A maritime, rather than agricultural, foundation for civilization has been postulated for the central coast of Perú; the model has been subsequently modified in light of new evidence to include exchange with farming communities in middle valleys. A key question is what caused the sudden appearance of sites with monumental architecture before the introduction of ceramics on the central Andean coast? Recent reports call for further refinement of this hypothesis, and here we present new evidence —the finding of very ancient calendaric temples, ushnus that were observatories in the Chillón Valley. We argue that the stimulus for intensification of production of storable foods required for continued population expansion was the climate shock of the end of the Optimum Climaticum in the third millennium BC. These observatories marked dates of great practical importance for both agriculture and marine production. Astronomer priests came to manage the architecture and representational art in the Late Preceramic Chillón Valley. These powerful priests, with their own special dwellings at the site, acquired power that would have superseded the family/ayllu dimension. The complexity of the observatories at Buena Vista is without precedent in the Americas. The power guarded by those first astronomer priests may have been precariously held; an unpredicted flood could have destroyed their credibility. In any case, the ushnus at Buena Vista show that a wide variety of astronomical instruments were developed: a sighting device, the gaze of a personified figure, and the photon capturing device of a special light chamber, as well as entryway and stairwell alignments. This astronomical tradition is exhibited in a very complex stage of development by 2000 BC, at the site of Buena Vista. / Desde hace mucho tiempo, diversos investigadores han postulado un carácter marítimo, en vez de agrícola, para los orígenes de la civilización en la costa central del Perú. Este modelo ha sido subsecuentemente modificado a la luz del hallazgo de nuevas evidencias para incluir el intercambio con comunidades agrícolas establecidas en los valles medios. Una pregunta clave en relación con este tema concierne a la causa de la súbita aparición de sitios con arquitectura monumental antes de la introducción de la cerámica en la costa central andina. Los trabajos recientes reclaman mayores refinamientos para esta hipótesis, por lo que los autores presentan aquí nuevas pruebas: el hallazgo de templos calendáricos muy antiguos, un tipo de "ushnus" que sirvieron de observatorios en el valle del Chillón. Se postula aquí que el estímulo para la intensificación de la producción de alimentos factibles de almacenaje requeridos por una población en continua expansión fue la convulsión climática ocurrida a fines del Optimum Climaticum en el tercer milenio a.C. Estos observatorios marcaron fechas de gran importancia práctica tanto para la producción agrícola como marítima. De esta manera, los sacerdotes-astrónomos pasaron a administrar la arquitectura y el arte figurativo en el valle del Chillón del Periodo Precerámico Tardío. Estos poderosos individuos, que poseían viviendas especiales en el sitio, adquirieron un poder que pudo haber reemplazado la dimensión de la familia/ayllu. La complejidad de los observatorios en Buena Vista no tiene precedentes en las Américas, pero el poder ejercido por estos primeros sacerdotes-astrónomos pudo haber sido precariamente sostenido; en ese sentido, una inundación no prevista podría haber destruido su credibilidad. En todo caso, los ushnus de este complejo muestran que se desarrolló una amplia variedad de instrumentos astronómicos: un dispositivo de observación, la mirada fija de una escultura de barro con rasgos antropomorfos, un mecanismo de captura de fotones en una cámara especial, así como el alineamiento de entradas y escaleras. El despliegue de esta tradición astronómica se da en una etapa muy compleja de desarrollo hacia 2000 a.C. en el sitio de Buena Vista.

Panquilma and Cieneguilla in the Archaeological Discussion of the Late Horizon in the Central CoastIn the context of the initial works at the archaeological site of Panquilma, the authors offer new data for the site together with a brief review of previous work in the Cieneguilla area, where the site is located. This review discusses the geography, the settlement pattern and the ethnohistory of this area with some preliminary concluding remarks. / Aprovechando los trabajos arqueológicos iniciales realizados en el sitio de Panquilma, los autores aportan algunos datos nuevos sobre el sitio y analizan los datos ya existentes para el área de Cieneguilla, lugar donde se encuentra este sitio. Esta rápida revisión intenta abarcar la geografía, el patrón de asentamiento y las fuentes etnohistóricas conocidas, así como ensayar algunas conclusiones preliminares.

The Middle Horizon Occupation of the Julio C. Tello Complex, Cajamarquilla SiteThis paper presents results obtained by the Cajamarquilla Archaeological Project at the monumental urban center of Cajamarquilla, in the Rimac Valley, central coast of Peru. The 1996-1997 excavations in the Architectural Group Julio C. Tello exposed important burials and funeral contexts from Middle Horizon Epochs 1 and 2 as well as a room with offerings dating to Epoch 1. These remains demonstrate that Huari influences were not very significant in the origin, the development and the prestige system of the Cajamarquilla city. / El presente artículo trata sobre las investigaciones que el Proyecto Arqueológico Cajamarquilla viene desarrollando en el sitio urbano monumental de Cajamarquilla, valle del Rímac, costa central del Perú. Se exponen los resultados más importantes obtenidos durante el periodo 1996-1997 en el conjunto arquitectónico Julio C. Tello. Particularmente destaca el hallazgo de varios contextos funerarios de las épocas 1 y 2 del Horizonte Medio y un recinto con pozos de ofrendas de la Época 1. A partir de esta evidencia, los autores sostienen que las influencias huari no parecen haber sido demasiado trascendentes en el origen, funcionamiento y prestigio del sitio.

