CULTURAL CHRONOLOGY AND CHANGE AS REFLECTED IN THE CERAMICS OF THE VIRU VALLEY, PERU DONALD COLLIER FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 43 Published by CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM DECEMBER 16, 1955 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY A Continuation of the ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES of FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 43 CVAICA Go NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM CHICAGO, U.S.A. 1955 Editors PAUL S. MARTIN Chief Curator, Department of Anthropology LILLIAN A. ROSS Associate Editor, Scientific Publications CULTURAL CHRONOLOGY AND CHANGE AS REFLECTED IN THE CERAMICS OF THE VIRU VALLEY, PERU WHISTLING JAR OF THE TOMAVAL PERIOD, FROM V-302, BURIAL Type, Calunga Red and Black-on-White; X 0.6. Photograph by John Collier. CULTURAL CHRONOLOGY AND CHANGE AS REFLECTED IN THE CERAMICS OF THE VIRU VALLEY, PERU DONALD COLLIER Curator, South American Ethnology and Archaeology FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 43 Published by CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM DECEMBER 16, 1955 PRINTED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE EDWARD E. AYER LECTURE FOUNDATION FUND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS Preface This report is leased on the field work of the Chicago Natural History Museum Expedition to Peru in 1946. From June to December, archae- ological investigations were made in \'iru. a north coastal valley lying 46 kilometers south of the city of Trujillo. This work was undertaken as part of a co-operative program known as the Virii Valley Project, which was sponsored by the Institute of Andean Research. A brief summary of this program will .suffice, since Willey (1946b) has pul^lished a detailed account of the history and organization of the project, and the results were sum- marized at the Chiclin Conference in 1946 (Willey, 1946a) and the Viking Fund Symposium in 1947 (Bennett, 1948). The \'iru Project was conceived by the late Wendell C. Bennett, William Duncan Strong. Julian H. Steward, and Gordon R. Willey in the summer of 1945. The aim was to make an intensive, co-operative study of human adaptation and culture growth in a single coastal valley over the total span of human occupancy. The Virii \'alley was selected for this pur- pose because its culture sequence was already roughly known (Kroeber, 1930: Bennett, 1939; Larco Hoyle, 1938-39, 1945a) and because its rela- tively small size made feasil)Ie the completion of an intensive regional study in a reasonable length of time. Several archaeologists, two ethnolo- gists, and a geographer were in\ited to join the program, and, in the end, ten individuals representing eight institutions took part in the Viru Project. The archaeological and geographical field work was don(> between April and December of 1946, and the ethnological studies were made dur- ing 1946, 1947, and 1948. The participants and their areas of investigation were as follows: 1. William Duncan Strong, Columbia University, assisted by ClifTord Evans, Jr., in\estigated the stratigraphy of the early prehistoric periods. 2. Donald Collier, Chicago Natural History Museum, investigated the stratigraphy of the late prehistoric periods, worked on a gap in the early sequence, and sampled grave materials. 3. James A. Ford, Columbia University and Guggenheim Fellow, made a surface survey and dated 315 sites Ijy means of relative ceramic chronology. 7 8 PREFACE 4. Gordon R. Willey, Bureau of American Ethnology, made a study of prehistoric settlement patterns. 5. Wendell C. Bennett, Yale University, made an intensive study of the Gallinazo period. 6. Junius B. Bird, American Museum of Natural History, excavated preceramic sites in Viru and Chicama valleys. 7. F. Webster McBryde, Institute of Social Anthropology, Smith- sonian Institution, studied the geography of Viru and prepared a base map of the valley from aerial mosaics. 8. Allan R. Holmljerg, Institute of Social Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, and Jorge C. Muelle, Instituto de Etnologia in Lima and Universidad de San Marcos, assisted by students from the latter institution, made an ethnological study of the modern valley. Collaboration in the Viru program was not on an institutional basis, since in practice each participant and the institution he represented were independent. Each participant was expected to publish a report on his own work, although it was planned ultimately to issue an over-all interpretive report on the results of the project. Co-operation took the form of mutual aid, consultation, and free interchange of data in the field and afterward. A common field catalogue was maintained, and systems of site designation and type names were standardized. This co-operation and the general ef- fectiveness of the project were enhanced by a generous grant by the Viking Fund to the Institute of Andean Research, which made possible the pur- chase and maintenance of three army jeeps, the purchase of aerial photo- graphs and