Archaeological investigations at Marcaya: A village approach to Nasca sociopolitical and economic organization

Archaeological research surrounding Nasca, a prehistoric multi-village polity that flourished on the south coast of Peru during the Early Intermediate Period (A.D. 1--750) has been continuing for nearly a century now. While much is known about its ceramics, geoglyphs ("Nasca Lines"), and ceremonial center Cahuachi, very little is known about the village context of Nasca society. To that end, this dissertation takes a village approach to the study of Early Nasca sociopolitical and economic organization by evaluating a single Early Nasca village, Marcaya.;After introducing the historical and archaeological context of this study, the theoretical assumptions inherent in this work are outlined. While the research takes a village approach to Early Nasca society, the primary analytical unit employed in fieldwork was the archaeological household. Patio groups at Marcaya are argued to be prehistoric households. They are distinct structure clusters, they are repeated throughout the community, and they contain the material correlates of domestic activities.;Excavations at Marcaya demonstrate that it was an Early Nasca community dating to the late fourth and early fifth centuries A.D. It was composed of at least 23 self-sufficient households that engaged in a variety of domestic activities including subsistence production and storage, and lithic and textile production. Similar to ethnohistoric and ethnographic examples of Andean communities, the village of Marcaya employed a mixed agro-pastoral subsistence economy augmented with reciprocal exchanges for goods such as obsidian.;Marcaya was economically self-sufficient, and the primary economic unit was the household. The exception to this self-sufficiency was pottery production as no evidence for production was found at the site. Despite this lack of evidence, the vessel assemblage at Marcaya indicates that Nasca polychrome fineware was a ubiquitous element in Nasca society, as a very high quantity of fineware is present in the assemblage.;A pilot Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) was conducted to evaluate the chemical composition of the ceramic assemblage. The results of this analysis suggest that Nasca fineware was manufactured in specialized contexts, and the implications for these results are discussed.;Finally, Marcaya is discussed in the broader context of Early Nasca society. To that end, Cahuachi is discussed in light of the new findings from this research, and a hypothetical model of Early Nasca society is proposed. The dissertation concludes with directions for future research.