Scaling the Huaca: Constructing Space, Time, and Identity at the Late Moche Ceremonial Centre of Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru by Giles Spence Morrow A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Toronto © Copyright by Giles Spence Morrow 2019 Scaling the Huaca: Constructing Space, Time, and Identity at the Late Moche Ceremonial Centre of Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru Giles Spence Morrow Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Toronto 2019 Abstract This dissertation examines how the ritual architecture of the Moche site of Huaca Colorada served as a form of symbolic technology that unified communities across the southern Jequetepeque Valley of Northern Peru during the Late Moche (650-800) and Transitional periods (ca AD 750-950). An investigation of the construction history of the central ceremonial precinct at Huaca Colorada has identified ritualized acts of architectural renovation that encoded a particular cosmology but also materialized sociopolitical transformations through time. The analysis provides a unique opportunity to interpret shifts in long-standing Moche traditions as a reaction to increasing influence from distant highland communities, as evidenced by the foundation of the highland centre of Tecapa adjacent to Huaca Colorada around AD 750. An important objective of the dissertation is to present the results of a detailed diachronic study of a particular expression of Late Moche politico-religious ideology through the analysis of the ii construction and occupation sequence of a single ceremonial monument. I thus present the architectonic history of the site of Huaca Colorada in the form of two dialectically interrelated biographies, the biography of the architecture itself, and the biography of a larger political community materialized and emplaced in the landscape through rituals of architectural renovation. These two inextricable biographies reveal how the powerful ideology responsible for the creation and maintenance of this important structure was grounded in explicit strategies of place-making that changed over time. Ultimately, my research at Huaca Colorada provides an empirically rich case study of how architecture and representations of place were variably wielded to “construct” and contest an imagined Moche community. Across the ancient Andes, acts of place-making relied upon the conflation of social actors, ancestors, and the built environment through cycles of renovation of sacred architecture. I argue that the creation of the Huaca Colorada religious community was also realized through cyclical acts of architectural construction, destruction and renewal within the ceremonial precinct of the site. My interpretations are based on a comparison of three- dimensional models and spatial analysis of this uniquely preserved ritual setting in relation to the material residues of practice associated with each phase of renovation. In the end, my dissertation combines phenomenological, semiotic and quantitative approaches in order to shed original light on Moche ontology, conceptions of time, and constructions of home, memory, and identity. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation was entirely made possible through the help and guidance of the directors of the Huaca Colorada-Jatanca-Tecapa Archaeological Project: Edward Reuben Swenson, John Powell Warner, Jorge Yassell Chiguala Azabache and Francisco Javier Seoane Peyon. For the insightful comments and suggestions over the years, I would like to thank both Justin Jennings, Carl Knappett as members of my committee, as well as Michael Chazan and Edward Banning and Gary Coupland for early and continued support in writing process. I would like to thank the efforts of all of my fellow graduate students whose work in the field and in the lab over the years of excavation has been of vital importance: Aleksa Alaica, Stephen Berquist, Thomas Blennerhassett, James Crandall, Guy Duke, Madeleine Fyles, Katrina Gataveckas, Felipe Gonzales-McQueen, Anna Guengerich, Randy Hahn, Katrina Joosten, Sally Lynch, Lindi Masur, Branden Rizzuto, Daniela Raillard, Daiana Rivas-Tello, Rachel Schloss, Kyle Shaw Muller, Haeden Stewart Christopher Wai. Of course, the excavations were only possible through the help of a dedicated team of undergraduate students who took part from the University of Toronto and the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo: María Alejandra Cancino Ríos, Virginia Arroyo Huamán, Siah Beattie, Crystal Black, Taryn Blanchard, Jaclyn Boucher, Cody Brown, Jesica Centurion, Laura Charney, Emilia Cordero-Graf, Jacob Domenico, Caylee Dzurka, Diego Fernández Siccha, Madeline Francombe Fawn, Sita Ganesan, Kyle