Paracas Cultural Readaptation To The Nasca Entity: An Approach From The Settlement Of Cerro Cordova

Abstract

Except rare exceptions, the Paracas society of the Ica valley has been extensively studied from decontextualized materials, including pottery collected from clandestine tomb excavations in the Ocucaje basin. From the stylistic analysis of these pieces, which also included Nasca specimens, the hypothesis was elaborated that assumed the birth from the Paracas, expressed in the well-known axiom «transition paracas-nasca». The works carried out in Cerro Córdova and those that since 2009 are carried out in Ánimas Altas, within the framework of the investigations of the authors, are the first of a systematic nature in the lower valley of Ica. Recovered archaeological contexts do not reflect this process of cultural transition, but rather a process of cultural parallelism, followed by cultural readaptation dynamics. From this perspective,
the Paracas of the valley of Ica would adapt to the new political-religious and hegemonic schemes that began to be formed during the early Intermediate Period in the basin of the Rio Grande de Nasca, and that characterized the Nasca entity.