)
- generally not in defensible locations
- although the high walls might have allowed for defense
- but they lack baffled entryways, concentric perimeter walls, bastions, and other features usually associated with fortresses
- if they were for ritual purposes, why do they generally lack D-shaped rooms and megalithic burial structures?
- Schreiber sees them as administrative centers of an empire established by military force
- many people agree
- but this is by no means proven yet
- Carahuarazo valley study (now called Sondondo valley)
- in this case, a big impact
- looks like "normal" state or imperial expansion into a region that was already populated by farmers who were organized as small-scale chiefdoms
- the Wari came in and built roads, administrative centers, terraced fields
- presumably they had to coerce the local people to do this
- as the ceramic illustrations of warriors suggest they could do by force
- apparently oriented towards getting the locals to produce maize and maybe other crops that were presumably partially collected as taxes or tribute for use by the Wari state
- later, when the Inka conquered the same region, they simply reused the infrastructure that the Wari had set up
- both the physical infrastructure of terraces, canals, etc.
- and the social infrastructure that remained after Wari withdrew
- that is, a tradition of corporate work, administration, authoritative leaders, etc.
- But the pattern is different in different places
- Carahuarazo (Sondondo) valley: Inka-like empire?
- Viracochapampa: some sort of relationship among equals?
- central and north coast: pilgrimage, trade, or diplomacy?
- no big, planned centers as in the highlands
- high-status Wari burials at some sites that had become ritually important before the Middle Horizon
- like Pachacamac and the Early Horizon center of Chimu Capac
- and fancy Wari goods in local high-status burials
- south coast, Nazca drainage: smaller, partially ritual centers?
- the site of Pacheco had numerous stone-lined pits full of smashed elaborate, sometimes giant-sized Wari ceramics
- probably also had a complex of many rooms
- unfortunately, it has recently been destroyed, so we will probably never really know what was there
- one rural Wari settlement in the upper neck of the valley
- maybe a modest agricultural colony?
- maybe some sort of administrative center??
- yet another different pattern emerging from recent work in the Majes valley (coast south of Nazca)
- I have been involved in some of this
- a south coast valley with plenty of water and reasonably large valley bottom that can be farmed
- there are several planned Wari-style sites in the coastal portion of the valley
- relatively small (compared to major Wari centers -- by any other standard, they are still impressive sites), but they have the typical rectangular patios, long rooms, raised floors, etc.
- although the do not seem to have high perimeter walls, so they are even less defensible than other Wari centers
- odd that there should be several, rather than one big one
- and apparently none in the upper part of the valley
- in both the upper and lower portions of the valley, a rural version of Wari pottery is widespread at many small village sites
- which do not have much or any of the typical Wari architecture
- this looks to me very much like the rural area surrounding Huari itself
- one site differs from the others
- it looks like a temporary camp used by many different groups of people with Wari pottery, and is located where a major travel route comes into the valley
- a llama caravan resting point?
- if the Majes valley was a Wari agricultural colony, it was nothing like the Carahuarazo (Sondondo) valley, where the Wari exploited a local population
- the state did not invest in infrastructure (that we can see) nor in much administration, nor in crop storage, nor in control of access routes...
- either the state must have moved in nearly the entire valley's population from some area full of ethnically Wari farmers
- or they must have been essentially Wari already for some other reason...?
- Cerro Baúl: A special case?
- located well south of the area where Wari pottery is generally found
- within the area where Tiwanaku-influenced pottery is found
- A vertical-sided, flat-topped mountain upriver from the main Tiwanaku sites in the Osmore drainage near Moquegua
- visible from the Tiwanaku temple at Omo
- the Wari also settled on two other adjacent hilltops and several smaller sites, all within a small area just a few kilometers across
- Cerro Baúl is extremely defensible naturally, but not clear that the Wari added defensive walls
- but they did build sizable defensive walls at the neighboring site of Cerro Mejía
- suggests that keeping people out may have been important at both places
- Cerro Mejía seems to have been occupied by fewer people and/or for a shorter time
- Baúl and Mejía are horrendous places to live
- water, food, fuel, everyting has to be hauled up by hand
- in the case of Baúl, by a narrow, dangerous path
- they are exposed to blasting winds
- people must have had some strong incentive to pick these particular places to settle
- The top of Cerro Baúl has some typical Wari rectangular courts, long buildings with raised first floors, at least one probably two stories high, flagstone floors, etc.
