We are pleased to announce the next session of our 2025 M.A.R.I. Lunch Talk Series. This Friday, May 9, at noon, Dr. Jason Nesbitt will present "The Fragmentation of the Chavín Interaction Sphere: A Review of the Evidence."
This event is free and open to the public, and the lunch is provided by M.A.R.I.
Abstract: The Chavín Interaction Sphere (c. 800-500 BCE) was a network of polities extending throughout the Peruvian highlands, coast, and tropical forest. Archaeological research at numerous Chavín-contemporary centers suggest a cosmopolitan ethos in which different regions were connected through shared religious iconography, as well as the circulation of preciosities that formed crucial components of the political economy. Around 500 BCE, this interconnected world falls abruptly into a period of sociopolitical division. Major highland centers, like Chavín de Huántar, exhibit evidence of destruction and abandonment. There are also radical changes in material culture and a regionalization of iconography that are indicative of the cessation of interregional interaction. Furthermore, at some archaeological sites on the coast and northern highlands there are bioarchaeological and settlement indicators for increasing interpersonal violence. Yet the causes for this period of decline are poorly understood and Chavín is often excluded from the types of “collapse narratives” that have been invoked for later cultures such as Moche, Wari and Tiwanaku. In this paper, I collate the archaeological, paleoclimate, and paleoseismological data to ascertain if environmental factors were among the causes for the fragmentation of the Chavín Interaction Sphere.
Jason Nesbitt is an associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University. He specializes in the archaeology of the central Andes, with a focus on the Initial Period (1700-800 BC) and Early Horizon (ca. 800-300 BC) of Peru. Prior to coming to Tulane, he conducted archaeological research on early monumental architecture on the central and north coast of Peru. Currently, Jason is working on the "Chavín Hinterlands Project" (2014-present). Co-directed with Bebel Ibarra, this project examines the nature of hinterland communities in the Huari region of the north-central highlands of Peru during the time of urban growth at the site of Chavín de Huántar. Nesbitt also participates in the Campanayuq Rumi Project (2013-present) in the Department of Ayacucho, in collaboration with Yuichi Matsumoto (Yamagata University), Yuri Cavero (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos), and Edison Mendoza (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú). This project is aimed at understanding exchange and interaction and the role that it played in both local and regional socioeconomic and religious transformations during the late second and early first millennia BC. Recent research has employed pXRF in order to study obsidian interregional obsidian exchange systems between Campanayuq Rumi and contemporary centers during the Early Horizon.
M.A.R.I. Lunch Talks invite guest speakers to host seminars at M.A.R.I. on a wide variety of topics related to the archaeology, history, and ethnography of Mesoamerica and other world areas. The events typically take place on Fridays around noon and can be delivered in English and Spanish.