Society for American Archaeology

Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Lower Santa Valley, Peru: A Regional Perspective on
the Origins and Development of Complex North Coast Society by David J. Wilson
Review by: James E. Mathews
Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 254-255
Published by: Society for American Archaeology
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254 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
of the word, this is her first book. It will not be her
last,andit will not be herbest. Hermorerecentwritings
show increasingsophistication,and we can look for-
ward to fascinatingexplications of Paracas material
cultureand that of otherancientsocieties as her career
progresses.
Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Lower Santa
Valley, Peru: A Regional Perspective on the Origins
and Development of Complex North Coast Society.
DAVID J. WILSON.SmithsonianInstitutionPress,
Washington,D.C. 1988.xx + 590 pp., figures,plates,
references,appendixes,index. $60.00 (cloth).
Reviewed byJamesE. Mathews,Universityof Chicago.
The north coast of Peru has long been one of the
most fertile proving grounds for the development of
New World archaeologicalmethod and theory. It has
provided the context for the development of macro-
theories such as Carneiro'scircumscriptionmodel of
state development,middle-rangetheoriessuch as Mo-
seley's maritimehypothesisand Conrad'ssplit-inher-
itance model of Inca expansion, and methodological
studies such as Willey's pioneeringuse of settlement
patternsto analyzethe developmentof complexsociety
in the Viru Valley.
In this monumentalvolume, David Wilson sets out
to test generalpopulation-drivenmodels of the emer-
gence of complex society, such as those specifically
developed for the north coast of Peru by Cohen and
Carneirowith systematic archaeologicalsurvey data
from the Santa Valley based on fieldworkconducted
in 1979-1980. Wilson surveyedsome 750 km2in this
project,and located over one thousandarchaeological
sites in the study area, spanningclose to 3,500 years
of human occupation.Prehistoric Settlement Patterns
in the Lower Santa Valley, Peru representsthe most
comprehensive archaeologicalsurvey to have been
conductedin the areato date,and servesas an excellent
example for presentationof survey investigations.
Chapters1 through3 make up the introductorysec-
tion of the volume. Chapter2 describesthe "socioen-
vironmental"contextof the research.For the purposes
of framingthe survey area within the broad contexts
of"maritime"vs. agriculturallybased subsistence(pp.
6, 353) Wilson divides the SantaValleyinto sierraand
coastal sectors. He provides complete geomorpholog-
ical descriptionsof each zone, but treatmentof biotic
resources,except for a brief discussion of mollusks
indigenous to the coastal cliffs (p. 23), is somewhat
lacking.This omission may well be the resultof a com-
bination of the intensity of modern land use in the
Santa,and the barrennessof the coastaldesertbeyond
the river valleys, but it would still be in the interestof
completeness,especiallywith respectto the reconstruc-
tion of paleoenvironments(pp. 27-31), to have more
detailson the types of marineand terrestrialfaunaand
natural vegetation that may have been available to
prehistoricinhabitants.The inclusion of a discussion
of both the natureand effectsof modernpopulationof
the Santa is commendable,since modern conditions
are often ignoredin the reportingof survey data.
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[Vol. 3, No. 3, 1992]
Chapter 3 of Prehispanic Settlement Patterns is a
methodologicaltour de force, and Wilson's detailed
descriptionsof each stage of the investigation, from
pre-fieldresearchto laboratoryanalysis, should serve
as a generalstandardforarchaeologistsconductingsur-
vey throughoutthe Andean region. Wilson is careful
to credit JeffreyParsonsfor the originaldevelopment
of this method as employed in the Valley of Mexico,
and specificallynotes points of departurefor his own
adaptationsand modifications (p. 59). I found Par-
sons's methods and ideas invaluableto my own sur-
veys in the Bolivian highlands, and arrived at field
methods similarto those reportedby Wilson here. Fi-
nally, Wilson's post-field treatmentof collected ma-
terial (pp. 63-65) indicates a strong commitment to
documentationof data in a manner such that it may
be easily used by other researchersoutside his own
study area.
