The Cupisnique Culture in the Formative Period World of the Central Andes, Peru

783 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002.It has been one of the major issues in Andean Archaeology: which is earlier, Chavin or Cupisnique? Recent field surveys have yielded substantial amounts of radiocarbon dates, demonstrating that many coastal sites which used to be categorized as Chavin sites are earlier than Chavin. A close examination of archaeological data, however, reveals that the situation was more complicated, involving various sites and a long-term process, than choosing one of them to be earlier than the other. In order to define and understand the Cupisnique culture better, this thesis attempts; (1) to establish a local chronology of the Formative Period using ceramic data, (2) to identify and reconstruct the developmental process of local cultures and societies in the Chicama Valley and examine the causes of their changes, and (3) to discuss regional interactions between cultures and societies in the Chicama Valley and those in the other areas of the Central Andes. Based on a ceramic analysis, a seven-phase chronology for the Andean Formative Period is proposed. Integrating the results of the analyses of site features and settlement patterns as well as the information about the natural environment and ethnographic, geographic and geological data, the Cupisnique culture is defined as one of the local cultures that contributed to the emergence of Chavin and also were influenced by Chavin. Although the two-tiered site hierarchy indicates the existence of chiefdom-level societies in the lower Chicama Valley, they seem to have fluctuated responding to their natural and social circumstances. The ceramic and iconographic analyses revealed that the Formative Period cultures and societies of the Chicama Valley were closely interrelated to those in the neighboring valleys; however, their interrelationships changed or fluctuated through the Formative Period. In the process of this change, there are some turning points coinciding with the changes recognized among the Formative Period cultures in the other areas of the Central Andes. This study enables us to view the Cupisnique culture in a wider context and to approach the development and changes of the regional network through the Formative Period.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD