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Beyond Inca roads: archaeological mobilities from the high Andes to the Pacific in southern Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2022

David G. Beresford-Jones Open the ORCID record for David G. Beresford-Jones [Opens in a new window] ,
Christian Mader Open the ORCID record for Christian Mader [Opens in a new window] ,
Kevin J. Lane Open the ORCID record for Kevin J. Lane [Opens in a new window] ,
Lauren Cadwallader ,
Benedikt Gräfingholt ,
George Chauca ,
Jennifer Grant ,
Stefan Hölzl ,
Luis V.J. Coll  and
Matthias Lang
...Show all authors
David G. Beresford-Jones*
Affiliation:
Heinz Heinen Centre for Advanced Study, University of Bonn, Germany McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Christian Mader
Affiliation:
Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany
Kevin J. Lane
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigación de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICET)–Instituto de las Culturas (IDECU), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lauren Cadwallader
Affiliation:
Public Library of Science (PLoS), Cambridge, UK
Benedikt Gräfingholt
Affiliation:
Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola, Bochum, Germany
George Chauca
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Escuela Profesional de Arqueología, Lima, Peru
Jennifer Grant
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigación de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICET)–Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano (INAPL), Cuidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Stefan Hölzl
Affiliation:
RiesKraterMuseum Nördlingen, Germany
Luis V.J. Coll
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigación de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICET)–Instituto de las Culturas (IDECU), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Matthias Lang
Affiliation:
Bonn Centre for Digital Humanities, University of Bonn, Germany
Johny Isla
Affiliation:
Nasca-Palpa Management Plan, Peruvian Ministry of Culture, Nazca, Peru
Charles French
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Markus Reindel
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Commission for the Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK), Bonn, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ [email protected]
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Abstract

The Andes offers a particularly effective focus for an archaeology of mobility because their extreme topography compresses enormous vertical resource diversity across short horizontal distances. In this article, the authors combine findings from two large-scale archaeological studies of adjacent watersheds—the Nasca-Palpa Project and One River Project—to provide the necessary context in which to explore changing mobilities from the Archaic Period to the Inca Empire, and from the Pacific coast to the high Andes. Analyses of obsidian lithics and stable isotopes in human hair are used to argue that changing patterns of mobility offer a new way of defining the ‘Horizons’ that have long dominated concepts of periodisation here.

Keywords

South AmericaAndesmobilitypastoralismobsidianstable isotope analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 97 , Issue 391 , February 2023 , pp. 194 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd

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