Andes: Late Preceramic through Early Horizon

World Prehistory: Class 19

Andes: Late Preceramic through Early Horizon

ã Copyright Bruce Owen 2000

Setting

The Andes are extremely ecologically and culturally varied
A narrow band of high, rough Andes mountains runs right along the west coast of South America

the rest of the continent to the east of the Andes is low, gentle terrain sloping very gradually through the Amazonian forest to the Atlantic

narrow coastal strip

the coast is extremely dry desert

often cloudy, even foggy, but extremely little actual rain

The coastal desert is cut by many short, steep, narrow river valleys

"little Niles"

western slopes of the Andes

dry, very steep, barren to scrubby
cut by the upper parts of the coastal valleys

the high, wide crest of the Andes

not a single row of peaks, but a broad band of mountains, valleys, and high plateaus
the high valleys, especially the "intermontaine" valleys that run parallel to the spine of the Andes, contain good farmland

even the floors of these valleys are high (2,800-3,500 meters; 9,000 - 12,000 feet)

outside the intermontaine valley floors and lower slopes, the higher slopes and plateaus are covered with open grasslands called puna

3,500 - 4,500 meters (12,000 - 15,000 feet)
good for herding llamas and alpacas, and hunting guanacos and vicuñas

the rocky, snowcapped peaks of the Andes stick up from the puna

eastern side slopes steeply and very roughly down towards the edge of the jungle

these eastern slopes are where the famous Inka site of Machu Picchu is

huge, almost flat Amazonian jungle stretches the rest of the way to the Atlantic

Early occupation of the Andes

Early hunters and gatherers came across the Bering Strait
and spread south through North America and into the Andes by at least 12,000 BC

Preceramic period

Agriculture was developed and adopted extremely gradually, with different preferred crops and different timing in different ecological zones

beans and hot chili peppers were collected more intensively, possibly began to be domesticated, around 9000 BC, maybe even a little earlier
quinoa (a grain), squash, peanuts in the north by around 7000 BC
maybe maize (corn) by 7000 BC in Ecuador, but not much
camelids (llamas, alpacas) domesticated maybe by 6500 BC
potatoes, coca maybe by 5000 BC
a little maize in various places in Peru by 4500 BC
cotton maybe around 3500 BC

semi-sedentary people, using minor agriculture to supplement hunted, gathered, and fished foods

Late Preceramic (also called "Cotton Preceramic") roughly 3000-2000 BC

Same time as:

Jemdet Nasr, Early Dynastic, Agade in Mespotamia
Early Dynastic, Old Kingdom, 1st Intermediate in Egypt
Long before the Olmecs or Zapotecs started building ceremonial architecture in Mesoamerica

Coastal Late Preceramic sites

mostly modest villages of people who fished and gathered shellfish

plus a little supplemental farming, especially for cotton for lines and nets, and gourds for net floats and containers

technology and lifestyle not too different from Native Americans of the Bay Area
But a few sites were different, like Aspero

Aspero featured 9 to 11 flat-topped mounds ("huacas")

made by modifying natural hills
"Huaca" means a sacred place, usually an artificial platform mound, but sometimes a peak, a special rock outcrop, etc.

Huaca de los Sacrificios 2903 BC radiocarbon date, first construction probably up to 200 years older (3100 BC?)

this was some 200 to 400 years before the first Egyptian pyramid, the stepped pyramid of Djoser (2686 BC)

Huaca de los Idolos 2750 BC, probably started a few centuries earlier (2900 BC??)

on a platform 10 m high (32 feet), 30 X 40 m base (about 100 X 130 feet)
top covered by rooms, insides plastered and painted red and yellow
stairway up the front to a central entrance
central room divided by a wall with "clapboard" pattern molded on the outer surface, with T-shaped doorway
next to it, but entered by a separate system of hallways, a room with a central niche opposite the entryway, with a bench or altar built up to the level of the base of the niche
the "Idolos" are at least 13 intentionally broken figurines found in one of the niches (carefully filled for a later reconstruction)
other offerings include yarn "god's eyes", and a colorful "feather arrangement"

Aspero did have a modest town around it, maybe enough to have built the site over a long period of time

El Paraiso

dates to the very end of the coastal preceramic and into the next period; earliest date 2000 BC
58 ha complex
mounds up to three stories high
irregular plan suggests accumulation over a long time
restored platform is 8 m (26 feet) high
central court with red clay floor, red painted walls, and four 1-meter diameter fire pits around a sunken central area
total over 100,000 tons of rock fill
estimated 2 million person-days to construct
number of people who lived there or nearby is debated

relatively little evidence of residence, but some burned midden layers suggest to some investigators that there were many people there
otherwise, the building projects might have had to draw people from various settlements in the area

Generalities of the coastal Late Preceramic

stratification

few goods that could not be produced by any household
no markedly elite burials, although some were definitely richer than others

at site of Asia, 28 burials

most had 2 to 4 textiles
a few had more
one had 12, plus various gourds, bone tools, wooden tubes, a comb, a sling, etc.

monumental architecture

big labor mobilization without any sign of an elite or state organization
no significant storage features or craft workshops

i.e. no obvious economic function (unlike Mesopotamia, Indus)
not residential (un like Mesopotamia, China)
not mainly mortuary (un like Egypt)
mainly used for ritual (like Olmec and Maya)

how could such monuments be possible without:

much agriculture
notable social stratification that would suggest leaders
concentration and redistribution of surplus
cities, warfare, craft specialization...??

a possible alternative to stratification: "cargo" system

"cargo" = "responsibility" or "task" assigned to someone
rotating capable people through offices of leadership
this is a way to coordinate group activities (like building monuments) without establishing a permanent status hierarchy

although people who have successfully completed numerous cargos become generally more respected and important

suggested because it is still in common use in the Andes
can we project this 4000+ years into the past? Not for sure, but we can at least suggest.

Initial Period 2000-800 BC

so called because it was the time of the first (initial) use of ceramics
these dates fall around the end of the latest periods we looked at in Mesopotamia and Egypt
subsistence shifted from mostly marine resources to more irrigated agriculture, as people moved further up into the coastal segments of the river valleys

root crops (potatoes, oca, ulluco, manioc [yuca] etc.) plus beans, squashes, fruits
maize still rare or absent on the coast, just appearing in the highlands
no consensus on why they shifted to depend more on irrigated crop production

they began making ceramic vessels, maybe for boiling starchy crops
organization

highly variable, regional (patchy) pottery styles suggest lots of small, closed, self-sufficient groups
the larger valleys had several ceremonial centers at this time, each center apparently associated with a small, local canal system and the people living on the land that it watered
the canal systems were still of a scale that a village could manage

much greater elaboration of monumental architecture

similar in concept to the Late Preceramic, but

many more ceremonial sites
much bigger and more elaborate constructions

continued the practice of repeated interment and rebuilding
structures started to feature large adobe friezes, often painted in bright colors, visible to crowds in plazas

U-shaped mound complexes (Initial period, 2000 - 800 BC)

About 20 major U-shaped complexes known

U-shaped arrangement of central and flanking mounds with interior plaza
stairway up the center front, forming a dramatic entrance to the top of the main mound

Huaca la Florida

1750-1650 BC
6.7 million person-days, not including leveling the area, plastering, modeling, and painting the outsides
And there are others even larger!
Plazas up to 30 ha!

Las Haldas

another large Initial period U-shaped mound complex

Cardal

A smaller U-shaped center
entrance stairway flanked by painted clay frieze of a gigantic mouth with interlocking teeth and canines 1 m long

painted cream, yellow, red, and black

small habitation areas nearby
contemporary with similar centers, one just 1 km away, another 5 km away

suggests that small groups built and used them

on top of central mound, several burials

both male and female
presumably important people
but grave goods were limited: a few ordinary ceramics; one old man had a necklace of sea lion teeth and earspools made from porpoise vertebrae

Garagay

1640-900 BC
3.2 million person-days
painted relief of shaman (?) using a hallucinogen?

