In recent years, digital technologies applied to archaeology have led to considerable changes in fieldwork. However, the use of mobile GIS for fieldwork has not been widespread, especially in countries where GIS is not yet entrenched within the field of archaeology. Over the last decade, the technological context associated with mobile GIS has changed. In this text, these changes are discussed based on a case study developed in Catamarca (Argentina), in which the possibilities of a more generalized use of mobile GIS—based on free, open, and available resources (software, data, devices)–are discussed. This article assesses the main problems faced and describes the basic steps taken to implement a field recording system based on mobile GIS.

Pedro Rojas's 1961 excavation of numerous stone vessels at the Huayurco site has led scholars to suspect that the Jaén region of the northeastern Peruvian Andes was an important center of early ceremonial stone bowl production. This discovery not only provided clear evidence of an independent craft technology within the ceja de selva, or eastern Andean tropical montane forest, but the similarity of these stone vessels to examples found at coastal and highland Andean sites also suggested that the Jaén region produced these vessels as a means of participating within early interregional exchange networks. Because empirical evidence of tropical forest exchange items within coastal and highland sites is difficult to obtain because of these items’ suspected perishable nature, the stone vessels represented an alternative means for understanding early Andean–Amazonian relations. Despite the importance of this discovery, little follow-up investigation has been conducted. In this article, I define the Jaén stone vessel tradition on the basis of form, design, and technology. I then review the archaeological literature on early Andean stone vessels to show how these vessels help articulate Jaén's participation within Andean interaction spheres between 2500 and 800 BC.

The exceptional preservation of perishable artifacts on the arid west coast of the Andes has led to an abundance of knowledge on prehispanic textile production. Yet comparatively little of this knowledge is based on highland examples due to their poor preservation in the moist environment of the Andean sierra. Systematic excavations in 2011–2012 at the archaeological complex of Hualcayán in highland Ancash, Peru, revealed surprisingly well-preserved textiles and cordage from four partially looted machay-style tombs. In this article we provide an overview of textile forms, production techniques, and iconography from a sample of 292 textile and cordage fragments, equaling 20% of Hualcayán's assemblage. This work contributes to a better understanding of ancient Andean weaving in general and interregional interaction during the Early Intermediate period and Middle Horizon (ca. AD 1–1000) in particular. Significantly, we document variability in cotton yarn and a general uniformity in camelid yarn and weaving techniques in the overall sample. These findings, in combination with similarities in weaving techniques and style between coastal examples and Hualcayán's fabrics, suggest a coastal–highland relationship.

This article presents a high-resolution chronology of Wairajirca pottery in the Huánuco basin, which has been identified as a frontier region between the Andean highlands and the Amazonian rain forests: its pottery is known for having mixed features from both areas. However, the lack of fine-grained pottery and radiocarbon datasets has handicapped comparative studies’ attempts to track in detail its early development process. Our new high-resolution chronology of Wairajirca pottery is based on stratigraphic excavation data, a detailed ceramic typology, and a Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon date from the Jancao site. The five-staged ceramic sequence from the late eighteenth to late twelfth century cal BC displays specific features of this development, including radical changes in vessel type over several centuries and connections with other pottery traditions. The earliest phase shows close relation with highlands traditions, whereas the influence of tropical rain forest patterns intensified in later phases alongside the continuation of local pottery traditions. This indicates that frontier dynamics based on fluid interactions across different ecological zones and regional sociopolitical movements played a crucial role in this long-term social process.

Most archaeological research on the impact of Inka imperialism at the domestic level centers on the intrusion of Inka-style buildings into pre-Inka domestic settlements as transforming the experience of domestic life and actively hindering interhousehold interaction. Results from excavations in the site of Ampugasa in Huarochirí (Lurín valley, Lima, Peru) show that pre-Inka residential spaces (patio-groups) were replaced by enclosures with a single access to an internal patio for domestic activities. My analysis shows that pre-Inka houses were ritually closed, directly connected to the site's ritual core, and remained part of the everyday life experience of people in the settlement. I argue that Ampugasa's transformation corresponds to a pattern of Inka imperialism in Huarochirí that enshrined rather than erased the collective ritual practices through which the people of Huarochirí maintained a broad regional identity. I propose that the interplay between Inka transformation of domestic space in Ampugasa and the continuity of ritual and secular practices among the site's inhabitants shows a space of negotiation where Inka imperialism still relied heavily on local practices that fostered the continuity of collective identities.

This article proposes a new 14C chronology for the three-phase ceramic chronology from the settlement of Chavín de Huántar based on the AMS dating of collagen extracted from faunal remains recovered during my 1975 excavations. The chronometric estimates for the Chavín de Huántar ceramic chronology are as follows: Urabarriu Phase (950–800 cal BC), Chakinani Phase (800–700 cal BC), and Janabarriu Phase (700–400 cal BC). The new measurements confirm the sequence of the ceramic phases and indicate that the site was established around 950 cal BC and was abandoned by 400 cal BC. The results are consistent with the earlier hypothesis that the major developments at Chavín de Huántar largely postdate the Initial Period fluorescence of early coastal civilization during the second millennium BC, but they cast doubt on some current interpretations of the site's founding and cultural apogee.