Doctoral Dissertation Research: Canoncillo (JE-205) Mapping Project in Peru: Form, Function, and Meaning

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Tom Dillehay, John Warner will undertake an archaeological project that emphasizes mapping, surface collection, and limited excavation at the site of Canoncillo, Peru for the purpose of assisting in his graduate student training and completing his Ph.D. Canoncillo (also known as Je-205) is located on the harsh and ever-changing desert north coast of Peru within the Jequetepeque Valley and is a complex site that was inhabited intermittently by numerous culture groups for thousands of years. While very little archaeological work has been conducted at Je-205 to date, the site is known to have been densely occupied, intensively irrigated, and, at times, spatially organized in an urban configuration. Mr. Warner's work will focus on understanding the social, political, and economic utilization of the landscape and architectural space within both the urban and non-urban areas of this region. This research will have a broader impact on archaeological understanding of alternate routes to urbanization in preindustrial societies not only on the north coast of Peru, but in the greater Andean region and beyond. At the local level, this project will identify specific environmental, political, social, and economic factors that shaped Canoncillo's long-term trajectory of development, periodic abandonment, reoccupation, and spatial transformation. Regionally, the processes responsible for Je-205's emergence can be compared to published results found at nearby sites in an effort to identify pan-regional trends in urbanization and to interpret the role that external conquest may have played in the spatial, social, political, and economic reorganization of the north coast. On the broadest level possible, the results of the proposed work at Canoncillo will provide an important comparative data base of information that can be subsequently used to interpret cross-cultural trends in urbanization. This project is of particular intellectual merit because it will advance anthropological studies of how patterned changes in architectural form and function within the totality of a preindustrial urban landscape (including both the city center and its supporting hinterland) reflect broader shifts in political centralization, urban-rural relations, institutionalized agricultural production, intra-regional economic structures, as well as conquest and imperial incorporation. Furthermore, this research will contribute significantly to the archaeological analysis of urban power relations especially in regards to the spatial ramifications of imperial conquest and local resistance within a highly urbanized landscape. Ultimately, work at Canoncillo will provide a far more detailed long-term understanding of Latin American organizational principles and allow us to better understand the historical precedents behind the multitude of present-day Latin American urban configurations and how rural and urban populations have adapted to changes in their environment such as desertification and El Nino events - both of which are problems that continue to confront modern-day inhabitants of the Jequetepeque valley.