Shifting Local, Regional, and Interregional Relations in Middle Horizon Peru: Evidence from La Real

Abstract

The Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 600-1100) was a period of great change in the Andes, with much of Perú connected through long-distance exchange and widely shared Wari styles and practices. Recent research has begun to detail the transformations that occurred within the period, leading to questions about the development of the Wari state and its shifting relationships with outlying areas over time. This article expands this research by exploring the temporal differences within a funerary assemblage at La Real, a site in the Majes Valley of southern Perú. The artifacts and human remains from La Real are used to explore Middle Horizon dynamism in relation to both the surging interregional interaction of the period and emergent social stratification in the valley. Mortuary profiles and sublethal violence remain fairly constant throughout the period, but lethal violence significantly increases in the late Middle Horizon. There are also significant changes over time in the presence of exotic goods and other items, reflecting an increase in craft specialization, the adoption of Wari-related styles and practices, and the development of a more regionally oriented economy. The role of the Wari state in these changes, although unclear, may relate to attempts by Wari leaders to manipulate the long-distance movement of a restricted group of artifacts and resources.

Endemic violence in a pre‐Hispanic Andean community: A bioarchaeological study of cranial trauma from the Majes Valley, Peru

“…Uraca may have actively constructed their reputation for violence through raiding other groups, taking trophy heads (Scaffidi, ), and recording these violent events in nearby petroglyphs. This reputation could explain the extremely limited evidence for foreign trade in the artifact assemblage, especially as compared to La Real (Jennings, ; Jennings et al, ) and Beringa (Owen, ; Tung, , ) in the Upper Majes Valley. Future investigations of violence in this period will benefit from examining contemporaneous burials from sites with intact archeological contexts in neighboring valleys.…”

“…Crania could not be articulated with postcrania due to extensive looting. The context available from AMS dating shows that Uraca was used to inter people and camelids who lived from around 200–700 AD (Scaffidi, ), corresponding to the EIP and the first 100 years of Wari imperial expansion into this region (Jennings, ; Jennings et al, ; Nigra, Rosas, Lozada, & Barnard, ; Owen, ; Tung, ).…”

“…Sector I tombs consisted of seated and flexed mummies bundled in cotton textiles and placed in thatched huts made of woven river cane. Sector I also contained thousands of camelid bones and hide fragments, as well as grave offerings of pre‐Wari La Ramada ceramics, musical instruments (e.g., bone and reed flutes and whistles), and woven bags filled with offerings of decorated seashell, cotton, weaving implements, and balls of yarn, similar to items that were recovered from La Real (Jennings et al, ) and Beringa (Tung, ).…”

“…200 BCE–750 CE) (Disselhoff, ; Haeberli, , ) and the highland Wari Empire, prominent during the Middle Horizon (MH, 600–1,000/1100 CE) (Bedregal et al, ; de la Vera Cruz & Yépez Álvarez, ; Garcia Márquez & Bustamante Montoro, ; Huamán López, ; Jennings, ; Jennings, Tung, Álvarez, Lucano, & Hurtado, ; Lucano Quequezana, Yépez Álvarez, & López, ; Owen, , ; Scaffidi, ; Scaffidi & García Márquez, ; Tung, , ; Yépez Álvarez, ). Compared to upriver Majes Valley sites like La Real (Jennings et al, ) and Beringa (Owen, ; Tung, ; Tung, ), the artifact assemblage at Uraca shows substantially less influence from these distant zones (Scaffidi, ). How does this seemingly limited interaction with Nasca in the EIP and with Wari during the MH correlate with frequencies and patterns of physical violence experienced by the Uraca mortuary population?…”

“…This paucity of architectural evidence has led Owen () and Tung () to argue that direct rule by Wari agents in the Majes was unlikely. However, there is substantial evidence of Wari‐sourced obsidian, Wari‐influenced and Wari‐emulated ceramics, particularly at the commoner village of Beringa (Tung, ; Tung & Owen, ), and Wari imperial goods and other foreign luxury items were excavated from the elite mortuary site of La Real (Huamán López, ; Jennings, ; Jennings et al, ; Yépez Álvarez, ). There is also considerable evidence that Arequipa was tied into Wari trading networks.…”