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emerged. Population was consolidated and aggregated into fewer and larger sites, and the total number of sites decreased. Defensible site locations
(such as those at Mesa Verde National Park) were
occupied across the regions, numerous sites show
evidence of warfare; and the fear of conict, if not
outright warfare, seems to have been at an all-time
high for the ancient Puebloans.
The collapse of the Chacoan world occurred in
early Pueblo III, by about 1140. Later in the period
(ca. 1200), many sites experienced a resurgence in
population. In the middle San Juan region, the Aztec
and Salmon communities reached their peaks
around 1250, as the local and regional populations
boomed. The northern San Juan (Mesa Verde)
region also reached its zenith during the late Pueblo
III Period, by 1260. Finally, many other former
Chacoan sites, including Chaco Canyon itself, were
revitalized with new population and growth in the
mid- to late-1200s. The end of the Pueblo III Period
(at 1300) was marked by the widespread depopulation of most areas across the Colorado Plateau.
During the Pueblo IV Period (13001540), displaced peoples from the abandoned Four Corners
region joined with various Puebloan groups. Western Puebloan groups aggregated in a few locationsHopi, Zuni, Acoma, and the Little Colorado
River area. The Eastern Pueblo area received many
of the people emigrating from the abandoned
Four Corners region, and large villages grew along
the Rio Grande River and its tributaries. Many of
these villages were encountered by the conquistador Francisco Vsquez de Coronado in 15401541,
with the rst Spanish visit to the American
Southwest.
[See also Chacoan Phenomenon; Mesa Verde.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, Michael A., ed. The Prehistoric Pueblo World, AD

11501350, 1996. This multi-author, edited volume
adeptly summarizes the Pueblo III period across the
ancient Southwestern landscape.
Cordell, Linda S. Archaeology of the Southwest, 1997. This
book is an excellent overview of the ancient archaeology of the American Southwest.

Reed, Paul F. The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon,

2004. This work provides a highly readable singlevolume presentation of ancient Chacoan society.
Reed, Paul F., ed. Foundations of Anasazi Culture: The
BasketmakerPueblo Transition, 2000. This edited volume provides an excellent summary of the Basketmaker II and III periods of the ancient Puebloan
cultural sequence.
Vivian, R. Gwinn. Chacoan Prehistory of the San Juan
Basin. San Diego, 1990. This book is one of the best
single-volume summaries of the ancient Puebloan
history of the San Juan basin.

Paul F. Reed

ANDEAN PRE-INCA CIVILIZATIONS,

THE RISE OF
Introduction
Effects of El Nio on Peruvian Civilization
Maritime Foundations of Pre-Inca Civilization

Andean Pre-Inca Civilizations, The Rise of:

Introduction
The Andean region of South America was the heartland of one of the great civilizations to arise in the
world. Although this distinctive civilization culminated in the Inca Empire in the fteenth century
AD, its origins extend back thousands of years to
the very beginning of the third millennium BC. Arising in the Late Archaic Period, long-term historical
and cultural change in the Andes continued through
the Initial Period, Early Horizon, Early Intermediate,
Middle Horizon, Late Intermediate, and nally the
Late Horizon of the Incas. While these chronological
periods were established decades ago to indicate
broad patterns in this archaeological record, research
in recent years has shown there is tremendous local
and sub-regional variability within each of these general periods.
This variability starts by 3000 BC when the rst
large-scale communal architecture appears at a small
number of sites in a cluster of valleys known as the
Norte Chico on the Pacic coast just north of the city
of Lima. Elsewhere in the Andean region as well as
the rest of South America, the third millennium BC is

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72 ANDEAN PRE-INCA CIVILIZATIONS, THE RISE OF: Introduction

marked by people practicing nomadic hunting and
gathering, shing, or part-time limited agriculture. In
contrast, in the Norte Chico, at sites such as Caral,
Vinto Alto, and Caballete, people were engaged in
much more substantive agriculture, living in large,
permanent communities, and building monumental
platform mounds, sunken circular courts, and associated ceremonial structures. These early sites established a pattern of terraced platform mounds and
sunken courts that spread rapidly across the length
and breadth of the Andean region. Outside the Norte
Chico in valleys to the north and south on the coast,
sites with platform mounds appear by the end of
the third millennium. Contemporaneous with this
later coastal expansion of architectural style, the
Kotosh Religious Complex arises in the intermountain regions due east of the Norte Chico. During these
same centuries, the rest of the Andean region
continued with the same hunting, gathering, and
shing lifestyle of the previous millennia.
The end of the Late Archaic and beginning of the
Initial Period is marked by a greater dependence on
agriculture, the introduction of ceramics and loomwoven textiles, as well as the beginnings of metallurgy. The tradition of large scale monuments and
distinctive ceremonial structures expands in both
size and range. The site of Sechin Alto in the Casma
Valley, for example, was one of the largest monuments in the world in the second millennium BC.
Distinctive religious iconography also makes its
appearance with fanged deity gures appearing in
sculpture, stonework, and ceramics. It is interesting
to note that while there were commonalities in
iconography on the coast and in the highlands,
there were also regional differences. This would
seem to indicate that, like Christianity, there was a
common origin of this Andean religious tradition
that emerged in the Late Archaic and then diverged
as it spread across the cultural landscape. The Initial
Period complex of architecture, agriculture, religion,
and technology expanded far beyond the northcentral coast across the northern highlands as well
as north and south on the coast. This expansion set
the stage for the rst pan-Andean pattern of cultural
similarity, the Early Horizon.

