Chavín

Early Horizon

2,800 B.P. - 2,200 B.P.

Overlaps with the Highland Andean Formative tradition and precedes the Andean Regional Development tradition.

The center of the Chavín Tradition is Chavín de Huántar located in central highland Peru, between the Andean Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Oriental. The ancient ceremonial center and surrounding settlement sit on the bank of the Mosna River at its confluence with the Huacheqsa. The Mosna continues north to empty into the Marañon River. In essence, the Chavín Tradition represents the peaceful spread of a religious ideology with its attendant art and iconography north to south through the modern Peruvian departments of Cajamarca and Ayacucho in the highlands, and from the Lambeyeque Valley to the Ica Valley on the coast.

Monumental stone and adobe temple mounds with plazas. Stone and adobe sculpture, painted textiles, metalwork and decorated pottery expressing religious ideology through a complex symbolic system. These frequently depict a paramount supernatural and secondary deities. Ceramics are typically fired black, polished, and embellished with standardized sets of incised, stamped, textured and molded design elements and motifs. Abundant exotic pottery, shells and precious stones are often found in both ritual and domestic contexts.

The climate at Chavín de Huántar features seasonal rains averaging 856 mm annually, and rare frosts. The Early Horizon climate in the Central Andes was cooler and drier than at present. Snow line on surrounding peaks that was depressed as much as 100 m would have constrained high elevation agriculture and mountain travel.

The settlement at Chavín de Huántar lies at 3150 m within the narrow intermontane Mosna River valley which forms a western branch of the upper Marañon River drainage. The Cordillera Blanca bordering the Mosna to the west reaches elevations over 5000 m, and bears glaciers and permanent snow. The Mosna Valley and Chavín de Huántar are situated midway between the Pacific coast to the west and the Amazon rainforests to the east. Ultimately, the Chavín Tradition extended across the coastal plains, through the humid northern Andean highlands, across expansive central highland "punas," to the edge of the upper Amazon Basin rainforests.

The site of Chavín de Huántar lies atop Mosna River terrace alluvium covering Cretaceous age sedimentary formations that have been uplifted into the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Oriental ranges. Seismic activity and landslides are frequent.

Chavín de Huántar is surrounded by mid-elevation grasslands and remnants of deforested woodlands that may have been largely intact at the beginning of the Early Horizon. Forest genera likely included Alnus, Escallonia, Gynoxys, Polylepis and Weinmannia. High sub-alpine and alpine grasslands can be reached in less than two hours walk upslope. Fauna of the higher elevations included deer, the camelids vicuña and guanaco, spectacled bear and partridge.

Two kinds of settlements that can be inferred from the available archaeological data became increasingly integrated into a single regional economic system during the 600 year span of Chavín de Huántar's Early Horizon occupation. The first kind consists of the temple and surrounding settlement comprising the site of Chavín de Huántar. At the beginning of the Urubarriu Phase (2800-2500 B.P.) Chavín's Old Temple was strategically constructed at the convergence of interregional travel and trade routes which connected Early Horizon population centers in distant coastal, highland Andean and Amazonian tropical forest regions. The residential area surrounding the temple at this time occupied approximately six hectares of the valley bottom. Residents were chiefly dedicated to maintenance of the temple and it's functions, as well as to subsistence cultivation and hunting in the valley. The second type of settlement is comprised of dispersed villages surrounding Chavín de Huántar on mountainsides above 3200 m. In villages such as Waman Wain, Pojoc, Gotush, Runtu, and Yurayaku lived a large rural population engaged in high-altitude agriculture, hunting and, increasingly, to herding of domesticated llamas and alpacas. A new ceremonial focus at Chavín de Huántar, the New Temple, was likely constructed by the beginning of the Chakinani Phase (2500- 2400 B.P.), and the surrounding settlement grew to approximately 15 hectares. By the Janabarriu Phase (2400-2200 B.P.), the integrated settlement system featured an urban population spread over 42 hectares at Chavín de Huántar that specialized in maintenance of the temple, and the collection and redistribution of goods and services. The agricultural hinterland provided the system's subsistence base of agricultural produce and camelid meat.

