Preliminary research at two wari administrative centres in the Chipao puna (province of Lucanas, in the Ayacucho region)

Abstract

In its desire to expand beyond the Central Andes, the Wari empire left behind traces of its political influence, for instance the edifices that were used as administrative centres throughout ancient Peru’s littoral, highlands and tropical forest. These centres controlled the resources and produce of specific territories, such as the stockpile of a large variety of camelid fibre, which was then be taken to the Wari capital or to other places within Wari territory. This paper presents some data collected in the survey of Llaqtapampa 1 and 2, two Wari administrative centres in the puna of Chipao (Ayacucho) that seem to have been mainly devoted to camelid raising and to the supply of camelid fibre and meat, as well as—to a lesser extent—to other agricultural produce, and perhaps even some mineral extraction. The strategic position these two sites have held since Wari times connected the lowland and highland Andean corridors—a socio-cultural scenario that has as yet been little problematised in archaeological discussions.