Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ideology and Political Organization in the Middle Lambayeque Valley, Northern North Coast of Peru

Southern Illinois University At Carbondale, Carbondale IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Prudence Rice, Ms. Cristina Rospigliosi will conduct archaeological research at the Middle/Late Sicán site of Luya (A.D. 900-1350/1375), located in the Lambayeque Valley on the northern north coast of Perú. Luya is composed of public architecture, featuring twelve adobe mounds built around an open space. The site has been described as an important public center and satellite both of the regional capital of Vista Florida, and of the Sicán Site, the capital of the Sicán state. Luya is important because it will contribute insight into an important but previously unexplored topic on the north coast: the functional roles and relations between capital cities and second-tier sites in early states, especially the role of ideology. Although dealing with a past time period the research has direct relevance today because it provides insight into the mechanisms which underlie the regional organization of traditional societies and the role which ideology may play in integrating them into functioning units. Such information would be relevant to understanding processes which are currently being played out in multiple parts of the world. An archaeological approach has the ability of tracing such processes on century and millennial time scales. The Middle Sicán polity has been characterized as a centralized religious state exerting ideological control over six contiguous valleys in the Lambayeque region. But no archaeological research has been carried out to examine the function, role, and relations of second-tier sites in this state, outside the site core. Moreover, early ethnohistorical records depict regional polities as independent from each other, rather than integrated under a central government. And although the role of ideology in ancient polities is an important topic in Andean archaeology, it has not been commonly studied by analyzing data from monumental architecture. To understand socio-political relations in the Sicán polity beyond its core area, this research has three goals: (1) to determine the socio-political function of Luya; (2) to determine if elements of the Sicán ideology assumed to be shared throughout the polity can be identified at Luya; and (3) to record spatial, material cultural, and political changes between the Middle and Late Sicán periods at a hinterland site. Six months of fieldwork at Luya will include excavations at three mounds, test pits off the mounds, and mapping of revealed architecture. Architectural analyses will include spatial organization, activity contexts, and building techniques (e.g., construction chambers, adobe builders' marks), which will be compared to published data from the Sicán Site. Broader impacts, beyond the dissertation itself, include the training of Peruvian archaeology students as field and lab assistants. The project also aims to create awareness among the local community about the importance of their pre-Hispanic monuments and heritage. Luya has been and continues to be heavily looted, a problem fueled by socioeconomic factors and a lack of knowledge about the cultural and sustainable value of archaeological sites. Community workshops will thus be organized twice a month, along with lectures at local public schools, to explain the results of the scientific archaeological excavations at Luya, thus contextualizing the information about cultural heritage. Likewise, fieldwork will be carried out by a crew of local workers. Considering the current value of archaeological restoration projects in the region, this project will provide local people with the basic tools to organize future conservation, management, and sustainable economic and heritage projects such as tourism.