Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
E-mail: jmj0@umail.ucsb.edu
Received August 25, 2000; revision received January 17, 2001; accepted February 15, 2001;
published online October 26, 2001
This article tests a model for the political economy of the Wari Empire (AD 600–1000) of Peru. This
model divides the empire into core and periphery zones. In the core, Wari political economy was or-
ganized to extract surplus agricultural production to feed the capital. In the periphery, the Wari strove
to extract prestige goods. We suggest that there is a strong relationship between where the empire
chose to locate its centers in the periphery and the political complexity of the local population in
which the center was placed. We argue that in areas of low political organization sites should be lo-
cated near the geographic center of a population. These sites will tend to function as local administra-
tive centers geared toward the organization and exploitation of the area’s wealth potential. In areas
with more complex political organization sites should be located on the margins of a population.
These sites should have functioned as gateway centers controlling, or at least profiting from, interre-
gional exchange. Our model was systematically tested through the use of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS). The results suggest that much of the variability found in Wari site placement in the pe-
riphery can be explained by differences in local sociopolitical complexity. © 2001 Academic Press
way centers controlling, or at least profiting around a capital often serves as the primary
from, interregional exchange. These types breadbasket. This is clearly seen in the agri-
of sites would tend to be located in areas cultural core of such empires as the Aztec
with more complex political organization. (Hassig 1985:133) and Vijayanagara (Sinop-
Archaeological data on the Wari Empire oli 1994b:226).
remain sparse. A small fraction of the capi- We suggest that the Wari Empire also
tal city has been studied and the size and contained an agricultural core that fed the
the structure of the site are still not well un- capital’s burgeoning, increasingly special-
derstood. Only a handful of extensive stud- ized population. By the middle of the Mid-
ies of provincial Wari sites are available. dle Horizon, the population of the capital
Our understanding of ancient travel corri- city had risen to at least 10,000 people (pop-
dors and the location of many important ulation estimates for the city vary between
raw materials remains poor or, occasionally, 10,000 and 70,000; see Isbell 1997a:186).
nonexistent. We feel, however, that suffi- Areas of craft specialization (Gonzalez
cient data exist to begin to understand the Carre 1981:94; Spickard 1983:153–154; von
dynamics of Wari political economy. As the Hagen and Morris 1998:130) and elite resi-
old saying goes, it is better to light a candle dences (Isbell 1997a:206) in the city suggest
than to curse the darkness. A bit of light can that at least some of the residents were not
be shed on the empire by offering tentative full-time farmers. The capital lies in a valley
economic models and devising empirical whose agricultural productivity, already
means of testing them on a politywide massively terraced and irrigated by the
level. In so doing, we hope, Wari studies smaller population of the previous period
can provide insight into the political econ- (Lumbreras 1974b; Isbell 1988:74–75), may
omy of other ancient empires. not have been able to sustain a large urban
center (Lumbreras 1974a:163, Gonzalez
A MODEL OF WARI POLITICAL Carre 1981:88). It seems likely that agricul-
ECONOMY tural products must have been brought
from outside the valley. Research in areas
An empire can be defined as an expan- surrounding the valley supports this idea
sionist state that assumes effective control by demonstrating a Wari focus on the inten-
over other polities of varying scope and sification of agricultural exploitation in
complexity (D’Altroy 1992:9). The political these localities (Raymond and Isbell 1969;
economy of an empire is shaped by how Isbell 1977; Vivanco and Valdez 1990; Ray-
it produces, distributes, and exchanges mond 1992; Browman 1999). We believe
wealth (Stanish 1992:11). Although empires that this region, the area of Ayacuchoan in-
vary tremendously in the ways that they fluence before imperial expansion (Lumbr-
extract wealth (Claessen and Skalnik eras 1981:23), provided the surplus needed
1978; Sinopoli 1994a:165–166), the imperial to maintain the city.
strategies employed are usually used to The second basic need of an empire is the
meet two essential needs. The first is the support and legitimization of the imperial
subsistence demands of the urbanized cen- hierarchy (Brumfiel and Earle 1987:3; Earle
ter of the empire (Johnson and Earle and D’Altroy 1989:187; Brumfiel 1994:1).
