Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-06T05:34:26.353Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revised Moche Chronology Based on Bayesian Models of Reliable Radiocarbon Dates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Michele L Koons  and
Bridget A Alex
Michele L Koons*
Affiliation:
Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80205, USA
Bridget A Alex
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Department of Archaeology and Human Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge, MA 20138, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: Michclc.Koons@dmns.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Moche civilization of the north coast of Peru is thought to be the first state-level society in South America. Understanding of the emergence, spread, and decline of this society, however, has been based almost entirely on relative ceramic phases, rather than absolute dates. This article reevaluates Moche political dynamics and intersite affiliations using radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic ceramic styles. The phases of ceramic styles at individual sites are estimated using Bayesian models of published 14C dates that have passed explicit selection criteria for reliability. The site-specific phases are incorporated into a regional chronology, which adds additional support to the idea that Moche was a collection of independent polities with complex and nuanced relationships. Based on absolute dates, Moche civilization appears to have spanned between cal AD 200–900, with a significant and socially meaningful increase in stylistic homogeneity between cal AD 600–650.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , 2014 , pp. 1039 - 1055
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, MJ. 1990. Science-Based Dating in Archaeology. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Atwood, R. 2010. The Lord of Ucupe. Archaeology 63:21.Google Scholar
Bawden, G. 1996. The Moche. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bayes, TR. 1763. An essay towards solving a problem in the doctrine of chances. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 53:370–418.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, Ayliffe, LK, Fifield, LK, Turney, CSM, Cress-well, RG, Barrows, TT, David, B. 1999. Radiocarbon dating of “old” charcoal using a wet oxidation, stepped-combustion procedure. Radiocarbon 41(2):127–40.Google Scholar
Boaretto, E. 2009. Dating materials in good archaeological contexts: the next challenge for radiocarbon analysis. Radiocarbon 51(1):275–81.Google Scholar
Boaretto, E, Jull, AJT, Gilboa, A, Sharon, I. 2005. Dating the Iron Age I/II transition in Israel: first intercomparison results. Radiocarbon 47(1):39–55.Google Scholar
Bourget, S. 2010. Cultural assignations during the early Intermediate period: the case of Huancaco. In: Quilter, J, Castillo, LJ, editors. New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections. p 201–22.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Higham, T, Ditchfield, P, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52(1):103–12.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Radiocarbon dating: revolutions in understanding. Archaeometry 50(2):249–75.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–45.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Bowles, A, Hedges, REM. 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.Google Scholar
Buck, CE, Millard, A. 2004. Tools for Constructing Chronologies: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries. London: Springer.Google Scholar
Buck, CE, Kenworthy, JB, Litton, CD, Smith, AFM. 1991. Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration. Antiquity 65(249):808–21.Google Scholar
Castillo, LJ. 2001. The last of the Mochicas: a view from the Jequetepeque Valley. In: Pillsbury, J, editor. Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru. Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 63. Symposium Papers 40. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 307–32.Google Scholar
Castillo, LJ. 2011. San José de Moro y la arqueología del valle de Jequetepeque. 1st edition. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Castillo, LJ, Donnan, CB. 1994. Los mochica del Norte y los mochica del Sur. In: Makowski, K, Donnan, CB, Amaro Bullon, I, editors. Vicús. Colección Arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima: Banco de Crédito del Perú. p 143–81.Google Scholar
Castillo, LJ, Uceda, S. 2008. The Mochicas. In: Silverman, H, Isbell, WH, editors. The Handbook of South American Archaeology. New York: Springer. p 707–29.Google Scholar
Chapdelaine, C. 2001. The growing power of a Moche urban class. In: Pillsbury, J, editor. Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru. Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 63. Symposium Papers 40. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 69–88.Google Scholar
