Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T21:35:18.649Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Function of Niched Halls in Wari Architecture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gordon F. McEwan
Gordon F. McEwan*
Affiliation:
New World Department, Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, CO 80204
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent archaeological study of the architecture at the Wari site of Pikillacta provides information concerning the function of one of three basic Wari architectural forms. These buildings, called Type II niched halls, occur at both Pikillacta and Viracochapampa, the two largest known Wari provincial sites. Their function can be deduced from a variety of evidence: data from excavations and associated artifacts, analogy with earlier, contemporary, and later Andean ritual/ceremonial buildings, and representations of buildings in Wari art. Based on this analysis, the niched halls apparently served as lineage halls where both real and fictive kin came to formally worship their ancestors. It is suggested that co-option of conquered elites by adoption, and thereby establishing a set of reciprocal obligations, may have been a strategy practiced by the Wari as a principal feature of their statecraft.

El estudio arqueológico reciente de la arquitectura en el sitio Wari de Pikillacta sugiere una interpretación de la función de una de las tres formas arquitectónicas Wari básicas. Estas edificaciones, llamadas corredores nichados Tipo II, aparecen tanto en Pikillacta como en Viracochapampa, los dos sitios provinciales Wari más grandes que se conocen. Sus funciones pueden deducirse por una diversidad de evidencia: datos de excavaciones y de artefactos asociados, analogía con edificios ceremoniales/rituales andinos tempranos, contemporáneos y posteriores, así como por representaciones de edificaciones en el arte Wari. Este análisis ofrece la conclusión de que estas estructuras fueron utilizadas como corredores de linaje, donde los familiares, tanto reales como ficticios, venían a adorar formalmente a sus antepasados. Se sugirió que la inclusión de las élites conquistadas por medio de aceptación, y el consecuente establecimiento de un conjunto de obligaciones recíprocas, pudo haber sido una estrategia practicada por los Wari como una característica principal de su política.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 68 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anders, M. B. 1986 Wari Experiments in Statecraft: A View from Azangaro. In Andean Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, edited by R. Matos, S. Turpin, and H. Eling, pp. 201–224. Monograph No. XXVII. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Bruce, S. 1986 The Audiencia Room of the Huaca 1 Complex. In The Pacatnamu Papers, vol. 1, edited by C. Donnan and G. Cock, pp. 95–108. Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Cieza de León, P. 1853 Crónica del Perú. In Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. XXVI, pp. 349–458. M. Rivadeneyra, Madrid.Google Scholar
Cook, A. 1992 The Stone Ancestors: Idioms of Imperial Attire and Rank among Huari Figurines. Latin American Antiquity 3:341–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, I. 1959 El sitio arqueológico de Wari Willca, Huancayo. Actas y Trabajos del II Congreso National de Historia del Peru 1:177–186. Centro de Estudios Histórico-Militares del Perú, Lima.Google Scholar
Gasparini, G., and Margolies, L. 1980 Inca Architecture. Translated by P. J. Lyon. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Grieder, T., Bueno, A., Smith, C. Jr., and Malina, R. 1988 La Galgada Peru: A Preceramic Culture in Transition. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Isbell, W. H. 1977 The Rural Foundation for Urbanism: Economic and Stylistic Interaction between Rural and Urban Communities in Eighth Century Peru. Illinois Studies in Anthropology No. 10. University of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
Isbell, W. H. 1978 Environmental Perturbations and the Origin of the Andean State. In Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating, edited by C. L. Redman, M. J. Berman, E. V. Curtin, W. T. Langehorn, Jr., N. M. Versaggi, and J. C. Wanser, pp. 303–313. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Isbell, W. H., and McEwan, G. F. 1991 A History of Huari Studies and Introduction to Current Interpretations. In Huari Political Organization: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government. A Round Table Held at Dumbarton Oaks, May 17–19, 1985, edited by W. H. Isbell and G. F. McEwan, pp. 1–17. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Kolata, A. L. 1982 Chronology and Settlement Growth at Chan Chan. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by M. E. Moseley and K. C. Day, pp. 67–85. