Tale of Two Cities: Continuity and Change following the Moche Collapse in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru

During the environmentally influenced demise of the Moche of Peru (a.d. 200–800), archaeological and biological data provide evidence that Moche communities chose differential responses of resilience, including forging new political alliances, expanding economic production, and adopting new religious practices. At some communities, former Moche elites intermarried and formed political alliances with Cajamarca peoples from the adjacent highlands, while others – such as the nearby inhabitants of Talambo – were able to moderate external highland cultural influence and remained economically independent during a period of political and environmental instability. Such varied responses indicate that the impacts of political collapse on prehistoric peoples were not uniform and often provided new social and political opportunities