Huaca de los Reyes

further north on the coast
U-shaped complex with colonnades facing three sides of a main rectangular plaza
facades had large, modeled clay sculptures of anthropomorphic heads with fangs, toothy feline mouths, etc, painted in green, cream, and black
estimated 960 person-years to build

Generalizations about the Initial period coastal U-shaped mound tradition

social stratification

some elite burials, but "elite" did not have a lot of fancy goods
some residences on top of main mound at Cardal would presumably be for elites
but their refuse was like that in ordinary houses
i.e. weak stratification
maybe a cargo system?
or acquired, not hereditary status, so that wealth did not accumulate over generations in certain families?

no signs of large settlements over a few thousand people

in the Initial period Casma valley: an extreme case

Sechín Alto

oldest date is 1720 BC, construction presumably started even earlier
Twice the volume of Huaca La Florida
over 13 million person-days to build

that is 36,000 person-years (without weekends off!)
(still only one eleventh of the estimate for the great pyramid at Giza: 400,000 person-years)

final form reflects around 1000 years of rebuilding!

incredible cultural conservatism, comparable to Mesopotamian temples

250 x 300 m at base (7.5 ha, bigger than the entire town of Jericho!)

base is bigger than the Great Pyramid at Giza or the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan
this single platform mound would cover the entire SSU main quad and all of Stevenson, Darwin, and the library

44 m tall (143 feet) at highest point

like a 9-story building!

area in front of main mound:

four successive rectangular courts
3 with sunken circular plazas
total 1.4 km long (close to a mile long!)

Cerro Sechín

much smaller than Sechín Alto
not a mound or U-shaped structure, but a room complex at the foot of a hill
originally adobe, with large cats and fish modeled and painted on the front at different times
stone sculpture wall built around 1520 BC, after numerous earlier rebuildings and expansions
What does the wall mean?

"Medical school" (not very likely)
Warfare?

residential sites were not defensible at this time

sites were on flat land near irrigable areas, not on hilltops or ridges
they did not have defensive walls

and no other evidence of significant warfare

like lots of burials with traumatic injuries
or lots of weapons in burials or other contexts

maybe warfare was real but rare?
or even so rare as to be a historical to mythical memory?
or it was some sort of ritualized conflict different from our concept of warfare, such that defenses were not appropriate?

the Andean concept of tinku

scheduled, organized fight between villages or descent groups
often resulting in real injuries or deaths

Pampa de las Llamas / Moxeke (2000 - 1500 BC) (Still Casma valley)

about 200 ha!

over twice the area of the entire SSU campus!
a complex with two big mounds connected by plazas, and a lot of smaller ceremonial and residential buildings

Moxeke main mound

stepped pyramid/platform mound
160 x 170 m at base (a bit over a third the area of Sechín Alto)
would cover most of the main SSU quad and library
30 m high (98 feet)
10 m (33 feet) up on the sides were huge painted sculptures in niches, clearly for viewing from the ground
front had huge niches occupied by sculptural figures
presumably the setting for ceremonies mean to be appreciated by a sizable crowd located in the plaza

Huaca A

very different from Moxeke main mound
broad platform with a complex of rooms on top with very high walls (4-7 m, roughly 16 feet), many with niches
mostly built of fieldstones set in mortar, with surfaces plastered and painted white
136 m x 119 m (a little smaller than Moxeke main mound)
originally painted white, with huge feline (cat) paintings around entrance
no evidence that people lived in Huaca A

no hearths, no food garbage

the rooms were for storage?

very little evidence of what would have been stored there

not surprising; if it had any value, it would have been removed

pollen from niches suggests cotton, beans, potatoes, peanuts
rodent bones also suggest storage

administrative rooms?

Numerous platforms along the edges of the huge plaza between Huaca A and Moxeke main mound

some had residences behind them, built in the fieldstone and mortar style of Huaca A
these were presumably residences of the elite who were associated with the attached platform mound
but the garbage in these residences is similar to the plainer ones further from the plaza

so does the architectural difference indicate a status hierarchy, or not?

low-status housing a little further away from Huaca A and the plaza

perishable buildings, with probably cane walls set along stone footings
less regular plans
hearths smaller
not connected to or aligned with public architecture
domestic refuse similar to the better-built residences

generalities about the Initial period Casma valley

no craft workshops known, nor fine goods that would imply craft specialists

except the sculptures, paintings, and buildings themselves

no really large concentrations of population
no large-scale irrigation works
still no impressive elite burials
But--

huge monumental architecture
maybe storage at Huaca A
possibly higher-status residences associated with the fancy buildings

So, was it a complex society, or even a state?

