EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE:

A LOCAL VIEW OF CHIMÚ EXPANSION ON

THE NORTH COAST OF PERU

Robyn E. Cutright

As the Chimú empire (ca. A.D. 900–1470) expanded along the north coast of Peru, it employed a mix of direct and indirect
strategies to administer conquered populations. In order to investigate the extent to which Chimú conquest reshaped daily
life in the provinces, I explore evidence from Pedregal, a rural farming village in the Jequetepeque Valley. I use cuisine as
a window onto daily life at Pedregal, in order to construct a “view from the kitchen” of Chimú expansion. Excavation data
from Pedregal households indicate that production of agricultural staples such as corn and cotton intensified during the
Chimú period, but that while the focus of household culinary practice shifted, the overall range of household activities
remained the same. The Chimú seem to have been able to establish political control and intensify agricultural production
in conquered provinces without a radical reorganization of rural domestic economies. These findings have implications not
only for emerging models of Chimú imperial expansion, but also for our understanding of how household-level change and
continuity are articulated with regional political and economic processes.

Cuando el imperio chimú (900–1470 d.C.) se expandió para controlar la costa norte del Perú, empleó una mezcla de estrategias
directas e indirectas para administrar las poblaciones conquistadas. Para investigar cómo la conquista chimú cambió la vida
cotidiana en las provincias, este artículo presenta evidencia de Pedregal, una comunidad rural agrícola del valle de Jeque-
tepeque, y plantea construir una “vista desde la cocina” de la expansión chimú. Los datos de excavación de la zona doméstica

T
de Pedregal indican que la producción de maíz y algodón se intensificó a lo largo del periodo chimú; sin embargo, mientras
que el enfoque de la práctica culinaria doméstica cambió, la variedad de actividades domésticas se mantuvo constante. Los
chimú parecen haber sido capaces de establecer el control político e intensificar la agricultura en las provincias conquistadas
sin una reorganización radical de la economía doméstica rural. Estos resultados son importantes no solamente en cuanto a
un modelo nuevo para la expansión chimú, sino también en cuanto a nuestras ideas sobre las articulaciones entre el cambio
y la continuidad al nivel doméstico y los procesos políticos y económicos al nivel regional.

his article focuses on the local experience
of the pre-Inka Chimú empire conquest.
Specifically, I investigate the extent to
which Chimú conquest and administration re-
shaped rural life in the provinces. Did the Chimú
reorganize daily life in conquered households, as
has been documented in some Inka cases? If so,
did households respond to conquest by altering
some dimensions of daily practice while conserv-
ing others? Or is this conquest better described
as a reorientation of authority and allegiance at
the upper levels of the sociopolitical hierarchy,
with minimal effect on rural communities?
In order to address these questions, I approach
local rural life through the lens of daily culinary
practice. Food production, preparation, and con-
sumption constitute one realm of daily life where
the cultural, political, and economic effects of
conquest might be experienced in archaeologi-
cally visible ways. Thus, every day activities
such as eating and cooking can serve as a win-
dow into the varied experiences of Chimú con-
quest. I focus on the case of Pedregal, a rural
agricultural village in the lower Jequetepeque
Valley that was conquered by the Chimú during
their first wave of expansion to the north, circa
A.D. 1320. Before turning to the evidence from
Pedregal, I first discuss the archaeology of cui-
sine and imperial expansion, and provide a broad
synthesis of classic and recent research on Chimú

Robyn E. Cutright 䡲 Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Centre College, Danville, KY 40422 (robyn.cutright@centre.edu)

Latin American Antiquity 26(1), 2014, pp. 64–86

Copyright © 2015 by the Society for American Archaeology
DOI: 10.7183/1045-6635.26.1.64