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, D. W. Schwartz, general editor. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Kolata, A. L. 1993 The Tiwanaku. Blackwell, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McCown, T. D. 1945 Pre-Incaic Huamachuco; Survey and Excavations in Northern Peru. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 39(4):223–400. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1979 Principles of Wari Settlement Planning. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1984 The Middle Horizon in the Valley of Cuzco, Peru; The Impact of the Wari Occupation of Pikillacta in the Lucre Basin. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1985 Excavaciones en Pikillacta: un sitio Wari. Diálogo Andino No. 4, pp. 89–136. Departamento de Historia y Geografía, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1987 The Middle Horizon in the Valley of Cuzco, Peru: The Impact of the Wari Occupation of Pikillacta in the Lucre Basin. BAR International Series S-372. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1990 Some Formal Correspondences between the Imperial Architecture of the Wari and Chimu Cultures, and Their Implications for the Origin of the Architecture of Chan Chan. Latin American Antiquity 1:97–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1991 Investigations at the Pikillacta Site: A Provincial Wari Center in the Valley of Cuzco. In Huari Administrative Structure; Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by W. H. Isbell and G. F. McEwan, pp. 93–120. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
McEwan, G. F. 1996 Archaeological Investigations at Pikillacta, A Wari Site in Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 23:169–186.Google Scholar
Matos, M., R. 1967 Wariwilca: templo prehispanico en el Valle del Mantaro. Américas 19(1):10–16.Google Scholar
Matos, M., R. 1970 Wariwilca: templo Wari en el Mantaro. Kantuta 10:12–15.Google Scholar
Menzel, D. 1964 Style and Time in the Middle Horizon. Nawpa Pacha 2:1–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, C., and Thompson, D. 1985 Huanuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Niles, S. 1987 Callachaca: Style and Status in an Inca Community. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, J. H. 1967 What Kind of Settlement Was Inca Cuzco? Nawpa Pacha 5:59–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pozorski, S., and Pozorski, T. 1986 Recent Excavations at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, A Complex Initial Period Site in Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 13:381–401.Google Scholar
Schaedel, R. P. 1966 Incipient Urbanization and Secularization in Tiahuanacoid Peru. American Antiquity 31:338–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, K. J. 1978 Planned Architecture of Middle Horizon Peru: Implications for Social and Political Organization. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Schreiber, K. J. 1992 Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru. Anthropological Papers No. 87. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shea, D. 1969 Wari Wilka: A Central Andean Oracle Site. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Topic, J. 1986 A Sequence of Monumental Architecture from Huamachuco. In Perspectives on Andean History and Protohistory, edited by D. Sandweiss and D. P. Kvietok, pp. 63–83. Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Topic, J. 1992 Las huacas de Huamachuco: precisiones en torno a una imagen indígena de un paisaje andino. In La persecución del Demonio: crónica de los primeros Augustinos en el norte del Perú. Transcription by E. E. Deeds, introduction by T. Van Ronzelen, preliminary studies by L. Millones, J. R. Topic, and J. L. González, pp. 40–99. Algazara, Malaga, Spain, and C.A.M.E.I., Mexico City.Google Scholar
Topic, J. 1994 El izamiento del gallardete en Huamachuco. In En el nombre del Señor: shamanes, domonios y curanderos del norte del Perú, edited by L. Millones and M. Lemlij, pp. 102–127. Biblioteca Peruana de Psicoanálisis. Australis S.A., Lima.Google Scholar
Topic, J. R., and Topic, T. L. 1983 The Huamachuco Archaeological Project: Preliminary Report of the Second Season, June-August 1982. Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.Google Scholar
Topic, J. R., and Topic, T. L. 1992 The Rise and Decline of Cerro Amaru: An Andean Shrine during the Early Intermediate Period and Middle Horizon. In Ancient Images, Ancient Thought: The Archaeology of Ideology, edited by A. S. Goldsmith, S. Garvie, D. Selin, and J. Smith, pp. 167–180. University of Calgary Archaeological Association, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Trimborn, H., and Vega, P. F. 1935 Catálogo de la exposicóon arte inca. Imprenta Martosa, Madrid.Google Scholar
Valcárcel, L. E. 1933 Esculturas de Pikillacta. Revista del Museo National 2:19–48. Lima.Google Scholar