Chapdelaine, C. 2010. Moche political organization in the Santa Valley: a case of direct rule through gradual control of the local population. In: Quilter, J, Castillo, LJ, editors. New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections. p 252–79.Google Scholar
Cohen-Ofri, I, Weiner, L, Boaretto, E, Mintz, G, Weiner, S. 2006. Modern and fossil charcoal: aspects of structure and diagenesis. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(3):428–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, E. 2012. Moche marks of distinction: time and politics in painted pottery substyles of the Moche culture, north coast, Peru AD 100–900 [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Los Angeles: University of California.Google Scholar
Dee, MW, Bronk Ramsey, C, Shortland, AJ, Higham, TFG, Rowland, JM. 2009. Reanalysis of the chronological discrepancies obtained by the Old and Middle Kingdom Monuments Project. Radiocarbon 51(3):1061–70.Google Scholar
DeNiro, MJ. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317(6040):806–9.Google Scholar
DeNiro, MJ, Weiner, S. 1988. Organic matter within crystalline aggregates of hydroxyapatite: a new substrate for stable isotopic and possibly other biochemical analyses of bone. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52(10):2197–206.Google Scholar
Dillehay, TD, Kolata, AL. 2004. Long-term human response to uncertain environmental conditions in the Andes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 101(12):4325–30.Google Scholar
Donnan, CB. 1973. Moche Occupation of the Santa Valley, Peru. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Donnan, CB. 1976. Moche Art and Iconography. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.Google Scholar
Donnan, CB. 2007. Moche Tombs at Dos Cabezas. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.Google Scholar
Donnan, CB. 2011. Moche substyles: keys to understanding Moche political organization. Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino 16:105–18.Google Scholar
Donnan, CB, McClelland, D. 1999. Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and Its Artists. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California.Google Scholar
Franco Jordán, RG, Gálvez Mora, C, Vásquez Sánchez, S. 2003. Modelos, función y cronología de la Huaca Cao Viejo, Complejo El Brujo. In: Uceda, S, Mujica, BE, editors. Moche: hacia el final del milenio: actas del segundo Coloquio sobre la Cultura Moche: Trujillo, 1 a 7 de agosto de 1999. Vol. II. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Fondo Editorial, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo. p 125–78.Google Scholar
Friedrich, M, Remmele, S, Kromer, B, Hofmann, J, Spurk, M, Kaiser, KF, Orcel, C, Küppers, M. 2004. The 12,460-year Hohenheim oak and pine tree-ring chronology from central Europe—a unique annual record for radiocarbon calibration and paleoenvironment reconstructions. Radiocarbon 46(3):1111–22.Google Scholar
Gilkes, W, Richardson, S, Spiegelhalter, DJ, editors. 1995. Markov Chain Monte Carlos in Practice. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Higham, T. 2011. European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates are often older than they look: problems with previous dates and some remedies. Antiquity 85(327):235–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, T, Basell, L, Jacobi, R, Wood, R, Bronk Ramsey, C, Conard, NJ. 2012. Testing models for the beginnings of the Aurignacian and the advent of figurative art and music: the radiocarbon chronology of Geißenklösterle. Journal of Human Evolution 62(6):664–76.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Hua, Q, Blackwell, PG, Niu, M, Buck, CE, Guilderson, TP, Heaton, TJ, Palmer, JG, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Turney, CSM, Zimmerman, SRH. 2013. Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1889–903.Google Scholar
Jackson, M. 2000. Notation and narrative in Moche iconography, Cerro Mayal, Peru [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Los Angeles: University of California.Google Scholar
Jacobi, RM, Higham, TFG. 2008. The “Red Lady” ages gracefully: new ultrafiltration AMS determinations from Paviland. Journal of Human Evolution 55(5):898–907.Google Scholar
Jöris, O, Street, M. 2008. At the end of the 14C time scale–the Middle to Upper Paleolithic record of western Eurasia. Journal of Human Evolution 55(5):782–802.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Southon, JR, Wise, K. 2002. Differences in 14C age between stratigraphically associated charcoal and marine shell from the Archaic period site of Kilometer 4, southern Peru: old wood or old water? Radiocarbon 44(1):53–8.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Culleton, BJ, Voorhies, B, Southon, JR. 2011. Bayesian analysis of high-precision AMS 14C dates from a prehistoric Mexican shellmound. Radiocarbon 53(2):245–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Hajdas, I, Culleton, BJ, Belmecheri, S, Martin, S, Neff, H, Awe, J, Graham, HV, Freeman, KH, Newsom, L, Lentz, DL, Anselmetti, FS, Robinson, M, Marwan, N, Southon, J, Hodell, DA, Haug, GH. 2013. Correlating the ancient Maya and modern European calendars with high-precision AMS 14C dating. Nature: Scientific Reports 3:1597.Google Scholar