1987:247). In most cases, a capital develops This need can be met by a number of means,
to such a degree that it is unable to easily several of which are often found operating
provide for the subsistence needs of the res- within the same society (Blanton
idents without help from outside producers 1998:141–148). One of the most prevalent
(e.g., Schwartz and Falconer 1994:3). Since ways is through the extraction of prestige
some agricultural products spoil quickly items or the conversion of staple goods into
and most are bulky to transport, the area wealth. Since surplus production in the core
POLITYWIDE ANALYSIS OF WARI POLITICAL ECONOMY 481
FIG. 1. Wari administrative architecture from the site of Jincamocco From Wari Imperialism in Mid-
dle Horizon Peru (p. 174), by K. Schreiber, 1992, Ann Arbor, Univ. of Michigan. © University of Michi-
gan. Adapted with permission.
of the empire is often primarily geared to- staple goods. (D’Altroy and Earle 1985:
ward sustaining the urban center, these 193–194). Exchange of metals, obsidian, dec-
goods must be largely collected in the pe- orated ceramics, textiles, turquoise, and spe-
riphery. As a heuristic, imperial extraction cific marine shell (spondylus and strombus)
strategies can be divided into wealth and increase during the Middle Horizon (Burger
staple finance systems (D’Altroy and Earle and Asaro 1977; Lechtman 1980; Shady Solís
1985). Staple finance involves “obligatory 1988). These items, found both in ritual con-
payments in kind to the state of subsistence text in Wari administrative centers (Cook
goods such as grains, livestock, or clothing” 1985, Cook 1992:359; Williams et al. 2000:73)
(D’Altroy and Earle 1985:188). In a staple fi- and at the site of Wari itself (Cabera Romero
nance system, the bulk and potential 1996:88–91, Pèrez Calderón 1995: 85–86,
spoilage of staple goods (D’Altroy and Earle Gonzalez Carre et al. 1996: 100–102;
1985:188) necessitates a substantial invest- Isbell 1985:70), were prestige items for at
ment in storage facilities in peripheral ex- least 2 millennia in the Andes. The
traction centers (e.g., LeVine 1992). Despite increased exchange of these goods, com-
earlier convictions (Rowe 1963:14), scholars bined with an absence of evidence for state
have yet to find compelling evidence for the storage system of staple surplus, suggests
use of massive storage facilities in the Wari that the Wari organized its peripheral politi-
Empire.1,* Although it is possible that Wari cal economy around the production and ex-
storage systems have yet to be identified, change of prestige objects.
present evidence suggests that the empire The means by which the empire ex-
did not use a staple finance system. tracted goods from the core and periphery
Wealth finance, on the other hand, in- were undoubtedly variable. As Schreiber
volves “the manufacture and procurement has noted (1992:267), the empire adapted its
of special products (valuables, primitive strategies to local conditions. A region’s dis-
money, and currency)” (D’Altroy and Earle tance from the core, political organization,
1985:188). An empire will generally benefit wealth potential, and tolerance to outside
by adopting a wealth finance system for sup- rule largely determined the amount of in-
porting the imperial hierarchy. This switch vestment that the empire would make in
typically allows for a reduction in transporta- the area. In many regions, the empire chose
tion and storage costs since wealth goods to construct imperial sites.
are often less bulky and more durable than Over 30 sites have been found that con-
tain buildings that follow a rigid architec-
*See Notes section at end of article for all footnotes. tural canon (Schreiber 1978; Spickard 1983;
482 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
Isbell 1991b). Aspects shared by these cen- One of the strategies used to build a politi-
ters (see Fig. 1) include (a) a high, rectangu- cal organization is to construct a regional
lar enclosure wall; (b) limited access—usu- administrative center (Schreiber 1992:24).
