Cupisnique culture was first identified by Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1930s through his encounter with an early ceramic style in the Cupisnique Quebrada on the north coast of Peru. Since that time, the ceramic styles, region and time period to which the term ‘Cupisnique’ pertains have remained loosely defined, associated with northern Peru and the Middle Formative Period (1200-900 BCE). The interpretation of Cupisnique culture has further relied on research at the highland site of Chavín de Huántar and a presumed Chavín style horizon. Cupisnique visual materials, however, provide a rich corpus from which to advance analysis of this cultural tradition. In this dissertation, I group the chapters into two parts – background information and substantive material analyses. In Part I, I begin with a concise history of Cupisnique studies, which review permits to establish the objectives and methodology of the investigation. The latter includes archaeological and visual approaches to Cupisnique culture, as well as the geographic, environmental and ecological conditions pertinent to northern Peru. In Part II, I present the results of archaeological fieldwork at the Cumbemayo Canal, near the city of Cajamarca, Peru. Based on the field research, I examine the impact of coastal Cupisnique culture into this north highland region, and I discuss the symbolic role of monumental water management and the creation of a ritualized landscape. The intricate design of the Cumbemayo Canal segues conceptually to the exploration of a larger visual system. Based on a defined corpus of ‘Classic’ Cupisnique stirrup spout bottles, I venture a comprehensive examination of prominent themes, motifs and scenes in Cupisnique iconography. I argue that the latter comprises a reticular visual program that serves to instantiate a complex and developing ideological system. Given the common visual motifs, the tenets of this ideology consist in concepts of capture, sacrifice and fertility, interwoven through a structure of symbolic dualities. In the conclusion, I demonstrate how this proposed Cupisnique ideology conceptually fits with the development of social complexity in northern Peru through and following the Formative Period in the Andes. / text

This thesis provides evidence for patterned and pervasive ritual symbolism through use of animals and animal imagery in early Mesoamerican villages. I look at the faunal remains excavated from Early and Middle Formative (1350-850 B.C) domestic and ceremonial contexts at the Mixteca Alta site of Tayata, Oaxaca. I focus on the presence of exotic and locally available fauna including: domesticated dog, fish, turtle, small bird and nine-banded armadillo. By investigating the variable use of these animals in purposeful domestication, seasonal celebrations, autosacrifice, as musical instruments and in conjunction with building dedications, I highlight their importance to understanding broader patterns in the site as a whole. Specifically, I compare the presence of these animals at Tayata to other contemporary artifact assemblages, regional iconography, linguistic data, ethnographic descriptions and ethnohistoric accounts of Oaxaca and Mesoamerica. This investigation of ritual deposits within village-level societies provides a means to understand larger socio-political dynamics in this region. Based on the evidence provided, the use of animals in ritual activity at Tayata fits into larger spatial and temporal patterns of local and exotic faunal assemblages seen throughout Formative Mesoamerica. The importance of ritual activity is seen in the association of these animals within residential, ceremonial and elite deposits across multiple sites, indicating an increase in socio-political complexity as well as the presence of a Pan-Mesoamerican belief system during the Early and Middle Formative Periods. This study integrates faunal data within larger patterns of cultural activity including architectural style and zoomorphic figurines. Finally, this approach provides a more thorough understanding of the importance of looking at the context of all artifact types, even those which exist in small quantities, to form a broader perspective on a site or region.

This contribution presents and discusses the preliminary results of the first field season of archaeological investigations at the site of Caylán, localized in the lower portion of the Nepeña Valley. Between June and August of 2009, mapping and excavation operations were carried out as part of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Caylán (PIAC). This article revises previous research realized at Caylán with the objective of underscoring the importance and complexity of the prehispanic settlement. We develop the working hypotheses, methodology and fieldwork of this first season. The preliminary analysis of spatial, architectural, and ceramic data suggests that Caylán represented the center of a new tradition that emerged in the lower Nepeña during the Late and Final Formative (800-200 BC). / Esta contribución presenta y discute los resultados preliminares de la primera temporada de investigaciones arqueológicas en el sitio de Caylán, localizado en la parte baja del valle de Nepeña, costa del departamento de Áncash. Entre junio y agosto de 2009 se realizaron trabajos de levantamiento y excavación en el marco del Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Caylán (PIAC). Este artículo revisa los estudios anteriores con el objetivo de subrayar la importancia y complejidad de este asentamiento prehispánico; se exponen las hipótesis de investigación, la metodología empleada y los trabajos de campo de esta primera temporada. De manera preliminar, se analizan los datos espaciales, arquitectónicos y cerámicos para sustentar la idea de que Caylán representa el centro de una nueva tradición que surgió en el valle bajo de Nepeña durante los periodos Formativo Tardío y Final (800-200 a.C.).

