Complexities of regional and interregional interactions during the Formative Period in northern Peru: new perspectives from Ingatambo, Huancabamba Valley

Abstract

This article describes the changing regional and interregional entanglements in northern Peru during the Middle and Late Formative Periods from a diachronic perspective. Comparing the available archaeological data from major or ‘core’ ceremonial centers such as Kuntur Wasi and Pacopampa, and the contemporaneous center at Ingatambo, located in the northern ‘frontier,’ it seems reasonable to divide the diachronic process of interactions in northern Peru into three distinct phases to better understand its complexities. From this perspective, northern Peru around 1200 BC can be considered as an aggregate of local spheres (at the level of a valley or basin), with each of the local spheres pertaining to the emerging ceremonial centers. However, a major change seems to have occurred around 1000 BC, as regional and interregional interaction became more active in the northern highlands, and regional spheres seem to have expanded in number and geographic scale. Ceremonial centers such as Kuntur Wasi and Pacopampa formed regional-scale spheres beyond a geographically specific area. Around 800 BC, radical socioeconomic changes occurred in the Central Andes, and northern Peru was integrated into a pan-regional network covering the whole of the Central Andes, which overlay the northern interaction spheres developed by important centers such as Kuntur Wasi and Pacopampa. In this context, it seems important to focus on the site of Ingatambo, which is located at a unique geopolitical point where multiple spheres overlap and interact with the two core centers of Kuntur Wasi and Pacopampa simultaneously. Ingatambo formed and maintained its own regional sphere independent of these two centers through its connection with the far north coast and tropical lowlands.