64
expansion and administration of conquered
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE
provinces.
An Archaeology of Cuisine
Cuisine has recently emerged as a particularly
useful construct through which to explore a broad
range of sociocultural processes (e.g., Bray 2003;
Dietler and Hayden 2001; Graff and Rodríguez-
Alegría 2012; Gumerman 1997; Hayden and Vil-
leneuve 2011; Mintz and DuBois 2002; Twiss
2007). Of particular relevance here, the study of
cuisine can bring into focus household-based,
gendered responses to overarching politico-eco-
nomic settings (Hastorf 1991; Klarich 2010).
Cuisine has often been conceptualized as rela-
tively conservative and resistant to change (Crown
2000); even today, home cooking is a touchstone
for nostalgia, tradition, and identity. Hastorf
(2012:69) suggests that the daily habitus of cook-
ing helped to transmit and maintain social cohe-
sion, and may have been a powerful force behind
long-term cultural continuity in the early Neolithic
village of Çatalhöyük. Lightfoot et al.’s (1998)
investigation of daily culinary activities in colonial
northern California reveals that ideals related to
gender, cuisine, and the organization of domestic
labor were reproduced in daily practice, and pro-
vides evidence that these ideals helped buffer the
impact of broader external change.
Despite arguments for culinary conservatism,
households articulate with regional cultural, po-
litical, and economic dynamics through daily culi-
nary practice. In some cases, household culinary
activities become the basis for increasing urbanism
and social complexity. For example, Ur and Colan-
toni (2010) argue that decentralized local
processes, including choices about how to pro-
duce, prepare, and serve food, were at least as
important as top-down elite control in intensifying
agriculture and urbanism in northern Mesopotamia
in the third millennium B.C. In this bottom-up
view, households are articulated with wider social
processes because such processes are an aggregate
of local household decisions.
But this is not the only way in which cuisine
and wider sociopolitical dynamics are linked.
Processes such as imperial expansion take place
above the level of the household, but household
decisions often respond to the pressures and op-
portunities that exist at a regional level (D’Altroy
65
and Hastorf 2001; Wilk 1991). Brumfiel (1991),
for instance, argues that Late Aztec cuisine shifted
because of the domestic scheduling tradeoffs in
time and labor necessary to meet state demands
for tribute. Cases such as this suggest that do-
mestic culinary practice can be sensitive to large-
scale social dynamics, and thus represents a par-
ticularly interesting window onto processes such
as conquest and interaction. In this article, I adopt
a “view from the kitchen” in order to investigate
Chimú impact on local households in the Jequete-
peque Valley of coastal Peru.
Local Perspectives on Imperial Expansion
Ancient empires employed various strategies to
control conquered populations, including military
force, political reorganization, and ideological
manipulation. Control could be exerted directly
by applying force, investing heavily in infrastruc-
ture, and imposing state administrative control,
or more indirectly by using local hierarchies and
emphasizing ideological control, or at some point,
along a continuum between more direct and more
indirect forms of domination (D’Altroy 1992;
Hassig 1985; Smith 2004; Stanish 1992). Strate-
gies varied according to the needs of the state,
the desirable resources available in each province,
the existing level of sociopolitical complexity in
the conquered territory, its distance from the im-
perial heartland, and the response of the local
population (Morrison 2001; Schreiber 1987; Si-
nopoli 1994). The administration of a particular
province could also change through time, accord-
ing to the priorities of the empire or the situation
on the ground.
The Inka are well known for taking advantage
of local hierarchies and existing systems of reci-
procal obligation to rule indirectly, famously en-
suring “that the larder of the peasant remain un-
touched” (Murra 1984:79). In some instances,
however, the impact of imperial conquest on local
populations was dramatic. In the Mantaro Valley,
for instance, Inka rule altered settlement patterns
and land use to increase maize production, and
reached into local households to reshape gender
roles and the domestic economy (D’Altroy and
Hastorf 2001; Hastorf 1991). In other provinces,
the Inka applied a mix of strategies to different
dimensions of the local sociopolitical and eco-
66 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
nomic context, often drawing on existing social
groupings and territorial divisions to reorganize
and control provincial populations, negotiating
power with local elites, but also investing heavily
in state infrastructure.
Rather than simply being dictated from the top,
imperial administration and its impact on local
populations were shaped by the complex interplay
between the strategies of provincial populations,
factional competition within ancient empires, local
political and economic dynamics, and the goals
of administrators (Schreiber 2005; Sinopoli 1994;
Stark and Chance 2012; Stein 2002). From a “bot-
tom-up” perspective, non-elite rural populations
responded to regional political and economic
change based on the demands imposed by the re-
gional system, but also on internal processes and
priorities within households. According to Fal-
coner’s (1995) analysis, for example, rural house-
holds in the Bronze Age village of Tell el-Hayyat
in Jordan demonstrated considerable flexibility in
food production during the growth of regional ur-
ban systems. Households produced more of some
resources in order to participate in regional mar-
kets, but also adopted strategies oriented toward
maintaining ideals of autonomy and self-suffi-
ciency at the household and community levels.
Rural households, then, may sometimes resist full
incorporation into regional systems, choosing to
ensure long-term survival rather than maximize
economic benefits (Wilk 1991).
Household life can also change independently
of regional or state trajectories. The case of
Lukurmata (Bermann 1994) in the Bolivian alti-
plano shows that dynamics that appear significant
at a regional level may not transform rural house-
holds at all, and conversely, that not all household
change occurs as a reaction to regional processes.
Lukurmata households were not reorganized upon
integration into the Tiwanaku polity, and only
later adopted new forms of domestic production
and community organization. While the range of
household activities remained relatively stable,
household architecture and allocation of space
changed through time (Bermann 1994:238). In
general, local responses to imperial expansion
are complex. They may be articulated through
existing cultural traditions or buffered by extra-
household institutions, and in general are likely
to be shaped by processes internal to households
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
and communities as well as by the demands of
imperial administrators. In the next section, I ex-
amine the archaeological evidence for Chimú im-
perial expansion, administrative strategies, and
their effects on local populations.
The Chimú Empire
Around A.D. 900, the Chimú state coalesced in
the Moche Valley, on the north coast of Peru (Fig-
ure 1; Campana 2006; Moseley and Cordy-
Collins 1990; Moseley and Day 1982; Ravines
1980; Rowe 1948). Chimú society is typically
understood as highly complex and centralized.
At the Chimú capital, Chan Chan, lower-class
workshops and residences for a population of
perhaps 30,000 clustered around 10 high-walled
adobe palaces, or ciudadelas, which were con-
structed according to a strict architectural canon
that emphasized social control, restricted access
to ritual, administration, and bureaucracy, and
storage of bulk goods (Day 1982; Moore 1992;
Topic 2003; Uceda 1997). The activities of inter-
mediate elites and lower-class craftspeople at
Chan Chan were oriented toward royal consump-
tion, and likely dependent on state support (Kolata
1983; Topic 1982).
Outside of Chan Chan, the population of the
Moche Valley functioned under a tight adminis-
trative hierarchy to produce food and to complete
state-sponsored construction projects (Keatinge
1975; Pozorski 1979, 1982). Irrigated fields were
farmed intensively by residents of Chan Chan
and rural sustaining villages under the supervision
of rural administrative centers (Keatinge 1975,
1982; Moseley and Deeds 1982). On the basis of
a set of botanical and faunal samples from Moche
Valley sites, Pozorski (1982) argues that farmers
and other workers depended on a state redistrib-
ution system to supply them with meat and other
goods. Overall, evidence from the Moche Valley
and the adjacent Chicama Valley (Pillsbury and
Leonard 2004) suggests strong centralized control
over production, distribution, and consumption
in the Chimú heartland.
Chimú Imperial Expansion
After consolidating its heartland, the Chimú state
expanded to control a wide swath of the north
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE 67

Figure 1. The north coast of Peru, showing phases of Chimú imperial expansion and sites mentioned in the text. Redrawn
and adapted from Moore and Mackey (2008).

coast by the time of Inka conquest around A.D.
1470. Because they conquered and incorporated
culturally and politically distinct polities, such
as the Late Sicán to the north and the Casma to
the south, and because these areas retained some
aspects of their distinctive cultural identity and
even autonomy after conquest (e.g., Mackey
2011), the Chimú are a clear example of an An-
dean empire (Sinopoli 1994).
Early work on the Chimú described a multi-
stage expansion process beginning around A.D.
1200 and emphasized the direct control and cen-
tralized administration of conquered provinces
(Keatinge and Conrad 1983; Topic 1990). Conrad
(1981) argued that a system of split inheritance
drove later Chimú rulers to conquer new territory
outside the heartland. On the other hand, Kolata
(1990:135) suggested that the state reoriented its
extractive economy from heartland agricultural
production toward external expansion after a large
El Niño (ENSO) event around A.D. 1100, resulted
in catastrophic destruction of irrigation canals.
In both arguments, desire to control agriculturally
productive regions in nearby valleys drove Chimú
imperial expansion.
More recently, Mackey (2009; Moore and
Mackey 2008) has employed a later date for
68 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Chimú expansion, placing its beginning after A.D.
1300, and has argued that the Chimú employed a
mix of direct and indirect strategies in conquered
provinces. Mackey (2009:341) suggests that the
Chimú were most interested in establishing con-
trol over territory, trade routes, and key resources
such as copper and Spondylus. They accom-
plished this by placing state personnel and ad-
ministrative architecture at provincial centers and
intrusive settlements rather than intervening at
the village level. Mackey also argues that the area
of consolidated Chimú rule did not extend from
Tumbes to the Chillón Valley, as early researchers
thought. Instead, the Chimú controlled a more
restricted territory, from the lower La Leche to
the Casma Valleys (Figure 1).
In the classic model, the Chimú empire had a
highly centralized economy and exerted strong
political control over conquered territories.
Nonetheless, new research from the provinces
has disputed this model and emphasized the un-
even nature of Chimú provincial rule. Tschauner
(2001, 2008) argues that Chimú political control
over the Lambayeque Valley was reinforced by
intrusive hilltop settlements where Chimú admin-
istrators and local elites lived and hosted guests.
Nonetheless, he finds no evidence that craft pro-
duction, especially of utilitarian goods, was cen-
tralized or controlled by the Chimú, or that Chimú
administrators were participating in an Inka-style
labor tax by redistributing state goods to local
workers. In Tschauner’s analysis, political con-
quest was not reinforced by economic control
over production, especially at the local level.
Also in the Lambayeque region, Hayashida
(2006) finds evidence for Chimú reorganization
of agricultural production and daily life at the lo-
cal level. Her survey of the agriculturally rich
Pampa de Chaparrí shows that the stable, locally
managed irrigation system in place during the
Middle and Late Sicán periods was transformed
during Chimú and later Inka rule. Changes were
visible at multiple scales, including a shift in set-
tlement patterns suggesting centralized control
over the most productive parts of the system, the
imposition of administrative centers, a move from
separate household structures to combined do-
mestic compounds, and even the construction of
exclusive walled fields by the Chimú-Inka period
(Hayashida 2006; Tellez and Hayashida 2004).
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
Even within the Lambayeque region, the effect
of Chimú conquest on local production and do-
mestic life was uneven.
Farther south, in the Jequetepeque Valley,
Mackey’s (2006, 2009, 2011) work at the Chimú
provincial administrative center of Farfán sug-
gests that the Chimú made little effort to share
power with local lords. Instead, they destroyed
an existing Lambayeque compound, placed two
sacrificed women on the foundations, and then
built their own compound on top (Mackey
2009:339). The Chimú also imposed an adminis-
trative center at a key point for canal control at
the valley neck (Keatinge and Conrad 1983), and
engaged in large-scale projects to expand and re-
inforce irrigation networks, ultimately intensify-
ing agricultural production in the valley (Dillehay
and Kolata 2004). At San José de Moro, they
produced large quantities of maize beer (chicha)
for consumption at the adjacent administrative
center of El Algarrobal de Moro (Mackey 2004;
Prieto 2011). Nonetheless, Swenson’s (2007)
analysis of hinterland ceremonial centers suggests
that local elites manipulated imperial architectural
symbols while maintaining a degree of political
control and autonomy. Sapp’s (2011) work at the
elite residence of Cabur also suggests that reor-
ganization at lower levels of the political hierar-
chy was minimal under the Chimú. As in the
Lambayeque region, Chimú impact on the rest
of the valley was felt unevenly.
South of the Moche Valley, researchers find
similarly mixed evidence for the impact of Chimú
conquest. Vogel (2012a) argues that prior to
Chimú expansion, the Chao Valley represented
the northern frontier of the Casma polity. As the
Chimú state began to coalesce, elites at the Chao
Valley site of Cerro la Cruz incorporated some
Chimú stylistic elements into their pottery but still
maintained an independent identity. Ultimately,
the Chimú conquered the Chao Valley, and Cerro
la Cruz was intentionally burnt and ritually closed
(Vogel 2012a:177), suggesting that here, Chimú
conquest significantly impacted local settlement
patterns at least at the top of the settlement hier-
archy. The Casma polity center of El Purgatorio
was abandoned after Chimú arrival in the Casma
Valley late in the fourteenth century (Vogel
2012b), when power shifted to the Chimú provin-
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE
Figure 2. The lower Jequetepeque Valley.
cial center of Manchan. New Chimú-period set-
tlements in the Casma were concentrated in the
agriculturally productive lower valley, suggesting
that the Chimú were interested in intensifying
agricultural production (Mackey and Klymyshyn
1990). However, Moore (1985) found a lack of
state control over the lower-class population at
Manchan, and Koschmieder (2004; Koschmieder
and Vega Centeno 1996) argues that hybridity and
cultural fusion, rather than directly imposed con-
trol, characterized the relationship between Chimú
administrators and local populations at the ad-
ministrative site of Puerto Pobre.
Recent research outside the Chimú heartland
has called into question the extent of centralized
control over production and local populations ex-
erted by the Chimú state apparatus. Specifically,
