Current Research

In 2002 and 2003 PANC conducted limited excavations in the Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys respectively. The 2002 work focused on 7 major centers and two cemeteries in the Pativilca Valley, and the 2003 work focused on 6 major centers in the Fortaleza Valley. The Pativilca sites consisted of Carreteria, Huayto, Potao, Pampa San Jose, Punta y Suela, Upaca and Vinto Alto. The two cemeteries are known as CR and CP. In the Fortaleza Valley excavations were conducted at Porvenir, Caballete, Cerro Blanco 1, Cerro Blanco 2, Huaricanga and Shaura. At all of these sites, the excavations strategy was similar. Since mound structures had been subject to disturbance either from looters or modern construction, an effort was made to salvage information from these disturbed areas. The sides of looters pits or bulldozer trenches were straightened, cleaned and drawn. Samples of organic materials were taken from different occupation layers when possible for radiocarbon dating. At most of the sites, additional excavation was conducted to retrieve in-situ tool assemblages as well as floral and faunal remains. Toward this end, 1 X 2 m test trenches were excavated in areas of known trash (as determined by erosional cuts or modern disturbance).


Research Problems

A series of interrelated questions are guiding the research program for the Proyecto Arqueológico Norte Chico. As the research progresses these questions will also evolve.


Questions to be answered:

Chronology

1. Absolute
   
   • When did people first move inland into the valleys of the Norte Chico?
     
   • When did mound construction begin?
     
   • What are the starting/ending dates of the big sites?
2. Relative
   
   • What is the sequence of occupation of the big sites?
     
   • How many of the sites were occupied at the same time?
     
   • What is the sequence of mound construction at the larger sites?
     

Economy

1. Production
   
   • What crops are being grown in the Norte Chico? Ratios?
     
   • How much cotton is being produced? How is it being processed?
     
   • Were the same things being produced at all the sites.
     
   • What were they using for tools for producing/processing agricultural products?
     
   • Wealth or staple finance?
2. Consumption
   
   • Who was eating what? Elites? Workers? Others?
     
   • How was the diet balanced nutritionally? Starches? Protein? Other?
3. Exchange
   
   • What was the nature of commerce between coastal and inland sites?
     
   • Was there trade/commerce with the Highlands?
     
   • What was being exchanged?
     
   • What was the volume of commerce with the Coast? Highlands?
     
   • Was the exchange of resources based on a relationship of equality or exploitation?
     
   • Was there a pattern of verticality established in the Preceramic?
     
   • Was commerce at the local (Supe, Pativilca, Fortaleza, Huaura, and immediately adjacent highlands) level? Regional (Central Coast and central Highlands) level? Panregional (entire coast and adjacent highlands) level? I.e. Were the inlands sites in Supe trading with Aspero?, Bandurria?, El Paraiso?, Las Aldas?, Huaca Prieta?, La Galgada?, Kotosh?

Social Organization

1. Local
   
   • What were the social relationships between people within a given site? Were they kin based or territory based?
     
   • Are the features and/or mound complexes manifestations of kin units? If so, what was the nature of those kin units?
     
   • Was there a identifiable kin (moiety/lineage) divisions at the larger sites (e.g. the large platforms at Vinto Alto, or the various structures at Caral)
     
   • Were there distinct socio-economic classes within individual sites?
2. Valley
   
   • Were there social ties/sodalities cutting across the sites? The same kin units? Clans? Moieties?
     
   • Were all the contemporary sites in the Norte Chico basically similar culturally (i.e. architecture, ceremonial structures, material culture [presuming there was any])?

Political Organization

1. Power
   
   • What were the bases and means of exercising power available to the leaders/rulers at each site? How did the leaders get the people to build mounds.
     
   • Scope/range/amount/compliance costs/refusal cost/expense of the power relationship between power holders and complaint populations.
2. Internal Organization
   
   • Was there a single Norte Chico polity or multiple? Was Caral the capital or a capital?
     
   • Was there competition or cooperation between the large sites in the Valley?
     
   • Was politics in the Norte Chico an organized hierarchy or heterarchy? Were there levels of heterarchy and hierarchy?
     
   • Network or corporate organization?
3. External organization/relationships
   
   • Were there political ties extending outside the Norte Chico? I.e. Were there alliances or stronger political and economic relationships between the Norte Chico and polities/societies in the Highlands and elsewhere on the Coast?
     
   • Did individual sites in the Norte Chico have independent relationships with outside areas?
     
   • Did the power of Norte Chico leaders/rulers extend beyond the Valley
     
4. Warfare
   
   • Was there warfare in the Preceramic and if so, did it involve the Norte Chico?
     
   • Were the Norte Chico people on the offense or defense?

Demography

1. Local
   
   • How many people lived at any given site at any given time?
     
   • How did the site(s) population change over time?
2. Valley
   
   • How many people lived in the each of the NC valleys at any given time during the Preceramic?
     
   • How did the population change over time?
     
   • Were there significant numbers of people living outside the big sites?

Environment

• What characteristics of the NC valleys influenced the initial growth of complex society and how?
  
• What role, if any, did El Nino play in the development of complex society in the Norte Chico?
  
• Was the environment the same or different in the Preceramic?