Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T03:22:18.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Square-Room Unit as an Emblem of Power and Authority within the Initial Period Sechín Alto Polity, Casma Valley, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Shelia Pozorski  and
Thomas Pozorski
Shelia Pozorski
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX 78539 (spozorski@panam.edu)
Thomas Pozorski
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX 78539 (tpozorski@panam.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Some 3,500 years ago, the Sechín Alto Polity built large, precisely planned cities, one of which contained the largest structures in the New World at that time. Such accomplishments reflect strong, enduring leadership, and we propose that the power and leadership role of these leaders was tangibly manifested by a unique, widely used architectural element and by a related symbol within polity iconography. The distinctive architectural form is a free-standing module that is omnipresent in power loci: temple, palace, storehouse, mid-level administrative buildings, roadside structures, and a satellite site. We also interpret recurring symbols within Sechín Alto Polity iconography as more abstract representations of this architectural form in its capacity as a power symbol. The essence of this "architecture of power" transcended time as the modular form was imitated by a subsequent polity.

Resumen

Resumen

Hace unos 3,500 años, los residentes de Sechín Alto construyeron ciudades grandes, precisamente planeadas, en una de las cuales se encuentran las estructuras más grandes del Nuevo Mundo para esa época. El tamaño de estas ciudades indica que el liderazgo fue fuerte y duradero. Los autores de este artículo proponen que el poder del liderazgo de Sechín Alto se manifiesta tangiblemente en un elemento único, ampliamente utilizado en la arquitectura, por medio de un símbolo relacionado dentro de la iconografía política. La forma distintiva de esta arquitectura es un módulo independiente que está presente en todos los loci de poder: templo, palacio, los edificios administrativos de nivel medio, estructuras al lado de los caminos, y un sitio satélite. Además, los autores interpretan los símbolos recurrentes dentro de la iconografía de Sechín Alto como representaciones más abstractas de esta forma arquitectónica en su calidad de símbolo de poder. La esencia de esta "arquitectura de poder" trascendió el tiempo conforme la forma modular fue imitada por los gobiernos siguientes.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 427 - 451
Copyright
Copyright ©2011 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Andrews, Anthony 1974 The U-shaped Structures at Chan Chan, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 1:241–264.Google Scholar
Billman, Brian 1989 Land, Water and Architecture: Political and Economic Organization of an Early Andean State. Unpublished M.A. paper, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Bischof, Henning 1994 Toward the Definition of Pre- and Early Chavín Art Styles in Peru. Andean Past 4:169–228.Google Scholar
Bischof, Henning 1995 Cerro Sechín y el arte temprano centro-andino. In Arqueología de Cerro Sechín, Tomo II: Escultura, edited by Lorenzo Samaniego and Mercedes Cárdenas, pp. 125–156. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Fundación Volkswagenwerk, Lima.Google Scholar
Bischof, Henning 2008 Context and Contents of Early Chavin Art. In Chavín: Art, Architecture and Culture, edited by William Conklin and Jeffrey Quilter, pp. 107–141. Contributions to Field Research and Current Issues in Archaeological Method and Theory, Monograph 61. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Bonnier, Elisabeth 1997 Preceramic Architecture in the Andes: The Mito Tradition. In Arqueológica peruana 2: arquitectura y civilizatión en los Andes prehispánicos, edited by Elisabeth Bonnier and Henning Bischof, pp. 120–144. Sociedad Arqueológica Peruano-Alemana and Reiss Museum, Mannheim, Germany.Google Scholar
Burger, Richard 1987 The U-Shaped Pyramid Complex, Cardal, Peru. National Geographic Research 3(3):363–375.Google Scholar
Burger, Richard 1992 Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.Google Scholar
Burger, Richard, and Salazar-Burger, Lucy 1980 Ritual and Religion at Huaricoto. Archaeology 33(6):26–32.Google Scholar
Burger, Richard, and Salazar-Burger, Lucy 1985 The Early Ceremonial Center of Huaricoto. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by Christopher B. Donnan, pp. 111–138. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Burger, Richard, and Salazar-Burger, Lucy 2008 The Manchay Culture and the Coastal Inspiration for Highland Chavín Civilization. In Chavín: Art, Architecture and Culture, edited by William Conklin and Jeffrey Quilter, pp. 85–105. Contributions to Field Research and Current Issues in Archaeological Method and Theory, Monograph 61. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Chauchat, Claude, Guffroy, Jean, and Pozorski, Thomas 2006 Excavations at Huaca Herederos Chica, Moche Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 31:233–250.Google Scholar
Collon, Dominique 1990 Near Eastern Seals. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Day, Kent 1982 Ciudadelas: Their Form and Function. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by Michael Moseley and Kent Day, pp. 55–66. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Fuchs, Peter 1997 Nuevos datos arqueométricos para la história de ocupación de Cerro Sechín—Período Lí'tico al Formativo. In Archaeológica peruana 2: arquitectura y civilizatión en los Andes prehispánicos, edited by Elizabeth Bonnier and Henning Bischof, pp. 145–162. Sociedad Arqueológica Peruano-Alemana and Reiss Museum, Mannheim, Germany.Google Scholar
