The present title suggests the emphasis of this paper, not its total content. Essentially, this is an advance report on the 1952-53 Columbia University archaeological expedition in the river valleys of the lea and Rio Grande de Nazca in south coastal Peru. The scope of this work was both intensive and extensive and the materials to be studied so numerous and varied that final publication will take time. For this reason it seems well to first present a brief, but carefully considered, outline of our major findings. Even this has had to wait until painstaking analyses had been made in the laboratory.

The primary purpose of the 1952-53 expedition was to make stratigraphic cuts in order to place the Nazca culture in relation to the Cavernas culture which was known to occur at Paracas and Ocucaje but not, so far as then known, elsewhere in the lea Valley proper nor the Nazca region. My brief survey trips in the Ica-Nazca area in 1940, 1941, and 1949 had not revealed such stratified sites. Therefore, an important part of the 1952-53 expedition was to make a surface survey of the large area, both for its own sake and particularly to select the most promising sites for sondage.

Concerning the first 2 postulated cultural epochs (Table 2) the Pre-Agricultural and the epoch of Incipient Agriculture, our evidence is limited, sometimes contradictory, and generally hypothetical. However, in the ease of the San Nicolás site there is positive proof of an hitherto undescribed lithic culture which is seemingly preceramic and pre-agricultural. For present purposes we will briefly present this evidence under the more noncommittal heading of preceramic evidence.

The early Paracas culture phase is the earliest Formative horizon we encountered in the Ica-Nazca region. It was briefly studied at the Juan Pablo I site, a burial ground upstream from lea near the head of the valley (Figs. 1; 3 A-G). Our work here was very limited, but confirmed the earlier reports of Pablo Soldi who guided us to the site. Numerous materials from this site are among the more recent additions to the Truel Collection in Ocucaje where we were able to study them. The burials were located on a rocky shelf well above the river and consisted of simple pits from 0.60 to 1.75 m. in depth. The skeletons were flexed and in very poor condition, all but one showing the cabeia larga or general Cavernas type of head deformation. All traces of perishable materials had disappeared save for small, crumbling fragments of plain-weave cloth. Of the 4 burials encountered, one was covered by a rough boulder ceiling or barbacoa, one was seated in a broken olla, and two were side by side alongside a short stone and rough adobe wall. The bodies had originally been seated or flexed, but had collapsed.

The florescent epoch, in the present classification, includes the pure Nazca cultural and artistic tradition and, on stratigraphic and stylistic grounds, is subdivided into Early Middle, and Late phases. In ceramics, it is marked by the highest Peruvian development of the polychrome painted style, is preceded by the incising tradition of the Formative, and terminates prior to the first intrusion of Tiahuanacoid stylistic elements into the south coastal region.

Three cultural phases following the Late , Nazca culture are here included in the epoch of Fusion. These are the newly defined Huaca del Loro, the Coastal Tiahuanaco (and Pacheco?), and the Early lea (or Epigonal) cultures (Table 2). Of these, we made habitation and refuse site excavations only in the first or Huaca del Loro phase. The latter 2 phases we encountered in a few graves and at various surface sites (Table 1). For purposes of the present paper only the Huaca del Loro phase is outlined here. However, the general nature and problems raised by the 2 succeeding phases will be very briefly mentioned.