For much of the history of archaeology in the

Andean region, the Early Horizon was seen to
focus on the site of Chavn de Huantar in the
north-central highlands. This large site has multiple
platform mounds and sunken courts reminiscent of
the architecture of the Late Archaic; however, the
platforms here are riddled with passageways, internal chambers, and stone sculptures. The main
sunken circular court is lined with distinctive Chavn style iconography carved into stone slabs. The
Early Horizon is basically dened by the widespread
distribution of this Chavn iconography across the
Andean landscape. Until recently it was generally
accepted that the distinct religious iconography of
the Early Horizon emanated from Chavn de Huantar, which served as a pilgrimage center and capital.
More recent research, however, has shown that the
distinctive Chavinoid iconography appears in the
Initial Period on the coast several hundred years
before the rise of Chavn de Huantar. Furthermore,
numerous large and important Early Horizon sites
have been discovered and investigated on the coast
and in the highlands, giving a much more complex
picture of the nature of the Early Horizon. Major
centers such as Caylan in the coastal valley of Nepea, Kuntur Wasi in the northern highlands, or
Chiripa in the southern highlands indicate that
there were thriving regional manifestations during
the Early Horizon that were quite independent of
Chavn de Huantar. Recent surveys and excavations
have also shown that while there was a shared
religious tradition across much of the Andean
region, there was signicant warfare between neighboring groups in the Early Horizon.
The rise in the prevalence of warfare in the Andean region during the end of the Early Horizon was
accompanied by a suite of other economic, social,
and political changes that signaled the beginning
of the Early Intermediate Period. Competition
and hostilities increased as easily farmed land became occupied by growing populations. Hilltop fortications became more prevalent. Several regional
styles emerged including Recuay in the north highlands, Gallinazo on the north coast, and La Pena
on the south coast. Among these more localized

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ANDEAN PRE-INCA CIVILIZATIONS, THE RISE OF: Introduction

cultures, Moche and Nasca stand out in the Early

Intermediate.
The Moche culture developed along the north
coast where political transformations led to more
centralized governance centered at Cerro Blanco in
the Moche valley. At the Moche capital, the largest
adobe structures ever erected in the AndesHuaca
del Sol and Huaca de la Lunawere constructed and
serve as monumental markers of the rst widely
recognized state. Fine arts represented an ideological
expression of the political order. Moche iconography
was highly symbolic and extremely standardized.
Recent research on Moche arts and mortuary practices has demonstrated that iconography was a
means of ideological communication based on a
limited number of artistic themes. Each Moche
theme involved a cast of actors that included animals, humans, and supernaturals interacting in
repetitive manners. While these scenes were initially
attributed to mythological events, the discovery of
elite tombs at sites such as Sipn in the Lambayeque
valley revealed that the scenes on the vessels reected actual ceremonies and real people.
On the south coast of Peru another complex society arose, centered on the Nasca valley. The Nasca
culture began as a group of people living in small
scattered villages in the Andean foothills during the
early centuries AD. The Nasca came to produce
some of the most elaborate ceramics ever seen in
the Andes depicting natural life as well as supernatural beings and events. Etched into the surrounding
landscape were enormous geoglyphs of animals,
supernatural beings, and geometric designs. These
glyphs, known as the Nasca Lines, may have acted as
ritual pathways related to ceremonies centered on
the acquisition of water. Cahuachi, a major ceremonial center, seemed to have served as a pilgrimage
site, much like Chavn, although it was built in the
desert plain, on a smaller scale, and without a large
permanent population. Around AD 500 a series of
devastating droughts altered the Andean social and
environmental landscape. Construction at Cahuachi
stopped and the Nasca consolidated themselves
into large towns. The highlands were also thriving
during the Early Intermediate, with sites ourishing

