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The End of Empire: New Radiocarbon Dates from the Ayacucho Valley, Peru, and their Implications for the Collapse of the Wari State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Brian Clifton Finucane ,
J Ernesto Valdez ,
Ismael Pérez Calderon ,
Cirilo Vivanco Pomacanchari ,
Lidio M Valdez  and
Tamsin O'Connell
Brian Clifton Finucane*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom. Currently at: Department of Animal Science, 816 Garrigus Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546, USA
J Ernesto Valdez
Affiliation:
Jíron Bolognesi 321, Chuto Pila, Huanta, Ayacucho, Peru
Ismael Pérez Calderon
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Escuela de Formación Profesional de Arqueología e Historia, Ayacucho, Peru
Cirilo Vivanco Pomacanchari
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Escuela de Formación Profesional de Arqueología e Historia, Ayacucho, Peru
Lidio M Valdez
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria British Columbia, Canada
Tamsin O'Connell
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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This paper presents a suite of new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurements from the Ayacucho Valley of Peru and discusses their implications for the timing and nature of the collapse of the Wari Empire. Analysis of these and previously published dates from the region indicate that there is little evidence for state political authority in Ayacucho prior to the end of the 7th century. Dated human remains from the polity's eponymous capital indicate that the authority of the state's rulers persisted at least as late as the mid-11th century. Dates from rural sites in the Ayacucho Valley suggest continuity of occupation and folk material culture following Wari's disintegration. Finally, AMS measurements of bone from 2 large extramural ossuaries represent the first absolute dates associated with Chanca ceramics and suggest that this archaeological/ethnohistoric culture appeared in the valley at about AD 1300.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , 2007 , pp. 579 - 592
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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