Fuchs, Peter, Patzschke, Renate, Schmitz, Claudia, Yenque, German, and Briceño, Jesus 2006 Investigaciones arqueológicas en el sitio de Sechín Bajo, Casma. Boletín de Arqueología Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 2:111–135.Google Scholar
Grieder, Terence, and Mendoza, Alberto Bueno 1988 The History of La Galgada Architecture. In La Galgada, Peru, edited by Terence Grieder, Alberto Bueno Mendoza, C. Earle Smith and Robert M. Malina, pp. 19–67. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Isbell, William 1989 Honcopampa: Was it a Huari Administrative Center? In The Nature of Wari, edited by Richard Czwarno, Frank Meddens and Alexandra Morgan, pp. 98–114. BAR International Series 525. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Isbell, William 2006 Landscape of Power: A Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon Peru. In Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast, edited by Jessica Christie and Patricia Sarro,pp. 44–98. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Isbell, William 2008 Wari and Tiwanaku: International Identities in the Central Andean Middle Horizon. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William Isbell, pp. 731–759. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Izumi, Sechii, and Terada, Kazuo 1972 Andes 4: Excavations at Kotosh, Peru 1963 and 1966. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Jennings, Justin 2006 Understanding Middle Horizon Peru: Hermeneutic Spirals, Interpretative Traditions, and Wari Administrative Centers. Latin American Antiquity 17:265–285.Google Scholar
Keatinge, Richard, and Conrad, Geoffrey 1983 Imperialist Expansion in Peruvian Prehistory: Chimu Administration of a Conquered Territory. Journal of Field Archaeology 10:255–283.Google Scholar
Kembel, Silvia, and Rick, John 2004 Building Authority at Chavin de Huantar: Models of Social Organization and Development in the Initial Period and Early Horizon. In Andean Archaeology; edited by Helaine Silverman, pp. 51–76. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
León, Wilder 1995 Un mortero de piedra con motivo sechín en Casma. In Arqueología de Cerro Sechín, Tomo II Escultura, edited by Lorenzo Samaniego and Mercedes Cárdenas, pp. 247–255. Pontificia Univesidad Católica del Perú, Lima.Google Scholar
Maldonado, Elena 1992 Arqueología de Cerro Sechín. Tomo I: Arquitectura. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru and Fundación Volkswagenwerk, Lima.Google Scholar
Moore, Jerry 1996 Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes: The Archaeology of Public Buildings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Moore, Jerry 2005 Cultural Landscapes in the Ancient Andes. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Moseley, Michael E. 1992 The Incas and Their Ancestors. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.Google Scholar
Moseley, Michael E. 2001 The Incas and Their Ancestors, revised edition. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1986 Recent Excavations at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, a Complex Initial Period Site in Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 13:381–401.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1987 Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1989 Planificación urbana prehistórica en Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, Valle de Casma. Boletín de Lima 65:19–30.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1991 Storage, Access Control, and Bureaucratic Proliferation: Understanding the Initial Period (1800–900 B.C.) Economy at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, Casma Valley, Peru. Research in Economic Anthropology 13:341–371.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1992 Early Civilization in the Casma Valley, Peru. Antiquity 66:845–870.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1994a Multidimensional Planning at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke. In Meaningful Architecture, edited by Martin Locock, pp. 45–65. Worldwide Archaeological Series 9, Avebury, England.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1994b Early Andean Cities. Scientific American 270(6):66–72.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 1998 La dinámica del Valle de Casma durante el Período Inicial. In Perspectivas regionales del Período Formativo en el Perú, Boletín de Arqueología Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 2, edited by Peter Kaulicke, pp. 83–100. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 2000 El desarrollo de la sociedad compleja en el Valle de Casma. Arqueología y Sociedad 13:79–98.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 2002 The Sechín Alto Complex and its Place within Casma Valley Initial Period Development. In Andean Archaeology I: Variations in Sociopolitical Organization of the Central Andes, edited by Helaine Silverman and William Isbell, pp. 21–51. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 2006 Las Haldas: An Expanding Initial Period Polity of Coastal Peru. Journal of Anthropological Research 62:27–52.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 2008 Early Cultural Complexity on the Coast of Peru. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William Isbell, pp. 607–631. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Shelia, and Pozorski, Thomas 2012 Preceramic and Initial Period Monumentality within the Casma Valley of Peru. In Early New World Monumentality, edited by Richard Burger and Robert Rosenwig. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, in press.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas 1976 Caballo Muerto: A Complex of Early Ceramic Sites in the Moche Valley, Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas 1980 The Early Horizon Site of Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications. American Antiquity 45:100–110.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas 1995 Huaca de los Reyes Revisited: Clarification of the Archaeological Evidence. Latin American Antiquity 6:335–339.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1987 Chavín, the Early Horizon and the Initial Period. In The Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by Jonathan Haas, Shelia Pozorski and Thomas Pozorski, pp. 36–46. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1990 Huaynuná, a Late Cotton Preceramic site on the North Coast of Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 17:17–26.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1993 Early Complex Society and Ceremonialism on the Peruvian North Coast. In El mundo ceremonial andino, edited by Luis Millones and Yoshio Onuki, pp. 45–68. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1996 Ventilated Hearth Structures in the Casma Valley, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 7:341–353.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1997 La centralizatión del poder en el Peru prehispánico temprano. Revista del Museo de Arqueología, Antropologia e Historia 7:87–109.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 1999 Temple, Palais ou Entrepôt? La centralisation du pouvoir dans le Perou prehistorique. In Ville et Pouvoir en Amerique: les formes de l'autorité, edited by Jerome Monnet, pp. 87–110. L'Harmattan, Paris.Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas, and Pozorski, Shelia 2005 Architecture and Chronology at the Site of Sechín Alto, Casma Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 30:143–161.Google Scholar
Ravines, Rogger 1982 Arqueología del Valle Medio del Jequetepeque. Proyecto de Rescate Arqueológico Jequetepeque and Institute) Nacional de Cultura, Lima.Google Scholar
Richardson, James 1994 People of the Andes. Smithsonian Exploring the Ancient World Series, Jeremy Sabloff, general editor. St. Remy Press and Smithsonian Institution, Montreal.Google Scholar
Samaniego, Lorenzo 1973 Los nuevos trabajos arqueologicos en Sechín, Casma, Perú. Larsen Ediciones, Trujillo, Peru.Google Scholar
Samaniego, Lorenzo, and Cárdenas, Mercedes 1995 Catálogo de los monolitos de Sechín. In Arqueología de Cerro Sechín, Tomo II Escultura, edited by Lorenzo Samaniego and Mercedes Cárdenas, pp. 257–412. Pontificia Univesidad Católica del Peru and Fundación Volkswagenwerk, Lima.Google Scholar
Samaniego, Lorenzo, Vergara, Enrique, and Bischof, Henning 1985 New Evidence on Cerro Sechín, Casma Valley, Peru. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by Christopher B. Donnan, pp. 165–190. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina 1992 Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, No. 87. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Shady, Ruth 2004 Caral: La ciudaddelfuego sagrado. Interbank, Lima.Google Scholar
Shady, Ruth 2007 The Sacred City of Caral-Supe: Cultural Symbol of Peru. Instituto Nacional de Cultura and Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, Lima.Google Scholar
Shady, Ruth, and Leyva, Carlos 2003 La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en elantiguo Perú. Instituto Nacional de Cultura and Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, Lima.Google Scholar
Shady, Ruth, Machacuay, Marco, and López, Sonia 2003 Recuperando la historia del Altar del Fuego Sagrado. In La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, edited by Ruth Shady and Carlos Leyva, pp. 237–253. Instituto Nacional de Cultura and Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, Lima.Google Scholar
Shibata, Koichiro 2004 Nueva cronologi'a tentativa del Peníodo Formativo-Aproximación a la arquitectura ceremonial. In Desarrollo arqueológico Costa Norte del Perú, edited by Luis Valle Alvarez, pp. 79–98. Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru.Google Scholar
Tellenbach, Michael 1986 Las excavaciones en el asentamiento formativo de Montegrande, Valle de Jequetepeque en el norte del Perú. Verlag C. H. Beck, Munchen, Germany.Google Scholar
Tello, Julio 1956 Arqueología del Valle de Casma, culturas: chavín, santa o huaylas yunga y sub-chimú, Vol. 1. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima.Google Scholar
Trigger, Bruce 1990 Monumental Architecture: a Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behaviour. World Archaeology 22:119–132.Google Scholar
Vega-Centeno, Rafael 1999 Punkurí en el contexto del Formativo Temprano de la Costa Nor-Central de Perú. Gaceta Arqueológico Andina 25:5–21.Google Scholar
Vega-Centeno, Rafael, Villacorta, Luis, Cáceres, Luis, and Marcone, Giancarlo 1998 Arquitectura monumental temprana dn el Valle Medio de Fortaleza. In Perspectivas regionales del Período Formativo en el Perú, edited by Peter Kaulicke, pp. 219–238. Boletín de Arqueología Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 2, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima.Google Scholar
Williams, Carlos 1985 A Scheme for the Early Monumental Architecture of the Central Coast of Peru. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by Christopher Donnan, pp. 227–240. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar