April 11–13, 2015

Land, Water, and Empire in the High-Altitude Atacama

Historical records for the Inka provide some information about how the state kept workers, personnel, royals, and the military fed, but little is known about how Inka agriculture functioned on the ground. Working within the framework of political ecology, the Topaín Archaeological Project is addressing this question for the Andean Inka Empire in an interdisciplinary collaboration involving researchers and students from the US, Chile, and Spain. This seminar was convened to explore long-term, historical perspectives on changes in local landscapes and livelihoods within broader political economies and complex relationships between water, land, politics, and society.

Seminar team members are based at nine institutions in three countries on three different continents. Their research is focused on three sites, Topaín, Paniri, and Turi, which are located between the Upper Loa and Salado rivers at 22 deg 10’ S and ca. 10,000 feet above sea level. The first phase of recently completed fieldwork and analysis included: mapping the settlements and agricultural field systems (facilitated by the extraordinary preservation and visibility of canals, fields, and architecture); testing excavations in settlements and fields; establishing a baseline chronology of occupation of the study sites; conducting a geomorphological survey; studying soils formation and management; creating paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on pollen; analyzing archaeological plant remains to identify the crops that were grown and consumed; and interviewing members of descendant communities about current and historical farming and irrigation principles and practices.

Making the best use of the opportunity to gather the team in one place, the seminar co-chairs set out the following goals for the seminar:

• To share research results to date across the various lines of investigation
• To discuss and debate the interpretations and significance of project findings
• To enrich interdisciplinary exchange by having the time to break down difficult or unfamiliar concepts and explain work in depth
• To make plans for publications, scientific presentations and public outreach
• To plan 2015 fieldwork and analyses
• To discuss long-term goals and the next round of research proposals

The co-chairs reported that, “By the end of Days 1 and 2, participants had deepened their understanding of each other’s contributions and made connections between different and disparate lines of research. A very productive Day 3 of the seminar was dedicated to integrating results, identifying gaps or areas that needed to be strengthened, and planning presentations, publications, outreach activities, and future research.”

Immediately following the seminar, and informed by discussions at the SAR, project members gave four presentations at the Society for American Archaeology Meetings in San Francisco as part of three separate sessions, including one planned by the seminar co-organizers on the comparative archaeology of agricultural landscapes. Other project presentations in 2015 will be given in London, Tucumán (Argentina), and Concepción (Chile). An international workshop in Chile on ancient South American agricultural landscapes is planned for 2016. The SAR discussions will also inform manuscripts by different project members that are in progress or planned for US and international peer-reviewed journals.

The SAA presentations are listed below:

2015. Parcero-Oubiña, César. Patricia Manana-Borrazas, Alejandro Guimil-Farina, Mariela Pino, and César Borie. “A UAV-Based Approach for a Cost-Efficient Documentation of Agrarian Structures in the Arid Atacama Area (N. Chile).” 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA.

2015. Hayashida, Frances, Andrés Troncoso, Diego Salazar, César Parcero-Oubiña, and Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez. “Agriculture and Empire in the High-Altitude Atacama Desert.” 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA.

2015. Sandor, Jonathan and Jeffrey Homburg. “Approaches to Assessing Anthropogenic Soil-Landscape Change in Ancient Agricultural Systems.” 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA.

2015. Salazar, Diego, Carola Flores, Laura Olguin, César Borie, and Valentina Figueroa. “Environment, History, and Resilience of Archaic Coastal Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers from the Atacama Desert (N. Chile).” 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA.

Frances Hayashida, Chair
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
Inka Agriculture and Water Management

César Parcero-Oubiña, Chair
Staff Scientist, Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientí­ficas (Spain)
Análisis y Cronología de las Evidencias Arqueológicas de los Espacios de Riego y Cultivo (co-authored with Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez)

Diego Salazar, Chair
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Universidad de Chile
Late Intermediate and Late Periods in the Atacama

Andrés Troncoso, Chair
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Universidad de Chile
Contextualizando Procesos: Una Aproximación al Perí­odo Intermedio Tardí­o y Tardí­o en Los Andes del Sur

Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez
Technical Research Staff Member, Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientí­ficas (Spain)
Análisis y Cronologí­a de las Evidencias Arqueológicas de los Espacios de Riego y Cultivo (co-authored with César Parcero-Oubiña)

Gary A. Huckleberry
Adjunct Research Associate, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Arizona
Geomorphological Overview of the Topaí­n and Paniri Archaeological Sites, Turi Basin, Northern Chile

Antonio Maldonado
Researcher, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas, Universidad de La Serena
1. 2000 Years Paleoenvironmental Synthesis of the Atacama Desert (18° – 25° S) Based on Biological Proxies
2. Analisis de Madrigueras Fósiles y Muestras de Sedimento de las Localidades Topaín, Turi y Paniri (co-authored with Danisa Paredes)

Viviana P. Manrí­quez
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano
Sistemas y Prácticas Agrí­colas en Aiquina-Turi-Paniri. Una Primera Aproximación

Virginia McRostie
Postdoctoral Researcher, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Preliminary Archaeobotanical Evidence for the Agro-ecological System in the Upper LOA during the PIT and Inka Periods in Panire and Topaí­n, Andean Highlands of Northern Chile

Beau G. Murphy
Doctoral Student, Dept. of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
Production and Political Economy at the Site of Turi, Northern Chile

Jonathan A. Sandor
Professor Emeritus, Consultant, Dept. of Agronomy, Iowa State University, and Private Consultant
Soils in Ancient Irrigated Agricultural Terraces in the High-Altitude Atacama Desert, Chile (co-authored with Gary Huckleberry)

Cruz Ferro Vázquez
Postdoctoral Fellow, Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain)
Study of the Chemical, Mineralogical and Spectroscopic Properties of Terraced Soils in Topaí­n

Xurxo M. Ayán Vila
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography, Archaeology, and Prehistory, Built Heritage Research Group, Universidad del Paí­s Vasco
El Poblado en Altura de Topaí­n: Una Residencia en la Tierra (co-authored with Miguel Martí­nez)