This works examines the Late Formative Period site of Jatanca (Je-1023) located on the desert north coast of the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Je-1023 is a complex site made up of numerous free-standing compounds that are organized around several predictably located, replicated interior complexes that were important in determining the overall shape and interior organization of the site. While this work relies on a number of data sets traditionally used by archaeologists as a means of examining prehistoric cultures such as ceramics, ethnobotanical analysis, and the surrounding relic landscape, architectural analysis is the primary means by which Je-1023 is examined. This work elucidates a number of archaeological issues at a variety of scales of consideration. From the level of the compound up to the entire North Coast, sociopolitical organization, the interface between behavior and architectural design, interior access patterns and social ordering, labor organization, and the impact of social memory in architectural design are all considered by this work.

Until relatively recently, the view of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in the Americas was dominated by the “Clovis-first” paradigm. However, recent discoveries have challenged traditional views and forced reconsiderations of the timing, processes, and scales used in modeling the settlement of the Americas. Chief among these discoveries has been the recognition of a wide range of early cultural diversity throughout the Americas that is inconsistent with previously held notions of cultural homogeneity. During the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene, the development of widely varying economic, technological and mobility strategies in distinct environments is suggestive of a range of different adaptations and traditions. It is argued that colonization was a disjointed process involving alternative, perhaps competing strategies at local and regional levels. Individual groups likely employed distinct strategies for settling new landscapes. These different strategies are reflected in the cultural variability that has been documented in the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene archaeological records of South and North America. A scalar framework for conceptualizing and modeling this variability on local, regional, and continental scales is introduced. Although primarily focused on local and regional reconstructions, the results can be integrated with other regional studies to generate more comprehensive, continental-scale models of the peopling of the New World. This research provides insight into the local and regional variability—in terms of settlement patterns and economic and technological strategies—present in the archaeological record of at least two formally recognized Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene complexes (Fishtail and Paiján complexes) in the Quebradas del Batán and Talambo of the lower Jequetepeque Valley, northern Perú. Results of extensive survey, excavation, and materials analyses are used to characterize mobility strategies and settlement organization. This research indicates that two distinct patterns of site types, settlement, subsistence, and technology existed at the local level between the Fishtail (ca. 11,200-10,200 B.P.) and Paiján (ca. 10,800-9,000 B.P.); these patterns are indicative of differing regional strategies of colonization. Lastly, it is suggested that the adaptations and behaviors pursued during regional settlement, particularly by Paiján groups, set in motion an increasing reliance on plant foods and an early trend toward sedentism that carried forward into the Holocene period.