Statecraft and expansionary dynamics: A Virú outpost at Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley, Peru.
Interpolity interaction and regional control were central features of all early state societies, taking the form of trade-embedded in political processes to varying degrees-or interregional conquest strategies meant to expand the polity's control or influence over neighboring territories. Cross-cultural analyses of early statecraft suggest that territorial expansion was an integral part of the process of primary state formation, closely associated with the delegation of authority to subordinate administrators and the construction of core outposts of the state in foreign territories. We report here on a potential case of a core outpost, associated with the early Virú state, at the site of Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley, located 75 km north of the Virú state heartland on the north coast of Peru. This site is discussed in the context of other possible Virú outposts in the Moche Valley, Pampa La Cruz, and Huaca Las Estrellas, and as part of a broader reflection on expansionary dynamics and statecraft.
Department of Anthropology, Social Science Centre, The University of Western Ontario, London ON, N6A 5C2, Canada; jean-francois.millaire@uwo.ca cspencer@amnh.org.
Jean-François
JF
Millaire
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru.
Gabriel
G
Prieto
Department of Anthropology, Social Science Centre, The University of Western Ontario, London ON, N6A 5C2, Canada.
Flannery
F
Surette
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192.
Elsa M
EM
Redmond
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192 jean-francois.millaire@uwo.ca cspencer@amnh.org.
Charles S
CS
Spencer
archaic states; core outposts; territorial expansion
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