What it is
Pukaras, hillforts that are very common in the Andean highlands, date overwhelmingly to 1250 to 1500 CE, reflecting a period of widespread concern with violent conflict. The authors assessed whether defensive networks of these hillforts, themselves shaped by how readily the mountainous landscape could be fortified, significantly shaped the development of late pre-Hispanic polities in the south-central Andes. They applied formal spatial and network analyses to 1,287 hillforts identified in a satellite-imagery survey of more than 150,000 km² of the south-central Andean highlands, linking hillforts by intervisibility and walking cost and grouping them with community detection.
Why it matters
Regional polities may emerge from a centralized hierarchy built by a specific political regime, or from the bottom up, through interaction and collective action, especially mutual defense. The analysis reveals substantial regional diversity in the structure of the defensive networks: larger but less cohesive networks developed in open terrain that eased movement, interaction and visual connection, while smaller, more cohesive networks emerged in more rugged terrain. These patterns correspond broadly to the size and character of sociopolitical units known from independent archaeological and ethnohistorical sources, and the authors conclude that interactions between local landscapes, levels of conflict and social patterns of defensive cooperation took part in forming these polities.
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Filed underArchaeology and ancient environmental studies, Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Archaeological Research and Protection