- but not a large, rectangular overall plan like the other major sites
- none of the repetitive small room complexes as at some other sites
- no niched halls recognized yet (as at Viracochapampa)
- it has one (or several?) D-shaped "temples", unlike the other major sites
- as in other regions, there was almost no detectable exchange of goods between Wari people and the others in the valley
- particularly the Tiwanaku farming colonists we saw earlier
- maybe a little with the local population of indigenous farmers, who I believe were still living in the valley at this time
- not everyone buys that, though
- a few Wari sherds have been found on the surface of some of these local sites
- what was going on here?
- a military outpost to block further Tiwanaku expansion towards Wari's territory?
- given our current understanding of Tiwanaku's limited ability to expand, it does not seem like Wari should have had to worry about Tiwanaku much
- trade?
- if so, how come virtually no Wari pottery, obsidian, or other goods turns up in non-Wari sites, and vice-versa?
- My theory: competition over a huaca
- remember that there was a second Tiwanaku temple located right at the food of Cerro Baúl, well away from the main area of Tiwanaku settlement
- again, this is from my own work
- the larger temple at Omo was located in one of the few places in the lower valley where you can see Cerro Baúl
- I think these facts suggest that Cerro Baúl was important to the Tiwanaku colonists: a huaca, maybe the seat of an apu
- even today, people come from as far as Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, to make offerings on top of Cerro Baúl
- it looks like the Tiwanaku colonists were probably in the Moquegua area before the Wari settlers, although that is not absolutely certain
- so we can imagine the Tiwanaku people setting up one or both temples at least in part to respect an apu at Cerro Baúl
- then the Wari came in and, maybe by force, took control of the region right around Cerro Baúl
- they built a Wari outpost right on top of the huaca
- with ritual features like the D-shaped rooms that are not part of the usual Wari outpost plan
- we can also imagine a scenario in which Wari arrives first, builds on Cerro Baúl, and then the Tiwanaku come in and place their temple at the foot of the mountain
- why would Wari build a major site on this miserable rock outcrop?
- to express domination over the Tiwanaku and/or local people?
- to actually control them by controlling access to or threatening their huaca?
- or for ritual reasons, wanting to revere or propitate the huaca in its own right?
- is it likely that both Wari and Tiwanaku would have cared about the same mountaintop?
- yes - first, it is particularly impressive, and still has spiritual meaning for people today
- and consider how similar other aspects of their ideology were, like their very similar depictions of the Staff God
- Wari's domination of the huaca could certainly have been combined with or served some other economic, political, or military purpose
- Wari and Tiwanaku
- were contemporary
- were in contact at least in Moquegua
- came from very different ecological regions
- and so emphasized different agricultural technologies, especially in their heartland areas
- had similar (but distinct) iconographies on pottery and textiles
- presumably shared some religious ideas
- but differed in ritual architecture, use (or not) of carved monoliths, and practices of smashing sets of large, probably specially-made pots
- so they presumably also differed a lot in religious practices and probably ideas
- their secular architecture differed in layout and technology
- probably indicating different social organization and state activities
- at least some of their expansion into peripheral regions seems quite different
- big, planned centers vs. rural farming colonies
- a few limited places, vs. many and over a much broader area
- Explaining the origins and relationship of Wari and Tiwanaku
- shared common cultural "ancestor", like Pukara?
- one inspired the other?
- maybe suggested by the early sunken rectangular court at Huari?
- intense interaction between the two?
- virtually no evidence of it
- there is a lot to still be worked out here...
- In any case, between Tiwanaku and Wari, the Middle Horizon was the time of real growth of large, regional states
- only the Moche might have developed to a comparable scale and complexity
- how would you compare these societies?
- Wari, especially, laid the social and to some extent physical foundations for the Inka
- next time, we will look at the downfall of the two Middle Horizon states