JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.The emergence of public architecture in Peru 's central highlands occurred during the mid-first millennium B.C. and is correlated with the expansion of the Chavin sphere of interaction. Atalla, a high-altitude site in Huancavelica, represents one of the first known centers with large-scale masonry constructions. Analysis of the ceramic assemblage reveals many similarities between the local ceramics and the Janabarriu phase pottery from Chavin de Huantar, located 450 km to the north. The inhabitants of Atalla emulated the ceramic style and cut-stone masonry of the much larger northern civic-ceremonial centers, like Chavin de Hua'ntar, while maintaining local traits such as circular dwellings and burials in or adjacent to domestic architecture. Utilizing a core-periphery perspective, the unprecedentedformation in the central highlands of a community like Atalla is hypothesized to be an independent response to demands for exotic goods from the more complex societies to the north. The largest mercury deposits in Latin America are located 15 km to the west of Atalla, and the center would have been in an excellent position to procure cinnabar and distribute this bright red vermilion pigment. Production of the pigment itself would have occurred at small villages like Chuncuimarca located in the zone of the mercury deposits.La emergencia de arquitectura publica en la sierra central de Peru' occurrio durante el primer milenio a. C. y esta correlacionada con la expansion de la esfera de interaccion del horizonte Chavin. Atalla es un sitio que se ubica en el Departamento de Huancavelica a unos 3,850 msnm, y representa uno de los primeros centros conocidos con construcciones de piedra de gran monumentalidad. El analisis de la ceramica de Atalla revela varias semejanzas estilisticas con la ceramica de la fase Janabarriu del sitio arqueolo'gico de Chavin de Huantar, ubicado 450 km de distancia. Los habitantes de Atalla imitaron el estilo de ceramica y la mamposteria de los centros civic-ceremoniales, como Chavin de Huantar, pero a la vez mantuvieron rasgos locales como la construccion de estructuras dome'sticas circulares y un patron de enterramiento al interior o adyacente a las viviendas. La formacion de una comunidad como Atalla no tiene antecedente en la zona, y se plantea la hipotesis que este asentamiento fue una respuesta independien te a la demanda pa ra b ienes exo ticos de las soc iedades complejas no rtenas. El depos ito ge o log ico de c inabrio (HgS) de mayor envergadura en America Latina se encuentra a 15 km al oeste de Atalla y existe datos arqueologicos de su explotacion temprana en tiempos prehispanicos. El cinabrio tiene un color distinctivo de rojo vivo, el cual era utilizado ...

The well-known archaeological site at Ancon, Peru, represents the timespan from preceramic through the end of the Formative period. Recent investigations have permitted definition of five ceramic phases, of which Ancon C is of particular interest here because it marks the appearance of zoned and unzoned painted decoration. These techniques were added to the preexisting ceramic complex, characterized by limited frequency of decoration by incision. A burial equating with Ancon C contained a variety of grave goods, including a complete olla with zoned red decoration, covered with a basket and containing among other objects a wooden figurine with articulated arms. The estimated date is around 1200 B.C. These associations expand the definition of the cultural complex on the central Peruvian coast in the pre-Chavin period and raise questions about the origin and diffusion of the traits, which have also been reported from Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Mesoamerica.

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