Tulane University Chris Rodning NAME INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY ANTH 334 F2008 SCORE of 30 points THIRD HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Settlement Patterns This assignment asks you to discuss settlement pattern data (gathered from full-coverage survey) from the Moche River Valley in Peru and its relevance to understanding the origins and development of statelevel societies in this region. This assignment was handed out in class on 10/31/08. Please deliver your completed assignment to my faculty mailbox at 7041 Freret Street by 4:00PM on 11/14/08. The Moche River Valley in Peru, with floodplains shown with gray shading, and mountainous areas and slopes depicted with topographic contours. Most of the floodplains are farmland in the present day. Most of these floodplain areas were also irrigated farmland from the Guanape through Moche phases, from 800 B.C., through A.D. 800. By A.D. 400, the highly centralized Moche state had developed within this region, in which there were dramatic distinctions in status and power between rulers and commoners in the Moche Valley, although some of those distinctions may date as far back as 200 B.C. By A.D. 600, the Moche state expanded its influence to incorporate communities in neighboring regions, but this imperial state had begun to collapse by A.D. 750. The maps in this handout are included in Brian Billman s article, Irrigation and the Origins of the Southern Moche State on the North Coast of Peru, by Brian Billman, published in Latin American Antiquity 13:371-400, in 2002, and in Brian Billman s chapter, Reconstructing Political Economies and Cycles of Political Power in the Moche Valley, Peru, in Settlement Pattern Studies in the Americas, published by the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., in 1999.
2 The phase sequence in the Moche River Valley is summarized as follows Late Moche A.D. 600 800 Middle Moche A.D. 400 600 Early Moche A.D. 200 400 Gallinazo A.D. 1 200 Late Salinar 200 0 B.C. Early Salinar 400 200 B.C. Late Guañape 800 400 B.C. Middle Guañape 1300 800 B.C. Early Guañape 1800 1300 B.C. Late Preceramic 2500 1800 B.C. Sites dating to the Late Preceramic period, 2500 1800 B.C.
3 Sites dating to the Early Guañape phase, 1800 1300 B.C. Sites dating to the Middle Guañape phase, 1300 800 B.C.
4 Sites dating to the Late Guañape phase, 800 400 B.C. Sites dating to the Early Salinar phase, 400 200 B.C.
5 Sites dating to the Late Salinar phase, 200 0 B.C. Sites dating to the Gallinazo and Early Moche phases, A.D. 1 400.
1. Following the preceramic period, the spatial distribution of sites in the Moche River Valley is generally thought to reflect the spatial extent of irrigation canals. Canals were necessary for farming in this region, both today and in the ancient past. Canals required considerable amounts of labor to construct and to maintain, and the presence of these canals can be seen as evidence for the presence of leaders with the ability to persuade or to coerce people to perform this labor. In one paragraph or more, what does the spatial extent of canal networks in the Moche Valley indicate about social and political organization in the region? (6 points) 6
2. There is little archaeological evidence of fortified sites in the Moche Valley from the Late Preceramic and Guañape phases, but by the Late Salinar and Early Moche phases, fortified sites located on hilltops and other easily defensible locations are relatively common. Monumental sites from the Guañape phase are relatively large, with widely accessible open areas and plazas, but by the Early Salinar phase, monumental sites are smaller, with restricted access, and in some cases, residential areas attached to those ceremonial spaces. During the Guañape phase, settlements were spread across much of the Moche Valley, but by the Late Salinar phase, residential settlements were concentrated in compact areas, with empty areas (or buffer zones) between those settlement clusters. Settlements dating to the Guañape phase were typically dispersed settlements, with several dozen residents, but settlements dating to the Salinar phase were dense settlements of as many as several thousand residents. In one or more paragraphs, how would you explain these trends? (6 points) 7
3. During the Gallinazo and Early Moche phases, the size of monumental ceremonial centers increased dramatically, as did the average size of residential settlements, compared with the Salinar phase. In one or more paragraphs, how would you explain these trends? (6 points) 8
9 Sites dating to the Early, Middle, and Late Moche phase in the Moche Valley, A.D. 200 800. 4. During the Moche phase, some of the largest monuments ever built by Native Americans in the New World were built at sites in the Moche River Valley. The Huaca del Sol ( The Pyramid of the Sun ) was 1100 feet long, 450 feet wide, and 135 feet tall; and it was built with more than 100 million adobe bricks. The Huaca de la Luna ( The Pyramid of the Moon ), located nearby, is smaller, but it also is one of the largest prehistoric structures in the New World. Many of the adobe bricks from which these pyramids were built have makers marks on them, indicating which of 100 or more villages in surrounding areas made the bricks, as part of their participation in the effort of building the pyramids themselves. On the summits of these adobe pyramids were elite residential areas and ritual spaces to which access and visibility was restricted, and surrounding these pyramids were large and dense neighborhoods of residences and domestic activity areas. In one paragraph or more, how would you characterize the relationship between Moche rulers and communities in the Moche Valley that were part of the Moche state? (6 points)
10 5. What is a middle-range research question that you could pose that would be relevant to understanding long-term trends in settlement patterns in the Moche River Valley? (3 points) 6. What is a high-level theoretical question that you could pose that would be relevant to understanding long-term trends in settlement patterns in the Moche River Valley? (3 points)