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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]

Approximately 550 vessels were recovered by Julio César Tello and his team from the Paracas Necrópolis cemetery on the Paracas peninsula, Perú, between 1927 and 1930. Each vessel had been placed adjacent to 250 of the 429 funerary bundles, generally to the north, either alone or in a group of two or three, sometimes wrapped in a cloth. Based on comparisons with ceramics from the valleys of Chincha, Pisco, Ica and Nazca, these vessels have been attributed, without differentiating them, to the Topará (Jahuay and Chongos), late Paracas (Ocucaje 10) and initial Nasca (Nasca 1) ceramic traditions. However, this ceramic assemblage is largely undocumented and has not previously been studied, in its entirety or in part, using systematic methods that include information on the archaeological context, the analytic process and a technological and morphological classification. This essay presents initial results of this type of study, offering a unique opportunity to determine the role of ceramic receptacles in the funerary rites and social relationships among Paracas, Nasca y Topará populations between 200 BCE and 200 CE, based on determining ceramic production processes, sources and exchange networks. [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]

Apart from the materials and archaeological contexts excavated at Hacha in the Acarí Valley, until now evidence for the Initial Period along the southern coast of Perú were limited to some isolated findings that lacked well-defined contexts, e.g. from sites like Erizo in the Ica Valley, Mastodonte in the pampa of Villacurí (Ica) and Disco Verde on the Paracas Peninsula. There were no reported findings from the Río Grande of Nasca region. Only very recently, with the development of the Nasca-Palpa Archaeological Project, were sites and evidence for the Initial Period in the Palpa Valleys encountered. These provide new insights into and new perspectives on the process of cultural development for this part of the south coast. In this paper we present and discuss the numerous finds and findings of the Initial Period that have been recovered in the excavations at Pernil Alto, which include architectural structures, ceramics and other associated materials. The analysis of these findings indicates that already in this moment in time the conditions for the stable and permanent development of the populations settling in the Río Grande drainage were given. Twenty radiocarbon dates confirm the chronological position of the contexts excavated in Pernil Alto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]