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79 Chapter 5 o Local Settlement Continuity and Wari Impact in Middle Horizon Cusco Véronique Bélisle and R. Alan Covey A rchaeologists have debated the administrative scope and intensity of the Wari polity for years. Some scholars argue that Wari constitutes the first Andean empire (e.g., Isbell 1989, 1997, 2000; Isbell and McEwan 1991; Lumbreras 1969; McEwan 2005a; Menzel 1964, 1968; Schaedel 1993; Schreiber 1992, 2001), while others describe kin-based confederations or the establishment of a loose state hegemony characterized by considerable local autonomy outside Ayacucho (e.g., Bawden 1982, 1983; Chapdelaine, this volume; Donnan and Mackey 1978; Jennings 2006a, 2006b; Jennings and Yépez Álvarez 2001; Mackey 1982, 1983; Marcone, this volume; Nelson et al., this volume; Segura and Shimada, this volume; Topic 1991; Topic and Topic, this volume; Wilson 1988). Significantly, the archaeological consideration of how Wari civic government might have been reconfigured and extrapolated at an imperial scale has been largely restricted to the study of Wari-style architecture and material culture, with limitedsurveyandexcavationdatatocontextualizeWari architectural complexes or tombs found throughout the central Andean highlands. In this chapter, we present such data for the Cusco region, where the presence of impressive Wari architectural and mortuary remains has led to its promotion by some scholars as the definitive case study for provincial administration by an imperial Wari society. Settlement pattern data and the excavation of local houses, public architecture, and burials reveal some of the complex processes inherent to the evolution of Andean statecraft during the first millennium. Contextualizing Wari Administrative Centers at a Regional Scale During the Middle Horizon (ca. AD 600–1000), Wari populations intensively settled the Lucre basin and Huaro Valley, located in the Cusco region of southern Peru (Figure 5.1). The scale of construction and evidence for administrative facilities at Wari sites in these areas have led scholars (Glowacki 2002; Glowacki and McEwan 2001; McEwan 2005c) to conclude that the Wari state directly controlled the Cusco region at this time. The impetus for developing provincial administration in the Cusco region was presumably the potential to intensify and centralize the regional agropastoral economy and to access coca trade routes and caravan movement into the Titicaca basin and territories controlled by the Tiwanaku state (Bauer 2004:64–69). Virtually all excavation research on the Cusco region Middle Horizon has focused on the largest Wari 80 V ÉRONIQUE BÉLISLE A ND R . A LA N COV EY sites in the Lucre basin and Huaro Valley, developing perspectives on administration, elite residence, and mortuary practices. Rarely (e.g., Torres Poblete 1989) have scholars studied the smaller settlements to see the extent to which local groups across the Cusco region were affected by intrusive Wari settlement. Since imperial authorities never succeed in implementing a universal strategy of incorporation or domination, the impact of any empire often varies from one community to another within the empire and from one household to the next within the same community (Bauer and Covey 2002; Berdan et al. 1996; D’Altroy and Hastorf 2001; Hastorf 1990; Morris 1998; Schreiber 1987, 1992). If we were to investigate only the largest administrative centers, we could not determine the extent of Wari state control over the local people and resources of Cusco. To understand fully the expansion and incorporation strategies employed by any empire, it is essential to adopt a complementary “bottom-up” perspective that documents the changes in local settlement patterns and changes experienced by local families at the household level. It is also critical to be aware that different parts of the Cusco region may have been affected to varying degrees and at different times. Rather than assuming simultaneous incorporation and uniform control for the duration of the Wari presence, we must refine our chronology to assess the impact of Wari colonization on each part of the Cusco region and on all tiers of the regional settlement hierarchy. Our ongoing research is evaluating how the occupants of the Sacred Valley and Xaquixaguana Plain (see Figure 5.1) were affected by the presence of nearby Wari colonies during the Middle Horizon. Survey data from both regions provide the necessary spatial and temporal perspectives to assess continuity and change in local settlement before and after the establishment of Wari settlements in Cusco. Excavations at Ak’awillay, the largest site in the two study regions at this time, provide data on the architecture, artifact inventories, and mortuary practices of houses occupied before and during Wari colonization. These data document household changes from the...

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