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Proceedings of the British Academy, 173, 133159. The British Academy 2012.

6

Central Andean Language Expansion andthe Chavn Sphere of Interaction

RICHARD L. BURGER

Introduction

The issue of language has rarely been raised in the study of the Chavn culture

by contemporary archaeologists so it is not surprising that the role of the

Chavn phenomenon in the expansion of Andean languages has rarely been

discussed. The Boasian injunction that culture, race, and language should notbe conflated has continued to shape the attitudes of archaeologists nearly a

century after its initial formulation. This is true despite the strong link that

existed between historical linguistics and archaeology at the beginning of

Peruvian archaeology. Ernst Middendorf ([1891] 1959), one of the precursors

of scientific archaeology, was already speculating about the history of Aymara

and Quechua in 1891 and Max Uhle, the first archaeologist to create a coherent

synthesis of Peruvian prehistory, wrote his doctoral dissertation on historical

linguistics and later wrote about the origins of Aymara (Uhle 1910; Cerrn-

Palomino 1998). Similarly, Julio C. Tello, a native Quechua speaker, studied

and published on Arawak and often reflected on issues of native language and

its relation to archaeology (Tello 1913, 1917).

In sharp contrast to these ancestral figures, most archaeologists todayknow little about historical linguistics. This reflects the general history of

archaeology in the Americas. While John H. Rowe felt a responsibility to

teach and undertake research in all of the subfields in anthropology, and

made scholarly contributions to the history of Quechua, there are few if any

contemporary archaeologists with comparable breadth (Rowe 1950, 1953, see

also 1954). Rowes initial training in the Classics provided a strong foundation

for his linguistic efforts, but backgrounds of this kind are increasingly scarce

among the younger generations. The steady decline in linguistic competence

among anthropological archaeologists is in part a result of a reduction in

emphasis on the four-field approach in the anthropological departments at

research universities in the United States. In Peru, the disciplinary independence

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134 Richard Burger

of archaeology from anthropology at most universities has had a comparable

impact.

In contemporary Andean archaeology, the widespread conviction that

language can only be linked to prehistory at great risk has discouraged many

from acquiring the linguistic expertise they would need to do this effectively.

In contrast, in the Mesoamerican area the ongoing efforts to translate Mayan,Oaxacan, and other glyphic inscriptions has encouraged archaeologists to

become involved in native languages and an active discussion of prehistoric

language distribution and dissemination is ongoing in a way that it is not in

the central Andes (e.g. Campbell and Kaufman 1976; Justeson and Kaufman

1993). A conspicuous exception to this generalization is the work of the late

Alfredo Torero, who repeatedly attempted to link language expansion to pre-

historic cultural developments (Torero 1974, 1984). Although Torero was a

historical linguist trained in France, he was influenced by archaeological

research in his writings. Despite his best efforts, most archaeologists were slow

to accept or even consider his conclusions and his work is rarely cited in the

archaeological literature.

Fortunately, historical linguists such as Rodolfo Cerrn-Palomino (2000,2003), W. Adelaar, Peter Muysken, Ibico Rojas, Gary Parker, and others have

continued their studies of the distribution and diversity of native Andean

languages, albeit largely without input from the archaeological community.

At the same time, the decline in processual archaeology and the emer-

gence of a diversity of theoretical perspectives sometimes glossed as post-

processual archaeology produced a new consensus that some questions about

the past are so important or interesting that it is worth discussing them even

if they are resistant to a conventional scientific approach. The efforts to

broaden the archaeology of the twenty-first century to include issues of cos-

mology, gender, and other subjects apart from subsistence has created an

atmosphere in which a reconsideration of language in prehistory is much less

shocking than it would have been several decades ago. Moreover, the cultural

history of the ancient Andes is much more advanced now than it was in Uhles

or Rowes time so the potential for addressing issues of language expansion

has been improved.

Language Expansion in the Central Andes:The Current Assumptions

The symposium that gave rise to the current volume was inspired by the col-

laboration between a linguist, Paul Heggarty, and an archaeologist, David

Beresford-Jones (Heggarty and Beresford-Jones 2010). They, in turn, wereinspired by the pioneering efforts of Colin Renfrew who revisited the relation-

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ship between archaeology and linguistics to help solve the puzzle of Indo-

European origins (Renfrew 1987; see also Bellwood 2005). As a result of their

review of the Andean literature, Heggarty and Beresford-Jones have reached

a set of basic conclusions that were the starting point for the symposium and

are presumed in this contribution to be more or less correct.

As noted elsewhere in the volume, Heggarty and Beresford-Jones believethat two unrelated language families, Aymara and Quechua, are broadly dis-

tributed today in the central Andes because of two major prehistoric lan-

guage expansions, and that these expansions must be explained in terms of

powerful, expansive demographic, cultural, and political forces. The bases for

positing the two expansions have been established by earlier studies of con-

temporary speakers of native languages, historical documents, and toponyms.

Based on the diversity in these two language families, it is inferred by Heggarty

and Beresford-Jones that the depth of Quechua or Aymara is comparable

with just the very last generation of Indo-European. That is, diversity within

each family is of the same order of magnitude as that of Romance lan-

guagesindeed, if anything, slightly less (Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

2010: 172). Thus, in neither of the two language families are there divergencesthat can plausibly have begun more than three thousand years ago.

Heggarty and Beresford-Jones further argue that each of the two major

language families, Aymara and Quechua, was initially disseminated by a sin-

gle continuous expansion from its original homeland (Heggarty and Beresford-

Jones 2010: fig. 2). In the case of Aymara, this first expansion spread Central

Aymara through northern, central, and south-central Peru; a later expansion

of Aymara into the Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia was responsible for what is

now known as Southern Aymara. In the Heggarty and Beresford-Jones model,

the initial expansion of Quechua resulted in the Continuous Zone of Quechua

as well as the northern Peruvian outposts of Quechua; later expansions

probably in Inca and colonial times are seen as producing more distant

Quechua varieties such as those in Bolivia and Argentina. The idea of two

overlapping language dispersals is not new; for example, the distribution of

Aymara toponyms was noted by Max Uhle in the Ica Valley along with the

Quechua toponyms found in the same drainage (Cerrn-Palomino 1998).

