Zori and Urbina 2014 Architecture and Empire at Late Prehispanic Tarapaca Viejo, Northern Chile (original) (raw)
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Architecture and Empire at Late Prehispanic Tarapacá Viejo, Northern Chile
Chungará (Arica), 2014
Imperial conquest and subsequent strategies of integration can be detected in changes to regional infrastructure, such as road systems and the architectural layout and construction techniques of provincial settlements. Located in the Tarapacá Valley of northern Chile, the site of Tarapacá Viejo underwent significant architectural remodeling when the valley was incorporated into the Inka empire in the XV century AD. This article examines (1) how Tarapacá Viejo fit into the overall network of Inka or Inka-influenced sites in northern Chile; (2) how the construction techniques and architectural layout were transformed upon conquest of the valley by the Inka; and (3) what changes and continuities characterized the Early Colonial period (AD 1,532-1,700) occupation of the site. These data provide insight into the strategies of provincial incorporation employed by the Inka in this arid and sparsely populated region and how they were shaped by pre-existing settlement patterns, infrastructure, and economic conditions.
IN: FUNERARY PRACTICES AND MODELS IN THE ANCIENT ANDES. THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, PETER EECKHOUT AND LAURENCE S. OWENS (EDS.), CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, UK. , 2015
During the Formative period, the area between the Azapa Valley, the coast and the Loa River (northern Chile) saw the construction of ritual/ceremonial tumuli which are reminiscent of structures found in the Bolivian highlands. On the basis of this, various researchers have proposed that these remains signalled the arrival of highland populations in northern Chile, thus triggering off a Formative transition towards social complexity. However, many coastal desertic Chilean tumuli are associated with cemeteries of shaft tombs which pre-date – and seem to be the predecessors of – these structures. In this sense, our research focuses on the role of local societies, for as well as mortuary traditions and ceremonies we have identified ceramic, textile and iconographic traditions which are indigenous to the Tarapacá region, and which highlight the importance of the trade networks that ran through the area and connected the coast with the Pampa del Tamarugal. In the current paper we present a general study of these indicators, addressing the issue of burgeoning complexity in Northern Chile as an internalised process, focusing on ceremonial dynamics as regulators of access to lands and resources.
2017
Public architecture emerged in conjunction with the development of early complex societies and is therefore a key feature for understanding them. Anthropogenic mounds and platforms in southern Chile dated to the Late Ceramic Period (AD 1000– 1550), and historic indigenous inhabitants (AD 1550–present) are the southernmost manifestation of public architecture in the Americas. We report the results from excavation of an architectural complex on Mocha Island that covers an area of ∼9.2 ha and a volume of ∼43,000 m 3. This paper describes its construction dynamics, placing its origin at around AD 1000, a moment of significant sociopolitical and economic changes in southern Chile. We then associate information obtained from this site with similar complexes on mainland southern Chile to locate this phenomenon within a more regional comparative context. La arquitectura pública es un rasgo que surgió al mismo tiempo que se desarrollaron las sociedades complejas tempranas; por lo tanto, representa un aspecto clave para comprenderlas. Los montículos y plataformas antropogénicos del sur de Chile corresponden a las sociedades del período Alfarero tardío (1000–1550 dC) y a los grupos indígenas históricos (desde 1550 dC hasta el presente) y son la manifestación más meridional de la arquitectura pública en América. Este trabajo se centra en la excavación de un complejo arquitectónico ubicado en Isla Mocha. A partir de la investigación desarrollada se identificó la dinámica de construcción y se estableció su inicio alrededor del año 1000 dC, un momento caracterizado por significativos cambios sociopolíticos y económicos en el sur de Chile. El complejo tiene un área aproximado de 9,2 ha y un volumen de ca. 43.000 m 3. Se vincula esta información con complejos similares del área continental del sur de Chile con el objetivo de ubicar este fenómeno en una perspectiva regional comparativa.
This is the exhibit guide of a new permanent exhibition centered on the native peoples that inhabited Chilean territory from ancient times to the present. Named after the project itself, this exhibit is being installed in the newly built gallery and is intended to draw attention to the creativity and art of the societies occupying the different geographic regions and landscapes of this long country, from its northern desert to its semi-arid scrublands, fertile central valleys, dense forests and even to Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Chilean territory was divided into a series of geo-cultural zones, each of them “countries” in their own right with their own cultural traditions that flourished over the ages. The display is organized around a few central concepts, starting with the diverse landscapes of Chile’s territories and the ingenuity with which its indigenous inhabitants have adapted to these sometimes extreme environments, and continuing with certain technologies, and ideological modes of expression shared by all human beings, such as aesthetics and beliefs. Above all, the exhibit emphasizes that the pre-Columbian world has not disappeared but remains present in the country’s genetic makeup, religious ideals, everyday language, traditional cuisine and, in particular, in Chile’s present-day indigenous peoples, the descendants of the pre-Columbian societies that preceded them. This publication brings together many of these concepts and examines them through representative works.
During the time in the Andes known as the Late Intermediate Period (900-1450 AD), the Tarapacá region was socially integrated with societies that articulated resources from different areas through numerous strategies of exploitation. Dispersed settlements in the region suggest methods of habitation like those known to llama caravan traders. Although it has been explained how, in this period, the Pica-Tarapaca Complex controlled the territory, it has not been studied how the inhabitants of the area understood their common identity. It might be assumed that if identity is recognized as one aspect of sociopolitical connection, then affi liation with the Pica-Tarapaca Complex would be expressed in specifi c aspects of material culture, in this case, in a shared textile technology. A type of semi-trapezoidal tunic with curved borders is a garment style known to have been used in the Pica-Tarapaca region during the Late Intermediate Period. Images of this tunic were painted and etched on stone in the interior river valleys of north Chile dating to 1000-1290 AD (calibrated). These images allow the exploration of the ways clothing style is used to express cultural affi liation. In addition, the distribution of images of this garment style in the valleys that drain into the Pampa del Tamarugal and along the borders of the zones associated with the Pica-Tarapaca Complex, indicate that this clothing style was created and used to specifi cally display the cultural identity of the territory, providing evidence of the use of material culture to gain and maintain power.
Archaeological research shows that humans lived in the Atacama desert since almost thirteen thousand years ago and that the extreme aridity never represented an insurmountable obstacle to settle in this territory. The fact that resources were so scattered distributed nor constituted a crucial limitation. The keys to overcome these environmental restrictions were an intense local, regional and interregional mobility and interaction. This chapter, updated until 2012, revises the prehistory of the Chile’s Norte Grande since the installation of the first Northerner until the Inca expansion, passing through the first villagers, relationships with societies of Lake Titicaca and the tense time of the fortress or pucaras.