Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC

An educational organization dedicated to furthering knowledge and understanding of the peoples of the Americas before the time of Columbus.

The Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C. (PCSWDC), is an educational organization dedicated to furthering knowledge and understanding of the peoples of the Americas before the time of Columbus. Founded in 1993, the Society provides a forum for the exchange of information regarding these pre-Columbian cultures between academic professionals and interested members of the public.

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JULY VIRTUAL MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Place for Politics: The Wari Palace on Cerro Baúl

Donna J. Nash, PhD, Arizona State University

NOTE: This lecture will be the second Friday of the month

The origin and organization of early states is a significant component of the human past. The challenge for archaeologists is to identify what material remains might be used to understand how states developed and what approach can reveal their organization. Dr Nash focuses on the settings of state institutions, as well as the people and their practices within these contexts. Palaces, in particular, were significant as the houses of state officials and the settings of state institutions. Further, palaces often act as symbols of state leadership and power. Palace research can reveal the strategies of elite decision-makers because they can be affiliated with a particular elite official (or members of a powerful family). This approach is efficacious because “states” do not make decisions or engage in activities to build power; people make decisions and build power. The presentation will offer insights from excavations of a Wari provincial palace at the site of Cerro Baúl. Dr. Nash will describe the excavated palace spaces, the activities of its elite residents, and the compound’s ritual abandonment.

Dr. Donna J. Nash is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and Adjunct Curator of South American Archaeology at the Field Museum in Chicago. She examines imperial expansion from the perspectives of state agents and members of subject groups. This includes the methodological problems arising from studying ‘prehistoric’ empires and their material culture. Her research has focused on the Wari Empire (ca. 600-1100 CE) and the groups with which they have come in contact. Nash has been working in the region of Moquegua, Peru since 1993 and started excavating on Cerro Baúl in 1997. She directed excavations at the site from 2001-2007 during which areas of a palace was excavated. Nash has received funding to support her research from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Howard Heinz Endowment for Latin American Archaeology, the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society. Nash was contributing editor for the Handbook of Latin American Studies from 2009 to 2012. She has published in the Archaeological Papers of the AAA, Bulletin de l’Institut d’Estudes Andines, Chungara, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of Anthropological Research, Journal of Archaeological Research, Nawpa Pacha, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, World Archaeology and other venuest.

The July member-support meeting will be presented on Zoom. It will be free and open to the public. Please preregister HERE for this event..

Earlier Event: June 7
JUNE VIRTUAL MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Later Event: August 2
AUGUST VIRTUAL MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING

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