In the formulation of Heggarty and Beresford-Jones, the spread of

Aymara is believed to have preceded the expansion of Quechua. This conclu-

sion is based on multiple lines of linguistic evidence including language diver-

sity, language remodelling, and other factors outside my critical purview as an

archaeologist. Unfortunately, they are unable to determine with precision

when the Aymara expansion occurred, since they reject the claims that glot-

tochronology can be used to assign absolute or rough calendar dates to such

occurrences. Rather, Heggarty and Beresford-Jones believe that they can

provide rough approximations of time-depth (orders of magnitude) by

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136 Richard Burger

comparing the Andean phenomena with better-known cases elsewhere in the

world, such as the expansion and differentiation of Romance languages in the

Old World. The conclusion they reach is that a long chronology for Aymara

would locate its dispersal some time in the period that spans the beginning of

the Early Horizon to the early/mid-Early Intermediate Period. In contrast,

the long chronology estimates for Quechua place it between the mid-EarlyHorizon and the beginning of the Middle Horizon. Thus, if Aymara was the

first of the two language dispersals it may well have occurred during the Early

Horizon. This raises the question of whether the Chavn phenomenon, some-

times known as the Chavn Horizon or the Chavn sphere of interaction,

could have created the conditions for this unprecedented language expansion.

It is this possibility that I will explore in this chapter.

The Chavn Horizon and Language Dispersal:Temporal and Geographical Considerations

When Julio C. Tello (1942) suggested that Chavn provided the cultural matrix

from which all later Andean cultures developed, little was known about the

nature of Chavn culture and even less about the antecedents of this famous

highland centre of civilization. Fortunately, these chronological challenges

have been gradually overcome with excavations of early sites on the coast,

highlands and eastern slopes, and the development of ceramic and other

artefact-based relative chronologies. The introduction of radiocarbon dating

has likewise made an enormous difference in chronological control, although

the vagaries of calibration and the unfortunate presence of the Hallstatt

Plateau in the middle of the Early Horizon have complicated as well as

clarified the present understanding (Higham and Higham 2009: 137; van der

Plicht 2004: 45; Zietseva et al. 2005: 99). In any case, the current state of

knowledge of Chavn and its antecedents is significantly more advanced than

it was in Tellos time or even twenty years ago.

One of the most striking discoveries in recent decades has been that many

of the cultural elements that characterize the Chavn de Huntar centre have

their antecedents along the coast and, to a lesser degree, in the highlands dur-

ing the Initial Period in the second millennium BC. In some cases, antecedents

stretch back even further into the Late Pre-Ceramic Period during the third

millennium BC. This process is best documented for elements of the architec-

tural and artistic style that were synthesized and transformed into the

distinctive cultural elements of Chavn (Williams 1985; Burger 1992; Burger

and Salazar 2008). Nonetheless, as the Late Pre-Ceramic and Initial Period

cultures responsible for these antecedents are studied in greater detail, it hasbecome increasingly apparent that these pre-Chavn cultures were quite

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provincial. Their economies were based on localized subsistence practices and

exchange was limited, usually consisting of items coming from ecologically

complementary sections of the same drainage. For example, in the Lurn

Valley drainage, communities on the shoreline had close ties with agricultur-

alists in the lower valleys who, in turn, had links with farmers in the sheltered

chaupiyunga(middle valley) environment and even more tenuous connectionsto rainfall agriculturalists in the upper valley. Almost all of their food and

tools could be produced without contact beyond the limits of the drainage

(Burger and Makowski 2009).

This pattern is worth highlighting because the heavily publicized investi-

gations at the Late Pre-Ceramic centre of Caral in the middle Supe Valley

have led some to presume a degree of pan-regional interaction that simply is

not reflected in the artefacts and ecofacts recovered at the site (Shady 2006).

Moreover, investigations in neighbouring valleys of the north-central coast

(Norte Chico) suggest comparable coeval developments to those in Supe; this

research undermines models in which Carals political or economic domina-

tion is posited to extend beyond its own drainage (Haas and Creamer 2006).

On the central coast in the lower Chilln Valley, there are two Late Pre-Ceramic centres with monumental architecture, El Paraso in the lower valley

and Buena Vista in the middle valley, but they differ radically from each other

and neither looks anything like Caral. These recent findings reinforce the

impression of limited interaction between small autonomous polities even

within a single drainage (Quilter 1985; Benfer et al. 2010). The Kotosh

Religious Tradition in the northern highlands of Peru might seem to provide

a better case of pan-regional development, but beyond elements of shared

ceremonial behaviour and architecture, the societies involved seem to have

remained relatively provincial and small in scale (Burger 1992: 4553).

The surge in monumental architecture along the coast during the second

millennium BCby the Initial Period cultures of the central, north-central, and

north coast has only begun to be appreciated over the past twenty-five years

(Burger 1985). Many of these constructions, such as Sechn Alto in the Casma

Valley or San Jacinto in the Chancay Valley, dwarf Chavn de Huntar in

scale, and some scholars prematurely assumed that Chavn de Huntar was

merely one more example of a wider phenomenon of monumental centres

constructed as agriculture advanced and populations increased (T. Pozorski

and S. Pozorski 1987). Yet the excavations at these physically large centres

produced assemblages suggesting that these civic-ceremonial centres were of

importance largely or solely within their particular drainage, but had little

impact beyond it (S. Pozorski and T. Pozorski 1987, 2008). In Casma, multi-

ple centres, each with pyramid complexes of impressive scale, suggested the

presence of two or more polities, while the investigations in Lurn on the

central coast suggested that each of the eight U-shaped pyramid complexes in

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138 Richard Burger

the valley may have served as the centre of a small autonomous polity (Burger

and Salazar 2008; Burger and Makowski 2009). At these Initial Period coastal

centres, the absence of clear craft specialization and other indices of a strongly

stratified society with a well-developed elite contrasts with the impression

made by the monumental scale of the architecture. This apparent paradox

becomes more intelligible when one realizes that many, and perhaps all, of themassive centres were the result of the accumulation of centuries of construction.

It now appears that the first pan-regional transformation of the central

Andes occurs during the first millennium BCwith emergence of the Chavn

sphere of interaction. If radiocarbon dates are calibrated, this phenomenon

began around 1000 BCand continued until roughly 300 BC. Unfortunately, the

Hallstatt Plateau occurs between 800 and 400 BCand radiocarbon dates that

fall within this span are especially unreliable (van der Plicht 2004; Zietseva et

al. 2005; Higham and Higham 2009). Nonetheless, judging from available

C14 measurements, the Chavn phenomenon appears to begin some two cen-

turies before the Hallstatt Plateau and continues at least a century after it.

Thus, in terms of absolute chronology, the current dating of Chavn fits well

with the Heggarty and Beresford-Jones estimates for the initial expansion ofthe Aymara language family.

