Papers by Ester Echenique
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
This article examines the social implications of pottery circulation in the southern Andes during... more This article examines the social implications of pottery circulation in the southern Andes during the Late pre-Hispanic periods (ca. A.D. 1000-1550). In particular, its goal is to understand the role of Yavi-Chicha pottery in the dynamics of interaction between two regions: the Chicha valleys in the border of Bolivia and Argentina and the Atacama in Chile. We do so through exploring the life history of Yavi-Chicha pottery: where and how it was manufactured, how it circulated, and the possible consumers, building on new ceramic analysis combined with previous results and discussed in relation to available research. Based on mineralogical and chemical data, we argue that Yavi-Chicha vessels that circulated in Chile, mostly polished jars, were manufactured somewhere in the Talina Valley, in Bolivia, ruling out the possibility that this pottery was produced in the Atacama. This indicates social interaction between the Chicha Region and the Atacama. In the context of a consistent relationship between the two regions, the circulation of Yavi-Chicha vessels could have involved a variety of practices, agents and motivations as two main types of traffic (embedded and specialized) seemed to have coexisted in the routes that connect both regions. This leads us to consider different possible scenarios of Yavi-Chicha ceramic consumption, implying different processes of negotiation and interaction between both regions. These vessels would have circulated as inalienable possessions (or identity markers), as trade items or as politically charged gifts under Inca State auspices (as gifts and political marker). Overall, we suggest that the presence of Yavi-Chicha ceramics in the Atacama would have been the result of an effort to maintain and consolidate preexisting interregional social relations between the Chicha Region and the Atacama.
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This article examines the social implications of pottery circulation in the southern Andes during... more This article examines the social implications of pottery circulation in the southern Andes during the Late pre-Hispanic periods (ca. A.D. 1000-1550). In particular, its goal is to understand the role of Yavi-Chicha pottery in the dynamics of interaction between two regions: the Chicha valleys in the border of Bolivia and Argentina and the Atacama in Chile. We do so through exploring the life history of Yavi-Chicha pottery: where and how it was manufactured, how it circulated, and the possible consumers, building on new ceramic analysis combined with previous results and discussed in relation to available research. Based on mineralogical and chemical data, we argue that Yavi-Chicha vessels that circulated in Chile, mostly polished jars, were manufactured somewhere in the Talina Valley, in Bolivia, ruling out the possibility that this pottery was produced in the Atacama. This indicates social interaction between the Chicha Region and the Atacama. In the context of a consistent relationship between the two regions, the circulation of Yavi-Chicha vessels could have involved a variety of practices, agents and motivations as two main types of traffic (embedded and specialized) seemed to have coexisted in the routes that connect both regions. This leads us to consider different possible scenarios of Yavi-Chicha ceramic consumption, implying different processes of negotiation and interaction between both regions. These vessels would have circulated as inalienable possessions (or identity markers), as trade items or as politically charged gifts under Inca State auspices (as gifts and political marker). Overall, we suggest that the presence of Yavi-Chicha ceramics in the Atacama would have been the result of an effort to maintain and consolidate preexisting interregional social relations between the Chicha Region and the Atacama.
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021
In this article, we examine the role of pottery production in social and community integration pr... more In this article, we examine the role of pottery production in social and community integration processes during the Late Intermediate period (ca. CE 1000-1450). We explore this relationship through a case study of Yavi-Chicha ceramics from the aggregated community of Chipihuayco, Bolivia, in the Chicha region. Through a combined approach based on macroscopic and petrographic analyses, we reconstruct the chaînes opératoires and determine technological styles in the production of both smoothed and polished/decorated vessels. The results are discussed in relation to different approaches to the idea of community and group identity within the context of corporate political strategies and decentralized institutions during the Late Intermediate period. This community-level analysis demonstrates that potters or groups of potters who aggregated at Chipihuayco shared substantial technological choices and at the same time followed their own ways of producing ceramics-expressed in fundamental technological variability. We conclude that potters and the people who participated in the chaînes opératoires were involved in a broader dynamic process of interaction and continuous negotiation through their engagement in production practices, leading to community and social integration. Further, group and community affiliation was also continually redefined through consumption practices in the context of political commensalism.
