The Formative period in the Cuzco valley (2200-500 BCE) marks the transition from small-scale semi-nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers to sedentary villages associated with ceramic production and agriculture. Traditionally, it has been subdivided into three periods. The Early Formative (2200-1500 BCE) corresponds to the beginning of ceramic production and quinoa cultivation and the establishment of large, permanent villages.
[1]
During the Middle Formative (1500-500 BCE), Marcavalle ceramics appeared and villages grew, possibly leading to the beginnings of ranked village societies.
[2]
The domestication of camelids was also under way.
[3]
The Late Formative (500 BCE-200 CE) saw the emergence of a three-tiered settlement pattern in the Cuzco and Oropesa basins, dominated by the settlement of Wimpillay.
[4]
This period is also known as Chanapata, in reference to a dominant ceramic style discovered in the 1940s.
[5]
It is possible that other small chiefdoms existed in the region: a few early villages have been found near Raqchi in the Chit’apampa Basin,
[6]
and there may have been some small independent polities near Paruro and Cusichaca.
[7]
In the Lucre Basin to the east of modern Cuzco, a small chiefdom may have centred around the site of Choquepukio.
[7]
Population and political organization
The population of these early polities remains unknown, but over 80 archaeological sites dating to this period have been surveyed in the valley by archaeologist Brian Bauer.
[5]
Some of these were identified as hamlets and small villages, with between a few dozen and a few hundred inhabitants.
[8]
More research is needed in order to understand sociopolitical relations at the time, but Bauer has interpreted the Late Formative as the period in which chiefdoms begin to emerge.
[9]
This process continued and solidified in the Early Intermediate Period.
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 39) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 40) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 41) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 44-45) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[5]: (Bauer 2004, 42) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[6]: (Covey 2006, 61) Alan R. Covey. 2006. How the Incas Built Their Heartland: State Formation and the Innovation of Imperial Strategies in the Sacred Valley, Peru. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
[7]: (Bauer 2004, 46) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[8]: (Bauer 2004, 43) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[9]: (Bauer 2004, 45) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
| alliance with [---] |
| Lake Titicaca cultural sphere |
| PeCuzE1 |
| continuity |
| UNCLEAR: [continuity] | |
| Succeeding: Cuzco - Early Intermediate I (pe_cuzco_2) [continuity] |
| none |
| Year Range | Cuzco - Late Formative (pe_cuzco_1) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1 CE 199 CE) | Cuzco |
During a survey the author was involved with "Wimpillay not only proved to be the largest Late Formative Phase site in the Cuzco and Oropesa Basins, but it also provided the finest Late Formative Phase pottery. The association of finer craft production with the largest village of a basin to serve the demands of a developing elite class is frequently observed in the archaeological record. It lends support to the unique importance that Wimpillay may have held among the Late Formative Phase sites of the basin."
[1]
"On the basis of these findings, it can be suggested that the production of Chanapata and related ceramics started around 500-300 BC and continued until after the turn of the first millennium AD."
[2]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 43-44)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 42)
During a survey the author was involved with "Wimpillay not only proved to be the largest Late Formative Phase site in the Cuzco and Oropesa Basins, but it also provided the finest Late Formative Phase pottery. The association of finer craft production with the largest village of a basin to serve the demands of a developing elite class is frequently observed in the archaeological record. It lends support to the unique importance that Wimpillay may have held among the Late Formative Phase sites of the basin."
[1]
"On the basis of these findings, it can be suggested that the production of Chanapata and related ceramics started around 500-300 BC and continued until after the turn of the first millennium AD."
[2]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 43-44)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 42)
Since the level of complexity is thought to be low and gradual development occurred throughout the period, a date late in the period may coincide with the greatest level of social complexity.
"I currently interpret the site of Wimpillay to be the center of a valley-wide chiefdom during the Late Formative phase."
[1]
Early Formative
Starts c2200 BCE with beginnings of ceramic production; Ends 1500 BCE with the establishment of large permanent villages
[2]
Middle Formative
Starts 1500 BCE with the development of Marcavalle ceramics and the first villages; Ends 500 BCE
[2]
represented by small independent villages.
[1]
Late Formative
500 BCE - 200 CE
Chanapata ceramic style, the first pre-Inca ceramic style of the Cuzco region
"during this period a clear settlement hierarchy developed."
[1]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 44)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 39)
"It may also be noted that there is a distinct clustering of sites in the Cachimayu area, in the northwest extreme of our survey area (Map 5.1). This cluster is made all the more notable by the fact that there are no Formative Period sites in the high watershed area between the Cachimayu area and the Cuzco Basin. These sites most likely represent a small village cluster that paid allegiance to the elites of Cuzco or a similar chiefly society developing in or near the Plain of Anta, further to the west." [1] Bauer also refers to the existence of "important villages near the modern towns of Yaurisque and Paruro", in the Cusichaca area, in Chit’apampa and the Cuyo Basin, and a chiefdom in the Lucre Basin. [2] "Since periods of chiefdom developmment are frequently marked by conflict as many roughly equal polities compete for dominance, it is possible that additional research in the Cuzco region will not only help us to better define the political divisions of the area, but will also bring forth evidence of conflict and alliance formations between the many different chiefly centers." [2]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 45)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 46)
"Agricultural intensification continued during the Late Formative Phase." [1] "The Late Formative Period is a time of special interest in the prehistory of the Cuzco Valley, since it is during this period that a clear settlement hierarchy developed." [2] There does not seem to be many changes from the Marcavalle period, apart from a complexification of social and settlement hierarchy.