the Chimú seem to have made highly visible po-
litical statements by altering settlement patterns
and establishing provincial administrative centers
in conquered valleys, but aside from intensifying
agricultural production, exerted little economic
control over lower-class populations. The case
of Pedregal supports this emerging view of Chimú
administration as an uneven mosaic of direct and
indirect strategies.
Pedregal and the Jequetepeque Valley
Environmental Setting. The Jequetepeque River
flows west from the foothills of the Andes across
69
a dry coastal plain to the Pacific Ocean (Figure
2). At the valley neck, the relatively restricted
valley walls abruptly widen out and give way to
the flatter, more open lower valley. Because of
the low annual rainfall, averaging less than 30
mm/year, lower valley agriculture depends on
extensive networks of irrigation canals (Eling
1987). Water availability fluctuates seasonally
based on rainfall in the adjacent highlands, but
the large flow volume of the Jequetepeque River
(945 million m3 per year, compared to 321 million
in the Moche Valley [Wilson 1988:18]) allowed
prehispanic residents to farm one of the larger
cultivable areas on the north coast (Eling
1987:107). Because the Jequetepeque flows year-
round, prehispanic farmers could have harvested
two crops per year. Beyond the irrigated flood-
plains are sand dunes dotted with sparse vegeta-
tion and isolated thickets of trees and shrubs such
as zapote (Capparis angulata), faique (Acacia
macracantha), and algarrobo (Prosopis sp.).
The north coast of Peru is also rich in marine
resources. Diverse marine and littoral habitats,
including rocky and sandy intertidal and estuarine
zones shading into the deep open waters of the
Pacific, provide access to a wide range of fish
and shellfish species within a relatively short dis-
tance. The cold Humboldt Current, which runs
north along the Pacific coast of South America,
makes offshore waters extremely abundant in fish
and other marine life. Despite the occasional en-
70 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
vironmental disruptions of El Niño, large prehis-
panic populations flourished in this area of the
coast during the Late Intermediate period (LIP)
(A.D. 1000–1300). The high levels of food pro-
duction possible in the Jequetepeque may have
made it an enticing target for Chimú expansion.
Culture History. During the first half of the
LIP, the Jequetepeque Valley was occupied by
the complex Lambayeque polity. Pacatnamú
(Donnan and Cock 1997) sat at the apex of a set-
tlement hierarchy that included secondary admin-
istrative sites like Farfán (Mackey 2009, 2011),
residences of local elites at San José de Moro
(Prieto 2010) and Cabur (Sapp 2011), the middle
valley border outpost of Ventanillas (Cutright and
Cervantes 2012), and agricultural villages such
as Pedregal (Cutright 2009, 2010). Some have
argued that during this period, the Jequetepeque
was controlled by an expansive Sicán state cen-
tered in the Lambayeque/La Leche valleys to the
north (Castillo 2001; Prieto 2010; Shimada 2000).
Nonetheless, local variation in architecture, set-
tlement patterns, and material culture suggest a
high level of indigenous autonomy despite cul-
tural and economic ties with the north (Mackey
2009, 2011; Sapp 2011). For this reason, I use
the term Sicán to refer to the Middle and Late
Sicán centralized states that controlled the Lam-
bayeque–La Leche Valley region until Chimú
conquest ca. A.D. 1375 (Shimada 1985, 2000),
and Lambayeque to refer to the wider cultural
phenomenon (after Zevallos 1971) and its ex-
pression in the Jequetepeque Valley.
Around A.D. 1320, the Jequetepeque was con-
quered in what Spanish chroniclers later recorded
as a bloody battle (Calancha 1982 [1638]; Mackey
2009). There is no evidence for a large-scale
movement of Moche Valley colonists into the val-
ley. Nonetheless, Chimú conquest marked a clear
transition in the political structure of the Jequete-
peque Valley. Pacatnamú was abandoned and po-
litical focus shifted to Farfán, where existing ar-
chitecture was razed, new administrative
compounds were constructed according to impe-
rial architectural canons, and members of the
Chimú royalty arrived to administer the movement
of people, goods, and information through the
valley (Mackey 2009, 2011). As discussed above,
land use, settlement patterns, and agricultural
strategies changed after Chimú conquest (Dillehay
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
and Kolata 2004; Keatinge and Conrad 1983). If
Chimú rule reshaped life in provincial households,
we should expect to see clear changes in the rural
domestic economy in the Jequetepeque, as house-
holds adapted to new tribute demands and expe-
rienced the reorganization and intensification of
agricultural production in the valley. In order to
investigate whether this was the case, I conducted
excavations at the rural village site of Pedregal in
2006 (Cutright 2009, 2010).
The Community of Pedregal. Pedregal is a 5-
ha multicomponent site with diagnostic materials
spanning the Moche to Inka periods (ca. A.D.
500–1500). It is one of a string of villages stretch-
ing along the Pampa de Faclo from the Lam-
bayeque center of Pacatnamú east to Farfán, over-
looking the irrigated river bottom (Hecker and
Hecker 1990). The eastern portion of the Pampa
de Faclo was irrigated in antiquity, and relic fields
and canals are still visible (Eling 1987). Pedregal
is located less than 5 km from the primary Chimú
center of Farfán and adjacent to rich agricultural
lands. If Chimú rule did reshape local production
or daily household practice, such impacts would
likely have been felt at Pedregal because of its
proximity to valley centers, its role in agricultural
production, and its participation in cultural tradi-
tions and economic networks at the regional scale
(Cutright 2013).
During the LIP, Pedregal was a 2.9-ha village
with a cluster of households and a small area of
public architecture, flanked by cemeteries (Figure
3). The public area (Sectors B and C) drew on
local LIP architectural canons (Swenson 2007)
and included two low platform mounds at the
end of a rectangular enclosure. The residential
area consisted of six rectangular agglutinated do-
mestic compounds to the south of the public area
(Sector A). During the Inka period, an intervalley
road ran through the site, cutting through one of
the platforms and a household compound. In
modern times, an airstrip partially destroyed the
rectangular enclosure, and the platforms and
cemeteries were extensively looted.
In 2006, two 3-x-3-m units and several
smaller 1-x-1-m test pits were excavated in each
of three domestic compounds at Pedregal (Figure
3). Test units were also placed in other sectors
of the site, but are discussed elsewhere (Cutright
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE 71

