ANDEAN CIVILIZATION

the complex of American Indian cultures that evolved in the Andean region of western South America prior to the Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. In its level of cultural development, this civilization, along with the comparable Meso-American civilization to the north, constitutes a New World counterpart to those of ancient Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia. Andean civilization spread along the Pacific coast and inland into the high Andes in what are now Peru, Ecuador, western Bolivia, and extreme northern Chile. Dates as early as 15,000 BC have been postulated for the arrival of humans in the Andes region. The oldest primary food crops used by these people were the lima bean and the potato, though corn (maize) appeared soon after the beginning of settled village life. There is ample evidence of lowland occupation by 3500 BC. About that time, in what is known as the Preceramic Period, beans, squash, chili peppers, and cotton were domesticated. Fishing provided sustenance and by 2500 BC supported permanent settlements along the arid Pacific coast. The appearance of elaborate twined textiles during this period anticipates the important role that medium would have as a peculiarly Andean art form. The introduction of pottery, perhaps before 2000 BC, marks the beginning of the next epoch, called variously the Initial Period and the Lower Formative. Another important technological advance at this time was the development of the heddle loom, which was used to make cotton fabrics. Village life and temple-mound construction spread from the coast of central Peru during the Initial Period to all regions except the far south. The growing of corn spread north and south from the central coastal region, and peanuts (groundnuts) and cassava were also adopted as food crops. Distinctive regional styles began to appear in pottery and architecture. Sometime about the year 1000 BC there occurred a pervasive artistic unification known as the Chavn (q.v.) style, named for a highland temple complex in central Peru from which the style may have radiated. The Chavn style signifies the consolidation of the Peruvian coast and highlands into a single polity, in a period termed the Early Horizon. The Chavn stone temples were decorated with carvings of feline, human, and snake figures in highly complex and fantastic forms. The related Paracas (q.v.) style of the southern Peruvian coast is evident in pottery as well as in sumptuous embroidered textiles. Upon the decline of Chavn influence about 200 BC, artistic and technological flowerings occurred in a number of regional centres. Along the southern Peruvian coast, this Intermediate Period is characterized by the evolution of the Paracas pottery style into that of the Nazca (q.v.), or Nasca. Moche (q.v.), or Mochica, artifacts and ruins from the northern Peruvian coast indicate the existence of an aggressive warrior state using irrigated agriculture in arable valleys. The Recuay (q.v.) style predominates in Intermediate pottery of the northern Peruvian highlands. Large urban and ceremonial centres, notably Pucar and Tiahuanaco (q.v.), emerged at this time near Lake Titicaca in the southern highlands. By AD 600, multi-valley political rule had expanded sufficiently from two centresin the southern highlands and at Huari (q.v.) in central highland Peruto effect another cultural unification, known as the Middle Horizon. The remains of large groups of food-storage buildings in the Huari strongholds suggest military activity like that of the late Inca. Several great cities originated at this time, but, when the Huari empire reached its maximum extent about AD 800, it collapsed at the centre, and urban life throughout the south declined. The Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000c. 1400) followed, toward the end of which time two well-organized statesChim (q.v.) in the north and Chincha in the southrose to prominence. In the early 15th century, however, the Inca (q.v.), from their capital at Cuzco in the southern Peruvian highlands, undertook the series of conquests that would rapidly forge the entire Andean region into a single empire. Immense storehouses for food and textiles indicate a highly productive agriculture and industry, as well as the vastness of the army that these stockpiles supported. Ruins such as those at Machu Picchu (q.v.) reveal much about Inca urban life. Ironically, the extensive highway network constructed to facilitate trade and administration gave the invading Spaniards easy passage into the empire's heart in the 1530s.