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 44)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 45)
(Relationship): "Agricultural intensification continued during the Late Formative Phase."
[1]
"The Late Formative Period is a time of special interest in the prehistory of the Cuzco Valley, since it is during this period that a clear settlement hierarchy developed."
[2]
There does not seem to be many changes from the Marcavalle period, apart from a complexification of social and settlement hierarchy.
(Entity): Also referred to as ’Marcavalle’
[3]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 44)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 45)
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 40)
Although Bauer and McEwan propose different names for the cultures of the Cuzco Valley and Chanapata can either designate a previous polity, or the polity preceding the Wari, there is a sense of continuity for the polities of the Cuzco Valley before the arrival of the Wari. "In the Cuzco region at this time, there was a culture called Chanapata by archaeologists. The Chanapata peoples are little known and in many respects seem to be a continuation of the preceding Marcavalle culture." [1]
[1]: (McEwan 2006a, 35)
100-200 squared kilometers. The area near Cuzco within which Late Formative sites have been found
[1]
However, it is not very clear how many quasi-polities occupied this area.
"In a recent overview of the Cuzco Formative Period, Zapata (1998) plots the location of some forty Late Formative sites spread along the Vilcanota River drainage between the site of Machu Picchu and the city of Sicunai. To this sum, we can add thiry additional Late Formative sites in the Province of Paruro and those that have recently been found in the Cuzco Valley. The number of Formative Period sites in the Cuzco Valley is well over eighty (Map 5.1.). Most of these sites date to the Late Formative Phase."
[2]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 45)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 42)
levels.
[1]
1.. Center
2. Villages
3. Hamlets
"For the Formative Period, Bauer has identified another three-tiered settlement system in the Cusco Basin, as well as thirty-one small sites in the Paruro region that may or may not have been organized hierarchically."
[2]
"Our regional survey data document a multitiered settlement pattern for the Late Formative Phase, with numerous small sites, a variety of bigger settlements, and a single center (Map 5.2)."
[3]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 39)
[2]: (Covey 2006, 61)
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 45)
There probably was no formal legal code as writing was not developed until the arrival of the Spanish. "There was no true writing system in the Andes prior to the arrival of the Spanish., notwithstanding recent interpretations of the quipu (see Quilter and Urton 2002) and the tocapu pictograms." [1]
[1]: (Hiltunen and McEwan 2004, 236)
According to Alan Covey: "No evidence of money. I don’t know how one would document “markets”—in the exchange sense or the spatial sense? There is not enough evidence to evaluate exchange systems in the Cuzco region before Inca times, and the study of Inca exchange is steeped in substantivist/Marxian ideology that downplays exchange." [1]
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
According to Alan Covey: " Karen Chávez and John Rowe had small excavations with contexts of that date, but no clear architecture. It’s not clear what Zapata dug at Muyu Urqu, or what Gordon McEwan and Arminda Gibaja found at Chokepukio, but there doesn’t seem to be a discussion of public storage." [1]
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
"For more than a thousand years, the peoples of the Cuzco region had obtained their obsidian from sources located in the Alca region. During the Wari Period, when Wari occupied parts of the Cuzco region, the obsidian flow from this source stopped." [1] This suggests that the Cuzco people did not have their own obsidian quarries.
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 68)
According to Alan Covey: "No evidence of money. I don’t know how one would document “markets”—in the exchange sense or the spatial sense? There is not enough evidence to evaluate exchange systems in the Cuzco region before Inca times, and the study of Inca exchange is steeped in substantivist/Marxian ideology that downplays exchange." [1]
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
According to Alan Covey: "No evidence of money. I don’t know how one would document “markets”—in the exchange sense or the spatial sense? There is not enough evidence to evaluate exchange systems in the Cuzco region before Inca times, and the study of Inca exchange is steeped in substantivist/Marxian ideology that downplays exchange." [1]
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
According to Alan Covey: "No evidence of money. I don’t know how one would document “markets”—in the exchange sense or the spatial sense? There is not enough evidence to evaluate exchange systems in the Cuzco region before Inca times, and the study of Inca exchange is steeped in substantivist/Marxian ideology that downplays exchange." [1]
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
There was no gunpowder before the arrival of the Spanish.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Dogs existed in Peru but no evidence to say whether they were used for warfare
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
Small size of polity implies that there was no significant naval military activity.
Small size of polity implies that there was no significant naval military activity.