Figure 3. The Late Intermediate period (LIP) occupation of Pedregal showing excavated units in Sector A.

2009, 2010, 2013). Because the excavation strat-
egy was designed to investigate changes through
time in household activities and culinary practice
at Pedregal, large horizontal excavation areas
were not opened, and so the data do not speak
clearly to the contemporaneous spatial organi-
zation of household activities. However, the ver-
tical excavation strategy makes it possible to
compare the two major occupational moments
that were clearly visible during excavation. The
later occupation was associated with the stone
architecture visible on the surface, while an ear-
lier occupation extended to approximately a me-
ter below the surface architecture and corre-
sponded to a set of architectural features with a
slightly different north-south orientation. Both
occupations consisted of superimposed living
floors containing features such as hearths,
benches, and storage pits interspersed with layers
of artifact-dense fill.
72 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015

Figure 4. Selected domestic ceramics from Pedregal.

Occupation of these domestic compounds
dates to the Chimú period, ca. A.D. 1320–1470
(Cutright 2013). Initial surface evaluation and
mapping of Pedregal suggested a mixed Lam-
bayeque and Chimú occupation, and it was hoped
that these earlier and later moments of domestic
occupation would correspond to periods before
and after Chimú conquest of the valley. Excava-
tion data confirm that Pedregal was occupied dur-
ing the Lambayeque period. A radiocarbon date
on cornstalks in platform fill had a two-sigma
calibrated range of A.D. 1225–1381 (all dates
calibrated with OxCal v4.1.5 [Bronk Ramsey
2010] using the Southern Hemisphere Atmos-
pheric Curve [McCormac et al. 2004]; see
Cutright 2013:7 and Blake et al. 2012) which
could place it on either side of Chimú conquest
of the Lambayeque around A.D. 1320. Based on
adobe chronologies from Pacatnamú (McClelland
1986), construction in the public sector likely be-
gan before Chimú conquest.
Nonetheless, the break between earlier and
later architectural phases in the domestic com-
pounds does not likely correspond to Chimú ar-
rival in the valley. Precise dating on the basis of
ceramic typologies is complicated by the persis-
tence of Lambayeque utilitarian styles, such as
paddle-stamped ollas, into the Inka period and
the scarcity of diagnostic Imperial Chimú and
Chimú-Inka fineware in nonelite contexts (Figure
4). In Pedregal households, some characteristic
Chimú blackware ceramics, such as flat-bottomed
plates and small press-molded carinated ollas
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE
(Prieto 2008) were present at similar frequencies
in both the earlier and later domestic occupations.
Two radiocarbon dates from the earlier domestic
occupation fall in the Chimú period, with two-
sigma calibrated ranges of A.D. 1388–1445 and
A.D. 1401–1462, respectively (Cutright 2013:
Table 1). Thus, the households excavated at Pe-
dregal most likely were inhabited during the
Chimú period, though the community itself ex-
isted before Chimú arrival in the valley.
Local Experience of Chimú Rule:
A View from the Kitchen
I argue that changes in household activities from
the earlier to the later occupational moment reflect
the strategies of elite administrators and local res-
idents in the context of Chimú imperialism. While
the clear break between the earlier and later do-
mestic occupations at Pedregal does not neatly
correspond to the transition from Lambayeque
to Chimú control over the valley, a pattern of di-
achronic changes in household activities over the
course of Chimú occupation does emerge. In this
section, I will focus on changes that relate to food
production, processing, and consumption in Pe-
dregal households. If Chimú administrators were
interested in extracting staple agricultural re-
sources from conquered valleys, then increased
production of maize, cotton, and other bulk sta-
ples should be visible in the botanical assem-
blages of sites such as Pedregal. Intensification
of some kinds of production might influence the
broader range of household activities, especially
if the Chimú pulled rural villages into state-spon-
sored distribution networks as they did in the
Moche Valley heartland (Pozorski 1979, 1982)
or reshaped local production as Hayashida (2006)
documents farther north. Changes in household
activity patterns would be visible in emphasis on
different kinds of plant or animal foods, a reduc-
tion in dietary diversity, or the appearance of
more standardized or state-produced goods. Fi-
nally, households may have made trade-offs in
other realms of household life to support a greater
labor investment in production for the state, as in
the Aztec case discussed above (Brumfiel 1991).
Household size or the efficiency of food prepa-
ration techniques could have been adjusted to
compensate for household investment in labor
73
intensive crop processing activities. In the next
section, I evaluate the artifactual, botanical, and
faunal evidence for these potential impacts in the
context of the ecological and cultural setting of
Pedregal.
Agricultural Production and Household
Subsistence in the Jequetepeque
In order to reconstruct subsistence practices at
Pedregal, I look first at the foods procured by
households. Isotopic analysis of skeletal remains
was not possible, as no human remains were
found in secure contexts. This discussion is based
on analysis of macrobotanical, faunal, and shell
remains recovered in the field from quarter-inch
screens, and in the lab from three-liter soil sam-
ples taken from each excavation context. Soil
samples were screened through half-inch and
quarter-inch sieves and then 1 liter of each was
further screened through 1 mm and 5 mm mesh,
following the protocol used by Gumerman (1991)
at Pacatnamú. Subsistence remains were stan-
dardized by volume to calculate densities, and
also quantified according to ubiquity and propor-
tion. Remains were analyzed on the basis of com-
parative collections by project members and at
the ARQUEOBIOS lab (Vazquez and Rosales
2007). A few ceramic sherds were tested for starch
grains, but the most systematic analysis relies on
macroremains of plants and animals.
Faunal remains were quantified by Minimum
Number of Individuals (MNI) and Number of
Identified Specimens (NISP), but due to the frag-
mentation of the assemblage and the small sample
sizes from some contexts, NISP proved the most
effective basis for comparison. Botanical remains
were quantified by total number of identified
parts. Differences in caloric contribution and
preservation of both plants and animals mean that
the proportion of the assemblage made up of a
particular species does not necessarily represent
the contribution of that species to diet in a
straightforward way (Lennstrom and Hastorf
1995; Pearsall 2000). In this article, I use mea-
sures of density, ubiquity, and relative proportions
to counter the effects of sampling bias and chart
shifts in subsistence through time.
Pedregal residents consumed agricultural prod-
ucts, marine and littoral species, terrestrial fauna,
74 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Figure 5. Primary plant and animal resources in Pedregal assemblages by habitat.
and wild plants (Figure 5, Table 1). Cultigens
such as maize, beans, chiles, sweet potato, and
squash formed the basis of Pedregal diet. These
were complemented by tree fruits such as
guanábana, avocado, and lúcuma, which would
have grown around the irrigated margins of fields,
and by wild species such as algarrobo and sea-
weed. Pedregal residents raised camelids, guinea
pigs (cuy), and dogs for household consumption.
Shellfish were foraged from rocky and sandy
shores near the mouth of the Jequetepeque River.
The fish assemblage was dominated by two
species: Paralonchurus peruanus (Peruvian
croaker, or suco) and Engraulis ringens (an-
choveta). Both fish and shellfish assemblages
were diverse, suggesting that Pedregal residents
were opportunistic in their consumption of these
resources despite their reliance on a few econom-
ically significant species.
Pedregal residents likely specialized in farm-
ing, based on the density of crop remains, pres-
ence of farming tools and their production at the
site, and proximity to irrigated field systems. It
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
is unclear whether residents would have been
supplied with marine resources through state re-
distribution, exchange with local specialists, or
their own procurement efforts, but the diversity
of fish and shellfish species suggests some com-
bination of the latter two. Nonetheless, crop pro-
cessing remains suggest that Pedregal households
were intensively engaged in producing agricul-
tural staples, likely in part for state tribute net-
works.
Crop Processing and Production for Tribute
Models of Chimú expansion and provincial ad-
ministration as well as settlement pattern evidence
from the Jequetepeque suggest that the Chimú
were interested in intensifying the production of
bulk staples such as maize and cotton. These
products could be stored, transformed into chicha
and cloth, and used to support state work parties
and elite festivities at the provincial center of
Farfán. If this was the case, then production and
processing of these crops should have increased
through time at rural villages like Pedregal.
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE 75

Table 1. Botanical and Faunal Assemblages at the Overall Site, and in the Early and Late LIP Domestic Occupations.

% of site faunal % of early faunal % of late faunal

Species Common name NISP (n = 1867) NISP (n = 390) NISP (n = 354)
Mammal 93.3 93.5 97.7
Lama sp. llama/alpaca 46.3 35.9 45.2
Cavia porcellus guinea pig/cuy 19.3 30 34.2
Muridae rodent 6.1 3.8 3.1
Canis familiaris dog 3.1 3.3 4.2
Odocoileus virginiana deer .2 0 .3
unidentified mammal 18.3 20.5 10.7
Bird 2.1 2.8 .6
Larus sp. gull .4 .3 .1
Phalacrocorax sp. cormorant .3 .5 .4
unidentified bird 1.5 2 .1
Reptile/amphibian 3.3 3.6 1.7
Iguana sp. iguana 1.6 1 .6
Bufo sp. toad .4 0 0
Dicrodon sp. lizard/cañan .4 1.6 .5
unidentified reptile .9 1 .6
Other/unidentified 1.3 0 0
Total 100 100 100

% of site fish % of early fish % of late fish

Species Common name NISP (n = 1254) NISP (n = 441) NISP (n = 199)
Paralonchurus peruanus Peruvian banded croaker/suco 44.1 33.3 64.3
Engraulis ringens anchoveta 37 57.8 29.1
Sardinops sagax sagax sardine/sardina 4.3 3.6 0
Cynoscion analis Peruvian weakfish/cachema 1.6 .7 1.5
Sciaena deliciosa lorna 1.4 1.1 2
Merluccius gayi peruanus hake/merluza 1 .7 1
Galeichthys peruvianus catfish/bagre .8 1.5 .5
Rhinobatos planiceps Pacific guitarfish/guitarra .6 0 .5
Stellifer minor minor stardrum .5 .5 0
Trachurus symmetricus murphyi jack mackeral/jurel .5 0 1
Mustelus sp. shark/tollo .2 0 0
Mugil cephalus flathead mullet/lisa .2 0 0
Sciaena sp. .2 0 0
Caulolatilus cabezon ocean whitefish/peje blanco .2 .5 0
Labrisomus philippii trambollo .1 0 0
Isurus oxyrhynchus shortfin mako/maco .1 0 0
Unidentified fish 7.2 .3 .1
Total 100 100 100

% of site shellfish % of early shellfish % of late shellfish

Species Common name MNI (n = 16100) MNI (n = 3055) MNI (n = 3668)
Gastropods 64.6 65.6 51.7
Polinices uber 38.9 40 27.5
Prisogaster niger 11.8 12 10.9
Thais haemastoma 3.9 4 3.6
Xanthochorus buxea 3.1 3 3.6
Nassarius dentifer 2.5 2.2 3.2
Thais chocolata 2.2 2.1 1.6
Tegula atra .8 1.4 .4
Olivella columellaris .7 .3 <.1
Scutalus proteus .4 .3 .5
Sinum cymba .2 <.1 .2
Mitra orientalis .1 .2 .1
Fissurella maxima .1 .1 .1
76 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015

