Imperial adaptation of Santa Rita B, Chao Valley: Local perspectives on Chimu and Inka imperial strategies on the north coast of Peru

The north coast of Peru has been the setting for successive waves of statecraft for millennia. Two such states were the Chimú and the Inka. By the end of the 14th century, the Chimú state consolidated its rule over the entire region. Sometime in the later 15th century, the Inka Empire expanded into the region and incorporated the north coast area into its imperial territory. Based upon different traditions of statecraft, the Chimú and the Inka Empires utilized differing strategies for incorporating, consolidating, and administering their vast territories. The strategy used and the types and degree of power implemented in each area depended on a number of variables. Imperative to the understanding of these processes is the consideration of how these empires, with different models of statecraft, priorities, and sources of power, exerted control at a local level.;In order to assess these issues, the site of Santa Rita B in the Chao Valley was used as a case study to understand the ways in which the Chimú and Inka administered a particular site and how its occupants experienced the extension of Chimú power and the transition to Inka control. This evaluation is contextualized by a significant amount of work carried out over the last two decades in a number of valleys on the north coast of Peru. Archaeological mapping and excavations were employed over the course of several seasons at the site of Santa Rita B to examine the overall function of various structures contained within the site, as well as to examine any changes that were implemented following incorporation in the Chimú and then later Inka Empires. Data was derived from the analysis of architecture, faunal and botanical remains, ceramics, and non-ceramic craft goods. Combined with several radiocarbon dates obtained from contexts at the site, these data were used to reconstruct an overall picture of occupational chronologies, impacts of imperial transitions, and responses of local communities to imperial rule. The results of this investigation suggest that Santa Rita B was an administrative center during Chimú and Inka times, although not a higher tier site. Data from the excavations suggest that the Chimú Empire took over the site and ruled it directly, significantly remodeling site layout and architecture and greatly impacting subsistence activities, craft production, storage, and the way these activities were organized. In contrast, the Inka appear to have administered the site and probably the valley indirectly, making modest changes to the site and practices of the local people.;This project provides a significant opportunity for understanding imperial processes and the way and degree to which different types of social power were exercised by each empire, and how local people were affected by imperial strategies. This work also provides significant information for an area of the north coast that is not well understood during either Chimú or Inka times. As a study that focused on excavation of a lower-tier site that bears evidence of occupation by these successive states, this project also adds to the larger body of Chimú and Inka research.