Pre-colonial Irrigation and Settlement Patterns in Three Artificial Valleys in Lima – Peru
Date
2014-01-31
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Abstract
This investigation consist in the analysis of the southwest section of the lower Rimac
River Valley, located in the Peruvian Central Coast, where three artificial valleys,
generated by three main irrigation channels named La Magdalena, Maranga, and La
Legua, originated from a single mother channel from the River. The objectives of this
work were to establish the occupation sequence and settlement pattern in those artificial
valleys in Precolonial times trying to shed some light into the origins of social complexity
and the role of the irrigation systems in this process. Another main objective is to
understand the main characteristics of Precolonial societies in the area, comparing them
with the classic definitions from Neoevolutionary cultural anthropology: band, tribe,
chiefdom and state that have been widely used by several scholars who worked on the
Peruvian case.
In order to reach those objectives, this investigation used modern and old maps and
aerial photos in order to make a map of the area before the modern expansion of the city
in the Twentieth Century that destroyed the irrigation systems and numerous
archaeological sites, locally known as huacas. Several pottery collections from this area
were analyzed in order to establish the chronology and cultural association of several
archaeological sites. The investigation also comprised the analysis of colonial documents
from the Sixteenth to the early Nineteenth centuries, some of them published and other
kept in archives and libraries in Lima, trying to establish the political and territorial
organization of the indigenous population in the late Precolonial period.
This investigation found few elements that support the idea of an original emergence
of state or the existence of urban settlements in the valley. The political organization seemed to be closer to the notion of simple and complex chiefdoms, with a hierarchy of
lords controlling some sections of the artificial valley, during the Ancon (800-400 BC),
Lima (300-800 AD) and Ychsma (1000-1476 AD) occupations, that were absorbed by
expansive polities in some parts of their history: Janabarriu (Chavin) associated with the
Ancon occupation, Topara (400 BC-300 AD), Wari (800-1000), and Inca (1476-1532).
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Archaeology
Citation
Narváez, J. (2014). Pre-colonial Irrigation and Settlement Patterns in Three Artificial Valleys in Lima – Peru (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27399