Xanthochorus broderipii <.1 0 <.1

Bivalves 34.7 33.5 47.5
Donax obesulus 33.6 32 46.3
Protothaca thaca .5 .6 1
Choromytilus chorus .5 .8 .24
Argopecten pupuratum <.1 .1 <.1
Semimytilus algosus <.1 0 0
Perumytilus purpuratus <.1 <.1 0
Semele corrugada <.1 0 <.1
Aulacomya ater <.1 <.1 0
Crustaceans .7 .9 .6
Platyxanthus orbignyi .6 .8 .6
Balanus sp. .1 .1 0
Total 100 100 100

% of site plant % of early plant % of late plant

Classification Common name parts* (n = 20,719) parts* (n = 5780) parts* (n = 2093)
Annona muricata guanábana 37.5 31.8 18.6
Gossypium barbadense algodón/cotton 14.6 18.3 27.8
Zea mays maize cobs & kernels 12.3 14.8 26.4
Prosopis pallida algarrobo/mesquite 10.4 12.4 7.7
Acacia sp. espino 8.1 2.0 .2
Capiscum frutescens ají/chile pepper 5.1 9.2 5.3
Lagenaria siceraria mate/gourd 3.9 2.8 4.0
Phaseolus sp. frijol/bean 1.7 3.0 .8
Cucurbita sp. zapallo/ squash 1.2 .6 5.8
Nectandra sp. ishpingo .8 0 0
Lucuma obovata lúcuma .6 .6 .2
Inga feuillei huaba/pacae .4 .6 .2
Pithecellobium sp. angolo .4 .4 <.1
Phaseolus vulgaris frijol/bean .3 .4 0
Phaseolus lunatus pallar/bean .2 .3 .3
Neptunia sp. .2 .6 0
Persea americana palta/avocado .2 <.1 .1
Canavalia maritima pallar de gentil .2 .3 .4
Psidium guajava guayaba/guava .3 .3 .1
Erythroxylum coca coca .3 .3 1.1
Bunchiosa armeniaca ciruela de fraile .3 .3 .1
Gynerium saggitatum caña/cane .3 .1 .2
Ipomoea batatas camote/sweet potato .2 .2 .2
Cenchrus echinatus cadillo .2 .2 .2
Capparis ovalifolia guayabito de gentil .1 .1 .1
Capparis angulata zapote .1 .1 <.1
Gigartina sp. seaweed .1 .2 0
Phyla sp. <.1 .1 0
Thevetia peruviana maichil <.1 <.1 0
Spilanthes ureas turre macho <.1 <.1 0
Equisettum giganteum cola de caballo/horsetail <.1 <.1 0
Arachis hypogaea maní/peanut <.1 <.1 .1
Crotalaria incana cascabelillo <.1 <.1 0
Sapindus saponaria choloque <.1 0 0
Solanum tuberosum papa/potato present present present
Total 100 100 100
Note: Botanical totals exclude unidentified parts and Zea mays parts other than cobs and kernels.
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE
Table 2. Comparison of Selected Botanical Categories in the Early and Late LIP.
LIP
occupation n count Proportion
Maize early 5780 854 14.76 ␹² = 142, p < .0005
late 2093 553 26.42
Cotton early 5780 1055 18.25 ␹² = 85.17, p < .0005
late 2093 582 27.81
early 5780 1951 33.75 ␹² = 147.88, p < .0005
Tree fruit late 2093 407 19.54
Maize cobs and kernels made up a signifi-
cantly greater proportion of the overall botanical
assemblage through time, increasing from 15 per-
cent in the early LIP to 26 percent in the late LIP
(Table 2). Average density of maize parts in late
LIP samples increased as well, though not sig-
nificantly, while maize ubiquity (the percent of
contexts in which maize was identified) rose dra-
matically. Maize cobs also increased in average
size slightly, though significantly, through time.
Size was measured by counting the number of
cupules around the circumference of each cob
and multiplying by two. Most cobs had either 8
or 10 rows of kernels, but cobs with 4, 6, and 12
rows were also recorded. The proportion of cobs
with 10 rows of kernels increased from 45 percent
to 54 percent between the early and late LIP oc-
cupation, while the proportion of cobs with 8
rows decreased from 52 percent to 42 percent.
This difference is relatively small but statistically
significant (␹2 = 12.994; df = 2; p = .002). The
greater proportion of cobs with 10 kernels sug-
gests that a shift toward maize varieties with a
greater yield accompanied the increased focus on
maize in the late LIP, but this shift was not dra-
matic. The overall picture that emerges from these
data is one in which maize played a much more
central role in household activities in the later
occupation.
Cotton also increased in proportion and aver-
age density in the later LIP assemblage as com-
pared to the early LIP (Table 2), but its ubiquity
declined slightly. This may suggest that cotton
processing was somewhat more spatially re-
stricted in the later occupation, but the difference
is not great. As emphasis on these crops increased,
the category of tree fruit, which includes
guanábana, guava, lúcuma, and avocado, de-
creased in proportion (Table 2). They were more
ubiquitous in household samples, but average
77
chi-square Mean density t-test
on proportion (frags/L) on density Ubiquity
.38 t = .747, 38.85
.54 p = .456 64.62
1.46 t = 1.52, 53.24
2.82 p = .13 46.15
.77 t = 3.209, 59.71
.23 p = .002 66.15
density decreased. In other words, residents con-
tinued to consume fruit during the later LIP, but
these fruits were no longer as concentrated in
household refuse. Domestic species in general
made up a significantly greater proportion of the
later assemblage than the earlier one, increasing
from 63 percent of the early assemblage to 84
percent of the later one (␹2 = 112.936, d.f. = 1, p
< .0005). This evidence suggests that a decreasing
focus on wild species through time accompanied
the heavier emphasis on cultivated staples.
The botanical assemblage at Pedregal is best
understood as revealing trends in crop processing
at the household level as opposed to directly re-
flecting what people ate, especially since it in-
cludes many parts such as cotton seeds and husks,
maize leaves, stems, and cobs, and bean pods
that would have been separated from the edible
parts of the plants and discarded during process-
ing (Hastorf 1990:282). The data discussed above
suggest an increased emphasis on agricultural
staples in the later occupation, but were Pedregal
residents increasingly focused on processing
maize and cotton for their own use, or were some
of these products extracted as tribute and trans-
ported to storerooms at Farfán?
One way to chart the movement of maize as
an item of exchange or of extracted tribute is by
looking at ratios of cobs to kernels (Gumerman
1991; Welch and Scarry 1995). In the case of the
Mississippian chiefdom centered at Moundville,
Welch and Scarry (1995) found that samples from
rural villages near Moundville had fewer kernels
as compared to cob fragments than did the center
of Moundville. They argue that higher cob-to-
kernel ratios in villages show that maize was be-
ing produced and processed in rural villages, and
then supplied to the center as tribute. Moundville
thus received maize kernels, but not byproducts
like cobs, from its rural sustaining villages.
78 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Figure 6. Comparison of cob and kernel densities at Pedregal, Pacatnamú (Gumerman 1991) and El Brujo (Plescia 2003;
Tate 2006). Densities estimated based on Plescia 2003:Figure 5.3.
The mean density of kernels in Sector A soil
samples from Pedregal was .29/liter, while the
mean density of cobs was slightly greater at
.37/liter, for a cob-to-kernel ratio of 1.27 cobs/ker-
nel (Figure 6). Using comparable methods,
Gumerman (1991) found on average .26 cob frag-
ments per kernel at Lambayeque-period Pacat-
namú (.79 kernels/liter and .21 cobs/liter). A com-
