Central Andes in the Ancient World

Related civilizations: Chavín, Moche, Nasca, Tiwanaku, Wari.

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: West Coast of South America, Peru

Central Andes in the Ancient World

About 8000 b.c.e., groups of people were fishing and collecting shellfish along the Pacific coast in the central Andes region. During the Paloma phase (6000-3250 b.c.e.), more substantial communities developed, as people became more sophisticated at fishing, hunting, and foraging. Small camps and villages ranged from twenty-five to seventy-five people. During this period, horticulture was developed, but it continued on a small scale until 800 b.c.e. In the highlands, hunting and foraging were replaced by horticulture between 2500 and 1500 b.c.e., and a number of small communities developed at sites such as Huaricoto, Kotosh, La Calgada, and El Paraíso. Stone and masonry architecture developed, and temples were built at ritual centers. Around 2500 b.c.e., potatoes and quinoa were domesticated, as were llamas. However, it was another fifteen hundred years, before agriculture became totally established, after the arrival of maize and beans from Mesoamerica.

The subsequent history of the central Andes is divided into alternating periods of widespread horizon cultures and periods of fragmentation marked by flourishing regional cultures. The first horizon culture was Chavín, which began in the mountains and spread its influence throughout the country. Several regional cultures (Moche, Chimu, and others on the coast and Tiwanaku in the highlands) flourished during the following period.

The first culture of widespread importance in the central Andes emerged in the town of Chavín de Huántar (900 to 200 b.c.e.). The first important stone building in the central Andes was built here, and the temple art reflects abstract thought about fantastic beings, the gods of Chavín. From 850 to 460 b.c.e., Chavín was a small agricultural village at a trade crossroads, but it became a major pilgrimage center, oracle, and religious shrine. The objects found in Chavín come from a broad area in northern Peru, indicating widespread trade and travel.

The temple at Chavín is built in the shape of a U, open to the east, the direction of the sunrise. The oldest part of the temple is built around a tall (fifteen-foot- or nearly five-meter-high) stone that resembles a tree trunk and is called El Lanzón. The stone is an axis mundi, or world axis, which marks a point of contact between the underworld, the earth, and the heavens. The influence of the Chavín culture seems to have derived from its religious importance and its association with trade. People seem to have traveled from great distances to visit the shrine at Chavín and probably consult its oracle, which was still known in historic times. There is no evidence of military prowess or conquest on the part of Chavín, so its importance was probably as an ideology and belief system.

The Moche (100 to 700 c.e.) formed one of the most important regional cultures along the northern coast of Peru. The Moche were not city builders, and their towns were primarily ritual centers organized around great huacas, or pyramids. However, they built irrigation canals from the foothills of the Andes out into the desert to create agricultural fields. They also produced excellent gold jewelry adorned with precious stones as well as some of the finest ceramics of any early world civilization. Moche pots are made in figurative shapes, such as a seated person, the face of a person, or an animal. They show both common and uncommon scenes, such as house architecture, people with diseases, a jaguar attacking a man, a woman weaving, people making love, and many other activities, including hunting and war scenes.

The demise of the Moche may have been military or environmental, but the strongest indications point to the latter. Moche buildings created late in their civilization show signs of unusual flooding, which suggests a destructive El Niño weather pattern combined with earthquakes. After the flooding, the Moche abandoned their towns and seem to have left the region.

Along the south coast of Peru, the Nasca culture (200 b.c.e.-700 c.e.) built ritual centers around important mounds. Nasca is best known for its line drawings of birds, monkeys, spiders, plants, and even a whale. Hundreds of miles of straight lines were also drawn into the surface of the earth. These large geoglyphs can be seen only from the sky.

The Tiwanaku (200 to 700 c.e.) dominated the area around the southern end of Lake Titicaca, and their influence spread over much of the Andes. The capital city was an important ceremonial center, and its influence spread primarily through ceremony and trade. A number of Chavín-like characteristics can be detected in Tiwanaku, including the iconography of the primary god and architectural design. They practiced metallurgy, working both copper and gold into well-made objects. Their luxury goods also included textiles, ceramics, and wooden sculptures. They seem to have had important trade routes to the coast using caravans of llamas. The economy was based on highland agricultural techniques, cultivating potatoes on elaborate raised earthen platforms in flooded fields.

The Wari (500-700 c.e.) were located in the central valleys of the Andes, and the trade routes from the mountains to the coast passed through their region. They built an important political organization based on an economy of terraced fields on mountainsides and irrigation. The later Inca owed much of their political and ideological systems to the Wari and Tiwanaku people.

Bibliography

Burger, Richard. Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Haas, Jonathan, T. Pozorksi, and S. Pozorski, eds. The Origins and Development of the Andean State. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Moseley, Michael. The Incas and Their Ancestors. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Stone-Miller, Rebecca. Art of the Andes from Chavín to Inca. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.