Matt Edwards - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Matt Edwards

From Households to Empires: Papers in Honor of Bradley J. Parker, 2023

This volume contains a collection of essays in honor of Bradley J. Parker, who unexpectedly passe... more This volume contains a collection of essays in honor of Bradley J. Parker, who unexpectedly passed away at the height of his career. Professor Parker made numerous contributions to the field of archaeology on a broad array of topics spanning six millennia of archaeological history in both ancient Mesopotamia and the Andes. These essays by his friends, colleagues, and former students cover three broad themes: household archaeology, frontiers and borderlands, and the archaeology of empire.

Dr. Edwards’s essay, “Imperial Dynamics” serves as the introductory chapter to the section of the book devoted to the archaeology of empires and outlines Professor Parker’s theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of these large and complex political formations in the past. The essay also contextualizes the subsequent chapters within this broader framework.

Caravans in Global Perspective: Contexts and Boundaries, 2022

Caravan stations are ready outposts of empire, serving both the needs of caravanners for shelter,... more Caravan stations are ready outposts of empire, serving both the needs of caravanners for shelter, supplies, and security en route and, by so doing, ensuring that trade supports political objectives. In this chapter, I present data from my ongoing research at the site of Pataraya and throughout the headwater valleys of the Nasca River on the western Andean slope in the southern portion of the Peruvian province of Ayacucho. The data suggest that the site served as a way station for caravans and other travelers and, as such, was also an outpost of Wari imperialism and an institution in its governance.

This paper reports on evidence for planned abandonment at Pataraya, a small Wari installation in ... more This paper reports on evidence for planned abandonment at Pataraya, a small Wari installation in the Nasca valley of the south coast of Peru, at around ad 950, just as the Wari empire itself began to collapse. This evidence suggests that the abandonment of Pataraya was accompanied by a detailed, if not particularly elaborate, sequence of closing rituals and ceremonies. While detection of ritual practice in the archaeological record is a difficult task, abandonment events at sites that were not subsequently reoccupied, like those described here, provide rich archaeological correlates for ritual practice not readily apprehended in other archaeological contexts.

Antiquity, Mar 1, 2008

The Southern Nasca Region (SNR) has been well-studied by archaeologists over the last century. Mu... more The Southern Nasca Region (SNR) has been well-studied by archaeologists over the last century. Much of the focus of early investigations was on burials, pottery motifs and large ceremonial centres. In recent years, investigations have shifted towards understanding domestic life, subsistence regimes and craft production. This work has included survey of the major river valleys (eg Isla Cuadrado & Reindel 2005; Schreiber 1999; Schreiber & Lancho Rojas 2003; Silverman 2002) and excavations of habitation and other sites therein (eg ...

Tenahaha and the Wari State: A View of the Middle Horizon from the Cotahuasi Valley, 2015

this dissertation of Matthew J. edwards is approved. Michael Jochim stuart t. smith Katharina sch... more this dissertation of Matthew J. edwards is approved. Michael Jochim stuart t. smith Katharina schreiber, committee chair september 2010 iii archaeological investigations at Pataraya: a Wari outpost in the nasca valley of southern Peru copyright © 2010 by Matthew J. edwards iv acKnoWleDgMents

Peer-Reviewed Papers by Matt Edwards

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology , 2025

This paper reports on the results of archaeological excavations at the cemetery sector of the Mid... more This paper reports on the results of archaeological excavations at the cemetery sector of the Middle Horizon (AD 650–1000) Wari site of Pataraya, located in the middle Nasca valley of southern Peru, and biochemical analyses of human skeletal remains recovered during those excavations. The findings reported here demonstrate that the sharp differences in cultural practice between Pataraya’s occupants and local traditions leading up to the Middle Horizon are echoed in noticeable isotopic differences in the biochemistry of its burial population. We explore the implications of these findings in the context of an uneven and unequal political landscape created by, and responding to, both overt Wari imperialism and the consequences of unprecedented regional interaction. We conclude that these data support previous conclusions drawn from other archaeological evidence that the site is formed from the remains of a Wari state colony. Pataraya’s inhabitants served an explicitly political function in the administration of a key transportation route between the Wari heartland and this distant province, roles that may have been filled by newcomers to the area or from elsewhere in the Nasca valley itself.

Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology, 2008

The production of cloth, even to meet a community’s most basic needs, is one of the most time-con... more The production of cloth, even to meet a community’s most basic needs, is one of the most time-consuming activities in non-industrial societies. This would have been all the more true of the beautiful textile arts of the Andean Middle Horizon. This paper presents data on a common artifact class related to textile manufacture, spindle whorls, recovered during excavation at Pataraya, a Huari colony located along a likely trade route between the south coast and the sierra in the southern Nasca Valley. The whorls were specially made, well-crafted, and nicely decorated. They were found in a number of different contexts suggesting that spinning was an ongoing, continuous activity woven into the other daily chores, special tasks, and extraordinary events of life at Pataraya.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Dec 2013