parison of the two ratios suggests that Pedregal
households were more heavily involved in pro-
cessing maize, while Pacatnamú households
tended to have fewer byproducts of processing
as compared to edible maize. This makes sense,
since Pacatnamú was the primary religious and
political center during the Lambayeque period,
and so its elite households would likely not have
been involved in agricultural production as rural
households at Pedregal. This evidence supports
a model in which Pedregal residents were pro-
cessing maize at a level beyond that of household
consumption, and were exporting some maize to
regional networks.
A more precise way to look at maize processing
is by comparing cupules to kernels, since cob
fragments can represent varying proportions of a
single ear of corn, whereas each individual cupule
represents the point where one kernel was attached
to the cob. At Pedregal, I counted fragments as
cobs when the entire circumference of the cob
was present. I also counted all cupules, whether
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
they were loose or part of cob fragments. Gumer-
man (1991) did not calculate densities of cupules
at Pacatnamú, but his student Plescia (2003) cal-
culated mean cupule densities and cupule-to-ker-
nel ratios in her study of Chimú-Inka plant use at
the site of El Brujo, in the Chicama Valley (Plescia
2003; Tate 2007). In Plescia’s El Brujo samples,
there were on average 14.44 cupules/kernel. Ples-
cia interprets this overabundance of cupules
(byproducts of processing) as compared to kernels
(the edible portion of the plant) as evidence that
households at El Brujo were harvesting and pro-
cessing corn in quantities that greatly exceeded
household consumption, perhaps for transport to
Inka state facilities. At Pedregal, there were 25.52
cupules/kernel, an even greater overabundance of
processing byproducts.
Pedregal households may thus have been pro-
cessing maize for export as trade or more likely
as tribute to larger valley centers like Pacatnamú
and Farfán. Nonetheless, as Figure 6 shows, Pe-
dregal kernel-to-cob ratios did not change no-
ticeably from the early to the late occupation,
suggesting that Pedregal residents were involved
in crop processing above the level of the house-
hold throughout the LIP. During the later phase,
however, maize processing for export continued
while agricultural production became even more
focused on economically important staples like
cotton and especially maize.
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE
Figure 7. Early and late LIP faunal assemblages at Pedregal.
Range and Focus of Household
Culinary Activities
The hypothesis that production of agricultural
staples intensified in rural households under
Chimú rule is supported by botanical evidence
from Pedregal. Nonetheless, in order to explore
the impact of this intensification on rural house-
holds, I consider a wider range of evidence related
to domestic culinary practice and other household
activities. Cuisine at Pedregal was shaped not
just by the range of food available, but also by
traditions relating to cooking methods and the
social context of consumption. Elsewhere
(Cutright 2013), I have presented evidence for
community feasting and household food offerings
at Pedregal; in this section, I focus on daily culi-
nary practice. In particular, I consider whether
rural cuisine shifted in emphasis, diversity, or
preparation to accommodate a greater focus on
maize and cotton processing.
Ingredients. If producing and processing maize
and cotton placed a greater demand on Pedregal
residents through time, or if households were in-
79
creasingly relying on state redistributive networks
as Pozorski (1982) suggests for the Moche Valley,
we might expect the range of species used in Pe-
dregal houses to narrow. Comparison of early
and late LIP assemblages reveals that the overall
range of species remains constant, contrary to
this expectation. No important new products ap-
peared, no large contributors to the diet dropped
out, and the range remained diverse. Nonetheless,
fish NISP as a proportion of the faunal assem-
blage decreased from the early to late occupation,
while domesticated mammals made a signifi-
cantly greater contribution to the assemblage (Fig-
ure 7). This change mirrors the decreasing role
of wild plants in the diet over time discussed
above, and suggests that over the course of the
LIP, rural farming villages became more focused
on agricultural production and less likely to sup-
plement their diet with wild plants and animals.
Alternatively, they might have been less able to
access the products of fishing specialists at nearby
communities like Pacatnamú.
Recipes. Stews and other wet preparations
were, and still are, at the heart of daily coastal
80 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Figure 8. Domestic wares by category at Pedregal.
cuisine. These meals are recorded archaeologically
in food offerings from burials at Farfán (Cutright
2011), historically by Spanish chroniclers (Cobo
1990:198 [1653]), and ethnographically (Gillin
1947). Ceramic forms like cooking pots (ollas)
and deep bowls relate most strongly to this kind
of food preparation. Another important wet-cook-
ing technique in north coast cuisine is the prepa-
ration of fermented maize beer, or chicha. Chicha
was a part of daily diet in late prehistory and also
played a key role in ritual and political feasts. The
archaeological signatures of chicha production
include large fermenting vessels, dumps of maize
dregs, and production facilities with large hearths
(Hayashida 2008; Moore 1989).
Roasting, either over a fire or inside a pit oven,
occupied a different culinary space in prehispanic
culture, and may have been reserved for feasts
and other special occasion meals. Roasted foods
would be served in shallow, wide-mouthed bowls
or plates. While the meat cooked in the pit would
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
show no evidence of burning, earth-oven cooking
would char bones in deposits below and around
the pit. Roasting meat directly over the fire, in
contrast, would result in charring on any part of
the bone not covered by meat. I did not observe
differences in charring patterns through time at
Pedregal; most burnt or calcined bone seems to
have been burnt during discard-related or post-
depositional activities, such as the incineration
of trash.
Daily Meals at Pedregal. If cooking techniques
changed through time, we might expect to see
changes in the ceramic assemblage related to food
preparation or serving. The most common vessel
forms were cooking vessels, (ollas), restricted-
neck jars, large liquid storage and fermentation
vessels (tinajas), ring or or pedestal base bowls,
and flat-bottomed plates with high walls (Figure
8; Figure 4). In terms of function, this assemblage
represents wet cooking, storing and serving liq-
uids, and serving wet preparations like stews.
 areas in both early and late occupations might
Cutright] EATING EMPIRE IN THE JEQUETEPEQUE 81