Much has been written about the Chavn Horizon and it would be

impractical to review all the evidence here. Yet it is important to emphasize

that this phenomenon is complex and involves a host of ideological, eco-

nomic, and social forces (Burger 1988, 1992, 1993, 2008). These include (1)

the spread of a religious cult perhaps in the form of branch oracles through

much of the Peruvian highlands and coast; (2) the emergence of a pattern of

pilgrimage from the coast, highlands and eastern slopes to the centre at Chavn

de Huntar; (3) the growth of the civic-ceremonial centre of Chavn de

Huntar into a proto-urban centre extending over 50 hectares with several

thousand residents; (4) an increase in the long-distance trade throughout the

sphere of interaction facilitated by the use of llama caravans; (5) the emergence

of sociopolitical elites at Chavn de Huntar and other politically autono-

mous centres such as Kuntur Wasi and Pacopampa, and the forging of peer-

polity interaction between these elites, probably through gift exchange and

marriage; (6) the spread of metallurgical, textile, and other new technologies,

some of which were associated with the production of elite emblems or cult

paraphernalia; and (7) the adoption of shared ceramic shapes and decoration

by groups distant from Chavn de Huntar that previously had produced dis-

tinctive local pottery styles. Some scholars who are familiar primarily with the

archaeological record from the north coast fail to appreciate the revolution-

ary impact of the Chavn sphere of interaction because their research focuses

on areas outside it. Moreover, the emphasis that these investigators place on

building scale and particular architectural features leads them to overlook or

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underestimate the radical changes that occurred in social organization and

long-distance interaction during the Early Horizon (e.g. Pozorski and Pozorski

2008; Haas 2010).

While the temporal duration of the Chavn sphere of interaction seems to

fit well with the postulated expansion of Central Aymara during the Early

Horizon, the possibility was also contemplated by Heggarty and Beresford-Jones that a long chronology of the expansion might fit with terminal Early

Horizon and early Early Intermediate Period dates. This theoretical possibil-

ity, however, seems to find little support in the archaeological record. In

reaction to the collapse of Chavn de Huntar and the other centres of the

Chavn sphere of interaction, there was an apparent increase in violence and

decrease in long-distance exchange in most parts of central and northern

Peru. Most cultural groups became increasingly distinctive as they sought to

distance themselves from their neighbours, and thus began the pattern of cul-

tural diversity that characterizes the Early Intermediate Period. Fortunately,

there has been a wave of research on many of these cultures and it would not

be an exaggeration to say that there was surprisingly little interaction between

them. Thus, the major Recuay centre of Yayno near Pomabamba had little ifany contact with coastal cultures such as Moche or Lima (George Lau,

personal communication). Similarly, despite our greatly increased sample of

early Nazca and early Moche cultural remains of Perus south and north

coast, there is almost no evidence of exchange or communication between the

two. This is not to say that long-distance exchange or communication disap-

pears completely, but there is a sharp diminution in pan-regional interaction

and cultural (or economic) integration when compared with the early or

middle Early Horizon.

The geographical extension of the Chavn sphere of interaction remains

incompletely understood, but recent research has confirmed that it reached

Colld in the Lambayeque drainage on the far north coast, Pacopampa in the

northern Cajamarca highlands, and Huayurco near Jaen on the forested

eastern slopes near the Ecuadorian border (Ignacio Alva, personal communi-

cation; Seki et al. 2006, Ryan Clasby, personal communication). The southern

limits of the Chavn sphere have likewise been extended as the result of recent

work over the past decade. The investigations by Reindel, Isla, and Kaulicke

have documented Chavn influence in an early Paracas component in the

Nasca drainage (Isla and Reindel 2006). As in Ica, it includes incontestable

Chavn iconographic and stylistic elements in both its pottery and textiles.

Similarly, the work of Yuichi Matsumoto (personal communication) and Yuri

Cavero has unearthed a major Chavn temple above the town of Vilcashuamn,

100 km south of the modern town of Ayacucho. This U-shaped temple

complex includes not only a cut stone portal resembling Chavn, but also a

rectangular sunken plaza and a stone-lined gallery similar to the ones in

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140 Richard Burger

Chavn de Huntar. Its ritual paraphernalia has features that are similar and

in at least one case identical to ceremonial items found at Chavn de Huntar.

Interestingly, Chavn influence on temple architecture and iconography pre-

dates the adoption of Chavn-related stylistic features into the local pottery

style. The location of Campanayuq Rumi is understandable given the loca-

tion of the main quarry of Chavn de Huntar obsidian, the Quispisisasource, which has been located nearly 100 km south of Vilcashuamn (Burger

and Glascock 2000). Thus far no evidence of the Chavn sphere of interac-

tion has been encountered further to the south in Apurimac or Cuzco. It

should be emphasized, however, that even within the core area the Chavn

sphere of interaction was not continuous or fixed in extent. There seem to be

some areas in Peru, such as the northern highland region of Otuzco-

Huamachuco-Santiago de Chuco, that resisted participation in this network,

while there are others, such as the lower valleys of Santa, Casma, and Nepea

that initially participated in the Chavn sphere of interaction during the

late Initial Period/early Early Horizon but later withdrew from it and

developed a radically different cultural pattern during the mid-Early Horizon

(Proulx 1985; Burger 1993; Chicoine 2006). Despite the complexities of thisdistributional pattern, it can be seen as potentially compatible with the initial

expansion of Central Aymara (Heggarty and Beresford-Jones, personal

communication).

The temptation of strong hypotheses of language dispersals

Despite the possible correlation of the Chavn sphere of interaction with the

initial expansion of Central Aymara in terms of time and space, a conundrum

remains for the Heggarty and Beresford-Jones framework. As their publica-

tion (2010) and subsequent position paper in this volume make clear, they

believe that language expansion must be explained in terms of a limited

number of powerful demographic, cultural, and political forces, and as the

ultimate explanation, they favour an agriculturelanguage dispersal model;

for the central Andes during the Early Horizon they believe that this con-

sisted of a maize-based agricultural package. Although they recognize that

maize seems to have been introduced relatively late into the central Andean

diet, they argue that it provided a necessary component in the coming together

of a particular package that could propel language expansion on great demo-

graphic and territorial scales (Heggarty and Beresford Jones 2010: 189). They

confidently state, Only around the beginning of the Early Horizon, we argue,

was this [agricultural] threshold finally crossed, thanks above all to the full

incorporation of a cereal crop [maize] at last. The problem is that the available

archaeological evidence suggests that maize was not a dietary staple within

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the Chavn sphere of interaction nor does it seem to have been the crucial

missing component in the early diet of the Peruvian coast or highlands.

Heggarty and Beresford-Jones recognize that their view does not fit well

with the current consensus among Andean archaeologists, but they claim that

this is due to a bias by Andeanists in the interpretation of the available data.