Puerto Chancay Archaeological Rescue Project: Preliminary ResultsThis note presents the preliminary results of the Archaeological Rescue Project Puerto Chancay. (November 1993 to November 1994). The excavations revealed a long occupation sequence lasting from the Early Intermediate to the Late Intermediate Periods. / En el presente artículo se presentan los resultados preliminares del Proyecto de Rescate Arqueológico Puerto Chancay realizado entre noviembre de 1993 y noviembre de 1994. En estas se evidencia una larga ocupación prehispánica de la zona que va desde el Periodo Intermedio Temprano hasta el Intermedio Tardío.

This article presents evidence of a mega Niño event that transpired around ca. 600 d.C. recovered at the archaeological site of Huaca 20-Complejo Maranga and discusses the human eco-dynamics that could have happened at the end of the Early Intermediate Period in this site and other settlements of the Lima Valleys. is information is compared with contemporary data from the North Coast. I propose that this period of environmental stress could have signied a time of opportunities for some societies of the Early Intermediate Period. / Este artículo presenta evidencia de un mega El Niño ocurrido alrededor de ca. 600 d.C. registrada en el sitio arqueológico Huaca 20-Complejo Maranga. Se discute las dinámicas hombre-medio ambiente (ecodinámicas humanas), que pudieron haber sucedido a nes del Periodo Intermedio Temprano en este sitio y en otros asentamientos de los valles de Lima. Se compara también estos datos con información contemporánea procedente de la Costa Norte y se propone queeste periodo de stress ambiental pudo haber signicado un momento de oportunidad para las sociedades del Periodo Intermedio Temprano.

Anthropomorphic Effigy Vases: A Silvermith’s Production during the Late Intermediate Period and Late HorizonAnthropomorphic effigy vases have been classified, without any scientific basis, as belonging to the Chimu Culture. This investigation shows how these kinds of vases are more related in iconography as well as in provenance with the iconography of the central coast of Peru. In a selection of nine vases analysed, we determine different techniques of manufacture, which indicate the high technological complexity achieved by the precolumbian metal smiths during the Late Intermediate period and the Late Horizon. This study seeks to clarify, with the help of historic and ethnographic documentation, the social importance of the silversmith’s workshops that elaborated the effigy vases in question. We hope through the study of these archaeological remains and their comparison with historical texts, to decipher the symbolic and ritual value, as well as possible religious influences in their manufacture along the Peruvian coast. Finally, the possible process used by the coastal metal smiths in the manufacture of the effigy vases was identified by means of electronic microscope and metalographic analysis. / Desde hace mucho tiempo, un tipo especial de objetos rituales —los vasos-efigie antropomorfos de metal— han sido clasificados, sin sustento científico, como pertenecientes a la cultura Chimú. La investigación llevada a cabo por las autoras demuestra cómo este tipo de vasos está más relacionado, tanto en iconografía como en procedencia, con la temática iconográfica de la costa central del Perú. Se trata de un corpus de nueve vasos analizados con el que se determinaron diferentes técnicas de manufactura que muestran la alta complejidad tecnológica lograda por los orfebres tanto en el Periodo Intermedio Tardío como en el Horizonte Tardío. Para la realización de dicha investigación se ha utilizado documentación tanto histórica como etnográfica, las que permitieron explicar la posible importancia social de los talleres de los orfebres o plateros que manufacturaron dichos vasos. Estudios comparativos entre los restos arqueológicos con textos históricos ayudaron a descifrar el valor simbólico o ritual para el que fueron elaborados y su posible influencia religiosa en otros lugares de la costa peruana. Por último, los análisis metalográficos y microscopía electrónica identificaron las posibles formas de manufactura utilizadas en estos vasos por los antiguos orfebres o plateros de la costa.

The reason for this story was to investigate a narrative that is important to the identity of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast – a narrative that revolves around wild salmon, a narrative that always seemed too simple to me, a narrative that gives salmon a mythical status, and yet what does the average person know about this fish other than it floods grocery stores in fall and tastes good. How do we know this fish that supposedly defines the natural world of this place? I began my research as a science writer, inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, in which he writes that the best way to achieve reality is by combining narrative with scientific data. So I went looking for a different story from the one most people read about in popular media, a story that’s overwhelmingly about conflict: I searched for a narrative that combines the science of what we know about salmon and a story of the scientists who study the fish, either directly or indirectly. I tried to follow Steinbeck’s example and include the narrative journeys we take in understanding the world around us, the journeys that rarely make it into scientific journals. I went on about eight field trips with biology, ecology, and archaeology lab teams from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans onboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship the W.E. Ricker, and an archaeological crew from the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society in Campbell River, B.C. At the same time, I was reading a number of things, including a 1938 dissertation by anthropologist Homer Barnett from the University of Oregon titled The Nature and Function of the Potlatch, a 2011 book by economist Ronald Trosper at the University of Arizona, Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological Economics, and works by psychologist Douglas Medin at Northwestern University and anthropologist Scott Atran at the University of Michigan, written over the past two decades, particular paying attention to their writings on taxonomy and folkbiology. My conclusions surprised me, a little. / Graduate / 0329 / 0324 / 0391

