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Since the first investigations, the Paracas and Nasca have been considered as two of the most representative social formations of the Peruvian south coast. Elements indicating interaction with the highlands were identified only for the latest phases of the stylistic sequence of Nasca pottery, especially those related to the characteristic ceramic style of the Wari state that emerged near the modern city of Ayacucho, during the Middle Horizon. However, in the last years, fieldwork carried out in the Palpa valleys and its tributaries resulted in increasing evidence of Paracas and Nasca sites in the highlands. This new evidence forces us to reconsider our traditional concepts of Paracas and Nasca settlement patterns and socioeconomic structures, including the transitional epoch between them. Since 2006, members of the Palpa-Lucanas Archaeological Project conducted intensive fieldwork in the catchment area of the northern tributaries of the Nasca drainage, especially in the highest sections of the Palpa and Viscas valleys. The surveys reached up to the highest points of the western slope of the Andes, at an altitude of 4300 m above sea level. Thus, the inventory of the archaeological sites on the west side of the Andes, including coastal, yunga, and highlanders, now comprises about 1500 sites belonging almost to all time periods. In this paper we present the results of our studies in the highlands, emphasizing those related to the Paracas and Nasca, and especially to the transition between them, which shows strong relationships with the Topara tradition. Excavations on Cutamalla and Huayuncalla sites provide relevant stratigraphic data to the theme presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological evidence documented in the Palpa valleys indicates that at the end of the Formative period, between the decline of the Paracas and the beginning of the Nasca, there was transition period in which important changes took place in the sociocultural process that affected the apparent links of continuity between both sociopolitical entities. This time period, known as Proto-Nasca or Initial Nasca in the Rio Grande basin, is closely related to the sudden appearance of elements related with the Topará, a social group which seems to have exercised political and religious control of the southern coast at the end of the Formative period, configuring a new scenario in which typical traits of the Paracas and Nasca were combined. In this sense, the discussion focuses on the implications of the Topará had in this transition process, in which only the so-called «Paracas» textiles of the Necrópolis phase represent the ties of continuity between both sociopolitical entities. This continuity evidently had strong religious and ideological connotations. In this paper the archaeological evidences (settlement patterns, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pottery, etc.) that set this new stage in the valleys of Palpa will be presented, on the basis of which we discuss the characteristics that the Paracas-Nasca transition had in the Río Grande basin and its implications in the regional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]