mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Emergence of Civilizations / Anthro 341: Class 20 The Emergence of Civilization in the Andes: Early Horizon ã Copyright Bruce Owen 2002 * Decline on the coast: 1000 - 700 BC: the end of the Initial Period * This story has changed since the extracts in the Reader were published, especially due to recent results from Richard Burger's work at several late Initial period sites in the Lurin valley * Initial Period U-shaped temples had been built, expanded, and used with only minor overall change in design or (apparently) social context for roughly 1000 years * in some valleys there were numerous of these centers * by the late Initial Period in the Lurin valley, for example, ten different temple complexes were in use at the same time * each probably serving the people in one small segment of the valley around 1000 BC, some of these groups began to have trouble rebuilding and expanding their temples, and eventually abandoned them * at Mina Perdida, for example, they stopped building in stone, and switched to adobe and cane construction * shortly thereafter, the Mina Perdida ceremonial complex was abandoned a century later in the same valley, another site, Cardal, began to decline and was abandoned * the last reconstruction episode was of poorer quality and was never finished * a painted clay and straw mannequin / deity was simply left laying on the main staircase * like Mina Perdida, the site was not trashed, lived in by squatters, burned, or in any other way mistreated * people just left, leaving the work unfinished and the mannequin laying on the steps to be covered as the walls gradually crumbled a century later yet (800-700 BC), another center (Manchay Bajo) went through a similar decline and was abandoned * in the last rebuilding, instead of filling the old rooms completely, they cut down the upper parts of the walls so they would not have to bring in so much fill * that is, they skimped and cut costs for a while before giving up on rebuilding completely Las Haldas, in the Casma valley: stairway plastering job stopped halfway through * leaving pegs and string in place * never rebuilt again, simply abandoned many other examples of unfinished projects, all apparently dating to roughly the same period of 300 to 400 years what caused this gradual decline and collapse of the Initial Period U-shaped temple tradition? * were they encountering bad times, political problems, loss of religious fervor, or...? * some indication that El Niño events were becoming more common * they bring unexpected rains, floods, mudslides to the coast * maybe a string of them shook peoples' confidence in their gods or priestly elites? perhaps the last U-shaped temple complex to be abandoned in the Lurin valley was Manchay Bajo, which was protected from flooding and mudslides by a large wall built centuries earlier * so it might have resisted destruction by El Niños better than the others... * maybe that allowed it to retain some respect for a bit longer Started building fortresses for the first time (or are they something else?) * but people continued to live in villages and small towns of up to several thousand people * warfare seems to have changed from rare or symbolic to real (but this is still being debated) * Chanquillo * an example of a "fortress" * high, defensible point * double round outer walls, baffled entries, limited interior space but some features aren't right * not much storage, no water source... * not located next to a major settlement that might have needed a defensible refuge * doors that could be barred from the outside * this and some other "fortresses" of this period seem to "defend" nothing but bedrock outcrops * maybe they are really some sort of ritual constructions, possibly related to tinku? other examples were rectangular or irregular in shape * all in defensible locations * typically have complex, baffled gates * all have massive walls in any case, this is a radically different tradition coastal people started growing maize, maybe introduced from the highlands together with adoption of maize, and changes in pottery and textile style, this architectural and ceremonial change is attributed to a powerful wave of influence from the highlands * maybe filling a vacuum left by the decline of the coastal U-shaped temple tradition? Early Horizon 800-200 BC * Chavín de Huántar * setting: confluence of Mosna and Wacheksa (Huachecsa) rivers * Amazon drainage / eastern slopes of Andes * possible jungle influence typical location, not outstanding for agriculture sometimes said to be at a key point for travel from eastern slopes and jungle to highlands and Pacific coast * although others say there are better routes, so this may or may not be a real factor in its importance 3,177 masl (10,325 feet) The ceremonial center (check out the photographic virtual reality website!) * less than 1/10th the size of the Sechín Alto platform * built and expanded in roughly a dozen episodes, first similar to a U-shaped temple with a sunken circular court, then expanded... * started perhaps around 900 BC, new evidence suggests maybe even earlier * A U-shaped platform with a sunken circular court, ringed by low-relief carvings * including supernatural figures holding San Pedro cacti, which are used to make a hallucinogenic potion stairs leading up into a doorway low on the tall vertical front wall, continuing up inside * holes on the top surface of one of the steps suggest that something