Early New World Monumentality

11. Why Do People Build Monuments?: Late Archaic Platform Mounds in the Norte Chico

11 Why Do People Build Monuments? Late Archaic Platform Mounds in the Norte Chico Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer This chapter diverges from others in this volume by proposing that all monumental architecture requires leadership and centralized decision making. The construction of monumental architecture is relatively rare in a global and historical context. The vast majority of people over the past 200,000 years of human history did not build monuments on any scale. True monumental architecture first appears around 5,000–6,000 years ago, and it appears only in a tiny minority of the world’s cultures. It then becomes a reasonable and anthropologically interesting question to ask why people build monuments at all and why they were not built earlier in human history. The answer, we would argue, is always the same: People build monuments because someone tells them to. Although this may seem an overtly simplistic response, it places focus on critical issues in trying to understand why monumental architecture appears only at certain times comparatively very late in human history and in only a small number of places. This breaks into two questions of agency: Why do some people (societal leaders) have other people (their followers) put their energy into constructing monuments? Further, why do those followers go along with the requests or demands of their leaders? The motivations of people who direct the constructions are quite distinct from the motivations of the people who actually do the construction . Both sides of this equation need to be addressed to understand why people build monuments. If we look at the construction of monumental architecture from a broad evolutionary perspective, it marks a major transformation in the structure of social relations. It is generally although not always connected to and/or correlated with a number of other significant changes in human history, Figure 11.1. Examples of Andean monumental architecture: a. Kuntur Wasi, Cajamarca; b. Chavín de Huantar, Huari; c. Huaca del Sol, Moche; d. Huaca Pucllana, Lima; e. Sacsaywaman, Cuzco; f. Huaca Grande, Lambayeque. a b c d Why Do People Build Monuments? Late Archaic Platform Mounds in the Norte Chico · 291 including the subsistence transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture , emergence of centralized religion, political centralization and social hierarchies. Monument construction is also not something that develops gradually over long periods of time, starting out small and building up to larger and larger structures over the centuries or millennia. In Egypt, for example the first pyramid at Saqqara was built at around 2600 bc and measured 120 × 110 × 60 meters. Although this stepped pyramid was constructed in six phases, its final form was planned from the start. There was no gradual development of monumentality. In the specific case of South America, monumental platform mounds have been a ubiquitous phenomenon on the Andean landscape for 5,000 years (Figure 11.1). While they are most common on the Pacific coastal plain of present-day Peru, they also occur prominently in the highlands at early sites such as Chavín de Huántar at 1000 bc and late sites such as Tiwanaku at ad 1000. The first appearance of distinctive monumental terraced platform mounds in the Andes is in the Norte Chico region of the e f 292 · Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer Norte Chico Projecto Arqueológico Norte Chico Late Archaic Site Modern Community miles 0 0 2 2 4 4 6 8 8 10 10 6 kilometers N Cerro De La Cruz Shaura Huaricanga Bermejo RIO FORTALEZA PACIFIC OCEAN Caballete Porvenir Cerro Blanco 2 Cerro Blanco 1 Cerro Lampay PARAMONGA Pampa San José Upaca Carretería Q. Huanchay Huayto Vinto Alto Punta Y Suela PATIVILCA BARRANCA PUERTO SUPE SUPE Aspero Era de Pando Alpacoto RIO SUPE Lurihuasi Miraya Caral Peñico RIO HUAURA La Viña Cerro La Cruz Quebrada Viña Las Perlitas VEGUETA´ HUAURA HUACHO Huaura Santa Rosalía Bandurria Cerro Blanco Huacachi RIO PATIVILCA Figure 11.2. Map of Late Archaic sites with monumental architecture in the Norte Chico region. Peruvian coast at the beginning of the third millennium bc. The Norte Chico consists of four adjoining valleys, Huaura, Supe, Pativilca and Fortaleza , which run south to north, respectively (Figure 11.2). Within this area of approximately 1,800 square kilometers, there are more than 30 sites with monumental architecture dating to the Late Archaic period from 3000 to 1800 bc. Why Do People Build Monuments? Late Archaic...