Beyond Inca roads: archaeological mobilities from the high Andes to the Pacific in southern Peru

The Andes offers a particularly effective focus for an archaeology of mobility because their extreme topography compresses enormous vertical resource diversity across short horizontal distances. In this article, the authors combine findings from two large-scale archaeological studies of adjacent watersheds—the Nasca-Palpa Project and One River Project—to provide the necessary context in which to explore changing mobilities from the Archaic Period to the Inca Empire, and from the Pacific coast to the high Andes. Analyses of obsidian lithics and stable isotopes in human hair are used to argue that changing patterns of mobility offer a new way of defining the ‘Horizons’ that have long dominated concepts of periodisation here.The DAI Nasca-Palpa Archaeological Project was supported by, among others, the Swiss Liechtenstein Foundation for Archaeological Research Abroad (SLSA), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant no.s 03REX1VP and 01UA0804A) and the German Research Foundation (DFG, grant no. RE 963/9-1). Cambridge University’s One River Project was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (grant no. RPG-117), the Gerda Henkel Foundation (grant no. AZ 30/F/17) and the late Don Alberto Benavides de la Quintana (grant no. RG69428)

Beyond Inca roads: Archaeological mobilities from the high Andes to the Pacific in southern Peru

The Andes offers a particularly effective focus for an archaeology of mobility because their extreme topography compresses enormous vertical resource diversity across short horizontal distances. In this article, the authors combine findings from two large-scale archaeological studies of adjacent watersheds-the Nasca-Palpa Project and One River Project-to provide the necessary context in which to explore changing mobilities from the Archaic Period to the Inca Empire, and from the Pacific coast to the high Andes. Analyses of obsidian lithics and stable isotopes in human hair are used to argue that changing patterns of mobility offer a new way of defining the 'Horizons' that have long dominated concepts of periodisation here.Fil: Beresford Jones, David G.. Universitat Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Mader, Christian. University of Cambridge; Estados UnidosFil: Lane, Kevin John. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto de las Culturas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de las Culturas; ArgentinaFil: Cadwallader, Lauren. No especifíca;Fil: Gräfingholt, Benedikt. No especifíca;Fil: Chauca, George. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; PerúFil: Grant Lett Brown, Jennifer Luisa. Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación. Dirección Nacional de Cultura y Museos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hölzl, Stefan. No especifíca;Fil: Coll, Luis Vicente Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto de las Culturas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de las Culturas; ArgentinaFil: Lang, Matthias. Universitat Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Isla, Johny. No especifíca;Fil: French, Charles. University of Cambridge; Estados UnidosFil: Reindel, Markus. No especifíca