The role of temple institutions in Wari imperial expansion at Pakaytambo, Peru

Abstract

During the Andean Middle Horizon (CE 600–1000), the highland Wari emerged as an expansive power that formed the largest pre-Inka imperial project in the Andes. Although territorially discontinuous, the introduction of Wari state institutions to disparate regions of Peru knit together far-flung and diverse social groups. Recent excavations at Pakaytambo in southern Peru have uncovered a Wari ritual complex replete with a D-shaped temple, patio-group architecture, and monumental platform construction. The complex was established in the upper Majes-Chuquibamba drainage of Arequipa at ∼ 1700 masl and was strategically placed along a major pre-Inka road at the nexus of highland-coastal populations and socio-ecological zones. In this article, excavations at Pakaytambo are presented and discussed in terms of architectural canons, site chronology, and material studies in consideration to broader changes during the late Middle Horizon. D-shaped temples represent the most ubiquitous form of civic-ceremonial architecture related to Wari religious institutions and imperial ideology. Thus, Pakaytambo provides invaluable insights into the production of state authority through public ritual and performance in regions beyond a state heartland. A focus on institutions, their group members, norms, shared objectives, and archaeological patterning provides a middle-level unit of social analysis complimentary to high theory of the state.