They assert that An imbalance remains in how Andeanists perceive therespective significance of maize and tubers in feeding Andean populations

through prehistory, an imbalance that rests more on ideological dogma than

on actual archaeolobotanical evidence (Heggarty and Beresford-Jones 2010:

suppl. A, 6). Unfortunately, while the rhetoric of this statement is compelling,

it is also misleading. As they note, the eminent anthropologist John Murra

wrote an influential essay in which he argued that a diet of high-altitude

tubers and grains provided the staple for highland populations during Inca

times and that maize was a ceremonial crop whose dietary importance had

been exaggerated by the Spanish chroniclers (Murra 1960).

Over the past decade Murras position, based on a critical reading of

Spanish historical documents and a detailed knowledge of modern Andean

ethnography, has been undermined by a series of bone chemistry studiesfocusing on stable carbon ratios in archaeological samples from Junin (Hastorf

1990, Hastorf and Johannessen 1993, 1994), Ancash (Burger and Van der

Merwe 1990), and Cuzco (Burger et al. 2003). These studies conclude that

maize was the dietary staple in these three different portions of the Inca

Empire. Hastorf and others have also argued that changing settlement

patterns and infrastructural modifications support the hypothesis that the

Inca grew maize as the staple crop of Tawantinsuyu. A dramatic example of

this process has been documented in historical research on the Cochabamba

Basin (Wachtel 1982). It should be noted that none of the cited investigators

had difficulty in rejecting the ideological dogma touted by Heggarty and

Beresford-Jones given the unambiguous evidence. For example, a study of the

bone chemistry of human bones from Machu Picchu concludes:

The results from Machu Picchu, particularly seen in association with those from

Jauja and Waman Wain, all suggest that under Inca administration maize was

much more than a ritual crop of great prestige. It seems to have become the

main staple of the diet, overshadowing the potato and other native Andean C3

foodstuffs. The dominance of maize in everyday life seems to have been wide-

spread in the central Andes during the Late Horizon.

(Burger et al. 2003: 1356)

If there is a persistent strain of ideological dogma that continues to influence

Andean archaeology, it is the presumed association of maize with early

Andean civilization. This idea has been popular for more than half a century,

long before it could be evaluated with archaeological evidence (e.g. Collier

1961). The impression that maize must have had a crucial role in the spread of

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142 Richard Burger

early Andean civilization seems to derive, in part, from the traditional view of

the central role that maize played in the diet of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican

civilization, as well as the crucial role of cereals in the agricultural systems of

Old World civilizations (Burger and Van der Merwe 1990). But the dietary

situation in the central Andes was fundamentally dissimilar from that in

Mesoamerica and the Old World. There was a wide range of food cropsavailable for consumption as a result of a long process of domestication of

native cultigens on the coast and in the highlands and tropical forest (Pearsall

1992, 2008). In the central Andes, these foods, high in nutrition and caloric

yield, were supplemented by the protein-rich meat of marine animals and

domesticated mammals.

In the case of the Chavn sphere of interaction that is under discussion, it

appears that the Early Horizon diet in the highlands was dominated by native

high-altitude tubers (such as potatoes [Solanum tuberosum], oca [Oxalis tube-

rosa], and ullucu [Ullucus tuberosus]; high-altitude pseudo-cereals (such as

quinoa [Chenopodium quinoa] and kiwicha [Amaranthus caudatus]), and

lupines (tarwi [Lupinusmutabilis]), all native crops naturally adapted to the

high elevations and steep slopes of the Andes. A major source of proteinduring the Early Horizon was the meat of two large domesticated animals,

the llama and the alpaca, creatures that were likewise well adapted to the high

grassland (or puna) of Peru that usually begins at 3800 masl. On the coast,

there was a wide range of crops rich in carbohydrates and other nutritional

requirements that were better adapted to lower elevations and these domi-

nated the diet; many of them had originally been domesticated in the

Amazonian drainage, on the forested eastern slopes of the Andes, or even in

the highlands, but they grew successfully in the irrigated lands of the middle

and coastal valleys. These crops included sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas),

manioc (Manihot esculenta), achira (Canna edulis), potatoes, peanuts (Arachis

hypogaea), various varieties of squash (Cuburbita ficifolia, Cucurbita maxima,

Cucurbita maschata), several kinds of beans (Canavalia plagiosperma,

Phaseolus lunatus, Phaseolus vulgaris), and many types of fruits including

guava (Psidiumgua java), pacae (Inga feuillei), cherimoya (Annona cherimolia)

and avocado (Persea americana) (Pozorski 1983; S. Pozorski and T. Pozorski

1987; Pearsall 1992, 2008). Thanks to the excellent conditions for preserva-

tion in the arid conditions of the Peruvian coast, macrobotanical examples of

most of these crops have been recovered in the refuse in substantial numbers

(e.g. Cohen 1979; Pozorski 1983). Tubers and root crops are underrepresented

among the macrobotanical remains, although they too are sometimes encoun-

tered (Ungent et al. 1981). Fortunately, remains of these foodstuffs are well

represented in studies of starch residues in cooking vessels on the central and

north coast (Victor Vasquez, personal communication).

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144 Richard Burger

carbon isotope analysis is a technique designed to determine the relative

amounts of C4 foods consumed compared with C3 foods. In the Andes, maize

was the only C4 food in the diet because, as already noted, it was domesti-

cated from a C4 grass in subtropical Mexico. All of the other foods consumed

in the central Andes are from C3 plants (Burger and Van der Merwe 1990). In

the Lurn Valley, samples taken from well-preserved human hair at the InitialPeriod site of Mina Perdida and human bone from the Initial Period site of

Cardal all indicated that maize did not play a major role in the local diet

(Tykot et al. 2006: 18995, table 14.1). Given the evidence from Lurn and

elsewhere on the Peruvian coast, there is no need to posit that a shift to a

maize staple was needed in order to complete an agricultural package suitable

for driving demographic expansion associated with agriculture, since it can be

shown to have occurred at several places on the Peruvian coast prior to the

widespread popularity of maize.

The lack of a nutritional need for a maize staple does not mean that other

factors might not have led to its prominence as a foodstuff, as they apparently

did in Inca times, Thus, to evaluate the Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

hypothesis, it is crucial to seek out archaeological evidence to determine thescale of maize consumption during the Early Horizon within the Chavn

sphere of interaction. Given the analytical power of stable carbon isotope

analysis to address this question, particular weight should be given to such

studies as opposed to macrobotanical evidence. Fortunately, carbon isotope

analysis has now been carried out at several of the highland centres partici-

pating in this sphere: Chavn de Huntar (3,150 masl), Pacopampa (2,140

masl), and Kuntur Wasi (2,300 masl). In addition, samples from another

highland centre, Huacaloma (2,800 masl) in the Cajamarca drainage, were

analysed; this centre appears to have been more weakly linked to the Chavn

sphere of interaction than the other sites. The first samples to be studied came

from Chavn de Huntar itself. They were analysed from both the Urabarriu

Phase (1000700 cal. BC) and the Janabarriu Phase (600300 cal. BC). The

Urabarriu Phase is seen as the period of the Old Temple, while the Janabarriu

Phase corresponded to the New Temple. The samples from the Urabarriu

Phase contexts (n=4) ranged from 18.7 to 19.0 while the single sample from

the Janabarriu Phase measured 18.1. These figures imply that maize was

being consumed in small quantities, but was far from being a staple. For

example, theyanacona(lifelong retainers linked to a royal lineage) at Machu

Picchu, who had a diet emphasizing maize, yielded measurements (n=59)

with a mean of -11.9. The conclusion from the Chavn de Huntar analysis

was that maize was a secondary crop within a daily diet dominated by C4

plants such as potatoes (Burger and van der Merwe 1990).