This dissertation examines settlement patterns and political and economic organization at the archaeological site of El Mesón, located in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Monumental art from the site indicated that the primary occupation dated to the Late Formative (400 B.C.-A.D. 1) or Protoclassic period (A.D. 1-300), however aside from a small surface collection of ceramic sherds, the area remained uninvestigated archaeologically. The Recorrido Arqueológico was initiated in 2003 to provide data about the development of settlement in the area around El Mesón, and to examine how the area was organized politically and economically. The settlement data indicate that over the course of the Formative period El Mesón expanded from a medium sized village to become a secondary center to Tres Zapotes during the Late Formative period. The replication of Tres Zapotes’s civicceremonial architecture in the core of El Mesón indicates its subordinate status to the larger center. Over the course of the Protoclassic period, El Mesón was abandoned and a series of new architectural complexes proliferated in the area until the Late Classic period (A.D. 600-900), settlements in the El Mesón area declined. In assessing the political organization I focus on how exclusionary strategies that focus of the personal prestige of the leader were combined with corporate strategies that promote group solidarity. I argue that based on the architectural layouts and internal organization of the civic-ceremonial complexes that exclusionary strategies predominated in the area, but corporate strategies were also promoted to reinforce group solidarity among factions. This work complements ongoing work at Tres Zapotes by providing a perspective on the use of exclusionary and corporate strategies within secondary centers. This work contributes to the study of political systems more broadly by focusing on how different political strategies were integrated within political systems at the regional and local scale.

Nos últimos dez anos, há um crescente esforço na Arqueologia Amazônica para repensar as mudanças sociais e econômicas acerca dos processos de longa duração dos povos indígenas durante o período pré-colonial. O Período Formativo, cunhado para alocar tais populações em um estágio intermediário de evolução, vem sendo descontruído em prol de perspectivas alternativas sobre as formas de organização e interação que refletem o tecer e o constante re-tecer das redes ameríndias, com base em historicidades cíclicas contra-estatais que inibem a centralização política. Neste contexto, diversos estudos vêm contribuindo para a desvinculação dos traços materiais \"formativos\", tais quais a emergência da vida sedentária, de plantas domesticadas, da produção de cerâmicas utilitárias e um processo progressivo de intensificação da produtividade agrícola. Há uma gradativa mudança do fator ambiental, de gatilho de adaptações humanas para produto das escolhas sociais na formação de florestas antrópicas e criação de uma biodiversidade de plantas úteis. A crítica ao determinismo agrícola e à presença de staple foods se combina com um crescente investimento na compreensão acerca da convivência entre espécies domesticadas e silvestres e da existência de contextos de abandono de espécies domesticadas (como o milho), e nos abrem espaço para repensar o papel do cultivo na Amazônia Antiga. Neste cenário, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo reunir e produzir dados arquebotânicos que permitissem uma avaliação do modelo de intensificação agrícola e da construção de florestas antropogênicas. O Sudoeste Amazônico, marcado por uma transição entre savanas, cerrados e florestas, é a região em que teria ocorrido a domesticação de importantes cultivares indígenas (como a mandioca e a pupunha), e foi caracterizado como um dos locais de avanço do Período Formativo no passado. Através de uma análise diacrônica dos macro-vestígios vegetais presentes no sambaqui Monte Castelo entre as ocupações dos estratos Sinimbu (cal 7.423 - 6.936 A.P. a cal. 4.987 - 4.566 A.P.) e Bacabal (cal. 4.628 - 3.982 a cal. 803 - 624 A.P.), buscamos avaliar estas mudanças socioeconômicas transcorridas entre o Holoceno Médio e Tardio. Caracterizamos uma assembleia botânica formada por espécies domesticadas, manejadas e silvestres, típicas de diferentes ambientes, que indicam uma prática conjunta e constante de cultivo, manejo e coleta, que pode ter sido modificada no Holoceno Tardio por conta de transformações sociais na bacia do Rio Guaporé. Em suma, acompanhamos a história dos cultivos, junto à história dos processos de mudanças e continuidades nos padrões de mobilidade humana, e de dispersão das espécies identificadas, permeando-nos por um debate crítico acerca dos conceitos de agricultura, domesticação, evolução e complexidade social. / In the last ten years, there has been a growing effort in Amazonian Archeology to rethink the social and economic changes in the long-term processes of indigenous peoples during the pre-colonial period. The Formative Period, coined to allocate such populations in an intermediate stage of evolution, has been deconstructed in favor of alternative perspectives on the forms of organization and interaction that reflect the weaving and constant re-weaving of Amerindian networks, based on cyclical historicities and counter-state policies that inhibit political centralization. In this context, several studies have contributed to the untying of the \"formative\" material traits, such as the emergence of sedentary life, domesticated plants, the production of utilitarian ceramics and a progressive process of intensification of agricultural productivity. There is a gradual change in the environmental factor, from the trigger of human adaptation to the product of social choices in the formation of anthropic forests and the creation of a biodiversity of useful plants. The critique of agricultural determinism and the presence of staple foods is combined with a growing investment in the understanding of the coexistence between domesticated and wild species and the existence of contexts of abandonment of domesticated species (such as corn), and open space for us to rethink the role of cultivation in the Ancient Amazon. In this scenario, the present research had the objective of gathering and producing archeobotanical data that allowed an evaluation of the model of agricultural intensification and the construction of anthropogenic forests. The Amazon Southwest, marked by a transition between savannas and forests, is the region in which the domestication of important indigenous cultivars (such as cassava and peach palm) would have occurred, and was characterized as one of the places of advancement of the Formative Period in the past. Through a diachronic analysis of plant macro-remains present in sambaqui Monte Castelo between the occupations of Sinimbu strata (cal 7423-6936 AP to cal 4987 - 4566 PA) and Bacabal (cal 4628 - 3982 to cal 803 - 624 AP ), we sought to evaluate these socioeconomic changes between the Middle and Late Holocene. We characterized a botanical assembly formed by domesticated, managed and wild species, typical of different environments, indicating a joint and constant practice of cultivation, management and collection that may have been modified in the Late Holocene due to social transformations in the Guaporé River basin. In short, we follow the history of crops, together with the history of the processes of changes and continuities in the patterns of human mobility, and of dispersion of the identified species, permeating us by a critical debate about the concepts of agriculture, domestication, evolution and social complexity.

