Cultural Mixing and Economic Interactions during the Formative Period in the High Valley of Cochabamba, Bolivia

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Karoline Noack
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology ; African, American and Oceania Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259392913

The project aims at the investigation of socio-economic processes of cultural mixing in the Cochabamba Valley, located in the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes. From early prehistory the valleys served as a corridor between the highland and the lowlands. The Formative Period population (1500 BC - 200 AD) used exclusively monochrome ceramics as was the case for many regions in the South-Central Andes in this time period. This led to a general description of these societies on the basis of similar cultural traits. The results of ceramic analysis from the High Valley of Cochabamba point to two discrete ceramic wares, which might be associated with different ethnic groups. This hypothesis is to be further investigated with an approach of multiple lines of analysis. While the two groups seem to cohabit the valley preferring different micro-eco-zones, they are socio-economically linked within a local complementarity exchange system for pottery, and probably other goods. Thus the produced goods in the respective settlements complement one another and enable the producers to participate in an economic system without competing with each other. The valley was also participating closely in a long-distance trade network, that reached as far as the Peruvian North-Coast for access to shell and semi-precious stone. From colonial sources we know of multi-ethnic landscapes in the Andes, but we have no knowledge about if this was also the case in the Formative Period. The investigation concentrates on five pottery producing settlements in the High Valley of Cochabamba, which interact in local as well as in supra-regional trade systems. Through a diachronic perspective it is sought to capture developments in ceramic wares and pottery production, domestic and other activities, architecture, and rituals and mortuary practices. The investigation is supported by interdisciplinary analyses like pollen and isotope analysis and archaeo-botany and -zoology to test these hypotheses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Bolivia, Peru, Poland, USA
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Hermann Behling; Mario Blanco; Dr. Maria Bruno; Dr. Isabelle Druc; Professorin Dr. Gisela Grupe; Dr. Kelly Knudson; Dr. Adam Michczynski; Dr. Linda Scott Cummings; Professorin Valeria Vásquez, Ph.D.