The carbon isotopic study of Chavn de Huntar human remains raised

the question of whether maize might have played a more important role in the

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more northern highland centres in the Chavn sphere of interaction, since

their lower elevation was better suited for maize cultivation. Given this doubt,

a second study of human bones from El Mirador, an eastern residential sector

of the site of Pacopampa, was of particular interest. The samples (n=10),

taken from excavations directed by Daniel Morales in a late Initial Period

residence roughly coeval with the Urabarriu Phase, yielded measurementsranging from 18.4 to 19.6 and averaging 19.3. These results are surpris-

ingly close to those from Chavn de Huntar, despite the lower elevation and

moister climate, and they again point to the role of maize as only a secondary

crop in the Pacopampa diet (Tykot et al. 2006: 1889, 1934, table 14.1). A

third study by Yuji Seki and Minoru Yoneda (2005) found that the samples

from both early Initial Period contexts (i.e. the Early Huacaloma Phase) (n=5)

and late Initial Period contexts (i.e. Late Huacaloma) (n=6) from Huacaloma

in the Cajamarca Valley showed only minor maize consumption, with most

samples yielding numbers averaging around 23, a figure suggesting even less

maize consumption than at Pacopampa and Chavn de Huntar (Seki and

Yoneda 2005: fig. 14). At Kuntur Wasi in the upper Jequetepeque Valley, sam-

ples were analysed from three phases: the Kuntur Wasi Phase (800500 cal.BC), the Copa Phase (500250 cal. BC), and the post-Chavn Sotera Phase

(25050 cal. BC). The Kuntur Wasi Phase samples (n=8) ranged from roughly

23 to 18, while the subsequent Copa Phase samples (n=14) mainly ranged

from 23 to 18 although a single sample measured about 17. These readings

confirmed that at Kuntur Wasi maize was little more than a secondary crop

from a dietary perspective during Chavn times. As at Chavn de Huntar,

there is some indication that its consumption increased slightly over the Early

Horizon, without ever becoming a major foodstuff (Seki and Yoneda 2005:

fig.14). In summary, the carbon isotope data from three of the major centres

in the Chavn sphere of interaction suggest that maize was not the crucial

component in the agricultural system supporting this socioeconomic system.

However, the depiction of maize on fine ceramic bottles recovered from

Chavn de Huntar and Kotosh does suggest that maize had already achieved

a symbolic importance greater than its nutritional role by the late Initial

Period (Burger and Van der Merwe 1990).

The carbon isotope results on early Initial Period samples from Huacaloma

and late Pre-Ceramic samples from Huaricoto in the Callejon de Huaylas

(Burger and Van der Merwe 1990) imply that maize was already being con-

sumed, albeit at a low level, prior to the appearance of the Chavn sphere of

interaction, and thus maize cultivation in the highlands should not be

misconstrued as the result of the emergence of Chavn civilization.

The evidence presented thus far might seem sufficient to reject the maize

agricultural language dispersal hypothesis, but it is nonetheless worthwhile to

examine the evidence adduced by Heggarty and Beresford-Jones (2010, see

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146 Richard Burger

online supplement A) in support of their argument. Heggarty and Beresford-

Jones begin by making a series of unsubstantiated claims stating that maize is

more robust and variable across varied environments than are tubers; this is a

weak argument given the enormous variability of Andean tubers and their

adaptation to a wide range of environments and climatic fluctuations. While

many varieties of maize were developed in the Andes, it never achieved theremarkable diversity of potatoes (there are more than three thousand varieties

of the latter in Peru). In their efforts to indict the humble potato, the authors

blame the Irish potato famine (184552) on this supposed lack of diversity.

The authors apparently do not realize that it was the specific lack of genetic

diversity of the potatoes brought to the Old World from the Andes and grown

in Ireland that made them so vulnerable to the blight. Had the Irish main-

tained the genetic diversity characteristic of traditional Andean farming (the

International Potato Centre reports that one Aymara farmer cultivated two

thousand varieties in his fields), the blight almost certainly would not have

occurred at such dangerous levels. Ironically, Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

also repeat exaggerated claims about maizes advantages from a discredited

article by David Wilson (1981). This article attempted to prove that the mon-umental architecture of the Late Pre-Ceramic Period must have been due to a

maize-based agricultural package; this article was considered flawed at the

time it was published (see Quilter and Stocker 1983 for an insightful rebuttal).

Three decades of research has proved Wilsons argument concerning the role

of maize in the coasts Late Pre-Ceramic Period subsistence economy to be

completely in error.

The actual archaeological evidence that Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

cite to support their argument is limited and in some cases misinterpreted.

They note that in Deborah Pearsalls synthesis of early Andean agriculture

(table 7.1) maize is entirely absent until the Initial Period but then suddenly

appears as present or indeed abundant in all five Early Horizon sites listed

(Heggarty and Beresford-Jones 2010: suppl., 5). An examination of this table,

however, reveals that of the five sites listed, four date to the middle or late

Early Horizon and are located in the lower reaches of the Casma, Viru, and

Supe valleys. As noted earlier, this portion of the coast did not participate in

the Chavn sphere of interaction at this time so the popularity of maize in

these subsistence economies cannot be invoked to explain the success or

expansion of the Chavn phenomenon. The fifth site, Haldas, is shown by

Pearsall in table 7.1 as having moderately abundant maize during 1040895 BC,

but this listing is inconsistent with the excavation report cited by Pearsall (S.

Pozorski and T. Pozorski 1987). The Pozorskis unambiguously state, The

post-temple Las Haldas, Pampa Rosario, and San Diego was accompanied by

the introduction of maize to the Casma Valleynot gradually but imme-

diately (S. Pozorski and T. Pozorski 1987: 119); the post-temple occupation

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CENTRAL ANDEAN LANGUAGE EXPANSION 147

at Las Haldas is estimated to be contemporary with Pampa Rosario, which

was occupied roughly from 700 to 300 BC. Thus, the sites cited by Pearsall

demonstrate that maize did not become a popular crop in this area of the

coast until it distanced itself from the Chavn sphere of interaction.

