Researchers have gained new insight into how the pre-Inca states grew to be thriving empires in the dawn of America.
The Wari lived in pre-Columbia America and were predecessors of the notorious Inca Empire. This new research suggests the Wari did not "rule solely by pillage, plunder and iron-fisted bureaucracy," a Dartmouth College news release reported.
Research suggests that instead, the Wari created "loosely administered colonies" and worked to expand trade and put the natural resources of the central Andes to good use.
"The conclusions in our paper represent a realization that took a long time to work out from the field data. The fieldwork required to survey the region involved about 30,000 miles of high elevation hiking. There were a lot of days when the only thing we came back from the field with was tired feet," Professor Alan Covey, the study's lead author, said in an e-mail to Headlines and Global News.
The researchers' perseverance paid off; their study is now considered to be "first large-scale look at the settlement patterns and power of the Wari civilization."
'It was only as we were able to combine the site locations from a large number of settlements from across a huge region that we could see the distribution pattern on the maps that we developed," Covey told HNGN.
The Wari civilization from about AD 600 to 1,000, far earlier than the rise of the Incas in the 15th century, the news release reported.
There is very little known about the ancient Wari civilization and there are no historical records documenting their existence.
Researchers are conflicted over the "strength of their statecraft," some believe the Wari had strong central control and had power over small surrounding communities; the Dartmouth study suggests the Wari were not as able to transition other colonies as was once believed.
"The identification of limited Wari state power encourages a focus on colonization practices rather than an interpretation of strong provincial rule," Covey stated in the news release. "A 'colonization first' interpretation of early Wari expansion encourages the reconsideration of motivations for expansion, shifting from military conquest and economic exploitation of subject populations to issues such as demographic relief and strategic expansion of trade routes or natural resource access."
The team analyzed archaeological surveys spanning 1,000 miles and conducted GIS analysis of more than 3,000 archaeological sites around Peru.
The researchers concluded the Wari did not spread "continuously outward from Pikillacta," which was a huge "administration center" that would require a large amount of money to keep up.
The locations of Wari ceramics indicate they had a more "uneven, indirect and limited" spread of power, even when the civilization was in its prime.
"These findings can help to develop excavation projects looking into more detailed questions of how state power reached populations lying at a distance from expanding societies. The work adds to a wave of archaeological research worldwide that is investigating how ancient states and empires built power, and what their limits were," Covey told HNGN.
"For our work in Cusco, the next-generation work includes excavations at local sites, as well as more advanced climate modeling," he said.
