Las Haldas: An Expanding Initial Period Polity of Coastal Peru

• Published in: Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 27 - 52
• Main Authors: Pozorski, Shelia, Pozorski, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Albuquerque, NM University of New Mexico 01-04-2006; University of Chicago Press; Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library
• Subjects: Alto; Ancient civilization; Ancient history; Anthropology; Archaeological excavation; Archaeological research; Archaeological sites; Archaeology; Archeology; Architecture; Casma Valley; Charcoal; City squares; Coastal areas; Coasts; Ethnology; Excavations; Government; Historic buildings & sites; Historical source materials; Las Haldas; Local history; Middens; Pampas; Peru; Peruvian archaeology; Political history; Polities; Radiocarbon dating; Sources and methods; South America; Peru; Archeology; Archeological site; Chronology
• ISSN: 0091-7710; 2153-3806; 2153-3806
• DOI: 10.3998/jar.0521004.0062.102

The site of Las Haldas is the largest and most complex early Peruvian coastal site, and its location, overlooking the ocean and 20 km or more from arable land, makes it enigmatic. Building on the work of Peruvian, French, Japanese, and American archaeologists since the 1950s, our excavations within the Casma Valley area document the development of a substantial Initial period (2150-1000 cal BC) polity at Las Haldas that expanded inland as the Sechín Alto polity, based within the valley, declined. The Las Haldas polity responded to the weakened Sechín Alto polity and its legacy by establishing administrative satellites within the Casma Valley. Placement of one such structure on the main Sechín Alto mound clearly reflects an effort to tangibly demonstrate dominance of the newly invigorated Las Haldas polity over the recently weakened Sechín Alto polity that had so effectively dominated the Casma Valley area for centuries.