could have been propped up there * a mannequin like the one from Cardal? * a scaffolding to support something else? * a sighting pole for astronomical/calendrical observations? probably some sort of ceremony was done here, watched by people in the sunken court the mounds are honeycombed with corridors, drains, niches, tiny rooms, small air passages or sighting shafts * one of the main drains opens into the sunken court from the foot of the stairs * claim that operators of the building could have run water into it from the rear and caused it to gush out at the foot of the stairs * and that the corridors and small shafts would have reverberated with the rushing sound, making the building roar... Lanzón * in the very center, in a cross-shaped gallery * gallery above the chamber with a hole over the Lanzón: for speaking? * analogy to Pachacamac, where the Spanish observed such a "speaking" deity in action Later additions shifted the focus to a larger rectangular court * Taller, with "Black and White Portal" covered with low reliefs * these are subtle, hard to grasp * like other Chavín art, may imply "esoteric knowledge" to understand; training for initiates; maybe revelation experiences and sunken rectangular court aligned in front of it additional galleries, stairways, etc., may have permitted ritual specialists to appear and disappear from view unexpectedly or otherwise put on a show for people in the rectangular court some carvings inside retain traces of red, green, and blue pigments * hinting that much more of Chavín might once have been painted in bright colors tennoned heads decorated the exterior * they may show shamans/priests transforming from human to animal form * possibly assisted by a hallucinogen a carved lintel (the Raimondi stela) makes sense both "right-side up" and "upside down" * "getting" this might have been a revelatory experience one area of passages was filled with pottery, llama bone, guinea pig bone, fish bone, shell; thought to be offerings one contained burnt bone, including burnt human bone * but human bone NOT found in domestic contexts (i.e. not dietary cannibalism) Highly recommended: the Chavín photographic virtual reality website. Explore Chavín, outside and inside, through the link on the class page! The town * early stage, around 900 BC to 500 BC * 6 ha near and around the temple, on both sides of the Huachecsa river * the river was crossed by a monolithic stone bridge that still carried trucks until it was destroyed by a landslide in 1945 (used for about 2500 years!) * estimated around 500 people * lots of craft work was done in the residential area around the temple, although not in formal shops * animal bone was worked into beads, needles, etc. * bone weaving implements and needles suggest textile production * but probably mostly for local consumption * some exotic materials suggest a modest amount of goods were being brought to the temple * two pieces of jaguar or puma bone that were left over from making something from the bone * a few pieces of obsidian from distant sources * fragments of a few decorated ceramics from different parts of the coast later stage, around 500 BC to 200 BC * town gradually grew, reaching 42 hectares and 2,000 to 3,000 people by late in the Early Horizon * at this maximum extent, it was some 20 times larger than the surrounding villages wild animal bone virtually disappeared, replaced by domesticated camelid bone * with a surprising lack of foot bones and heads * this may correspond to the bones that would be included in portions of dried (actually, freeze-dried) meat * this freeze-drying process can only be done at higher elevations than Chavín, so it must have been imported and traded for something at Chavín also exotic foods from the coast * marine shell and fish bone increasing obsidian trade and Spondylus shell from Ecuadorian coast but the exotic goods were not particularly concentrated at the temple * suggesting that, although the temple may have attracted travelers, it might not have been directly involved in all of the trade * trade might have been a side-benefit of people coming to visit the temple shell bead workshop (using imported marine shell) wood or hide workshop i.e. trade and craft production becoming important stratification * houses close to the temple and further away were excavated. The houses closer to the temple had: * stone walls with niches, compared to the adobe walls of the houses farther away * more foreign pottery * more marine shell and fish bone * the only gold artifact found in a residential area * a higher fraction of young llamas among the bones * that is, more preferred, tender meat i.e. probable status differentiation depending on association with the temple some hints of a fairly complex irrigation system that may have required some coordination to build and maintain Technological developments * rapid development of goldworking technology * prior to Chavín, there was only limited evidence of simple hammering of gold foil * but in the Early Horizon, they mastered elaborate forming, soldering, repoussé, alloying gold and silver * most examples are from far away on the coast * apparently from a limited number of rich burials with gold headdresses, gauntlets, pectorals, earspools, etc. * these are the first known burials of obviously high-status people * travelling proselytizers? coastal representatives of Chavín? adoption of numerous new textile technologies * dyed wool (in addition to the older cotton textile