ally only one or two entrances were made According to central-place theory, the posi-
into the site; (c) interior divided into rectan- tion of service centers, even in nonmarket
gular cells that are composed of an open based societies, will tend to be located cen-
courtyard flanked by corridors on at least trally to the people that use them (Smith
two sides; and (d) restricted access through 1976:7). Since an administrative center of a
the structure and between cells. The centers valley functions to exercise political and
are imposing structures that may have been economic control over the people of the val-
designed to appear invincible and bureau- ley, the optimal location of this site is where
cratically efficient (Spickard 1983:141). The the costs of maintaining control would be
centers, however, were not military gar- the lowest. The administrative site will
risons. They were neither built in defensive therefore tend to be located near the center
locations nor built or organized to defend of the valley’s population.
any kind of attack. Instead, excavations at Another imperial control strategy is to
the centers indicate that the centers housed place sites on the margins of valley as gate-
a group of elites whose tastes ran more for way administration centers. Sites located at
feasting and ritual than for battle (Schreiber strategic locations on the edges of regions
1992, McEwan 1998). are ideally suited to the control of interre-
gional exchange (Hirth 1978:37). An admin-
A HYPOTHESIS FOR THE WARI istrative center in this location would tend
PERIPHERY to focus more on controlling a valley’s ex-
ternal exchange than the political control of
This article tests if the locations chosen the valley itself. These “gateway” centers
for administrative centers fits with the ex- (after Hirth 1978) should be found in val-
pectations of our model. According to our leys of high political complexity. In more
model of Wari political economy, the impe- complex societies, elites often actively par-
rial strategy in the periphery was to extract ticipate in the long distance exchange of
prestige goods. This strategy will cause ad- prestige goods (Cobb 1996:258). These
ministrative sites, if they are established at goods are often the major means by which
all, to be located in significantly different elite power is maintained (Cobb 1996; Earle
geographic locations in regard to the local 1997:7; Baines and Yoffe 1998:253). In con-
populations that these sites are situated to trolling the exchange routes of these goods,
control. an empire can siphon off a portion of these
The degree of complexity will largely de- resources to feed the appetite of the core. By
termine what strategy the empire must pur- adopting these strategies, Wari could
sue when entering a valley. We argue that cheaply and effectively control the areas of
Wari sites built in valleys of low political high political complexity under its influ-
complexity will be found near the geo- ence. Administrative centers in areas of
graphic center of the valley’s population. In high political complexity therefore will
independent villages dominated by a kin- tend to be found near the margins of valley
based mode of production, village leaders as gateway centers controlling long-dis-
will tend to have difficulty coercing surplus tance exchange.
production on a regular basis (Cobb In archaeology, we rarely have the luxury
1996:254). Another level of political hierar- of studying variables in the way that we
chy would therefore be needed to extract would like. In this case, directly analyzing
wealth from the region (Schreiber 1992:24). the relationship between site location and
POLITYWIDE ANALYSIS OF WARI POLITICAL ECONOMY 483
local political organization proved to be im- (Valkenier 1995:279), were not included.
possible. We would ideally measure the Further, numerous sites attributed to the
distance of each Wari site from the center of empire, such as San Nicolás in the valley of
a valley’s population. Unfortunately, we sim- Supe (Lumbreras 1974b:155), Yanahuanca
ply do not know where populations were in the Pasco valley (Isbell 1988:186), and
during this period for most of the valleys in Wisajirca (MacNeish, Patterson, and Brow-
which Wari centers are found. Valleys in the man 1975:60) in Huanaco, could not be in-
Andes, however, are sharply bound oases cluded in this analysis because insufficient
of arable land and permanent settlement in- data exist to consider the nature of these
terspersed within high puna, mountains, sites.
and desert. Although these nonvalley areas, Data on pre-Wari political organization
especially the high puna, were core compo- were also compiled for each of the valleys
nents of the Andean economy, population in which administrative centers have been
size was very small in these regions and found. Archaeological literature pertaining
usually directly associated with valley set- to each valley was examined for this pre-
tlements. The geographic boundaries of these ceding period, the Early Intermediate Pe-
valleys were therefore used as proxy mea- riod (AD 0–700), and the valley’s political
surements for the extent of local popula- organization was ranked as either simple or
tions in our analysis. complex. For our purposes, if a valley’s in-
In this article, we test the relationship be- habitants were organized in a political hier-
tween administrative site location and local archy above the village level, the valley was
political organization. In valleys of simple labeled complex. If the inhabitants lived as
political complexity, Wari administrative in independent villages and/or as scattered
sites should tend be placed near the center agropastoralists, the valley was labeled as
of the valley. In valleys occupied by more simple. The list below provides a valley-by-
complex polities, administrative sites valley account of the data used to assess
should tend to be located toward the mar- valley political organization and identify
gins of the valley—further from the valley’s Wari administrative centers. The data, in
center. The remainder of this article demon- part, are summarized in Table 1.
