2.26 - The Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon

Summary

The Late Intermediate Period: 1000–1400 ce

For the past half century, the era between the decline of the highland powers of Tiwanaku and Wari and the advent of the Inka Empire has generally been called the Late Intermediate Period (LIP). The term was coined to describe a chronological period, not a developmental stage, but scholars have often depicted the period as one of sociopolitical fragmentation between the eras of unity found in the Middle and Late Horizons. Research over the past few decades has shown that such a view is only partially accurate, even if it is recognised that no other highland state emerged until the Inkas. Much of the Peruvian coast was home to a series of states from the 1st century ce onwards, which remained independent of highland rule until the Late Horizon (Map 2.26.1). Moche states dominated the north coast until c. 800 ce and then gave way to the Lambayeque societies, which endured until the 13th century. Sometime after c. 1200 ce, a new power emerged in the old Moche heartland, which developed over the next two centuries into the Chimú Empire. In the highlands, Wari and Tiwanaku are now judged to have retained power until c. 1000–1100 ce, and powerful nonstate societies arose in their wake in the Lake Titicaca Basin and the central Peruvian sierra. Moreover, there is now evidence that the Inkas were creating a state polity in the southern Peruvian highlands by c. 1350 ce. In light of these developments, it seems best to view the LIP as an era in which urban and state power were found in coastal rather than highland polities, and new mountain powers began to take shape.