Like many living Andean communities, the Chavín de Huántar settlement may have been divided into dual "upper" and "lower" moiety-like social segments separated by the Huacheqsa River. Specialists dedicated to maintenance of temple activities resided at the community's core. Evidence from the surrounding sites of Pojoc, Waman Wain and Gotush suggests that the hinterland communities each organized around central precincts devoted to Chavín cult rituals.

The scant information from excavations indicates that rectangular houses were made of either adobe or stone. Stone houses proximate to the temple housed higher ranking residents. Ethnohistorical and ethnographic analogies suggest that such houses in the Andean highlands sheltered nuclear families of four to six individuals.

The population of the Chavín de Huántar settlement grew from an estimated 500 during the Urabarriu Phase, to 1,000 during the Chakinani Phase, to between 2,000 and 3,000 residents during the Janabarriu Phase. Because no Chavín Tradition tombs have been excavated at Chavín de Huántar, no additional demographic information is available. The regional population dynamics have yet to be assessed through systematic regional survey of the Mosna and Huacheqsa drainages.

The Chavín subsistence economy was based on agriculture in the valley bottom, and food production in a variety of ecological zones on the surrounding slopes. A broad mix of crops was cultivated with an emphasis on high-elevation tubers, grains and lupines as staples. Deer, camelids and guinea pigs provided most of the meat protein.

There is no direct evidence of wild plant foods exploited at Chavín. Faunal remains from excavations attest to the exploitation of white-tailed deer, vicuñas, birds, skunks, viscacha, canids (fox or dog), fish and marine shellfish.

There is scant direct evidence of the Chavín diet. A variety of lowland tropical cultigens are depicted in Chavín art and iconography, specifically on the Tello Obelisk. However, Chavín de Huántar's highland setting and its considerable distance to lowland environments presuppose a reliance on high altitude tubers such as potatoes, oca, ollucu and mashua; the grains quinoa and achis; and lupines like tarwi. Isotopic evidence from bone collagen shows that maize was only a minor component in Chavín diet. By Chavín's Janabarriu Phase climax, domesticated llamas and alpacas had replaced wild camelids and deer as principal sources of meat. Domesticated dogs and guinea pigs provided smaller amounts of meat from earliest times.

Chavín is known for the production of distinctive cut ashlar temple masonry; elaborate stone sculpture; and fine, incised and polished pottery. Industrial arts show increased sophistication through time, and access to items symbolic of status was restricted to fewer households. Increased cultural interaction resulting from the peaceful expansion of the Chavín religious cult stimulated technological and stylistic innovations in crafts such as weaving and metallurgy at Chavín de Huántar and throughout the Central Andes.

Urabarriu Phase finds include bone needles and implements that served for weaving. Stone tools such as projectile points were fashioned from slate and quartzite. Early ceramics featured plain jars and finely- decorated cups and bottles. Janabarriu Phase workshops identified at Chavín de Huántar provide evidence for full-time specialization in the production of increasingly elaborate pottery, and processing of animal meat and hides.

Ornaments consisted of portable sculpture and jewelry rendered in precious stone, bone, shell, gold and silver. These include earspools, mirrors, beads and pendants.

Participation in long-distance trade was the salient economic activity at Chavín de Huántar where many traded items were subsequently redistributed to the surrounding villages. Trade is evidenced by large quantities of decorated pottery found in Chavín's ceremonial and household contexts that were imported from distant Andean regions. Mineralogical sourcing studies of "exotic" Chakinani and Janabarriu sherds recovered from Chavín de Huántar indicate sources in the Casma and Nepeña coastal valleys to the west. Thorny oyster (Spondylus) and conch shells utilized for ornamentation and ritual activities originated in warm waters off the coast of modern Ecuador, while marine resources consumed at Chavín arrived from the central coast. Chlorite ear spools and anthracite mirrors are among artifacts crafted from rare and exotic materials. Chemical analysis of obsidian artifacts indicates distant southern Andean sources in Peru's Huancavelica region. The spread of the Chavín cult during the mid-Early Horizon apparently served to diffuse the innovation of long-distance commodity transport by llama caravan into the north-central Andes.