strates how this relationship was tested and
what the results of this test were. Cajamarca–Huamacucho Valley
FIG. 2. Locator Map of the study area showing the 20 Wari administrative sites included in this analysis.
The site of Wari is shown with a pentagon, while Wari Administrative sites are shown as white triangles. The
GTOPO30 digital elevation model is shown with analytical hillshading to illustrate topography. These data are
Lambert-Equal Azimuth Projected with a longitude of origin at ⫺60° and a latitude of origin at 15°.
with Wari by its architecture. The surround- Wari by its architecture. The identification
ing settlement may postdate the enclosure. of the site is based solely on air photos.
El Palacio (Julien 1988:262). A 0.3-hectare Santa Delia (Julien 1988:270). The largest
site, El Palacio consists of a large rectangu- site found in Julien’s survey, Santa Delia
lar compound measuring 70 ⫻ 50 m. The covers some 75 hectares. Within the site,
structure, based on its architectural ele- several medium- to large-sized rectangular
ments, is Wari. enclosures are found that, based on their ar-
Ichabamba (Williams and Pineda 1985:59). A chitectural elements, are Wari. Julien does
0.9-hectare site, Ichabamba is a 120 ⫻ 70 m not specify the number or exact size of
rectangular enclosure that is identified as these enclosures.
POLITYWIDE ANALYSIS OF WARI POLITICAL ECONOMY 485
TABLE 1
Pre-Wari Valley Political Organization and Our Predictions for Wari Site Placement
Viracochapampa (McCown 1945; Topic and region and the presence of monumental
Topic 1987; Topic 1991). A massive rectan- tombs (Isbell 1997b:195–205), both rich and
gular enclosure, Viracochapampa covers poor burials (Larco Hoyle 1966:106; Grieder
an area of 32 hectares. The site, however, 1978:45) and large sites with monumental
may never have been completed or occu- architecture (Greider 1978; Bennet 1944)
pied. Ceramic sherds associated with support these claims. Current research in
temporary labor camps date the construc- the region (George Lau, personal communi-
tion of Viracochapampa to Middle Hori- cation and 2000) demonstrates that chief-
zon 2A. dom level societies existed in at least some
Pampa de Yamobamba (Williams and Pineda areas of the valley.
1985:59; Julien 1988:292). A 1.3-hectare site, Honcopampa (Isbell 1989, 1991a). A
Yamobamba is a rectangular compound densely occupied 3-hectare site is made up
measuring 130 ⫻ 210 m. The site’s architec- primarily of individual patio groups (at
ture is Wari. least 18) and two D-shaped enclosures.
The site is clearly Wari but its architecture
Callejon de Huaylas Valley is more reminiscent of that seen in the
Capital City than the rectangular enclo-
Early Intermediate Organization. In the sures typical of domestic architecture. Pot-
1960s, Gary Vescelius conducted an exten- tery from the site appears to date to Mid-
sive project of survey and excavation in the dle Horizon 2A.
region. The notes for the project are fa- Pariamarca (Williams and Pineda 1985:60).
mously lost and only brief summaries re- This 0.96-hectare site is made up of a 120 ⫻
garding this work exist (Lanning 1965:140; 80 m rectangular enclosure. The architec-
Buse 1965:317–333). These summaries sug- ture has been identified as Wari by air pho-
gest that stratified societies populated the tographs.