tradition) * tapestry weaving techniques * painting, tie-dying, and batik Chavín influence in distant regions * There were a few Chavín-like centers in the highlands, but all much smaller than Chavín de Huántar * example: Pacopampa Chavín did NOT export carved stonework, nor pottery * it had a wide influence, but apparently did not produce a lot of craft goods for trade * Chavín stone carving style was not very widespread * in distant places, pottery was probably made locally in Chavín-like styles and variants * iconography and technology, rather than objects themselves, is what was widely dispersed most Chavín-style objects on the coast are portable * and most seem to be drug paraphernalia * small, decorated mortars and pestles * decorated bone tubes * bone and metal spatulas and spoons * also ceramics in Chavín style, often with hallucinogenic motifs like San Pedro cactus, weird hybrid creatures, etc. Chavín style in portable objects and decoration of ceremonial buildings seemed to coexist with local styles that derived (as Chavín did) from the Initial period * could this reflect Chavín proselytizers? Cache of painted textiles from a tomb at Karwa, on the Paracas peninsula * at least 25 large paintings of the staff god, suitable for wall hangings or other form of display to large groups * like at a travelling revival meeting? maybe Chavín was an oracle center, similar to the historically documented one at Pachacamac * where the Spanish observed a wooden idol set up in a room atop a platform mound * only high-status people could actually enter * where they would put questions to the idol and a hidden priest would "speak" for it * most people just watched ceremonies from the plaza at the foot of the steps * shaman/priest would stand in front of the doorway in regalia and trance or perform for the audience the Pachacamac oracle had "sister", "son", and "wife" centers set up in other places, paying tithes to the main oracle notable that many of the Karwa "staff gods" have the sex indicated; when they do, it is always female * so were the Karwa textiles the travelling backdrop for a "wife" or "daughter" oracle of Chavín? generalities about the Early Horizon: * warfare * fortresses * but are they? * many seemingly contradictory features * possibly settings for tinku ritual battles?? towns were not walled or in defensible locations few clearly warlike motifs (although there were some) stratification had finally appeared * dietary, housing, ceramic differences depending on closeness to the ceremonial center at Chavín * Gold-rich burials on the coast * Karwa burial with quantities of painted textiles * monumental art and architecture imply stratification?? monumental architecture but still small settlements little evidence of regional administrative or economic control * and no "administrative centers" or hierarchy of site sizes * no town walls or other defensive features * no clear storage facilities for concentrating surplus instead, large regional influence in pottery, art styles * proseletyzing religion? * oracle center and sub-centers? * increasing trade? craft production and exchange finally played a role in ceremonial institutions, although still not a great one The End of the Early Horizon, around 300-200 BC * regional interaction faded * many public buildings left unfinished * one late style sculpture at Chavín was never finished; maybe it was part of the last project of an institution that was losing the ability to support specialists * some sites just abandoned * others occupied by "squatters" living in ordinary houses build among and over the ceremonial structures * carved stones were used for ordinary house construction * at Chavín de Huántar, Kotosh and many other highland ritual sites * ending the sacred uses of places that had been ritual centers for many centuries * this differs from the respect apparently paid to the ceremonial sites that were abandoned at the end of the Initial period local styles of pottery developed, now much more varied than during the Early Horizon * suggesting less interaction between neighboring groups * the changes in iconography seem abrupt, not gradual evolution * indicating a rejection of Chavín ideas? widespread construction of hilltop fortresses * in the highlands and the coast * analogous to the end of the coastal Initial Period * an immediately post-Chavín (Salinar culture) cemetery on the coast has many burials lacking limbs or heads, a pattern not seen before * maybe indicates more violence after Chavín influence waned some decline in interregional exchange of cinnabar (a red mineral pigment) and obsidian * presumably due to interregional tensions, unsafe travel, etc. Burger argues that the emergence of social stratification (presence of marked elites) during the Early Horizon meant that local societies did not just go back to their former egalitarian ways as Chavín influence declined * The societal rules had fundamentally changed from the relatively egalitarian model of the Initial Period * (unless Caral really indicates status differences!) now there were elites who would work to keep their status and advance their own interests, even if the temples were losing prestige group conflict was probably encouraged by competing elites and made more possible by their power this set the stage for the development of complex, stratified societies with classes and elites who would attain real economic and military power... * or had powerful elites already existed on the coast?