Crisis on the coast: 900 - 700 BC

end of Initial Period - beginning of Early Horizon
coastal people started growing maize, maybe introduced from the highlands
collapse of the U-shaped temple tradition
Las Haldas: stairway plastering job stopped halfway through

leaving pegs and string in place
never rebuilt again

Cardal: painted clay and straw mannequin / deity left laying on the main staircase
many other examples of unfinished projects, all apparently dating to roughly the same period
Started building fortresses for the first time (or are they something else?)

but people continued to live in villages and small towns of up to several thousand people
warfare seems to have changed from rare or symbolic to real (but this is still being debated)
Chanquillo

an example of a fortress

high, defensible point
double round outer walls, baffled entries, limited interior space

but some features aren't right

not much storage, no water source...
doors that could be barred from the outside

some seem to "defend" bedrock outcrops
maybe they are really some sort of ritual constructions, possibly related to tinku?

other examples were rectangular or irregular in shape

all in defensible locations
typically have complex, baffled gates
all have massive walls

in any case, this is a radically different tradition

together with adoption of maize, and changes in pottery and textile style, this architectural and ceremonial change is attributed to a powerful wave of influence from the highlands... but why, how, and what was it?

Early Horizon 800-200 BC

Chavín de Huantar

setting: eastern side of the Andes, at a key point for travel from eastern slopes and jungle to highlands and Pacific coast

3,177 masl (10,325 feet)

The ceremonial center

less than 1/10th the size of the Sechín Alto platform
built in several episodes, first similar to a U-shaped temple with a sunken circular court, then expanded...
Original "Old Temple" (900 BC - )

A U-shaped platform with a sunken circular court, ringed by low-relief carvings
honeycombed with corridors, drains, niches, tiny rooms
Lanzón

in the very center, in a cross-shaped gallery
gallery above the chamber with a hole over the Lanzón: for speaking?

analogy to Pachacamac, where the Spanish observed such a "speaking" deity in action

Later (about 500 BC) added onto, forming the "New Temple" (Old Temple was part of it, still visible and in use)

taller, with "Black and White Portal" covered with low reliefs
and sunken rectangular court aligned in front of it
additional galleries, stairways, etc., may have permitted ritual specialists to appear and disappear from view unexpectedly or otherwise put on a show for people in the rectangular court
some carvings inside the New Temple retain traces of red, green, and blue pigments

hinting that much more of Chavin might once have been painted in bright colors

tennoned heads decorated the exterior

they may show shamans/priests transforming from human to animal form
possibly assisted by a hallucinogen

one area of passages was filled with pottery, llama bone, guinea pig bone, fish bone, shell; thought to be offerings
one contained burnt bone, including burnt human bone

but human bone NOT found in domestic contexts (i.e. not dietary cannibalism)

Please visit the Chavin photographic virtual reality website; this is part of the assigned "reading" for the course, but it is also very fun. Get there through the link on the class page.

The town

in Old Temple times (about 900 - 500 BC)

6 ha near and around the temple, on both sides of the Huachecsa river
the river was crossed by a monolithic stone bridge that still carried trucks until it was destroyed by a landslide in 1945 (used for about 2500 years!)
estimated around 500 people

in New Temple times (500 BC to 200 BC)

town gradually grew, reaching 42 hectares and 2,000 to 3,000 people by late in the Early Horizon

at this maximum extent, it was some 20 times larger than the surrounding villages

increasing evidence of trade

exotic foods

camelid meat brought in as dried jerky
marine shell and fish bone from the coast

increasing obsidian trade and Spondylus shell from Ecuadorian coast

but the exotic goods were not particularly concentrated at the temple

suggesting that, although the temple may have attracted travelers, it might not have been directly involved in all of the trade

increasing evidence of craft production, maybe for trade

shell bead workshop (using imported marine shell)
wood or hide workshop

stratification

houses close to the temple and further away were excavated. The houses closer to the temple had:

stone walls with niches, compared to the adobe walls of the houses farther away
more foreign pottery
more marine shell and fish bone
the only gold artifact found in a residential area
a higher fraction of young llamas among the bones

that is, more preferred, tender meat

i.e. probable status differentiation, with people associated with the temple living better than others