486 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
Tocroc (Williams and Pineda 1985:60). This was never completed. Unlike Viracocha-
0.96-hectare site is made up of a 120 ⫻ 80 m pampa, a portion of the site was occupied.
rectangular enclosure. The architecture has Ceramics found at the site date from the Mid-
been identified as Wari by air photographs. dle Horizon 1B to 2A (Glowacki 1996:479).
stantially modified the landscape. Al- The data on administrative centers and
though the relative timing of each polity’s valley political complexity was integrated
intrusion into the valley during the Middle into an ArcView 3.0a GIS database. The fol-
Horizon and their extent of interaction is lowing steps were taken to construct the
still unclear (Williams 1999), political com- database used to test our ideas about Wari
plexity of the region during the Early Inter- site placement. First, an elevation model
mediate Period did not appear to rise above was obtained and cropped to the study
the village level. area. Second, site locations were obtained
Cerro Baul (Moseley et al. 1991; Williams and represented in the computer database
1997). On the summit of an imposing mesa, as a set of points. Third, valleys were de-
this 5-hectare site dates from the MH1B- fined and modeled as polygons. Fourth, a
MH2A. The site’s architecture consists of method of determining valley center was
rectilinear structures with corridors and pa- chosen and applied to each valley. Last,
tios and occasionally structures of circular varying measurements of distance from
or D-shaped form. center to site were determined and com-
Cerro Mejia (Moseley et al. 1991; Williams pared. Each of these steps is covered in turn.
1997). Situated on a hill adjacent to Cerro
Baul, this 7 hectare site also dates from the Map Database
MH1B-2A. The architecture on the site is
sparser and more poorly preserved that An empire, like Wari, covers an enor-
that on Cerro Baul. Surface remains suggest mous spatial extent. A model of the earth,
that some of the buildings on the site were covering the entire extent of the polity in a
rectangular compounds in the Wari style common resolution and projection, was
(Moseley et al. 1991:135). needed for this analysis. Fine-resolution
topographic maps covering this expansive
DATABASE CONSTRUCTION region have not yet been digitized and or-
ganized into a single coregistered database.
The imposition and maintenance of im- Coarse resolution digital elevation data,
perial control, be it by Wari or by any however, do exist for the entire Earth and
other polity, is an explicitly spatial prob- are available for free over the World Wide
lem. Descriptions and explanations of Web [from Earth Resources Observation
whole systems, like polities, should at- System Data Center (EDC) Distributed Ac-
tempt to take into account the activities of tive Archive Center (DAAC) (http://
each of the system’s component parts edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/glcc/glcc.
(Mayr 1984). Politywide analysis must in- html)]. These 1-km, or 30 arc sec, data are
tegrate both local and regional scales of part of the GTOPO30 global digital eleva-
analysis from data collected by multiple tion model. Using a cropped portion of the
researchers working on different projects. GTOPO30 data set fulfills the basic need of
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) having a consistent Earth model into which
provides an information infrastructure sites can be placed for executing spatial
permitting organization of data collected analysis. The GTOPO30 data have been
by independent research efforts and al- widely used for a variety of modeling
lows systematic analysis at varying spa- purposes including hydrologic analysis
tial scales (Zubrow 1990; Crumley and and drainage basin delineation (http://
Marquardt 1990:73–74). GIS was therefore edcsnw3.cr.usgs.gov/topo/hydro/apps.ht
used to test the relationship between site ml). While the data are not at an optimal
location and valley complexity in our data resolution (Kvamme 1990:112), they do pro-
set. vide the basis for proceeding with a polity-
POLITYWIDE ANALYSIS OF WARI POLITICAL ECONOMY 489
wide analysis of Wari administrative center tion of the contour lines provided a good
site selection until finer resolution data can way of representing where valley edges
be constructed. met with flatter intervalley puna high-
lands.