Koons, ML. 2012. Moche Geopolitical networks and the dynamic role of Licapa II, Chicama Valley, Peru [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Cambridge: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Kroeber, AL. 1925. The Uhle Pottery Collections from Moche and the Uhle Pottery Collections from Supe. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Larco Hoyle, R. 1945. Los mochicas (pre-chimu, de Uhle y early chimu, de Kroeber). Buenos Aires: Sociedad Geográfica Americana.Google Scholar
Larco Hoyle, R. 1948. Cronología arqueológica del norte del Perú. Buenos Aires: Sociedad Geográfica Americana.Google Scholar
Larco Hoyle, R. 2001. Los mochicas. Lima: Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera.Google Scholar
Lau, G. 2002. The Recuay culture of Peru's north-central highlands: a reappraisal of chronology and its implications. Journal of Field Archaeology 29(1/2):177–202.Google Scholar
Lau, G. 2004. Object of contention: an examination of Recuay-Moche combat imagery. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14(2):163–84.Google Scholar
Lockard, GD. 2005. Political power and economy at the archaeological site of Galindo, Moche Valley, Peru [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.Google Scholar
Lockard, GD. 2009. The occupational history of Galindo, Moche Valley, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 20(4):279–302.Google Scholar
Marom, A, McCullagh, JSO, Higham, TFG, Hedges, REM. 2013. Hydroxyproline dating: experiments on the 14C analysis of contaminated and low-collagen bones. Radiocarbon 55(2–3):698–708.Google Scholar
Marsh, EJ. 2012. A Bayesian re-assessment of the earliest radiocarbon dates from Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Radiocarbon 54(2):203–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayle, FE, Burbridge, R, Killeen, TJ. 2000. Millennial-scale dynamics of southern Amazonian rain forests. Science 290(2291):2291–4.Google Scholar
McClelland, D, McClelland, D, Donnan, CB. 2007. Moche Fineline Painting from San José de Moro. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Reimer, PJ, Hogg, AG, Higham, TFG, Baillie, MGL, Palmer, J, Stuiver, M. 2002. Calibration of the radiocarbon time scale for the Southern Hemisphere: AD 1850–950. Radiocarbon 44(3):641–51.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Hogg, AG, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Higham, TFG, Reimer, PJ. 2004. SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–11.0 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1087–92.Google Scholar
Millaire, J-F. 2010. Moche political expansion as viewed from Virú: recent archaeological work in the close periphery of a hegemonic city-state system. In: Quilter, J, Castillo, LJ, editors. New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections. p 223–51.Google Scholar
Moseley, ME, Deeds, E. 1982. The land in front of Chan Chan: agrarian expansion, reform, and collapse in the Moche Valley. In: Moseley, ME, Day, KC, editors. Chan Chan, Andean Desert City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. p 1–24.Google Scholar
Moseley, ME, Donnan, CB, Keefer, DK. 2008. Convergent catastrophe and the demise of Dos Cabezas: environmental change and regime change in ancient Peru. In: Bourget, S, Jones, KL, editors. The Art and Archaeology of the Moche: An Ancient Andean Society of the Peruvian North Coast. Austin: University of Texas Press. p 81–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mujica, E. 2007. El Brujo: Huaca Cao, centro ceremonial Moche en e Valla de Chicama. Lima: Fundación Wiese.Google Scholar
Ogburn, DE. 2012. Reconceiving the chronology of Inca imperial expansion. Radiocarbon 54(2):219–37.Google Scholar
Pettitt, PB, Davies, W, Gamble, CS. 2003. Palaeolithic radiocarbon chronology: quantifying our confidence beyond two half-lives. Journal of Archaeological Science 30(12):1685–93.Google Scholar
Pillsbury, J. 2001. Introduction. In: Pillsbury, J, editor. Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 9–20.Google Scholar
Quilter, J, Koons, ML. 2012. The fall of the Moche: a critique of claims for the New World's first state. Latin American Antiquity 23(2):127–43.Google Scholar
Quilter, J, Franco Jordán, RG, Gálvez Mora, C, Doonan, W, Jiménez, J, Starratt, H, Koons, ML. 2012. The well and the Huaca: ceremony, chronology, and culture change at Huaca Cao Viejo, Chicama Valley, Peru. Andean Past 10:101–31.Google Scholar
