The Chimú Empire

Sociopolitical transformations during the late pre-Hispanic times as revealed by the archaeological record from the Culebras Valley, north coast of Peru

“…It must be stressed that the absence of data that would confirm the conquest of the Culebras Valley by Chimú rulers casts a new light on the discussion about the sociopolitical situation reigning in this part of the coast, including the Chimú territorial expansion strategy in respect to Peru's north-central coast. The results of our research confirm the con cept that was recently advanced by Moore and Mackey (2008) regarding the Chimú kingdom's southern border. The abovementioned authors reported that the direct influence of the rulers from Chan Chan was severely curtailed in the area between the valleys of the Virú and Casma rivers, where there was no well organized network of administrative centers typical of the Chimu culture.…”

“…Many researchers began to point out more frequently that large centers of Chimú authority stop at the Casma Valley and south from the Huarmey Valley one may only talk of this cultures «influences» and «imports». (Makowski 2006;Dulanto 2008;Moore and Mackey 2008;Vogel 2011Vogel , 2012inter alia). A certain impetus was given to this new outlook by discussions about the presence of local pottery styles developing in this area after the fall of the Wari Empire and commonly present during the Late Intermediate Period.…”

“…Due to the absence of regular excavation-based research a matter remains unresolved, namely a chronology for this part of the coast. To most investigators the Casma Incised pottery style is a result of cultural transformations happening during the later epochs of the Middle Horizon and lasting into the Late Intermediate Period (Proulx 1973;Daggett 1983;Wilson 1988;Mackey and Klymyshyn 1990;Moore and Mackey 2008;Vogel 2011Vogel , 2012. Only a few investigators have contended that this style of pottery developed only during the Late Intermediate Period and was manufactured until the colonial times (Cardenas 1969; Koschmieder 1997Koschmieder ,2003.…”

Life in the late Intermediate Period at Armatambo, Peru

“…Also similar to the EIP, Late Intermediate Period cultures especially flourished in the north coast (Moore and Mackey, 2008;Dulanto, 2008). The most prominent north coast state was the Chimú (Keatinge, 1974;Moseley, 1975a;Keatinge and Conrad 1983 Canseco, 1977;Cobo, 1990Cobo, [1653; Silva Sifuentes and Jaime Tello, 2005).…”

“…The Huari and Tihuanaco empires developed in the following period, the Middle Horizon (600 to 1000 AD) (Schreiber, 1992;Silverman and Isbell, 2008). The two early empires collapsed, and large states (or small empires) such as the Chimú in the north coast developed (Moore and Mackey, 2008). Lastly, the Inca Empire briefly conquered the entire Andean region during the Late Horizon (1438 to 1532 AD).…”