Archaeological work at Chavín de Huántar has not yet produced direct evidence for sex- or gender-based divisions of labor. However, occupational specialization is evident in household remains. From Chavín de Huántar's Urabarriu Phase beginnings, specialists were engaged in at least part-time production of stone tools, textiles and other crafts. Excavations in later Janabarriu Phase deposits have revealed clearly differentiated production areas. Individual households engaged in the specialized crafting of Spondylus beads, worked animal hides, and items destined for long- distance trade. Specialists likely oversaw construction of Chavín de Huántar's elaborate system of subterranean galleries and drainage canals, and it is likely that a full-time priesthood conducted ritual performances, and controlled the production of public architecture, stone sculpture and portable religious paraphernalia.

Differential access and control of resources is most evident during the Janabarriu Phase. A comparison of archaeological remains from domestic refuse at Chavín de Huántar shows that exotic materials like marine fish, shell and imported pottery are more prevalent in excavated localities near the temple, than at more distant localities. Houses proximate to the New Temple show more elaborate stone construction, and families within these households enjoyed access to meat from tender llamas typically less than three years of age. In contrast, household remains excavated at a distance from the temple only had access to meat from animals over four years of age.

The households excavated at Chavín de Huántar pertained to nuclear families that likely belonged to larger unidentified kin- based social units. By the Janabarriu Phase, these larger kin-groups were ranked in accord with their familial ties to the active priesthood. In a manner analogous to modern Andean communities, the largest social groupings at Chavín de Huántar probably consisted of dual, moiety-like "halves." These would have occupied opposite banks of the Huacheqsa River, and intercommunicated by means of a stone bridge wiped out by a 1945 landslide.

Political organization took the form of a theocratic ranking led by a select group of priests that controlled calendrical rituals and other temple activities. The Janabarriu Phase political organization has been described as a "fragile state" showing incipient urbanization at Chavín de Huántar. The basis of power seems to have been the exclusive access to sacred knowledge restricted to temple leaders.

Because indications of military and administrative bureaucratic armature are absent, archaeological evidence suggests that social control was achieved by a shared, pan-community commitment to the ideology represented by the Chavín temple and priesthood. All individuals would have been bound to the community by strict and frequent ritual obligations. Behaviors deviating from ideologically accepted norms would have been deterred by both the fear of expulsion from the community, and by supernatural sanctions.

Direct evidence for conflict is absent at the site of Chavín de Huántar. However, the stratigraphic superposition of domestic structures directly on top of Chavín de Huántar's most sacred precincts at the end of the Early Horizon appears to indicate an abrupt demise and resounding rejection of the pre-existing Chavín social, political and ideological orders.

Chavín de Huántar's religious cosmology is most clearly expressed through stone sculpture, and its deployment throughout the Old and New Temple complexes. Both temple constructions exhibit U- shaped configurations that enclose central courts where public rituals presumably took place. Beneath the temples is a complex network of subterranean tunnels and drains described as "galleries". The low rumble of water surging through the underground drainage system would have instilled awe in spectators. In the core of the Old Temple, the supreme supernatural is represented by the "Lanzón," a fanged, male deity carved in relief on a 4.5 meter high stone resembling an inverted lance, or more likely, a foot plough. This stone idol most likely portrays a founding ancestor imbued with oracular powers. The same deity is represented at the New Temple by the Raimondi Stone which exhibits many of the same expressive conventions as the Lanzón. Secondary deities are rendered in New Temple sculpture as crested eagles, hawks, serpents, caymans and jaguars, frequently with human aspects. Conventions such as bilateral symmetry, and the manipulation of paired symbols reflect the dual division of the cosmos into such opposing, yet complementary counterparts as males/females, sun/moon, sky/water, and gold/silver. The intricate "Tello Obelisk" sculpture apparently portrays the bestowal of important cultigens like manioc, chili peppers and peanuts by a pair of cayman deities pertaining to realms of water and sky. Symbols of fertility featured in Chavín art include food crops, marine shells and aquatic animals. The transformation of shamans into animal "alter-egos" is depicted along with hallucinogenic plants, human-feline composite creatures, jaguars and raptorial birds.