Wilson'sprojectionof settlementor populationden-
sity is, by his own admission, "to some extent an ar-
bitraryprocedure"(p. 78). However,the determination
of the size of prehistoricpopulationsis one of the most
problematicissues in any archaeologicalsituation,and
Wilson is not to be faulted for trying,given the ade-
quacy of surfaceremainsavailableto him. I am more
than willing to accept site-size hierarchies,the com-
parison of relative populationdensities between tem-
poral periods, and largerinferencesmade from such
generalassessments,but I am somewhat reluctantto
attach specific numbers of inhabitantsto such data.
However, these reservationsare largelya question of
individualvalue, and it seems likelythat Wilson'sdata
work just as well without invoking numericalpopu-
lation estimates.
Chapter4 is the meat of the work, consistingof as
exhaustivea treatmentof actualsurveydata as well as
interpretationsas one could ever expectto see in print.
The sheer number of regional maps, site maps, and
detailed site descriptionsalone would make this vol-
ume an invaluabledataresourceto researchersworking
on the northcoast. Wilson takesgreatpains to present
a completedata set for each of the periodsrepresented
in terms of numbersof sites, stratifiedby size, type,
and distribution,as well as his own interpretationsof
settlementpatterns,implicationsfor subsistencestrat-
egies,and his assessmentsof thesedatain lightof com-
parativedatafromotherregions.As mentionedabove,
the liberaluse of exactpopulationestimates(e.g.,"5175
to 9010 persons"[p. 293]) is somewhatunsettling,but
does not detractfrom the gist of the research.
One finishesChapter4 of this volume feeling com-
pletely overwhelmedby the massive quantityof data
presented,but fortunatelyWilson synthesizesand in-
terpretsthis informationin Chapters5 and 6. In Chap-
ter 5, Wilson correlatesthe archaeologicaldata pre-
sentedin the precedingchapterwith fourdevelopmental
stages:(1) the rise of chiefdom societies (1800 B.C.-
A.D. 400), (2) appearanceof multivalleystates (A.D.
400-900), (3) beginningof regionaldemographicde-
cline (A.D. 900-1350), and (4) final demographicde-
cline and appearanceof multivalleystates(A.D. 1350-
1532) (p. 295). Wilson'suse of settlement-patterndata
in the interpretationof the developmentof social com-
plexity is adequate (e.g., the emergence of incipient
chiefdoms [pp. 322-323]), as is his review of archae-
 REVIEWS
ological evidence for warfarein the Santa and the ad-
jacent Nepena and Viru valleys. Wilson implies that
the initial emergenceof chiefdom-levelsocieties prob-
ably occurredrelatively peacefully (p. 327), perhaps
throughcoordinationof agriculturalprojects,whereas
the developmentof multivalleystateswas firstprecip-
itated by warfarebetweenthe Santa/Viruvalley group
to the north,with the similarlyfortifiedNepena Valley
to the south.
Wilsonconcludeshis investigationin Chapter6, and
in doing so generallysupportsa circumscriptionmodel
of the developmentof sociopoliticalcomplexityon the
north coast of Peru. While both his evidence and his
argumentare convincing, I would have liked to see
more specifically how these data refute alternative
modelsof statedevelopmentin this region,whichwere
not treated at all. I was most intriguedby Wilson's
departurefromCarneiro'smodel for the earlieststages
of state formation, in his observation that the first
chiefdom-level developments resulted from agricul-
turalintensificationratherthan warfare.
The appendixesare admirablefor theirpresentation
of detail regardingboth artifactdrawingsand descrip-
tions and site- registerinformation.Generally,this sort
of informationwouldbe availableonly in the raretech-
nical report, and both the author and the editors of
Smithsonian Institution Press are to be commended
for includingit here.
In conclusion, I would like to offer several general
but minor comments. First, the plethoraof headings
andsubheadingsis somewhatdifficultto followat times,
and the difficultyis exacerbatedby the use of boldface
as a subordinate heading with respect to italicized
headings.Second, althoughnecessitatedby the desire
to show detailed patterns,the presentationof subre-
gional settlementmaps in sections is often difficultto
follow, as there is no consistencyin the sectioningor
orientationof sections betweentemporalphases. This
difficultymay perhapsbe remediedby the inclusionof
a small schematicvalley map alongthe lines of Figures
17, 22, 57, and 63 on the same page as the detailed
section map. A less-desirablealternativewould be to
include large-formatmaps in a rearpocket.