Rebollo, NR, Cohen-Ofri, I, Popovitz-Biro, R, Bar-Yosef, O, Meignen, L, Goldberg, P, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2008. Structural characterization of charcoal exposed to high and low pH: implications for 14C sample preparation and charcoal preservation. Radiocarbon 50(2):289–307.Google Scholar
Rebollo, NR, Weiner, S, Meignen, L, Goldberg, P, Belfer-Cohen, A, Bar-Yosef, O, Boaretto, E. 2011. New radiocarbon dating of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic in Kebara Cave, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(9):2424–33.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Rodgers, KB, Mikaloff-Fletcher, SE, Bianci, D, Beaulieu, C, Galbraith, ED, Gnanadesikan, A, Hogg, AG, Iudicone, D, Linter, BR, Naegler, T, Reimer, PJ, Sarmiento, JL, Slater, RD. 2011. Interhemispheric gradient of atmospheric radiocarbon reveals natural variability of Southern Ocean winds. Climate of the Past 7:1123–38.Google Scholar
Russell, G, Jackson, M. 2001. Political economy and patronage at Cerro Mayal, Peru. In: Pillsbury, J, editor. Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru. Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 63. Symposium Papers 40. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 159–75.Google Scholar
Russell, G, Leonard, B, Briceño Rosario, J. 1998. The Cerro Mayal Workshop: addressing issues of craft specialization in Moche society. In: Shimada, I, editor. Andean Ceramics: Technology, Organization, and Approaches. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. p 63–89.Google Scholar
Sachs, JP, Sachse, D, Smittenberg, RH, Zhang, Z, Battisti, DS, Golubic, S. 2009. Southernward movement of the Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone AD 1400–1850. Nature Geoscience 2:519–25.Google Scholar
Santos, GM, Ormsby, K. 2013. Behavioral variability in ABA chemical pretreatment close to the 14C age limit. Radiocarbon 55(2–3):534–44.Google Scholar
Schaub, M, Kaiser, KF, Frank, DC, Buntgen, U, Kromer, B, Talamo, S. 2008. Environmental change during the Allerod and Younger Dryas reconstructed from Swiss tree-ring data. Boreas 37(1):74–86.Google Scholar
Shimada, I. 1994. Pampa Grande and the Mochica culture. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Stanish, C. 2001. The origin of state societies in South America. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:41–64.Google Scholar
Strong, WD, Evans, C. 1952. Cultural Stratigraphy in the Virú Valley, Northern Peru; The Formative and Florescent Epochs. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.Google Scholar
Swenson, E, Warner, JP. 2012. Crucibles of power: forging copper and forging subjects at the Moche Ceremonial Center of Huaca Colorada, Peru. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31(3):314–33.Google Scholar
Talamo, S, Richards, M. 2011. A comparison of bone pretreatment methods for AMS dating of samples >30,000 BP. Radiocarbon 53(3):443–9.Google Scholar
Toffolo, M, Maeir, AM, Chadwick, JR. 2012. Characterization of contexts for radiocarbon dating: results from the Early Iron Age at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):371–90.Google Scholar
Topic, TL. 1982. The Early Intermediate period and its legacy. In: Moseley, ME, Day, KC, editors. Chan Chan, Andean Desert City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. p 255–86.Google Scholar
Ubbelohde-Doering, H. 1983. Vorspanische Gräber von Pacatnamú, Nordperu. München: C.H. Beck.Google Scholar
Uceda, S. 2010. Theocracy and secularism: relationships between the temple and urban nucleus and political change at the Huacas de Moche. In: Quilter, J, Castillo, LJ, editors. New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections. p 132–58.Google Scholar
Uceda, S, Chapdelaine, C, Chauchat, C, Verano, J. 2001. Fechas radiócarbonica para el complejo arqueológico Huaca del Sol y La Luna. In: Informe Proyecto Huaca de la Luna 2001. Proyecto Huaca de la Luna.Google Scholar
Uceda, S, Mujica, E, Morales, R, editors. 2007. Investigaciones en la Huaca de la Luna 2001. Trujillo: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Universidad Nacional de Trujillo.Google Scholar
Waterbolk, H. 1971. Working with radiocarbon dates. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 37:15–33.Google Scholar
Yizhaq, M, Mintz, G, Cohen, I, Khalaily, H, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2005. Quality controlled radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal from the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) of Motza (Israel). Radiocarbon 47(2):193–206.Google Scholar
Zeidler, J, Buck, CE, Litton, C. 1998. Integration of archaeological phase information and radiocarbon results from the Jama River Valley, Ecuador: a Bayesian approach. Latin American Antiquity 9(2):160–79.Google Scholar