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Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Beginnings -- The First Americans -- Ceremonial Centers -- Chapter 2: Monster Gods of the Cosmos -- The Pilgrim's Journey -- Colors of Eternity -- Chapter 3: Sacred Mountains, Sacred Plains -- Art, War, and Sacrifice -- Lords of the North -- Chapter 4: Lords of High Places -- Tiwanaku and Wari -- Highland Rivals -- Chapter 5: Kingdoms of Gold -- Empires Undone, Empires Emerging -- Naymlap's Realm -- The Empire of Chimor -- Chapter 6: The Inca: Masters of the Four Quarters -- The Empire of the Sun -- Fashioning Nature -- Chapter 7: A World Turned Upside Down -- The Eagle and the Condor -- Glossary -- For More Information -- For Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover

Recent arguments stating that marine resources were relatively unimportant in cultural developments on the coast of Peru during the Preceramic Period are incorrect on several counts. It is shown that the economics and technology of maritime subsistence of coastal Peru are more complex than previously thought, that the nutritional values of terrestrial versus maritime foods are debatable, that the dynamics of El Niño events are complex, and that maritime resources must still be seen as important for Preceramic Period economies. [Central Andes, coastal adaptations, ecological anthropology, origins of complex societies]

Climate, catastrophe, and culture in the ancient Americas / Daniel H. Sandweiss and Jeffrey Quilter -- Paleoclimate from ice cores : a framework for archaeological interpretations / Paul Andrew Mayweski -- El Niño and interannual variability of climate in the Western Hemisphere / Kirk Allen Maasch -- Climate change, El Niño, and the rise of complex society on the Peruvian coast during the middle Holocene / James B. Richardson III and Daniel H. Sandweiss -- Catastrophe and the emergence of political complexity : a social anthropological model / Paul Roscoe -- Deciphering the politics of prehistoric El Niño events on the north coast of Peru / Brian R. Billman and Gary Huckleberry -- Deadly deluges in the southern desert : modern and ancient El Niños in the Osmore region of Peru / Michael E. Moseley and David K. Keefer -- Marching to disaster: the catastrophic convergence of Inca imperial policy, sand flies, and El Niño in the 1524 Andean epidemic / James B. Kiracofe and John S. Marr -- Armageddon to the Garden of Eden : explosive volcanic eruptions and societal resilience in ancient Middle America / Payson Sheets -- The collapse of Maya civilization : assessing the interaction of culture, climate, and environment / Jason Yaeger and David A. Hodell -- And the waters took them : catastrophic flooding and civilization on the Mexican Gulf Coast / S. Jeffrey K. Wilkerson

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- PART ONE BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY OF KHIPU AND QUECHUA NARRATIVES -- ONE An Overview of Spanish Colonial Commentary on Andean Knotted-String Records -- TWO Spinning a Yarn: Landscape, Memory, and Discourse Structure in Quechua Narratives -- PART TWO STRUCTURE AND INFORMATION IN THE KHIPU -- THREE A Khipu Information String Theory -- FOUR Reading Khipu: Labels, Structure, and Format -- FIVE Inka Writing -- PART THREE INTERPRETING CHRONICLERS' ACCOUNTS OF KHIPU -- SIX String Registries: Native Accounting and Memory According to the Colonial Sources -- SEVEN Woven Words: The Royal Khipu of Blas Valera -- EIGHT Recording Signs in Narrative-Accounting Khipu -- NINE Yncap Cimin Quipococ's Knots -- PART FOUR COLONIAL USES AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE KHIPU -- TEN ''Without Deceit or Lies'': Variable Chinu Readings during a Sixteenth-Century Tribute-Restitution Trial -- ELEVEN Pérez Bocanegra's Ritual formulario: Khipu Knots and Confession -- PART FIVE CONTEMPORARY KHIPU TRADITIONS -- TWELVE Patrimonial Khipu in a Modern Peruvian Village: An Introduction to the ''Quipocamayos'' of Tupicocha, Huarochirí -- THIRTEEN The Continuing Khipu Traditions: Principles and Practices -- CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX

ABSTRACT Sometime in the early 17th century, at Magdalena de Cao, a community of resettled native peoples in the Chicama Valley on the North Coast of Peru, a Spaniard used the back of a letter to jot down the terms for numbers in a local language. Four hundred years later, the authors of this article were able to recover and study this piece of paper. We present information on this otherwise unknown language, on numeracy, and on cultural relations of ethnolinguistic groups in pre‐ and early‐post‐Conquest northern Peru. Our investigations have determined that, while several of the Magadalena number terms were likely borrowed from a Quechuan language, the remainder record a decimal number system in an otherwise unknown language. Historical sources of the region mention at least two potential candidate languages, Pescadora and Quingnam; however, because neither is documented beyond its name, a definite connection remains impossible to establish.

International audience ; Here we report the results of excavation and interdisciplinary study of the largest child and camelid sacrifice known from the New World. Stratigraphy, associated artifacts, and radiocarbon dating indicate that it was a single mass killing of more than 140 children and over 200 camelids directed by the Chimú state, c. AD 1450. Preliminary DNA analysis indicates that both boys and girls were chosen for sacrifice. Variability in forms of cranial modification (head shaping) and stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen suggest that the children were a heterogeneous sample drawn from multiple regions and ethnic groups throughout the Chimú state. The Huanchaquito-Las Llamas mass sacrifice opens a new window on a previously unknown sacrificial ritual from fifteenth century northern coastal Peru. While the motivation for such a massive sacrifice is a subject for further research, there is archaeological evidence that it was associated with a climatic event (heavy rainfall and flooding) that could have impacted the economic, political and ideological stability of one of the most powerful states in the New World during the fifteenth century A.D.

International audience ; Here we report the results of excavation and interdisciplinary study of the largest child and camelid sacrifice known from the New World. Stratigraphy, associated artifacts, and radiocarbon dating indicate that it was a single mass killing of more than 140 children and over 200 camelids directed by the Chimú state, c. AD 1450. Preliminary DNA analysis indicates that both boys and girls were chosen for sacrifice. Variability in forms of cranial modification (head shaping) and stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen suggest that the children were a heterogeneous sample drawn from multiple regions and ethnic groups throughout the Chimú state. The Huanchaquito-Las Llamas mass sacrifice opens a new window on a previously unknown sacrificial ritual from fifteenth century northern coastal Peru. While the motivation for such a massive sacrifice is a subject for further research, there is archaeological evidence that it was associated with a climatic event (heavy rainfall and flooding) that could have impacted the economic, political and ideological stability of one of the most powerful states in the New World during the fifteenth century A.D.

International audience ; Here we report the results of excavation and interdisciplinary study of the largest child and camelid sacrifice known from the New World. Stratigraphy, associated artifacts, and radiocarbon dating indicate that it was a single mass killing of more than 140 children and over 200 camelids directed by the Chimú state, c. AD 1450. Preliminary DNA analysis indicates that both boys and girls were chosen for sacrifice. Variability in forms of cranial modification (head shaping) and stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen suggest that the children were a heterogeneous sample drawn from multiple regions and ethnic groups throughout the Chimú state. The Huanchaquito-Las Llamas mass sacrifice opens a new window on a previously unknown sacrificial ritual from fifteenth century northern coastal Peru. While the motivation for such a massive sacrifice is a subject for further research, there is archaeological evidence that it was associated with a climatic event (heavy rainfall and flooding) that could have impacted the economic, political and ideological stability of one of the most powerful states in the New World during the fifteenth century A.D.