The Moquegua Archaeological Survey

The Moquegua Archaeological Survey, or "MAS" project was conceived to test a "multiethnic" model of ancient Andean state integration in the Moquegua valley of Southern Peru. Some contact-period polities documented by early Spanish chroniclers controlled "vertical archipelagos" of productive colonies in different altitude-defined resource zones without asserting exclusive territorial control. These state colonies were "multiethnic", in that colonies of different ethnic polities could coexist in lowland resource zones. This pattern, which seems to contradict our territorial assumptions about state-level societies, has inspired speculation on the antiquity of similar strategies in the Pre-Columbian archaeological record. The MAS project is a regional settlement pattern study that is examining patterns of coexistence and competition among Formative, Tiwanaku, Wari and other ancient populations.

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Copyright ©2003 Paul S. Goldstein. All rights reserved.