The only other archaeological support that Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

offer for their maize agriculture language dispersal hypothesis is the statementfrom Brian Finucanes recent article Maize and sociopolitical complexity in

the Ayacucho Valley, Peru that his carbon isotope results suggest that maize

had become the single most important component of human diet in the

Ayacucho Valley by 800 BC (Finucane cited in Heggarty and Beresford-Jones

2010: 189). A close reading of Finucanes article, however, reveals that it is

based on the carbon isotope data from two cave sites, Rosamachay and

Pikimachay. Table 1 of this article indicates that only three bone samples were

run from these two caves (Finucane 2009: 538). All three of these samples

were dated directly by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The single sam-

ple from Rosamachay yielded a date of AD259423 and the two samples from

Pikimachay yielded dates of AD131323 and 806552 BC (Finucane 2009:

539). Thus according to these measurements, two of the bone samples date tothe Early Intermediate Period and can tell us nothing about the diet during

the Early Horizon. Thus the Finucane conclusion cited by Heggarty and

Beresford-Jones is based on the analysis of a single bone coming from a layer

immediately below the one containing the Early Intermediate Period sample;

moreover, this date falls within the Hallstatt Plateau and is thus even less

reliable than indicated in table 1. But even if this measurement is accurate, it

remains questionable that we can reach any conclusions on Early Horizon

diet in Ayacucho based on the remains of a single individual buried in a

remote cave. Given the sample size (n=1) and doubts about the context, it

would be wise to regard Finucanes claim about Formative maize consumption

with more than a little scepticism.

In summary, while the Chavn phenomenon had many aspects to it, no

simple correlate can be seen between Chavn and a particular agricultural

staple such as maize. On the contrary, the adoption of maize as a staple

appears to have occurred after the collapse of Chavn and the spread of irri-

gation agriculture appears to pre-date it (Burger and van der Merwe 1990;

Tykot et al.2006). Similarly, no correlation exists between the expansion ofthe Chavn sphere and a specific agricultural technology, such as irrigation. In

the case of irrigation, there is growing evidence that it pre-dates Chavn by

several millennia. Thus the Chavn phenomenon does not constitute the kind

of force of history that Heggarty and Beresford-Jones would like to use to

explain pan-regional language dispersals.

While Heggarty and Beresford-Jones have focused on the relationship

between agriculture and language spread, others have focused on other forces

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148 Richard Burger

of history such as warfare and migration. However, there is no evidence that

the expansion of the Chavn sphere of interaction was associated with warfare

or armed conquest. While warfare can be difficult to detect archaeologically,

there are various lines of evidence that can suggest its increasing importance

such as the location of sites in defensible spots, the presence of architectural

features with military advantages (concentric outer walls, parapets, blindentrances, limited points of access, etc.), weapons (e.g. mace heads, piles of

sling stones), and an increase of skeletal remains with palaeopathological

indicators of violence (Topic and Topic 1987; Arkush and Stanish 2005; Tung

2007a, 2007b). It is significant that none of these elements has been documented

within the Chavn sphere of interaction (Burger 1992: 225). In contrast, all of

these features become prominent in the centuries following the collapse of the

Chavn sphere of interaction and the abandonment of the pan-religious centre

at Chavn de Huntar. Some of these features may occur during the final

phase of Chavns decline, but only on the north-central coast, an area

marginal to the Chavn sphere (Ghezzi 2006, Topic and Topic 1978, Wilson

1988).

There is likewise no evidence of population movements associated theexpansion of Chavns influence. Rafael Larco and more recently Yoshio

Onuki suggested that the development of highland centres prominent in the

Chavn sphere might be due to migrations of coastal groups, such as those

responsible for the Cupisnique culture, and Onuki (2001) has even hypothe-

sized that some of the leaders at Kuntur Wasi could have come from the coast.

While this idea is intriguing, it is not supported by the carbon and nitrogen

measurements published for the Kuntur Wasi tombs (Seki and Yoneda 2005).

Nor do the earliest materials recovered at Chavn de Huntar suggest a coastal

origin for its population (Burger 1984). The possibility that the expansion of

Chavn elements may have been linked to population movements should be

considered, but relevant evidence is scarce. The first diachronic study of

archaeological DNA focused on the south coast of Peru, including the Paracas

Peninsula, and the Ica and Nasca drainages. This zone is relevant because it

was an important part of the Chavn sphere of interaction. Significantly,

Fehren-Schmitz et al. (2010) found no indication of population in this region

during the Early Horizon or Early Intermediate Period.

This review of the factors involved with the Chavn sphere of interaction

presents Heggarty and Beresford-Jones and like thinkers with a conundrum.

If the Chavn phenomenon provides the only viable temporal and spatial fit

for the expansion of Central Aymara, it is difficult to cling to traditional

strong explanatory hypotheses such as agricultural expansion, warfare and/

or population as the ultimate or proximate explanation for this language

expansion, since these processes are inconsistent with the archaeological

record for Chavn. If the correlation with the Chavn sphere of interaction is

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CENTRAL ANDEAN LANGUAGE EXPANSION 149

correct, it would seem to imply that other processes not usually considered by

historical linguists may have been responsible for the language expansion.

Cosmopolitanism and Language Expansion

What could the processes responsible for the language expansion have been?

It is possible to imagine a scenario in which the factors mentioned as respon-

sible for the Chavn sphere of interaction could have combined to create a

situation propitious for rapid and extensive language dispersal. Given the

history of Judaism, Islam, and Roman Catholicism, it is reasonable to posit

that the spread of a pan-regional religious cult such as Chavn could have

occurred in conjunction with that of a sacred language linked to a super-

terrestrial order of power. As Benedict Anderson observes, a sacred language

used for sacred texts and prayers, unifies peoples of different ethnic and

linguistic histories (Anderson 1991: 12). While in the case of Chavn such a

sacred language would not be linked to a particular script, it could have been

linked to complex iconographic expressions, such as those found on the

Carhua textiles (Cordy-Collins 1976; Burger 1988) These objects, like thankas

for the Tibetans, could have summarized the Chavn cosmological system

expressed in memorized and orally transmitted sacred texts. The spread of

this sacred language (let us say Central Aymara, for the sake of argument),

via religious functionaries connected with branch oracles far from Chavn,

would be reinforced by the experience of believers from these distant areas

who made the pilgrimage to the centre of Chavn de Huntar where the lan-

guage was utilized. If the use of Aymara as a sacred language was eventually

expanded to serve as a lingua franca for exchange transactions and/or social

negotiations between elites within the Chavn sphere of interaction, its impact

would have been further enhanced. Although Central Aymara may have been

introduced as a high-status language among religious specialists and the elite

in a multilingual setting, it ultimately could have become attractive to those

consciously seeking to take on a more cosmopolitan identity and thus it could

have been disseminated throughout society, particularly if it received the

support of the local elite. The hypothetical model just described is not

consistent with the models of language expansion with which we are most

familiar, but at least it is consistent with existing archaeological evidence.