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Latin American Antiquity, 2020
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2018
Research on San Pedro's local wares (Late Formative and Middle periods) has tended to favor styli... more Research on San Pedro's local wares (Late Formative and Middle periods) has tended to favor stylistic analysis of pottery from mortuary contexts to construct chronological sequences. Little is known about systems of production of domestic wares, or about their social implications. This study uses complementary macroscopic, petrographic, and elemental data to contribute to the understanding of the production and technological patterns of ceramics in the domestic context of Coyo Aldea (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) through the study of polished vessels. The results show highly homogeneous pastes, contrasting with the variability of surface colors of three wares. In addition, the results indicate that all types of polished wares were locally manufactured following a shared ceramic technological style, reflected in paste homogeneity. This study contributes to a better understanding of the means of production as we provide new data on raw material uses and technological styles as part of the operational sequence of production.
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This article presents a characterization of polished thinwares found at the site of Coyo Aldea co... more This article presents a characterization of polished thinwares found at the site of Coyo Aldea contextualized by recent scholarly advances in the transition between the Formative and Middle Periods (ca. AD 100-700) in San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile, and the Andes. In particular, we explore polished household thinwares by juxtaposing them against similar polished vessels common in local graves. Clarifying variation within residential types and between these and burial types allows us to better understand household ceramic consumption at this time and the potential ritual role burial ceramics played in defining new social complexity. This work prompts us to look again at how local material culture functioned in the negotiation of power in the mortuary context while reinforcing the persistent need for more systematic excavation of household contexts. En este artículo presentamos una caracterización de la cerámica pulida delgada procedente del sitio de Coyo Aldea en relación con la literatura reciente sobre la transición del período Formativo al período Medio (ca. 100-700 d.C.) en San Pedro de Atacama, norte de Chile y los Andes circumpuneños. Con el fin de contribuir a un entendimiento más comprensivo de la cerámica prehis-pánica de esta región, examinamos la cerámica pulida delgada utilizada en contextos domésticos en relación con la cerámica pulida de los entierros locales. Aclarando la variabilidad entre los tipos cerámicos habitacionales y su comparación con los tipos cerámicos de entierros, nos permite acercarnos a una mayor comprensión del consumo de la cerámica en estos períodos y del potencial rol ritual de la cerámica mortuoria en la definición de una nueva complejidad social. Este trabajo llama a redirigir la mirada a la cultura material local y su función en las negociaciones de poder en los contextos mortuorios; al mismo tiempo confirma la necesidad de ejecutar excavaciones más exhaustivas de contextos habitacionales. Palabras claves: período Formativo Tardío, período Medio, análisis cerámico, arqueología doméstica,
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In this paper we present an overview of the process of mapping and field surveying of an area of ... more In this paper we present an overview of the process of mapping and field surveying of an area of ancient fields and irrigation canals around the pre-Hispanic sites of Topaín, Paniri and Turi, in the Andean highlands of northern Chile. As opposed to the usual conditions for prospection in temperate or tropical regions, where the surface visibility of archaeological features is often poor and confusing, here the extreme aridity of the landscape has permitted an extraordinary degree of both preservation and visibility of the fields, canals and other constructions. A field methodology based on a combination of an aerial approach (with relatively low-cost resources: high resolution satellite images, GIS, UAV) and field survey has allowed us not only to document the sites but to inject some order into a large assembly of archaeological features: to understand how the system as a whole was built, and how it evolved and changed in time, thus allowing for the proposal of a sound hypothetical sequence of the use and transformation of this area before and after the Inka period.
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Drafts by Ester Echenique
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Papers by Ester Echenique
Drafts by Ester Echenique