By the Janabarriu Phase, full-time religious practitioners not only managed temple activities, but they exerted indirect yet unbending control over Chavín de Huántar's day-to-day secular functioning. Leadership likely corresponded to a small group of specialists rather than to a paramount individual, and positions of authority were achieved through demonstrated skills in manipulating the supernatural world, rather than ascribed by kin-group ranking. These specialists probably resided in the households closest to the temple.

Rituals performed by the Chavín de Huántar priesthood included divination, celestial observation and calendrical calculations, as well as health maintenance and healing. Ceremonies within the Old Temple apparently focused on the Lanzón, but the gallery's small size would have limited access to very few individuals at a time. During the Janabarriu Phase, the New Temple's platforms and hidden entrances provided an elaborate "stage" for public ceremonies. The growing community observed these ritual performances from the large rectangular plaza facing the "Black and White Portal," the New Temple's main facade. The ritual use of hallucinogenic snuffs is attested by sculpted stone tenoned heads arrayed on the temple's outer walls sequentially in order to portray the transformation of the sober human into an animal alter-ego, thus depicting the priest's "shamanic" entry to the supernatural world. Elaborate stone mortars sculpted in the Chavín style were probably used to grind hallucinogenic snuffs for such rituals.

Historically, scholars have regarded Chavín as one of the world's "great art styles," and the highest expression of prehistoric South American art. Chavín art is renowned for its fine, polished stone sculptures fabricated both in-the-round, and in flat relief from limestone and granite. Stone sculpture articulated closely with the temple architecture, often embellishing the dressed ashlar masonry as panels, pillars and tenoned-heads. Supernatural beings with flared nostrils, bared-fangs and upward-looking pupils are most frequently represented in profile utilizing modular design elements that are combined and re-combined to create optical illusions. Many images can be rotated 180 degrees to reveal other meaningful images. Especially common is the use of visual metaphorical substitutes such as snakes for hair, or rows of teeth and fangs for vertebral columns. The same representational style evident in the stone sculpture is expressed on modeled stirrup-spout ceramic bottles, incised shell beads, carved bones, and in painted textiles and cast gold and silver objects. A developmental sequence of the increasingly abstract Chavín style has been formulated by John Rowe. The Lanzón sculpture represents the earliest phase designated Phase AB, coeval with the functioning of Chavín de Huántar's Old Temple. Phase C is typified by the Tello Obelisk, but has no architectural associations. Phase D sculpture, represented by the stylized male and female avians carved on the New Temple's Black and White Portal, along with the Raimondi Stone of Phase EF, are contemporary with the Chavín cult's spread throughout the north-central Andes.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Chavín collection consists of twelve documents, two in Spanish and ten in English. The documents discuss the Chavín culture along the coast and highlands of central and northern Peru and into Ecuador from 4000 B.P to 2200 B.P. (mainly 3200 B.P. - 2200 B.P.) This is outside the absolute time period of ca. 2800 B.P.-2200 B.P., but covers the Initial Period and Early Horizon. One document even discusses Chavín into the Middle Horizon. Many of the sites discussed are also outside the area for Chavín but are within the areas Chavín sought resources or exchange. The reader will also notice that the area thought to be within the Chavín cult or culture and the area thought to be within the Chavín area of influence changes from author to author. Which documents differ from the absolute time period are pointed out below.

A comprehensive overview of Chavín will be found in Burger (1992, no. 3). He begins by describing the rise of Peruvian civilization in the late Preceramic Period and continues through the collapse of Chavín civilization in the Early Horizon. Burger has several other documents in this collection. Burger's revised dissertation (1984, no. 1) covers his excavations at the site of Chavín de Huántar and covers the time period of 3200 B.P.-2200 B.P. In the fourth document (Burger, 1990, no. 4) he examines the importance of maize agriculture to Chavín civilization. Lastly, Burger (1988, no. 2) describes Chavín civilization as a religion and discusses how it spread. Patterson (1968, no. 9) also looks at the spread of Chavín art and religion.

