Early Ceremonial and Monumental Architecture in the Central Andes

The emergence of social complexity in the central Andes was characterized by the presence of large and elaborated buildings of ritual nature throughout the region. In an almost 3,000-year time span (from 3000 to 200 BC), ritual/ceremonial architecture had a developmental sequence that included changes in scale, spatial organization, territorial scope, and associated iconography. These changes allow the evaluation of the sociopolitical dynamics that characterized the early times of Andean complex societies. Extended networks of ritual buildings scattered in different valleys characterized the beginnings of the sequence, with an emphasis on buildings' scale in some regions. Later, a more centralized spatial organization, with main buildings within larger complexes, suggests the increase of political centralization. This is reinforced during the first millennium BC, when buildings were smaller but more elaborated and used to appear as single or paired ceremonial centers for entire valleys or regions. The sequence ends when, due to political disaggregation, the central Andes is, again, characterized by extended networks of small (and sometimes fortified) ritual buildings.