This paper uses access analysis to describe and analyze a system of regulated and hierarchical co... more This paper uses access analysis to describe and analyze a system of regulated and hierarchical communication within the small Wari enclosure at the site of Pataraya—located near Nasca, Peru—and interprets this system within the context of Wari imperialism and bureaucratization. The site appears to have served as a frontier way station along a key transportation route, focused on the extraction of coastal products and their transfer via interregional roads to the highlands. The analysis suggests that Pataraya’s builders manipulated spaces and the connections between them to considerable affect. In general, space syntax graphs and calculations reveal a non-distributed building where there are few choices for movement within the space and significant opportunities for control. Orientation patterns also suggest a tension in Pataraya’s architecture between access on the one hand and privacy and hierarchy on the other that may reflect a possible distinction made by Wari architects between overt expressions of political power as opposed to the more bureaucratic, day-to-day workings of political power.

Latin American Antiquity, Jun 2014

The research reported in this article explores Wari imperial strategies in the upper Nasca Valley... more The research reported in this article explores Wari imperial strategies in the upper Nasca Valley of south-central Peru and,
building on previous research, documents the flexibility and diversity of those strategies. The focus of these investigations
is the site of Pataraya, a small Wari provincial outpost, and its environs. Despite its size, the rectangular enclosure at
Pataraya is well planned and conforms to the canons of Wari state architecture documented at other Wari provincial sites.
The site was founded early in the Middle Horizon (A.D. 650–1000) and then abandoned during the collapse of the Wari
system. Extensive excavation at this condensed version of the Wari building tradition— over 60 percent— uncovered a pattern
of spatially segregated use and access within the enclosure. Activities were relegated to specific patio groups with little
replication of function, and the sectors themselves were connected by an astonishingly complex system of narrow corridors.
The site appears to have been involved in the transfer of coastal products, especially cotton, to the sierra along an ancient
road that is also associated with another much larger Wari compound and with the reorganization of an older local site
near modern-day Uchuymarca, both of which were also documented during the project.

Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, 2023

Desde hace tiempo se sospecha que los incas construyeron gran parte de su red vial reutilizando o... more Desde hace tiempo se sospecha que los incas construyeron gran parte de su red vial reutilizando o modificando caminos ya existentes. Sin embargo, solo algunas de las sofisticadas y poderosas civilizaciones anteriores a los incas habrían tenido la necesidad o los recursos suficientes para construir grandes tramos de vías interregionales-que cruzaran áreas generalmente remotas y escasamente pobladas-ya fuera, primero, para conquistar pueblos y, segundo, para gobernar un Imperio tan extenso. Las evidencias documentadas por el Proyecto de Caminos Antiguos de los Andes Centro-Sur recogidas en este artículo, sugieren que los wari construyeron una arteria imperial que cruzó los valles tributarios superiores del río Nasca y los pastizales de altura de Pampa Galeras durante el Horizonte Medio (650-1000 d.C.). Esta ruta habría conectado a la costa sur con la sierra andina por más de medio milenio antes del inicio de las primeras guerras de conquista Inca y la fundación del Tawantinsuyu.

It has long been suspected that much of the Inca road network used or modified existing roads. However, few of the many sophisticated and powerful pre-incan civilizations would have had either the need or the resources to build the long stretches of interregional highway —across often sparsely populated and marginal terrain— needed to first conquer, and then govern, such a far-flung empire. Evidence uncovered by the South Central Andes Ancient Roads Project and reported here suggests that just such an imperial artery was built by the Wari through the upper tributary valleys of the Nasca River and across the high-elevation grasslands of the Pampa Galeras during the Middle Horizon (A.D. 650- 1000). The route would have connected the south coast with the Andean highlands over half a millennium before the initial Inca wars of conquest and the founding of Tawantinsuyu.

Ancient empires developed diverse strategies of political and cultural domination in their conque... more Ancient empires developed diverse strategies of political and cultural domination in their conquered territories. One such strategy involved introducing imperially branded goods that reinforced a legitimizing ideology. The appearance of intrusive styles may be an indicator of political dominance; however, the introduction of new technologies is a stronger indicator of interpersonal engagement between people in the empire's core and dominated regions. In this paper, we specifically focus on innovations in colors, pigments, and decoration of intrusive, local, and hybrid ceramic styles resulting from the interaction between the Wari Empire (600-1050 CE) of the Central Andes and local societies from the north and south coast of Peru. These innovations can be documented long after the Wari influence faded in each region. By integrating archaeological and archaeometric perspectives, we examine techno-decorative innovations among locally produced pottery within the imperial interaction spheres. This paper presents and compares the results of chemical and mineral analyses conducted on samples of pigments on decorated ceramics from the Valleys of Jequetepeque, Nasca, and Moquegua. Results indicate that Wari could have directly promoted the circulation of specific ceramic pigments that guaranteed a particular "Wari experience of color." We argue that an inter-site approach to the study of colors, pigments, and decoration can better contribute to the understanding of politics and ceramic production relationships, religious syncretism, and cultural change in the Andean past.