Archaeological Fieldwork in the Casma Valley, Peru: Analysis, Interpretation, and Dissemination of Results

The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg TX

Investigators

Abstract

Sechin Alto site in the Casma Valley on the north coast of Peru contained the largest building in the New World during its heyday about 2100-1400 B.C. An international research team of Peruvian and U.S. scientists, faculty, and students headed by Drs. Shelia Pozorski and Thomas Pozorski has been investigating the Sechin Alto polity since the late 1990s. With National Science Foundation support they will spend three additional field seasons analyzing, documenting, and interpreting data from this site. The intellectual merit of this effort centers on two crucial issues (1) how the Sechin Alto polity's complexity and effective management developed so quickly and persisted for some 500 years and (2) how the response of subsequent local cultures reflects Sechin Alto's political legacy. Fieldwork by the Pozorskis at earlier Cotton Preceramic (2500-1800 B.C.) sites in the Casma Valley area and published results of recent fieldwork in the Supe-Pativilca-Fortaleza area south of Casma have documented prepottery precedents for the monumental Initial Period architecture within the Casma Valley. Essential architectural elements such as bilateral symmetry and balance, mound building, and specific mound/plaza structure types at these prepottery sites presage late Initial Period developments. Nevertheless, these preceramic antecedents are dwarfed by their early ceramic successors, especially the Sechin Alto polity within the Casma Valley. Furthermore, this transition was very quick, begging the questions of how and why this occurred. Also critical to the study of complex society is how and why polities end. The decline of Sechin Alto appears to have resulted from internal conflict followed soon after by a severe El Nino event. Three substantial reoccupations of the main Sechin Alto mound over about 1100 years reveal strong responses to the Sechin Alto polity even long after its decline. These responses, manifested on the main mound, took the form respectively of intrusive administrative structures, then respectful squatter use, and finally desecration. Clearly, to be truly powerful in the Casma Valley between about 1350 and 250 B.C., it was necessary to "make a mark" on the defunct Sechin Alto polity's greatest remaining tangible monument, the central mound. Fortuitous discovery of substantial refuse deposits spanning the entire Initial Period (2100-1000 B.C.) prompted the investigators to greatly expand excavations at Sechin Alto site in order to better sample this fragile archaeological resource that is threatened by agricultural expansion. Similarly, as the principal investigators worked to define chronology, access patterns, and room function on the mound surface, they realized the site had two major components. The Initial Period occupation involved construction and use of the main mound by a select elite whereas the subsequent Early Horizon (1000-200 B.C.) reoccupation resulted in massive reworking of the 75,000 m2 mound top to create a sizeable village on its summit. By taking advantage of the opportunity to explore both of these unanticipated sources of vital data, the principal investigators collected unusually large amounts of cultural material-especially ceramics and food remains. To address critical research issues and better define Sechin Alto society, the project will analyze, document, and interpret this wealth of new archaeological material. The broader impacts from the proposed activity will include collaboration with Peruvian and U.S. colleagues, archaeologists, and ethnobiologists and concurrent training of students during the analysis and interpretation phase. The new insights gained will likely provoke a reexamination of how prehistoric states are defined in the New World and inspire other scholars to explore how polity legacies may be defined by the responses of subsequent cultural developments. Project results will be disseminated to interested local citizens, Andean scholars, and the global archaeological community. This will serve to inform the scholarly community and to empower the local community by instilling regional pride and boosting archaeological tourism.