Papers by Alvaro Ruiz
Fieldiana Anthropology, 2007
Archeological Papers of The American Anthropological Association, 2005
This chapter looks at the role of irrigation agriculture, warfare (lack thereof), and religion in... more This chapter looks at the role of irrigation agriculture, warfare (lack thereof), and religion in the origins and development of the power relationship in an extraordinary early political system. Data are drawn from a cluster of small valleys on the north-central Peruvian coast-a region known as the Norte Chico-where recent research has revealed a pattern of more than 20 large sites. These sites all have major monumental architecture and were occupied in the third millennium B.C. This concentration of major residential and ceremonial centers, thriving between 3000 and 1800 B.C., serves as an ideal laboratory for studying the florescence and subsequent development of one of the first complex, centralized political systems to arise in the Andean region. These sites are directly associated with the introduction of irrigation in the area and a rapid transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. In what appears to be a truly "pristine" situation, this complex of sites provides a window into how leaders first emerged in early centralized polities and how those leaders came to exercise significant power over their respective subject populations.
Archeological Papers of The American Anthropological Association, 2004
This chapter looks at the role of irrigation agriculture, warfare (lack thereof), and religion in... more This chapter looks at the role of irrigation agriculture, warfare (lack thereof), and religion in the origins and development of the power relationship in an extraordinary early political system. Data are drawn from a cluster of small valleys on the north-central Peruvian coast–a region known as the Norte Chico–where recent research has revealed a pattern of more than 20 large sites. These sites all have major monumental architecture and were occupied in the third millennium B.C. This concentration of major residential and ceremonial centers, thriving between 3000 and 1800 B.C., serves as an ideal laboratory for studying the florescence and subsequent development of one of the first complex, centralized political systems to arise in the Andean region. These sites are directly associated with the introduction of irrigation in the area and a rapid transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. In what appears to be a truly “pristine” situation, this complex of sites provides a window into how leaders first emerged in early centralized polities and how those leaders came to exercise significant power over their respective subject populations.
Monographs by Alvaro Ruiz
Fieldiana 44, Oct 2013
Monumental architecture, including stepped pyramids, sunken circular plazas, and upright monolith... more Monumental architecture, including stepped pyramids, sunken circular plazas, and upright monoliths (huancas), has been identified at sites throughout the Norte Chico region along the coast of Peru. During 2003 and 2004, test excavations were conducted at six of these sites in the Fortaleza Valley. Excavation included 1 3 2-m test pits and sections cleared along road cuts and looters' pits. Good preservation of plant materials, along with fiber bags, or shicra, used in construction of monumental architecture yielded ample samples for dating. This report describes and illustrates the precise context of the samples and provides the radiocarbon dating results for 80 samples. Project results show that the sites tested were occupied during the Late Archaic Period between 3000 and 1800 BC. The pattern of constructing large mounds paired with sunken circular plazas clearly begins by the third millennium BC, and a U-shaped layout of sites appears to develop during that period, as indicated by the regularity of site plans and monuments at sites such as Caballete and Porvenir.
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Papers by Alvaro Ruiz
Monographs by Alvaro Ruiz