Moreover, it must be acknowledged that our ideas on language dispersion are

strongly influenced by the experience of western civilization, particularly that

of recent centuries, a time period dominated by powerful and coercive nation-

states. When dealing with a language expansion that pre-dates the emergence

of powerful states and post-dates the expansion of intensive agriculture, it

may be necessary to consider new kinds of models, such as the one outlined

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150 Richard Burger

here. This explanatory bias of many historical linguists has been recognized

by Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock who has attempted to provide a more

balanced perspective by developing a comparative-historical account of the

cosmopolitanism that existed in the more distant past. Of particular interest

here is his treatment of the Sanskrit cosmopolis, a trans-regional cultural

formation that existed in most of South Asia and much of South-East Asiabetween AD300 and 1300 (Pollock 1996: 197). Beginning as a sacred language

in a sacerdotal environment, Sanskrit gradually emerged in much of this

extensive area as a public political language by which elites expressed their

power not in terms of material affairs, but in terms of aesthetic power. Thus

the spread of Sanskrit across ethnic, ecological, and linguistic borders helped

create a new kind of zone of cultural interaction, which some might name an

ecumene (Pollock 1996: 199). The dispersion of the language and the

transculturation process at work in the Sanskrit cosmopolis did not depend

on military power, the state, or legal or administrative apparatus. Pollock

writes, The creation of a linguistically homogeneous and conceptually almost

standardized form of discourse seems to have just happened as in a form of

premodern globalization. Pollock observes that the stage for this was set bythe efforts of small groups of traders, adventurers, and religious professionals.

There is no evidence that large-scale state initiatives were ever at issue or that

anything remotely resembling colonization took place. He writes, No ties of

political subservience ensued, no material dependency or exploitation, no

demographically meaningful settlements, no military conquest (Pollock 1996:

217). At its greatest extent, Sanskrit extended from todays Afghanistan to

Java and from Sri Lanka to Nepal. Pollock asks a question no less valid for

Chavn than it is for the Sanskrit cosmopolis: How do we understand the

processes by which whole social strata willingly abandon their linguistic

routines and doxa and submit altogether voluntarily to a new culture?

(Pollock 1996: 232).

Pollock contrasts the spread of Sanskrit with the spread of Latin, which

travelled as the language of a conquest state, as well as being the language of

a missionizing effort by expansive Christianity. Unlike Sanskrit, the spread of

Latin was centralized and militarized, and coercion was very much part of its

introduction. Like Latin, the Sanskrit cosmopolis was also created by action,

but not the actions of a conquest state. It was made instead by the circulation

of traders, literati, religious professionals, and freelance adventurers. Coercion,

co-option, juridical control, and even persuasion are nowhere in evidence.

Those who participated in Sanskrit cosmopolitan culture chose to do so, and

could choose to do so (Pollock 2000: 603).

There is no reason to assume that a Chavn cosmopolis would be identical

or even similar to the Sanskrit cosmopolis described by Pollock. It does, how-

ever, suggest that the conditions created by the Chavn phenomenon can be

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CENTRAL ANDEAN LANGUAGE EXPANSION 151

considered as compatible with the pan-regional or trans-regional spread of

language, first in its capacity as a sacred language linked to cosmology and

religion, and subsequently to additional roles in the culture such as elite inter-

action and the presentation of self. Two elements of Pollocks model are worth

emphasizing and linking to the Chavn case. The first is the way in which a

cosmopolitan world-view can be crucial to the process of language dispersal.The large number of foreign artefacts recovered at Chavn de Huntar

throughout the history of the temple confirms an unprecedented cosmopoli-

tan atmosphere at the site. This is exemplified by the fact that some 30 per cent

of the pottery consumed in both the temple and the surrounding settlement

appears to be of foreign origin (Druc 1998) and that many cached offerings

such as those of the Galera de los Ofrendas and the Galera de los Caracoles

are made up almost entirely of exotic materials whose points of origin span

the north coast, central coast, and eastern slopes of Peru as well as the shores

of Ecuador (Lumbreras 1993). The melding of foreign building elements and

alien iconographic styles sends precisely the same message (Burger 1992). It is

no coincidence that in one of the last known sculptural representations of

Chavns main deity (sometimes known as the Medusa Stone), he/she isdepicted holding contrasting Spondylusand Strombus shells, both native to

the warm waters off the coast of Ecuador.

The discovery that the east bank of the Mosna across from the temple was

covered by housing belonging to the sites population increases the minimum

extent of the site to some 50 hectares. This is a conservative estimate since

much of the settlement area is now buried under metres of rock and earth

from landslides. Nonetheless, my original population estimate of 2,0003,000

residents would seem even more plausible than when it was made (Burger

1984: 247). More importantly, this population shows evidence of differentia-

tion in terms of social status and occupational specialization (Burger 1984,

2008; Miller and Burger 1995). No other contemporary population centre in

Peru appears to have been as large or as complex. Thus, within its larger trans-

regional cultural setting, Chavn de Huntar would have been an unusually

large and sophisticated cosmopolitan centre where residents, pilgrims, and

traders from throughout the central Andes would have come into contact

with one another. As already noted, no comparable centres existed in the pre-

ceding Late Pre-Ceramic or Initial Period. In fact, even during the subsequent

Early Intermediate Period there is no centre that is equivalent in its cosmo-

politan breadth. While Cahuachi on the south coast and the site of Moche on

the north coast are impressive centres with massive architecture, they appear

to have served a regional rather than trans-regional audience and they embody

rather than transcend the local cultural traditions.