This dissertation examines El Marquesillo, a settlement in an archaeologically unexplored region of the Southern Gulf Lowlands of Veracruz, Mexico. Evidence suggests the site has been consistently occupied from the Early Formative period (c. 1500 BC) to the present. Thus, this investigation presents an opportunity to re-examine the sociopolitical continuum encompassing the Olmec cultural phenomenon (c. 1150-300 BC), the emergence of which has been used repeatedly as an example of incipient social complexity. Theorists have portrayed the development of sociopolitical complexity as a mosaic process in which environmental, social, political, economic, ideological, and demographic variables act independently or in combination to bring about change. In order to examine these variables, a suite of traditional and progressive archaeological techniques -- remote sensing, geophysical survey, GIS, mapping, anthropogenic soil survey -- were employed to prospect, document, and analyze the natural and built environments along with the material record documented at El Marquesillo. I argue that the resulting data do not fit many of the traditional models that have been offered to explain the development of Olmec sociopolitical complexity. The term "traditional Olmec paradigm" is used to describe a collective array of conjectural concepts that have been proposed by theorists to explain how Formative people of the Southern Gulf Lowlands constructed and experienced their reality. Findings from El Marquesillo and other recent Heartland investigations suggest that much of this traditional Olmec paradigm may not be accurate. The Gulf Olmec were not a homogeneous and uniform entity across space and time. At El Marquesillo, idiosyncratic behaviors of the ancients relating to ancestor veneration and their connection to the landscape and worldview have been identified. These noted variations in social expression and the lack of adherence to the traditional Olmec paradigm suggest that some hypotheses regarding the Formative people of the Southern Gulf Lowlands be re-visited and possibly revised in the light of new evidence.

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.

The Formative Period in the North Coast: IntroductionThe text doesn´t have an abstract / El texto no presenta resumen

The Formative Period in the Central Highlands: IntroductionThe text doesn´t have an abstract / El texto no presenta resumen

The Formative Period in Ayacucho: Balance and PerspectivesThe present paper presents the synthesis of the state of knowledge of Ayacucho Formative starting with the history of investigations (1959 to present), a critical assessment of the principal sites and a general interpretation of its socioeconomic development. It reveals still existing problems due to insufficient knowledge and the fact that most of the major sites with monumental architecture have been destroyed or are not available for study any longer. / Este trabajo presenta una síntesis de los estudios acerca del Periodo Formativo en Ayacucho con una historia de las investigaciones (1959 al presente), una discusión crítica de los principales sitios y una interpretación general del desarrollo socioeconómico. Se desprende que aún subsisten muchas lagunas y algunos de los sitios con arquitectura monumental ya fueron destruidos o no están disponibles para estudios futuros.