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Paracas in Nazca: New Data on the Early Horizon Occupation of the Rio Grande de Nazca Drainage, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Helaine Silverman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 109 Davenport Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801

Abstract

Nasca culture and, particularly, Nasca ceramic iconography are held to evolve directly and smoothly out of antecedent Paracas. Yet the data reviewed in this article indicate that Paracas remains in the Río Grande de Nazca drainage, the heartland of Nasca culture on the south coast of Peru, are limited in nature, a fact that makes it difficult to derive Nasca from Paracas in Nazca. In contrast, there are rich and abundant Paracas remains in the Ica, Pisco, and Chincha valleys, at the Paracas type site itself, and along the Bahía de la Independencia. I look to the Ica Valley for the origins of the Nasca style.

Es común presumir que la cultura nasca, y sobre todo la iconografia cerámica nasca, evolucionaron directamente y continuamente de antecedentes paracas. Pero los datos presentados en este artículo indican que los restos materiales paracas en la cuenca del Río Grande de Nazca son muy limitados, aunque fuera tal zona el corazón de la cultura nasca en la costa meridional del Perú. Por consiguiente, es difícil derivar nasca de paracas en Nazca. Por contraste, hay una riqueza y abundancia de restos paracas en los valles de Ica, Pisco y Chincha, en el sitio típico de Paracas mismo, y a la orilla de la Bahía de la Independencia. Miro al valle de Ica para encontrar el origen del estilo nasca.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1994

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