Wari Site Location On an isopleth map, the flatter highlands
are represented by isobars that are further
Accurate site location information was apart due to the fact that there is less
crucial for this analysis. In most cases, site change across distance (DeMers 1997:260).
coordinates were obtained directly from re- Likewise isopleth mapping of steep valley
searchers who visited or worked at these edges produces closely spaced isobars due
sites. When this was not possible, coordi- to greater slope. Knowing these facts of iso-
nates have been taken from published pleth mapping, it was possible to identify
maps onto which site locations have been individual contours where the slope within
plotted. Once values for site locations were a polygon was high while the slope outside
obtained these were entered into the GIS of the polygon was much lower. For each of
and represented as a layer, or theme, of the valleys, higher resolution topographic
points. Additional attributes about each site and land cover maps were examined. On
(size, type, previous occupation, and infor- the coast these higher resolution maps were
mation references) were added to the particularly important sources of informa-
theme’s attribute table prior to analysis. tion on valley extents, since valleys tend not
Wari peripheral administrative centers that to produce the deep drainage channels seen
are included in the analysis are reported in in the highlands. The extent of arable land
Table 1. as represented on these maps became an
important source of information for defin-
Defining Valleys ing coastal valley limits.
Transitional isolines and additional infor-
Examining possible variation in how mation about valley structure were used for
Wari invested in the construction and defining valley system boundaries on a val-
maintenance of control in different valley ley by valley basis (Fig. 3). This subjective
systems forms a core question of this re- method of feature definition has precedents
search. In order to pursue the problem, it in geography (Clarke personal communica-
was necessary to define the spatial extent tion and 1999). In order to proceed with
of each valley system in which we exam- analysis it was necessary to make a deci-
ine Wari administrative site selection. A sion, and occasionally those decisions must
variety of objective methods for defining be arbitrary. We hope to have made our val-
valley limits were considered. However, ley definition decision rules explicit, and
objective valley definition was quite diffi- we encourage researchers to comment on
cult given the broad spatial setting and how valley extents were defined. If it is pos-
the features we wished to model.3 Valley sible to improve the model by modifying
extents were determined by examining the shape and extent of a particular valley
the physical structure of each valley repre- we are interested in incorporating those
sented in the Earth model. An isopleth changes.
map of elevation was constructed such
that isobars representing contour lines Defining Valley Center
were drawn for the entire region (John-
ston 1998:80; DeMers 1997:258). Contour Once valley systems were defined and
lines, or isobars, were then displayed on modeled as polygon’s, it was necessary to
top of the Digital Elevation Model. Inspec- develop a spatial point of reference that
490 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
FIG. 3. (a) The topography of the Cotahuasi Valley and the Wari administrative site of Collota. Con-
tour interval of the isolines is 100 m. (b) The boundary defined for the Cotahuasi Valley. The valley’s
centroid is indicated by the circle with a cross. The Wari administrative site of Collota is represented as
a triangle. (c) Dotted contour lines represent distance from the centroid of the Cotahuasi Valley. The
units are in hours walking and the contour interval is 1h. The valley’s centroid is indicated by the cir-
cle with a cross. The Wari administrative center of Collota is represented as a triangle.
theme such that each cell contains a value ment of Wari administrative centers during
representing the isotropic Euclidean dis- the Middle Horizon. Recall that when Wari
tance from each valley’s centroid in units of expanded into politically complex valleys,
meters. Second, applying Tobler’s hiking we expect sites to be located in places that
function (Tobler 1993; Kantner 1997) we facilitate the movement of goods back to
computed a cost surface that represents the core since the empire is co-opting exist-
space nonisotropically in terms of walking ing prestige good exchange networks.
time. When this is the case, on average we expect
Aldenderfer (1998:12) has tested Toblers sites to be located further away from the
hiking function by comparing computer valley’s center. Likewise, we expect Wari
generated travel times to actual walking would have had to develop an administra-
trips in the Andean high-sierra and puna tive infrastructure in those valleys where
rim region of the Río Osmore drainage. the preexisting political complexity was
Aldenderfer’s test walkers included both low. In these cases, we expect Wari sites to
indigenous Aymara speakers and North be closer to the center of the valley since
American researchers. Ten trips were timed there is a need to establish political and eco-
and compared to the same trips modeled nomic control over unorganized settle-
on the computer using Torlber’s (1993) hik- ments within the valley.