The reason for this story was to investigate a narrative that is important to the identity of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast – a narrative that revolves around wild salmon, a narrative that always seemed too simple to me, a narrative that gives salmon a mythical status, and yet what does the average person know about this fish other than it floods grocery stores in fall and tastes good. How do we know this fish that supposedly defines the natural world of this place? I began my research as a science writer, inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, in which he writes that the best way to achieve reality is by combining narrative with scientific data. So I went looking for a different story from the one most people read about in popular media, a story that’s overwhelmingly about conflict: I searched for a narrative that combines the science of what we know about salmon and a story of the scientists who study the fish, either directly or indirectly. I tried to follow Steinbeck’s example and include the narrative journeys we take in understanding the world around us, the journeys that rarely make it into scientific journals. I went on about eight field trips with biology, ecology, and archaeology lab teams from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans onboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship the W.E. Ricker, and an archaeological crew from the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society in Campbell River, B.C. At the same time, I was reading a number of things, including a 1938 dissertation by anthropologist Homer Barnett from the University of Oregon titled The Nature and Function of the Potlatch, a 2011 book by economist Ronald Trosper at the University of Arizona, Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological Economics, and works by psychologist Douglas Medin at Northwestern University and anthropologist Scott Atran at the University of Michigan, written over the past two decades, particular paying attention to their writings on taxonomy and folkbiology. My conclusions surprised me, a little. / Graduate / 0329 / 0324 / 0391

Pachacamac's Shadow: Huari on the Central CoastThis paper presents the material evidence from the Middle Horizon on Peru's Central Coast, as well as the situation immediately preceeding its beginnings. Concepts of style as well as spatial contextualization in settlements and burial areas are defined and discussed in order to define social identities and sociopolitical situations that help understand regional changes against a greater background. Principal topics are the specific character of Lima urbanism, social and spatial reconstructions of Nievería and Pachacamac, and contacts with the north central and north coast, as well as the adjoining highlands to the east. These highlands form a vital corridor into the interandean valleys and they were the stage for dynamic conflicts between coastal and highland polities. On the basis of current knowledge it appears that Huari did not adopt highly aggressive means of control such as direct colonization. Quite the contrary, independence and the persistence of local and regional identities co-existed within an atmosphere of "international" relations that imply social complexity that is not yet understood. More investigations must be directed at specific social conditions before alternative hypotheses about general social context can be formulated. / En este trabajo se presentan las evidencias materiales del Horizonte Medio en la costa central, así como la situación previa a su inicio. Se definen y se discuten conceptos de estilo, su contextualidad espacial en asentamientos y áreas funerarias, para poder llegar a definir identidades sociales y situaciones sociopolíticas que ayuden a entender cambios regionales en un marco mayor. Temas principales son el carácter del urbanismo lima, la reconstitución posterior ejemplificada por Nievería y Pachacamac y las relaciones con la costa norcentral y norte, así como, sobre todo, con la sierra de Lima, como corredor hacia el interior y escenario de una historia dinámica. En el estado actual de conocimientos se tiene la impresión que el impacto huari no necesariamente adopta mecanismos de control directo mediante una colonización agresiva. Por el contrario, se percibe una cierta independencia y la persistencia en el énfasis de identidades locales y regionales en medio de interrelaciones "internacionales" de una complejidad aún poco definida. Se requiere investigaciones más acordes con la problemática específica antes de poder proponer hipótesis alternativas dentro de un contexto mayor.

The Excavations of Proyecto Arqueológico Huaca 20 (1999 and 2001 Seasons)Archaeological research at the Huaca 20 site, part of the great Maranga complex, revealed a continuous occupational sequence from the late Early Intermediate Period through the beginning of the Middle Horizon. The occupations show functional variations, including residential and domestic uses -with significant changes in the orientation, techniques and materials of construction, as well as in the area irrigated by canals. Irrigation ditches were eventually filled in to accommodate a cemetery that contained several burials with Nievería style ceramics. / Los estudios en el sitio denominado Huaca 20, complejo Maranga, se ha registrado una continua ocupación desde el fin del Periodo Intermedio Temprano hasta inicios del Horizonte Medio. Dichas ocupaciones varían entre el uso residencial o doméstico de la zona -observándose un cambio significativo en cuanto a la orientación, técnicas y materiales de construcción de las estructuras- así como el de zona de regadío por medio de canales, los cuales se clausuran luego para dar paso a un uso funerario del terreno. Algunos de los contextos funerarios hallados cuentan entre sus asociaciones con material cerámico Nievería.