A second point made by Pollock that deserves further consideration is

his assertion that the Sanskrit cosmopolis expanded by the conscious and

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152 Richard Burger

voluntary decisions of local groups to move beyond their cultural traditions

anchored in local space in order to participate in a way that transcended local

geography and language. This did not necessarily involve rejection of local

traditions, but it did involve introduction of new elements and the creation of

new priorities. While this sense of willing and conscious involvement is hard

to get at archaeologically, it may be significant that during the Early Horizonthere was a widespread acceptance of Chavn ceramic stylistic elements

throughout its sphere of influence (Burger 1988, 1992, 1993). Since pottery

was usually locally produced and used primarily in household environments,

these production and consumption decisions would seem to reflect the will of

the people in a way that other classes of artefacts do not. Even in Inca times,

local household pottery in most areas was slow to incorporate Inca elements

into local styles in many of the areas that they dominated militarily and

politically (Menzel 1959; Morris and Thompson 1985). One can interpret the

ceramic patterning during the Early Horizon as reflecting a widespread

interest by local communities in participating in a broader way that tran-

scended some of the provincialism of local identities. The adoption of a new

language for use in special contexts could have been part of this process.A final aspect that must be considered is that of chronology. How long did

the Chavn phenomenon last and would this have been long enough to create

the conditions for the spread of an associated sacred language such as Central

Aymara? This question has been complicated by the numerous problematic

measurements that have come out of Chavn de Huntar as a result of the

disturbance of the central architectural core (Burger 1981) and has been

exacerbated by the problems of interpreting C14 measurements for a time

when radiocarbon was fluctuating in the atmosphere. Recent reanalysis of the

dates available from Chavn de Huntar and related sites has led me to modify

my original estimates for Chavns phases, which had been based on uncali-

brated measurements. I would now place the establishment of Chavn de

Huntar at approximately 1000 cal. BCand the abandonment of the temple

complex and associated settlement at approximately 300 cal. BC. The initial

phase of the sites occupation, the Urabarriu Phase, is estimated as lasting

from 1000 to 800 cal. BC, while the Chakinani Phase is now estimated as

running from 800 to 700 cal. BC. The Janbarriu Phase was probably longer

than originally believed and may have lasted from 700 to 300 cal. BC, with

most of its measurements falling within the Hallstatt Plateau.

There is evidence now that throughout the seven centuries of its history,

the Chavn centre had vibrant links with groups ranging from the northern

highlands of Cajamarca, the eastern slopes of Jan and the far northern

shores of Lambayeque to the southern highlands of Ayacucho and the adja-

cent shores of the Nasca drainage. In summary, the time-scale and the spatial

scale for the Chavn phenomenon, while less massive than that for Latin or

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CENTRAL ANDEAN LANGUAGE EXPANSION 153

Sanskrit, is long enough and large enough to explain the dispersal of one of

the major central Andean languages. I agree with Heggarty and Beresford-

Jones that no comparable trans-regional phenomenon occurred either before

or immediately after the Early Horizon.

Archaeology, Language Dispersals, and Hypothesis Evaluation

I support the general effort of studying language dispersals through the

collaboration of archaeology and historical linguistics, and that the forces of

history should be examined to explain the timing and extent of these dispersals.

And while some archaeologists may feel uncomfortable with my efforts to

accommodate the archaeological record to the proposed linguistic model, I

have done so in the hope that this and other similar efforts will stimulate

future efforts to evaluate the model offered here. The role of toponym studies

will be crucial for testing the model, and the need for more detailed topo-

nymic studies in all of the coastal and highland valleys cannot be overstated,

particularly given the ongoing disruption in traditional farming and knowl-

edge of the landscape. If Chavn was the source for the dispersal of Central

Aymara (or Quechua) it should be reflected in the patterns of where Aymara

and Quechua toponyms do and do not appear. Similarly, additional detailed

studies of divergence within the different languages in the Aymara and

Quechua language families are crucial, particularly if they can be linked to

the toponymic investigations.

Chavn was not a homogeneous phenomenon. Some areas, such as the

highlands between Quiruvilca and Cajamarca, never appear to have partici-

pated in it (Burger 1992, Perez 1998); presumably these areas should show a

distinct pattern of Aymara toponyms from those areas that were incorporated

into the Chavn ecumene or cosmopolis. Similarly, many of the lower coastal

valleys between Viru and Huarmey, particularly Casma and Nepea, initially

played an important role in the Chavn sphere at sites such as Cerro Blanco

and Huaca Partida, but the populations of this area ultimately opted out of

it after 700 cal. BC (Proulx 1985; Burger 1993; Chicone 2006; Ikehara and

Shibata 2008). Once again, this might be expected to have an impact on the

dispersal of language and be reflected in the distribution of Aymara toponyms.

Finally, as the northern and southern limits of the Chavn sphere of inter-

action (or Chavn ecumene or Chavn cosmopolis) become clearer, we should

expect equivalent fissures in the way that the posited major Andean language

expanded and diversified. In the north, it might be expected that Aymara

toponyms should reach a porous frontier running from Lambayeque to

Pacopampa to Jan, and then they should notably diminish. Similarly, in the

south, we would expect the distribution of Central Aymara toponyms to

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154 Richard Burger

reach a porous frontier running roughly from the Nasca drainage to the

southern Ayacucho highlands. Obviously, diverse historical factors including

depopulation and recolonization might have impacted the survival of topo-

nyms, but these forces of history can be taken into consideration in the critical

evaluation of local toponymic patterns. Following the collapse of the Chavn

world at the end of the Early Horizon, most areas drew in on themselves. Anincrease in violence has been reported in many areas along with a sharp drop

in exotic items being consumed during this period that lasted from approxi-

mately 300 BCto AD200. In some cases, local pottery styles reasserted them-

selves, and in other cases new simpler styles were introduced to replace the

international Chavn style. The period between AD200 and 700 is likewise a

period of relatively insular cultural development in much of Peru (Lau 2006:

162). In cultures such as Nazca, Lima, Moche, Recuay, and Cajamarca, this

expressed itself in only limited long-distance movement and exchange focused

on the immediate area or region. These centuries spanning the terminal Early

Horizon and Early Intermediate Period might be expected to have fomented

differentiation in the language that had expanded as part of the Chavn

phenomenon.When the linguistic data are evaluated in relation to the archaeological

evidence, how good is the fit? If it is poor, the possibility that the archaeology

is incomplete or misunderstood should be considered before rejecting the

linguistic dispersal model. For example, if Central Aymara toponyms occur

on the coast to the south of Nazca, the possibility should be contemplated

that the Chavn sphere of interaction expanded into this area. This possibility

has never been intensively studied, and therefore cannot be ruled out. I provide

this hypothetical example in part to suggest how the interaction between

historical linguistics and archaeology could lead to valuable archaeological

fieldwork in the future. While the current efforts at explaining major language

dispersals in the Andes may be frustrating, it is important to remember that

these hesitant and awkward initial first steps will hopefully stimulate a new

wave of research that will yield the evidence necessary for a fuller and more

compelling explanation of the prehistoric spread of Aymara and Quechua.

Without engaging in this discourse, it is likely that the current pattern of

benign neglect of this important subject will continue into the twenty-first

century.

Note. Special thanks to Barney Bate for exposing me to the work of Sheldon Pollock,

to Jason Nesbitt, Jeffrey Quilter, and Lucy Salazar for helping me refine my ideas on

this topic, and to Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones for their editorial and

administrative efforts and stimulating ideas. I dedicate this to the memory of the

pioneering historical linguist Alfredo Torero.

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