7 The Mutable Neighborhoods of the Late Moche Period in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru

Abstract

An investigation of Late Moche hamlets, hillside ceremonial sites, and large monumental centers in the Jequetepeque Valley (650-850 CE) reveals that neighborhood-like groupings were tied to rural and kin-based communities. However, the diversity of settlement types and the non-fixed nature of Jequetepeque "neighborhoods" reveal that North Coast political landscapes defy reduction to an Asiatic mode of urbanism or related village-state models. Instead, the distinctive neighborhood configurations are best explained in terms of historically specific religious and political ideologies. In contrast to the permanently occupied cities of Huacas de Moche and Pampa Grande, traditional neighborhoods, understood as spatially bounded social units, poorly describe the densely populated but pulsating political landscape of the Jequetepeque region. Nevertheless, the archaeological evidence indicates that intra-settlement sociopolitical associations, transcending familial or household allegiances, were consciously maintained and materialized in specific settlements, even when occupation was ephemeral and seasonal. The construction of such (imagined) communities, both within and between different settlements of the Jequetepeque Valley, was determined in large part by rituals of commensality and the sharing of food with tutelary huacas. [Moche, Jequetepeque, Intermediate-scale social group, Seasonal habitation, Commensality]

Augmenting field data with archaeological imagery survey: mapping hilltop fortifications on the north coast of Peru

“…Some of these fortified sites were temporary defensive localities for populations living at larger sites, or individual refuge sites for rural hinterland centres (Dillehay 2001; Swenson 2004; Wai 2019). Hilltop forts in the foothills of the Santa and Moche Valleys vary in their degree of design complexity, incorporating settlement and ceremonial zones (Topic & Topic 1987; Dillehay 2001; Swenson 2004). Many would suffice only as temporary refuges from conflict, while others are considerably more complex arrangements with domestic and ritual architecture.…”

“…Evidence of community defence is clear in the presence and form of massive stone defensive walls and rock cut ditches at the Jequetepeque Valley sites of Cerro Chepen, Cerro Faclo and Cerro Prieto Espinal (Swenson 2004; Dillehay et al 2009; Wai 2019). But it is far more difficult to identify weapons used in attack and, in truth, there is minimal evidence of these sites ever having been raided.…”

“…Dillehay (2001) and Swenson (2004) both postulate that Late Moche communities may have been highly mobile and dispersed into smaller rural settlements that gathered at the larger ceremonial sites as part of a ritual round. From this perspective, this more defensive and economically minded movement from locality to locality was evidence of a “foraging” urban modality, leaving behind a “thin and redundant archaeological pattern” (Dillehay 2001: 277).…”

“…Conducting survey on foot, this project attempted to record all sites and features irrespective of size and complexity. Larger settlements and agricultural infrastructure were mapped in detail, while many ephemeral features, including pre-ceramic lithic scatters, ceramic concentrations and minor settlement clusters were documented for the first time (Dillehay & Kolata 1997; Dillehay & Kolata 2004; Dillehay et al 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009; Swenson 2004; Stackelbeck 2008; Maggard 2010; Warner 2010). While the use of a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver resulted in somewhat lower spatial precision in comparison to those afforded by contemporary global navigation satellite systems mapping techniques, the general location of sites is sufficient to allow for comparison to the findings of the current study using GeoPACHA.…”

Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

“…Households clustering into social units such as neighborhoods is a seemingly ubiquitous feature of ancient complex societies. Examples exist in the ancient Near East [42,43], the Andes [44][45][46], North America [47], and the Indus Valley [48].…”