Beyondmy own reservationsregardingWilson'suse
of rather detailed population estimates and his dis-
tinctionbetween"sites"and "occupations"(whichre-
sults in differentoccupationsat the same geographical
location being treatedalmost as distinct "sites"),this
volume representsan extremely comprehensive re-
gional study, both in the quantity of data presented
and the scope of the interpretationundertaken.The
book is well worth its $60.00 price and is a must for
all archaeologistsworkingin the north-coastarea.
Monuments of the Inca. JOHN HEMMINGand ED-
WARD RANNEY.Universityof New MexicoPress,
Albuquerque,1990. 228 pp., figures,maps, $35.00
(paper).
Reviewed by BrianS. Bauer,Chicago.
Monuments of the Inca is a fine example of how
scholarlymaterial can be successfullypresentedto a
This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Fri, 20 Jun 2014 21:32:19 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
255
large readership. This book gives detailed mythical,
historical, and archaeological information on many of
the most important architectural works of the Inca
empire. These monuments, traditionally presented to
the public in tourist editions that frequently provide
little information of substance on the sites, may now
be seen and understood through this book. Monuments
of the Inca was originally published in 1982 by Little,
Brown, and Company, in cloth, but recently has been
republished in paper by University of New Mexico
Press at considerable savings.
The book is coauthored by John Hemming and Ed-
ward Ranney. Hemming, widely known for his com-
prehensive work The Conquestof the Incas, is one of
the best-known historians of early European explora-
tions in the New World. Hemming has an impressive
understanding of early Postconquest documents of Peru
as well as a captivating writing style. Both of these
assets are put to good use in this work. Hemming is at
his best with the detailed descriptions of post-1532
events including the siege of Cuzco and Sacsahuaman,
the battle for Ollantaytambo, and the Spaniards' im-
pressions of Cori Cancha. He is, however, weaker in
his presentation of pre- 15 32 events-the mytho-his-
toric tales concerning the early history of the Inca re-
corded in the Spanish chronicles. Hemming does not
question the historicity of the Spanish chronicles and
presents as historical facts many pre-1532 events and
personages that some scholars, including me, feel are
best understood as mythical representations ofthe past.
In addition, when faced with different, and at times,
conflicting, versions of the same mytho-historical tale
from separate chronicles (for example the many dif-
ferent versions of the Inca's origin myth), Hemming
chooses to present an image of uniformity to the reader,
rather than recognizing the stark contradictions that
are presented in the sources.
The more than 150 stunningly beautiful black-and-
white photographs of this work are largely provided
by Edward Ranney. Ranney has been influential in the
renewed interest in the work ofthe Cuzco photographer
Martin Chambi, and Chambi's influence can be seen
in many of Ranney's photographs (several of Chambi's
photographs, dating to the 1930s and 1940s, are also
reproduced in this work). Ranney has captured the fine
texture, tremendous weight, and superb craftsman-
ship-frequently represented by the interaction of cut
and natural stone-of Inca masonry as few other pho-
tographers have. Quite simply, Ranney's photographs
of these Inca monuments are qualitatively better than
the myriad photographs currently available and pro-
vide a fine complement to Hemming's elegant prose.
The book begins with a brief overview of Inca build-
ing materials, construction techniques, and building
styles, and then continues with a discussion of Inca
Cuzco and Inca social organization. The following 14
chapters, which vary in length from 4 to 20 pages,
provide photographs and descriptions of some of the
best known ruins of the Cuzco region (Huanacauri,
Sacsahuaman, Cori Cancha, Pisac, Moray, Ollantay-
tambo, and of course Machu Picchu), as well as several
other Inca complexes in other parts of the empire (Sai-
huite, Tarahuasi, Vilcashuaman, Raqchi, Huanuco, and
Ingapirca). While the site descriptions tend to be ac-
curate, the emphasis on possible astronomical func-