A Prehistory of South America: Ancient Cultural Diversity on the Least Known Continent

9. Age of States and Empires

310 Chapter 9: Age of States and Empires are derived from preexisting states, political entities Kent Flannery has defined as “huge, politically centralized, socially stratified societies.”2 This definition is intentionally brief, encompassing, and relative. States encompass larger populations and territories than chiefdoms. States are often reflected in settlement hierarchies in which there are four levels (such as capital/cities/towns/villages). The largest settlements, or “primary centers,”exhibit evidence for specific or unique functions; they may be the only places with royal palaces,principal temples,or major markets. Similarly, different settlements contain evidence for the differential mobilization Figure 9.2 Regions discussed in chapter 9 311 Chapter 9: Age of States and Empires of labor, with primary centers often having monumental architecture (such as temples or pyramids) or large public works (such as road systems, planned communities , or waterworks) not found in smaller settlements. Finally, state-level societies exhibit clear differences among people, with divisions based on wealth, caste, ethnicity, or some combination reflected in myriad ways—whether by dwelling, clothing, or burial practices. Within these broad parameters, there are enormous variations among states. Despite such variations,states are the building blocks of empires,and empires emerge from landscapes of conflict. Empires develop when ascendant states exert their control over other peoples and polities, a process usually met with covert or overt resistance.This necessarily means that empires vary in stability and duration. Empires may last for centuries (such as the Roman and Ottoman Empires) or only for a single ruler’s lifespan. Empire building requires more than military conquest; it involves multiple and overlapping spheres, including the manipulation of ideology , attempts to achieve legitimacy, the ability to integrate and administer people and territory, and efforts to obtain the resources required to rule. These complex problems are seldom “solved.”Empires are rarely stable. Sinopoli writes,“Empires are not created out of whole cloth, but change throughout their histories in structure , organization, composition, and cultural content. An understanding of any empire thus requires an understanding of its historical trajectory and the nature of and reasons underlying changes in its structure and content.” She adds, “The extent to which more coherent strategies are developed within particular empires may relate to (1) a polity’s duration (and vice versa), (2) whether or not stable infrastructures are created (including administrative structures, military structures, transport networks), and (3) whether unifying ideological or belief systems are successfully fostered.”3 The North Coast: Moche, Lambayeque, and Chimú The North Coast of Peru is approximately 400 km (240 miles) long, extending roughly from the Huarmey Valley north to the Piura Valley and the Sechura Desert (figure 9.3).4 As discussed in chapter 2, the region is an arid, relatively narrow coastal plain sliced by a series of river valleys that have their headwaters in the Andean cordillera .These well-watered valleys contrast starkly with the barren deserts that border them; it is not surprising that they were the locations for human occupations throughout prehistory. Several of these valleys were centers for the development of Andean states and empires. The Moche developed in different coastal valleys at different times in the centuries between AD 200 and 800 (see figure 9.2). This polity developed in two zones, a southern sphere in the Moche and neighboring Chicama Valleys and a northern sphere centered in the lower Lambayeque Valley that at various times extended to the Jequetepeque and Piura Valleys. As discussed below, archaeological understanding of Moche is very much in flux, and even a seemingly simple statement about “where the Moche lived” glosses over complex interpretations. 312 Chapter 9: Age of States and Empires The Lambayeque or Sicán culture (ca. AD 750–1375) (not surprisingly) developed in the Lambayeque Valley, but by the Middle Sicán period (ca. AD 900– 1100) it had established a cultural presence in the Jequetepeque Valley, as well as having some interaction with the Tumbes region in far northern Peru. Figure 9.3 Locations of Moche, Lambayeque/Sicán, and Chimú sites discussed 313 Chapter 9: Age of States and Empires Finally, the Chimú Empire (ca. AD 900–1470) spread out from the Moche Valley in a multi-stage process of imperial expansion that ultimately encompassed most of the valleys of the North Coast, in the process creating the largest polity conquered by the Inca Empire. These three cultural traditions and varying political systems interacted in complex ways. The Mochicas...