Kerr, William Glenn, Maria Gonzalez, Jessica Gould, Nadia Grogan, Daphne Ippolito, Cristina Juarez, Linda Kathering Murga Milla, Michal Laszchuk, Joshua Lockett-Harris, Shannon Mascarenhas, Julie McLean, Shahin Piri, Sarah Proulx, Adriana Ramos Mar, Catherine Reyes, Daiana Rivas-Tello, Andrea Rodriguez-Figueroa, Johnny Rojas, Jessica Romano, Andrew Smith, Jessica Thiele, Daniel Vals, Alex Van Taak, Stephanie Wai, Katerina Wille Valle, Alicia Yuan. Finally, it is without doubt that the support, knowledge and skills of the members of the San Lorenzo de Jatanca community truly made this project possible, with special thanks to Salvador Ilsas Ventura, Brayan Islas Ventura, Freddy Islas Ventura, Jean-Pierre Islas Ventura, Sebastian Ilsas Ventura. iv Throughout the process, the support and conversations with colleagues in Peru and abroad have been an important aspect of the development of many ideas presented here, collaborations that will endure into the future: Catherine Allen, Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, Isabel Collazos, José Canziani, Solsiré Cusicanqui Marsano, Robyn Cutright, Nicole Couture, María José Culquichicón-Venegas, Amy Crum, Paul Regis Duffy, Sâm Ghavami, Luis Manuel González LaRosa, Ulla Holmquist, John Janusek, Jerry Moore, Cléa Moulin, Yumi Park, Joanne Pillsbury, Teresa E. Rosales Tham, Hoover Rojas Cabanillas, Juan Pablo Buchelli Regis, Julio Miguel Saldaña, Victor F. Vasquez Sánchez, Rick Sutter, Lisa Trever, Elsa Tomasto Cagigao, Santiago Uceda , Alexei Vranich, Melissa Lund Valle, Mary Weismantel, Juliet Wiersema and Luis Armando Muro Ynoñán. Finally, I would like to thank my family who have supported me throughout the process: Margaret Spence, Geoffrey Morrow, Austen Morrow, Juila Madill, Molly Morrow, Ivy Morrow, Lindi Masur, Sophia Southam, Jennifer Southam, Dorota Lech and Frank Cox-O’Connell, and in memory of my grandmothers Francis J Dick, Lucinda Spence, my Aunts Patricia Abraham, Valerie Morrow and my Uncle David Henry Morrow. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………..x Chapter 1: Building the Body Politic: The Architectonics of Late Moche Identity at Huaca Colorada…………………………………………………………………………………………...1 1.1 Implications of the Study and Broader Contributions of Research……………….3 1.2 Context of the study ………………………………………………………………4 1.3 Architecture as Technology of Being……………………………………………..6 1.4 Moche Place-Making in the Construction of Time and History…………………..7 1.5 The Transitional Period and Changing Ideologies of Place at Huaca Colorada…..9 1.6 Structure of the Thesis…………………………………………………………...11 Chapter 2: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations: Place-Making as Technologies of Time, Identity, and Authority……………………………………………………………………13 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………13 2.2 Emplacing Identity: Archaeological Approaches to the Built Environment…….14 2.3 Parts of the Whole: Towards a Moche Mereology………………………………18 2.4 Synecdochal Ontologies in the Andes…………………………………………...21 2.5 Andean and Moche Monuments as Cosmograms and Instruments of Political Control…………………………………………………………………………...22 vi 2.6 Spatial Analysis, Space Syntax and Visibility Analysis of Huaca Colorada and Architectural Representations……………………………………………………24 2.7 Visibility analysis in fully three-dimensional spaces…………………………….26 Chapter 3: The Moche of the Jequetepeque Valley in Historical Context………………………30 3.1 Introduction:……………………………………………………………………. .30 3.2 Environmental and Economic Context:………………………………………….30 3.3 Defining the Moche……………………………………………………………...34 3.4 Jequetepeque before the Late Moche Period…………………………………….35 3.5 Moche Religious Ecumene and Spatial Ideologies ……………………………...38 3.6 The Moche of the Jequetepeque Valley………………………………………….45 3.7 Southern Jequetepeque and previous work in the Cañoncillo Archaeological Complex………………………………………………………………………….51 3.8.8 Recent Excavations of the Jatanca-Huaca Colorada-Tecapa Archaeological Project:…………………………………………………………………………...53 Chapter 4: The Architectonic Biography of Huaca Colorada……………………………………55 4.1 Setting of Huaca Colorada……………………………………………………….55 4.2 Sectors of Huaca Colorada……………………………………………………….58 4.3 Methodology……………………………………………………………………..63 4.3.1 Excavation strategy, architectural mapping and recording methods ……63 4.3.2 Surface Survey…………………………………………………………...64 4.3.3 Geophysical Prospection…………………………………………………65 4.3.4 Photography and Photogrammetric Documentation……………………..66 vii 4.4 Excavations at Huaca Colorada………………………………………………………….67 4.4.1 Summary of Excavation Campaigns in Sector B of Huaca Colorada between 2008-2018……………………………………………………67 4.4.2 Limits of Excavation within Sector B……………………………………72 4.4.3 Synopsis of the Functional Areas of Sector