Lumbreras also has several documents. Lumbreras (1968, no. 8) briefly describes the temples and art found at the site of Chavín de Huántar. He dates Chavín to around 3000 B.P. This document is in English. The following two documents by Lumbreras are in Spanish. He (Lumbreras, 1989, no. 5) describes the architecture of the Old Temple and the some of the other findings at the site (by him and earlier archaeologists). In the other Spanish document he (Lumbreras, 1993, no. 6) details his findings in the Ofrendas Gallery, especially the ceramics.

One other document discusses the site of Chavín de Huántar. Miller (1995, no. 7) examines the changes in meat use in the diet and faunal use at the site of Chavín de Huántar and its surrounding area. A summary of the excavations at the site of Kotosh can be found in Izumi (1968, no. 10). The article covers time periods before and after Chavín at Kotosh.

Lathrap was interested in the sources for the inspiration for Chavín art. He (1968, no. 11) examines the interaction sphere between Ecuador, the eastern Montaña, and Chavín during the Initial Period (4000 B.P.) through the Early Horizon. Almost all of Rowe's document is outside the absolute time period for Chavín. He (1968, no. 12) examines the persistence of Chavín-like designs in the art found in later periods and cultures, even into the Middle Horizon.

For further information on individual works in this collection, see the abstract in the citations preceding each document.

The major tradition summary is from the article, "Chavín," by Warren B. Church in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 7, Peter N. Peregrine and Melvin Ember, eds. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2002. We thank Peter N. Peregrine for bibliographic suggestions. Sarah Berry wrote the synopsis in 2003.

Bennett, W. C. The North Highlands of Peru: Excavations in the Callejón de Huaylas and at Chavín de Huántar. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 39, Part 1, 1944.

Benson, E. P., editor. Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavín. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Trustees of Harvard University, 1971.

Burger, R. L. The Prehistoric Occupation of Chavín de Huántar, Peru. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

Burger, R.L. Unity and Heterogeneity within the Chavín Horizon. In: Peruvian Prehistory, edited by R. Keating, pp. 99-144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Burger, R.L. Chavín and the Development of Andean Civilization. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Burger, R.L. The Chavín Horizon: Stylistic Chimera or Socioeconomic Metamorphosis. In: Latin American Horizons, edited by D. Rice, pp. 41-82. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Trustees of Harvard University, 1993.

Burger, R.L. and N.J. van der Merwe. Maize and the Origin of Highland Chavín Civilization: An Isotopic Perspective. In: American Anthropologist, Vol. 92, 1990: 85-95.

Lathrap, D.W. Gifts of the Cayman: Some Thoughts on the Subsistence Basis of Chavín. In: Variation in Anthropology: Essays in Honor of John C. McGregor, edited by D. W. Lathrap and J. Douglas, pp. 91-103. Urbana: Illinois Archaeological Survey, 1973.

Lumbreras, L.G. Excavaciones en el Templo Antiguo de Chavín (Sector R): Informe de la Sexta Campaña. In: Ñawpa Pacha, Vol. 15, 1977: 1-38.

Lumbreras, L.G. Chavín de Huántar en el Nacimiento de la Civilización Andina. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Andinos (INDEA), 1989.

Lumbreras, L.G. Chavín de Huántar: Excavaciones en la Galería de las Ofrendas. Mainz am Rhein: Materialen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Archäologie, Band 51, 1993.

Miller G. and R.L. Burger. Our Father the Cayman, Our Dinner the Llama: Animal Utilization at Chavín de Huántar. In: American Antiquity, Vol. 60, 1995: 421-458.

Rowe, J. H. Form and Meaning in Chavín Art. In: Peruvian Archaeology: Selected Readings, edited by J.H. Rowe and D. Menzel, pp. 72-103. Palo Alto: Peek Publications, 1967.

Tello, J.C. Discovery of the Chavín Culture in Peru. In: American Antiquity, Vol. 9, 1943: 135-160.

Tello, J.C. Chavín: Cultura Matríz de la Civilización Andina. Lima: Publicación Antropológica del Archivo "Julio C. Tello" de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Volumen 2, 1960.

Willey, G. The Chavín Problem: A Review and Critique. In: Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 7, 1951: 103-144.