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Ecological variation and early village organization in formative cusco, peru: a GIS-based approach

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Brown, Matthew T., Weinberg, Camille, Payntar, Nicole D., Tsesmeli, Lia, Larsen, Leah, Covey, R. Alan·2025·Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
DOI 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105383
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Abstract

We utilize GIS to analyze regional settlement survey data to understand the transition to agropastoral village life in the Cusco region of highland Peru during the Late Formative Period (600 BCE − 200 CE) and long-term success of settlements on the landscape. We model cost catchment areas within 1, 2, and 4 h of travel from each of the eight largest Formative villages in the study region. We take into consideration the different ecozones each of these communities would have access to as well as the amount of potentially arable farmland within each catchment. To examine relationships between village locations and accessibility to other Formative settlements, we quantify the sites within each travel area and examine portions of the landscape where areas overlap. We also model viewsheds and cumulative visibility for each settlement to consider how visibility of the surrounding landscape and neighboring communities might have informed the selection and growth of certain sites. These data highlight 4 clusters or zones of interaction within the study region where established villages differ in terms of their accessibility, proximity, and overlap to smaller villages: 1) the Xaquixaguana Basin around Lake Huaypo, 2) the Chit’apampa Basin, 3) the transverse valleys to the north of the Sacred Valley, and 4) the Sacred Valley. Although we cannot presume the contemporaneity and continuous occupation of all settlements throughout the Late Formative Period, these data provide testable archaeological hypotheses as to how early villagers navigated different local landscapes as they developed agropastoral subsistence strategies, and how their social interactions shaped the coalescence of permanent villages. Some of these settlements grew to be significantly larger and continued to be occupied in subsequent periods, suggesting that the proximity and placement of sites on these landscapes influenced occupational trajectories and regional sociopolitics. Ultimately, we conclude that large sites settled in areas with access to arable farmland to cultivate maize and that had reduced risk of frost continued to be occupied past the Formative. Our results highlight the utility of synchronic analyses of survey data to generate testable hypotheses about long-term settlement continuity in ecologically diverse regions.

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Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Albarracín-Jordan, 1990, vol. 1
  2. Bauer, 2022, The settlement history of the Lucre Basin (Cusco, Peru), Andean past, 13, 149
  3. Delgado González, 2019, Bandojan: una aldea formative en la Pampa de Jaquijahuana (Anta, Cusco), Qillqana: Revista Arqueológica Del Cusco, 1, 7
  4. Delgado González, 2016, La relación a finales del período Horizonte temprano e Intermedio Temprano en Conventomoqo, Valle del Cusco, Arqueología y Sociedad, 32, 517
  5. Delgado González, 2023, Las ocupaciones temporales de los asentamientos domésticos del período Formativo Tardío en el Cusco, Perú. Chungará, 55, 463
  6. McEwan, 1995, Archaeology of the Chokepukio site: an investigation of the origin of the Inca civilization in the Valley of Cuzco, Peru: a report on the 1994 field season, Tawantinsuyu: International Journal of Inka Studies, 1, 11
  7. Mohr Chávez, 1980, The Archaeology of Marcavalle, an Early Horizon Site in the Valley of Cuzco, Peru (Part 1), Baessler Archiv. Beiträge Zur Volkerkunde Berlin, 28, 203
  8. Tripcevich, Nicholas., 2009. Cost-Distance Analysis. http://mapaspects.org/courses/gis-andanthropology/workshop-2009-viewshed-and-cost-distance/ii-cost-distance-2009.

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Authors
Brown, M. T., Weinberg, C., Payntar, N. D., Tsesmeli, L., Larsen, L., & Covey, R. A.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • The University of Texas at Austin (US)
  • New Mexico Department of Transportation (US)
Corresponding author
Brown, Matthew T.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2025-11
Volume
67
Pages
105383
ISSN
2352-409X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105383
OpenAlex
W4414038404
Cited by
0
References
38
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
Journal of Archaeological Science Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Geographic Society
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (RZ-50818-07)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeological and Geological Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Archaeological Research and Protection
Keywords
Late Formative period, Cusco region, settlement patterns, village organization, catchment area, visibility analysis, landscape archaeology, maize cultivation, frost risk, arable farmland, Sacred Valley, settlement continuity, ecozones

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