Table 3. Mean Rim Diameters of Selected Ceramic Forms

in Early and Late LIP Assemblages. allow changes in household size or composition
mean rim
to be charted, but at this point, the view that
n diameter (cm) t-test emerges from a consideration of culinary practice
Olla is one of continuity in the range and scope of
Early LIP 106 11.01 t = 1.679, p = .095 daily activities. This view is supported by evi-
Late LIP 132 10.45 dence of continuity in other dimensions of house-
Bowl hold practice, such as craft production and do-
Early LIP 76 20.13 t = 1.637, p = .104
Late LIP 44 18.46
mestic ritual, during this same period (Cutright
Tinaja 2009, 2010, 2013).
Early LIP 33 41.7 t = .194, p = .847
Discussion and Conclusions
Late LIP 27 41.15
Jar
Early LIP 29 14.46 t = 1.857, p = .07
Late LIP 20 11.95
Research at Pedregal suggests that Chimú impe-
rial administrators were interested in increasing
production of a few staple agricultural resources
One way that households might cope with in- such as maize and cotton in the Jequetepeque
creased demands on their labor is by increasing countryside. Communities like Pedregal raised
in size (Wilk and Netting 1984). Within house- these crops and processed them into meals,
holds, cooks may have emphasized efficiency by chicha, and textiles for household use, but these
making larger batches of food at once or using resources also likely flowed out of rural villages
less labor-intensive techniques such as wet cook- like Pedregal to provincial centers like Farfán,
ing (Brumfiel 1991; Crown 2000:230). Changes where they could have been used to host feasts
in average meal size, to feed a larger household or support state projects. Because of the limited
or make larger meals with more leftovers, should number of storerooms at Farfán (Mackey 2009),
be reflected by increases in the average size of some of these resources may even have been ex-
household cooking wares, while shifts toward ported to the capital at Chan Chan, a scenario
more efficient cooking techniques might be visi- that lends support to models of Chimú expansion
ble in changing proportions of vessels within the in which the need to increase agricultural outputs
household assemblage. Table 3 shows that aver- drove conquest (e.g., Kolata 1990), and compares
age rim diameters decreased slightly through well with Inka administration of provinces like
time, but this difference is only marginally sig- the Mantaro Valley (D’Altroy and Hastorf 2001).
nificant and not strong, providing no evidence The view from Pedregal kitchens also suggests
for changes in household or meal size. that intensification of agricultural production un-
Figure 8 compares the proportions of utilitar- der the Chimú was possible without radically re-
ian vessel forms from the early to late occupation. organizing households. It is likely that Pedregal
Jars and tinajas make up about the same propor- residents had supplied some agricultural products
tion of the ceramic assemblage in both occupa- to Lambayeque elites at nearby Pacatnamú even
tions, ollas increase slightly, and serving vessels before Chimú conquest, and so Chimú extraction
decrease but without a statistically significant dif- of agricultural products may have been felt as a
ference in proportion. The data do not indicate a continuation of pre-conquest patterns to which
change in overall emphasis of daily food prepa- households had already learned to adapt. In this
ration from the early to late LIP. No new forms view, Chimú expansion into the Jequetepeque
or new culinary operations were introduced, and would have changed the faces of the lords to
the overall outline of the household assemblage which tribute was due, but perhaps not much
remained constant. more than that for residents of rural villages.
There is thus no clear evidence to support an I did observe a shift in the focus, if not the
increase in meal size or a change in family orga- range, of household activities at Pedregal. Crop
nization over the course of the LIP at Pedregal. production and processing intensified, accompa-
Future work aimed at excavating larger horizontal nied by a shift away from wild foraged food and
tree fruits. Nonetheless, there was no visible
82 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
change in the scope of household activities or
the range of daily diet, and no evidence that cooks
were increasing the efficiency of food preparation
to cope with the labor requirements of intensified
crop processing.
One way to interpret these findings is to con-
clude that the Chimú state was not interested in
reorganizing the local domestic economy. This
conclusion reinforces the emerging consensus
that Chimú administrators employed a mosaic of
direct and indirect strategies in conquered terri-
tories. While this mosaic varied from valley to
valley, it seems that Chimú influence was most
often exerted to establish provincial political cen-
ters and complete large infrastructure projects in
conquered valleys, but not generally to incorpo-
rate nonelite households into state redistributive
networks or control hinterland ritual expression
by rural elites. This view from the provinces con-
trasts with the classic centralized model of Chimú
political economy based on work in the Moche
and Chicama Valley core, and suggests that future
investigations should return to reevaluate this
model in the Chimú heartland.
Alternatively, these findings could be inter-
preted to indicate that Pedregal families or com-
munity-level institutions either were isolated from
changes happening at the regional level, or suc-
cessfully buffered the demands of Chimú admin-
istrators in order to maintain significant house-
hold-level continuity in the face of valley-wide
reorganization. While cuisine and domestic prac-
tice are often regarded as conservative, I suggest
that the close proximity of Pedregal to regional
political centers, specialization in agricultural
production of interest to Chimú administrators,
and existing participation in regional religious
and economic networks would not have allowed
households to remain largely removed from re-
gional dynamics.
Instead, household decisions may have fo-
cused on maintaining important ideals or tradi-
tions. Corn and cotton are relatively time-con-
suming to process, and it may be that the shift
toward domesticated plants and animals repre-
sents a trade-off in the household diet. However,
wild foraged resources such as shellfish never
dropped completely out of the diet, and house-
holds seem to have compensated for the demands
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
of intensified crop production in ways that pre-
served the overall range of household activities,
kept family size constant, and retained existing
culinary traditions.
As cases such as Lukurmata (Bermann 1994)
and Tell el-Hayyat (Falconer 1995) show, some
dimensions of household practice may be quick to
adapt, while others remain conservative or change
based on local priorities rather than regional de-
mands. The resiliency of past households may in
fact lie in their ability to resist major change. Es-
pecially in situations of rapid regional transforma-
tion, conservatism might require as much action
on the part of household members as change. At
the very least, a view from the kitchen requires
broader consideration of the micro-scale processes
at work in households, and recognition that state
administrators are not the only actors in provincial
settings. Rather, multiple dimensions of daily
household practice must be disentangled and con-
sidered alongside regional trajectories of change.
Local residents experienced Chimú conquest and
control in kitchens, fields, and village plazas; in-
vestigating these contexts has the potential to in-
form not only our understanding of the lives of
conquered populations, but also our reconstructions
of ancient empires themselves.
Acknowledgments. Excavations at Pedregal in 2006 (Resolución
804/INC) were directed by Lic. Jorge Terrones and supported
by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
(grant 7413), a Fulbright Commission IIE grant, and an Inter-
national Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Sci-
ence Research Council. This article was written during a
Stodghill Research Professorship at Centre College. Radiocarbon
dates were funded by SSHRC Research Grant 410-2007-1111
to Michael Blake and Bruce Benz. Marc Bermann, Gabriela
Cervantes, Noel Cutright, Dick Drennan, Carol Mackey, Howard
Tsai, Melissa Vogel, and three anonymous reviewers contributed
helpful comments, useful critique, and essential support. All er-
rors of fact or interpretation remain my own.
Data Availability Statement. Materials collected by the
Proyecto Arqueológico Pedregal in 2006 are stored by the
Ministerio de Cultura in Trujillo, Peru. Original hard-copy
and digital field records and photographs are in possession of
the author at Centre College. Artifact data tables are available
open-access as appendices in Cutright 2009 and are in prepa-
ration as a dataset in the Comparative Archaeology Database,
University of Pittsburgh, http://www.cadb.pitt.edu.
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