ing function. Walking trips ranged in dis- The metric we developed treats each ad-
tance from about a half a kilometer to 16 ministrative center as an independent case
km. Results of Aldenderfer’s tests showed and relies on differences between ob-
that the model slightly underestimates served and expected values in Euclidean
travel times, but that “it appears to be a distances from the centroid. For each val-
reasonably good estimator of travel times ley, we randomly generated a 20% sample
in mountainous terrain” (Aldenderfer of points (R) such that no two points could
1998:15). be closer than a kilometer. We forced
For execution in the Arc/Info GIS pack- points to be further than 1 km apart so
age, Tobler’s transformation can be ex- that no grid cell within the valley will be
pressed using the following formula pro- sampled more than once. These randomly
vided by Kantner (1997): generated points represent expected site
locations if no factors were influencing
T ⫽ D/(6 exp(⫺3.5 * abs(S ⫹ .6))), Wari site selection.
where T ⫽ traveltime across a given dem The random points layer for each valley
cell, D ⫽ euclidean distance across a given was used to query the Euclidean distance
dem cell, and S ⫽ slope of a given cell. grid theme. The mean values returned
This nonisotropic friction surface was ap- from each (R) set of points was calculated
plied in computing a cost distance grid independently on a valley-by-valley basis.
theme using each valley’s centroid as the This produced an isotropic, Euclidean, av-
source cells. This resulted in a grid such erage expected distance from the center for
that cell values represented distances from each valley (mR). The points representing
valley centers in units of hours walking. Wari sites were also used to query the Eu-
clidean grid theme returning an isotropic
ANALYTICAL METHODS measure of observed distance from the cen-
troid for each site (W). Each Wari site is
After constructing the database, we treated as an independent case regardless
needed to develop a statistic that would of whether or not it was the only site in the
allow us to test our expectations about the valley. Once isotropic observed and ex-
relationships between early Intermediate pected values were computed we sub-
Period political complexity and the place- tracted observed Wari distances from cen-
492 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
in valleys exhibiting simple Early Interme- Our distance metric (D) factors area out
diate Period political complexity. (Fig. 4), and as we would expect regression
Differences between Wari sites found in demonstrates that valley area accounts for a
politically simple and complex valleys is very small fraction of variability when
significant in three measures of distance: (1) using this distance statistic (R2 ⫽ 0.06). Area
raw untransformed Euclidean distance is appears to account for a good portion of To-
significant at t ⫽ 5.77, p ⬎ 0.0001, while (2) bler’s cost–distance formula (R2 ⫽ 0.59),
our distance (D) metric is also significant but the measure has the significant advan-
(t ⫽ ⫺3.21, p ⬎ 0.0048.), and (3) Tobler’s tage of being in easily interpretable units.
cost–distance function is significant at t ⫽ Area and complexity are directionally cor-
5.35, p ⬎ 0.0001. All three measures indicate related as are distance from center and
that there is a significant separability in the complexity. Simple valleys are small and
distance from center between politically sites in complex valleys should be further
complex and simple valleys. from the center. Our distance (D) metric,
These results are promising, but we which standardizes valley area yet discrim-
would expect valley size to exert influence inates cases well, shows that the greater
on measures of distance. In this population, distances from center seen in large and
four of five politically complex valleys have complex valley systems have more to do
larger areas than simple ones (Fig. 5), and with placement of administrative centers
we would expect area to correlate with within the valley rather than by the effects
measures of distance. We attempted to deal of a valley’s size alone.
with the problem of valley size in the devel- Four of the 20 sites do not follow trends
opment of our distance (D) metric dis- that we would expect. Two sites in complex
cussed above, and regression analysis valleys are closer to the center than an
shows that valley area is not the sole source isotropically measured 20% random sam-
of variability (Table 2). Holding area as the ple, and two sites located in politically sim-
independent measure it accounts for about ple valley systems are further from the cen-
half of the variability of raw untransformed ter than the 20% sample. Sonay, located in
Euclidean distance from center (R2 ⫽ 0.52). the coastal valley of Camana, and Jin-
FIG. 5. Rank order plot of valley area. The units for the y axis are square kilometers. Valleys with
complex pre-Wari political organization are represented by horizontal lines while valleys with simple
pre-Wari political organization are shown with diagonal hatching.