along the shores of Lake Titicaca including Pukara,

Chiripa, and Tiwanaku.
By AD 800 the cultural landscape of the Andes
was changing again. Out of the social climate of
fragmentation characteristic of the Early Intermediate, two large empires emerged in the Middle
Horizon: Tiwanaku and Wari. Tiwanaku, on the
shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, expanded outward in the southern highlands. It eventually came
to exercise some degree of religious and economic
control over most of southern Peru. The site of
Tiwanaku itself became a vast complex of ceremonial structures based on the pattern of stepped
platform mounds and sunken courts that were
seen centuries earlier on the coast. Tiwanaku religion also incorporated many elements of the iconography that had earlier marked the Early
Horizon. Like Chavn de Huantar and Cahuachi,
Tiwanaku probably served as a major pilgrimage
center as well. In central Peru the site of Wari in the
Ayacucho valley rapidly grew to urban proportions
in the early part of the Middle Horizon. Through a
series of conquests Wari established their own
empire across the central and northern parts of
Peru with provincial centers such as Pikillaqta,
Cajamarca, and the unnished site of Viracochapampa. Recent archaeological research conrms
the stark contrasts between these two Andean empires whose cultural dominance at this time denes
the Middle Horizon. While the Wari established an
extensive system of administrative centers and
roads to maintain strict economic and military
control, the Tiwanaku emphasized a strong religious component to their method of social control.
The contrast between Tiwanaku and Wari has
been best studied in the Moquegua valley in southern Peru where these two empires created a cultural
crossroads at their borders. As Tiwanaku established its own colonies in the region, Wari eventually built a highly defensible compound atop the
sheer cliffs of Cerro Baul and archaeologists are
continually researching in the Moquegua valley to
esh out the nature of the interaction between
Tiwanaku and Wari. Nevertheless, these empires
lasted only a few centuries, and in the political

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74 ANDEAN PRE-INCA CIVILIZATIONS, THE RISE OF: Effects of El Nio on Peruvian Civilization
fallout from their collapse a series of local cultures
once again emerged in the Late Intermediate Period.
In the north, the most dominant society during
the Late Intermediate Period was the Chim.
Between AD 1100 and 1470 from their capital at
Chan Chan in the Moche valley, the Chim Empire
controlled a territory from at least the Fortaleza
valley in the south to the Lambayeque in the
north. The Chim ultimately expanded upon the
territory managed by the Moche during the preceding Early Intermediate Period. The imperial Chim
capital of Chan Chan consists of nine large rectangular compounds called ciudadelas. Each compound served as the residence and administrative
center of a Chim ruler and upon his death was
transformed into his funerary complex.
On the south-central coast of Peru, the Chincha
valley served as a center for a long-distance trade
network. Despite a lack of archaeological evidence
of major political centralization among the Chincha,
they constructed balsa rafts to sail up and down the
coastline as far north as Ecuador exchanging textiles
and metals for warm-water spondylus shells. In the
highlands the social landscape was equally as fragmented during the Late Intermediate Period. Several small polities emerged including Cajamarca in
the north, the Wanka in the central highlands, the
Chanka in the south-central highlands, the Inca in
the Cuzco valley, and the Colla and Lupaqa in the
Titicaca basin.
In the mid-fteenth century a major battle
between the Inca and the Chanka provided the
Inca with the impetus and means to establish political control in the highland Andean region. This
victory touched off a series of conquests that
would culminate in the largest empire ever known
in the New World.
[See also Chavn Culture; Moche Culture; Nasca
Lines; Nasca Civilization; South America; Tiwanaku
Empire; Wari Empire.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marcus, Joyce, and Patrick Ryan Williams, eds. Andean

Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. Moseley, 2009.

Monograph 63, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.

Silverman, Helaine, ed. Andean Archaeology, 2004.
Silverman, Helaine, and William Isbell, eds. Handbook of
South American Archaeology, 2008.
Vaughn, Kevin, Dennis Ogburn, and Cristina Conlee,
eds. Foundations of Power in the Prehispanic Andes,
pp. 3752. Archeological Papers of the American
Anthropological Association 14, 2004.

Jonathan Haas and Matthew Piscitelli

Andean Pre-Inca Civilizations, The Rise of:

Effects of El Nio on Peruvian Civilization
El Nio is part of a global climatic perturbation that
causes tremendous changes in the desert coast and
adjacent highlands of western South America. During certain years, the warm, south-owing coastal
current known as El Nio pushes the normal, cold,
north-owing Humboldt Current seaward, bringing
rain to the desert and altering life in the ocean.
For the inhabitants of the north coast of Peru, El
Nio can be a true disaster. Cold-water marine
animals die or migrate south, to be replaced by
less abundant warm-water species. Torrential rains
in the desert cause massive ooding and erosion,
damaging or destroying sites as well as the irrigation
systems on which coastal agriculture has depended
for three millennia. El Nio is often accompanied by
tropical diseases and pests. In the southern highlands of Peru and Bolivia, El Nio years are often
drought years.
The intensity, duration, and extent of El Nio vary
from event to event. On the coast, the effects
decrease to the south, so El Nio is not uniformly
negative. On the central and southern coast of Peru,
many of the sh migrating southward come inshore
where they are easier to catch from the beach or in
small, pre-Hispanic-type watercraft. During the
19821983 event, there was a boom in the scallop
population south of Lima, Peru. After the rains,
much of the desert blooms, though only temporarily.
Strong to moderate El Nios occur irregularly,
about once every seven to fteen years; major events
take place about two to three times per century.