30 CHAPTER 1 ANCIENT AMERICA
This advance seems to have been associated with
progress in agriculture, especially the greater use
of maize, and with a movement up the river valleys
from the littoral, possibly as a result of population
pressure. Between 900 and 500 BCE, a distinctive
style in building, art, ceramics, and weaving, known
as Chavín (from the name of the site of a great cere-
monial center discovered in 1946), spread along the
coast and even into the highlands. The most distinc-
tive feature of Chavín is its art style, which features
a feline being, presumably a deity, whose cult spread
over the area of Chavín infl uence.
The Classic or Florescent period that emerged
in Peru at or shortly before the beginning of the
Old World’s Christian era refl ected further progress
in agriculture, notably in the use of irrigation and
fertilization. The brilliant culture called Nazca dis-
placed the Chavín along the coast and highlands of
southern Peru at this time. Nazca pottery is distin-
guished by its use of color. Often, a pot may have as
many as eleven soft, pastel shades. The lovely Nazca
textiles display an enormous range of colors.
Even more remarkable was the Mochica cul-
ture of the northern Peruvian coast. The Mochica
built pyramids, temples, roads, and large irrigation
canals, and they evolved a complex, highly stratifi ed
society with a directing priesthood and a powerful
priest-king. Metallurgy was well developed, as evi-
denced by the wide use of copper weapons and tools
and the manufacture of alloys of gold, copper, and
silver. But as craftsmen and artists, the Mochica are
best known for their red and black pottery, never
surpassed in the perfection of its realistic modeling.
The so-called portrait vases, apparently represent-
ing actual individuals, mark the acme of Mochica
realism. The pottery was also frequently decorated
with realistic paintings of the most varied kind, in-
cluding erotic scenes, which today are collector’s
items. The pottery frequently depicts war scenes,
suggesting chronic struggles for limited arable land
and sources of water. The aggressive Mochica were
themselves fi nally conquered by invaders who rav-
aged their lands, and a time of turbulence and cul-
tural decline came to northern Peru.
About 600 CE, the focus of Andean civilization
shifted from the coast to the highlands. At the site
called Tiahuanaco, just south of Lake Titicaca on
the high plateau of Bolivia, there arose a great cere-
monial center famed for its megalithic architecture,
which was constructed with great stone blocks per-
fectly fi tted together, and for its monumental hu-
man statuary. Tiahuanaco seems to have been the
capital of a military state that eventually controlled
all of southern Peru from Arequipa south to high-
land Bolivia and Chile. Another people, the Huari,
embarked on a career of conquest from their home-
land near modern Ayacucho; their territory ulti-
mately included both the coast and highlands as far
north as Cajamarca and south to the Tiahuanaco
frontier. After a few centuries of domination, the
Huari Empire broke up about 1000 CE, and at about
the same time, the Tiahuanaco sway also came to
an end. The disintegration of these empires was fol-
lowed by a return to political and artistic regional-
ism in the southern Andean area.
By 1000 CE, a number of Postclassic states,
which differed from their predecessors in their
larger size, had established their control over large
portions of the northern Peruvian coast. Their rise
was accompanied by the growth of cities. Each river
valley had its own urban center, and an expanded
net of irrigation works made support of larger popu-
lations possible. The largest of these new states was
the Chimu kingdom. Its capital, Chanchan, was an
immense city spread over eight square miles, with
houses made of great molded adobe bricks grouped
into large units or compounds. The Chimu king-
dom survived until its conquest by the Inca in the
mid-fi fteenth century.INCA ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
In the highlands, meanwhile, where less settled
conditions prevailed, a new power was emerging.
The Incas (so called after their own name for the rul-
ing lineage) made a modest appearance in history
as one of a number of small tribes that inhabited the
Cuzco region in the Andean highlands and struggled
with each other for possession of land and water.
A strong strategic situation in the Valley of Cuzco
and some cultural superiority over their neighbors
favored the Incas as they began their career of con-
quest. Previous empires—Huari, Tiahuanaco, and
Chimu—no doubt provided the Incas with instruc-