494 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
FIG. 6. (a) Isotropic distance measure in a rank order plot where the y axis is produced by applying
the distance metric described in the analytical methods section. In this figure sites that are located in
complex valleys have horizontal hatching while sites located in simple valleys have diagonal hatch
marks. (b) Nonisotropic costdistances in a rank order plot. The y axis is in units of hours walking time
established using Tobler’s (1993) hiking function with the GTOPO30 data set. Sites located in complex
valleys have horizontal hatching while sites located in simple valleys have diagonal hatch marks.
496 JENNINGS AND CRAIG
the local conditions that are encountered neath and running though these practices,
during expansion. Scholars studying partic- we sincerely hope, lie patterns. Tantalizing
ular sites and areas can only hope to eluci- parallels to the processes described in this
date the impact of these local conditions on model may exist, for example, in Egyptian
their study area. The overall importance of imperial practices in Nubia (Smith
these conditions in imperial strategies, 1998:80–81); Assyrian strategies on their
however, must be left to conjecture. We sug- northern frontiers (Parker 1998:379–381);
gest that politywide analysis can build on and the mixed economy of trade and trib-
these local analyses to measure the impact ute of the Turks, Tibetans, and Uighurs of
varying local conditions throughout an em- Central Asia (Di Cosmo 1999:30–32). With-
pire. out systematic spatial analysis at a polity-
In this case, we considered the effect of wide level, however, the applicability of
an area’s political organization on Wari’s this model to the understanding of other
imperial strategies. We suggest that the em- empires can only be tentative. We hope that
pire developed a wealth finance system an- this article has demonstrated the value of
chored by a number of administrative cen- such a level of analysis in the study of an-
ters. At the time of Wari expansion, a cient empires and other macroregional
number of complex societies flourished in processes.
the northern Highlands and coastal Peru.
The long distance exchange of prestige ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
goods appears to have formed a fundamen-
tal aspect of the political economies of these We thank David Browman, Michael Malpass, Gor-
don McEwan, William Isbell, J. Scott Raymond, Katha-
polities (Shady Solís 1978:27, Topic and
rina Schreiber, John Topic, Teresa Topic, and Ryan
Topic 1983; Arguto Calvo 1984:84–87). In- Williams for their assistance in the identification and
stead of destroying these exchange relation- location of many of the Wari sites discussed in the text.
ships, the empire co-opted them. Wari ad- We also thank Keith Clarke for his feedback on the de-
ministrative centers were placed at the velopment of our distance metric. This article bene-
fited enormously from the editorial advice of Mark
margins of these polities to control their ex- Aldenderfer, Karen Anderson, Christina Conlee, John
change networks. The end result was an in- O’Shea, Stuart Smith, Kevin Vaughn, and four anony-
crease in both the scale of trade and re- mous reviewers. We thank Katharina Schreiber for al-
gional economic prosperity that may have lowing us to revise a figure from the site of Jincamocco.
benefited local groups as well (Shady Solís
1982, 1988). Outside of these areas of high NOTES
political complexity, the empire encoun- 1
Evidence for storage capacity above the basic sub-
tered areas settled by independent villagers
sistence needs of a peripheral center was long thought
and, more rarely, pastoralists. In these to come from the enclosures of Viracochapampa and
cases, Wari control focused on the develop- Pikillacta. In these centers, there are massive blocks of
ment and then control of these areas and small rooms with raised doorways that have been in-
their local wealth potential (de la Vera Cruz terpreted as storage facilities (Menzel 1964). The prin-
cipal investigators of these sites, however, now sug-
1996:150–151). Administrative centers for gest that these facilities never operated as such in any
these areas tended to be located toward the significant way. Viracochapampa was abandoned be-
center of the population in order to orga- fore it was finished and put to use (Topic 1991:151),
nize these populations cheaply and effec- while only a portion of Pikillacta’s room blocks were
tively. in use during the site’s occupation (McEwan 1991,
1996). Even the rooms put into use at Pikillacta were
Over the past 2 decades, research into an- used for a variety of functions and only occasionally, if
cient empires has underscored the incredi- at all, used for storage (McEwan 1996:183). While it is
ble variety of imperial practices. Under- possible that storage facilities of the empire remain
POLITYWIDE ANALYSIS OF WARI POLITICAL ECONOMY 497
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