maps, and the maintenance in Trujillo of a central laboratory for the cleaning,' cataloguing, and storage of collections. To date (1953) four reports have been puljlished by the participants in the Viru Project: Ford's Cultural dating oj prehistoric sites in Viru Valley, Peru (in Ford and Willey, 1949a); Bennett's The Gallinazo group, Viru Valley, Peru (1950); Strong and Evans' Cultural stratigraphy in the Viru Valley, northern Peru: The Formative and Florescent Epochs (1952); and Willey's Prehistoric settlement patterns in the Viru Valley, Peru (1953). Monographs by Bird, McBryde, Holml^erg, and Muelle are in preparation. In addition, several short papers resulting from the Viru program have l^een published (Bird, 1948; Holmberg, 1950, 1952; Nunez del Prado, 1950; Rowe, 1948; Strong, 1947, 1948; Willey, 1946a, b, 1947, 1951b). My work in Viru was supported by Chicago Natural History Museum in continuation of the Museum's fruitful interest in Andean archaeology extending over the past fifty years. I wish to express my gratitude to the Board of Trustees, Mr. Stanley Field, President, Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, Director, and Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator, Department of Anthro- pology, for making possible my Peruvian research. PREFACE 9 I wish to thank the X'ikinu, I'und (now the WVnncr-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research) and its Director, Dr. Paul Fejos, for gener- ous aid that greatly facilitated the work of the members of the \'iru \'alley Project. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Viru program for their comrade- ship and spirit of mutual aid, for their generosity in the exchange of infor- mation, and for the stimulating experience of working with them in the field. I wish to mention especially the efforts of Helen Richardson Strong, who took charge of the project laboratory in Trujillo. and my pleasant association with Ethel and James Ford, with whom I camped at the mouth of the Viru River during the first half of my stay in Viru. The e.\-Presidcnt of the Republic of Peru, the Honorable Luis Busta- mante Rivera, and the ex-Minister of Public Education, Dr. Luis E. Val- carcel, expedited the work of the \'iru Project by administratixe decree. Dr. \'alcarcel, in his position of Director of the Instituto de Estudios Etnologicos, took an intense interest in our program of investigation and made possible the acti\c participation of his assistant. Dr. Jorge C. Muellc. I am indebted to the late Dr. Julio C. TcUo and the members of the Patro- nato Nacional de Arqueologia for the archaeological permit under which I worked. In Trujillo, we were receixcd cordially and gi\en assistance by the Rec- tor and faculty of the L^ni\ersidad Nacional de Trujillo. I wish to thank especially Sr. Maximo Diaz, then Director of the L^niversity Museum, and Dr. Hans Horkheimcr, ex-Director of the L'niversity Archaeological Insti- tute. Sr. Enrique Jacobs, business man and archaeological enthusiast, and his wife gave us aid and adxice and extended many kindnesses. The meml)ers of the \'iru Project owe a special del)t of gratitude to Sr. Rafael Larco Herrcra and his sons, Rafael Larco Hoyle, Constante Larco Hoyle, and the late Ja\ier Larco Hoyle, proprietors of the Hacienda Chiclin in Clhicama \'allcy. for their warm hospitality, material aid, and inxaluable advice. Rafael Larco Ho\le. a distinguished archaeologist and Director of the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera at Chiclin, enlightened us with many archaeological discussions and generously put at our disposal the magnificent collections of his museum. /\nd the Larcos were our hosts at the Clhiclin Conference on Peruvian Archaeology, held at the Chiclin Museum on .August 7 and 8, 1946. I am indel)ted to Dr. Luis Arrese for permission to work on the lands of Hacienda Clarmelo in \'iri'i, and to Sr. Guillermo Roedcr and Sr. Victor Cha\ez, respectively manager and chief accountant of the hacienda, for many kindnesses. I wish to thank Sr. Lucio Gamio Y., whose cheerful patience kept our much abused jeeps in running order and who helped us in other ways too numerous to mention. I am grateful to my crew of 10 PREFACE young Viruneros, whose light-hearted and faithful diligence made the work of excavation both productive and pleasant. For assistance in the preparation of this report my thanks go to the following staff members of Chicago Natural History Museum: Dr. Fritz Haas, Curator, Division of Lower Invertebrates, for the identification of shells; Mr. Philip Hershkovitz, Associate Curator, Division of Mammals, and Mrs. Dorothy B. Foss, formerly Osteologist, for the identification of animal and bird bones; Dr. Hugh C. Cutler, formerly Curator of Economic Botany, for identification of plant remains; Dr. Robert K. Wyant, Curator of Economic Geology, for the identification of minerals; Mr. Douglas E. Tibbitts, Illustrator, for drawing the map, plans, and charts; Mr. Phillip H. Lewis, formerly Assistant in Anthropology, for making the sherd draw- ings; and Miss Lillian A.