Technological developments

rapid development of goldworking technology

prior to Chavín, there was only limited evidence of simple hammering of gold foil
but in the Early Horizon, they mastered elaborate forming, soldering, repoussé, alloying gold and silver
most examples are from the coast

apparently from a limited number of rich burials with gold headdresses, gauntlets, pectorals, earspools, etc.
these are the first burials of obviously high-status people

adoption of numerous new textile technologies

dyed wool (in addition to the older cotton textile tradition)
tapestry weaving techniques
painting, tie-dying, and batik

Chavín influence in distant regions

There were a few Chavin-like centers in the highlands, but all much smaller than Chavin de Huantar
Chavín did NOT export carved stonework, nor pottery

iconography and technology, rather than objects themselves, is what was widely dispersed

most Chavín-style objects from the coast are portable

and most seem to be drug paraphernalia
small, decorated mortars and pestles
decorated bone tubes
bone and metal spatulas and spoons
also ceramics in Chavin style

Cache of painted textiles from a tomb at Karwa, on the Paracas peninsula

at least 25 large paintings of the staff god, suitable for wall hangings or other form of display to large groups
like at a travelling revival meeting?

maybe Chavín was an oracle center, similar to the historically documented one at Pachacamac

where the Spanish observed a wooden idol set up in a room atop a platform mound

only high-status people could actually enter
where they would put questions to the idol and a hidden priest would "speak" for it
most people just watched ceremonies from the plaza at the foot of the steps
shaman/priest would stand in front of the doorway in regalia and trance or perform for the audience

the Pachacamac oracle had "sister", "son", and "wife" centers set up in other places, paying tithes to the main oracle
notable that many of the Karwa "staff gods" have the sex indicated; when they do, it is always female

i.e. a "wife" or "daughter" oracle of Chavín?

generalities about the Early Horizon:

stratification had finally appeared

dietary, housing, ceramic differences with closeness to Chavín
Gold-rich Cupisnique burials on the coast
Karwa (Paracas) burial with quantities of painted textiles

but settlements were still small
little evidence of regional administrative or economic control

and no "administrative centers" or hierarchy of site sizes
no town walls or other defensive features
no clear storage facilities for concentrating surplus

instead, large regional influence in pottery, art styles

proseletyzing religion?
oracle center and sub-centers?
increasing trade?

The End of the Early Horizon, around 300-200 BC

regional interaction faded
many public buildings left unfinished

one late style sculpture at Chavin was never finished; maybe it was part of the last project of an institution that was losing the ability to support specialists

ordinary residences were built among and over the ceremonial structures

at Chavín de Huantar and many other highland ritual sites
ending the sacred uses of places that had been ritual centers for centuries or even millennia

local styles of pottery developed, now much more varied than during the Early Horizon

suggesting less interaction between neighboring groups
the changes in iconography seem abrupt and drastic, not gradual

indicating a rejection of Chavín ideas?

possible increase in conflict and violence

widespread construction of hilltop fortresses
an immediately post-Chavín (Salinar culture) cemetery on the coast has many burials lacking limbs or heads, a pattern not seen before

Richard Burger argues that the emergence of social stratification (presence of marked elites) during the Early Horizon meant that local societies could not just go back to their former egalitarian ways as Chavín influence declined

The societal rules had fundamentally changed from the relatively egalitarian model of the Initial Period
now there were elites who would work to advance their own interests
group conflict was probably encouraged by competing elites and made more possible by their power
this set the stage for the development of complex, stratified societies with classes and elites who would attain real economic and military power...