Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Central Andes

• Environment and Geography

• Economy and Technology

• Art

• Social Organization

• Beliefs and Funerary Practices

• Settlement Pattern

• History

• Environment and Geography

  The capital of the Wari Empire was located in the highlands of Southern Peru, near the modern-day city of Ayacucho. At its height, the empire stretched from the territory between Cajamarca in the north and Arequipa in the south, and from the Andean highlands to the Pacific coast, incorporating a variety of different landscapes and making it one of the largest Andean states in history.

• Economy and Technology

  The Wari culture displayed a high level of urban development, although in areas further from the center a peasant village lifestyle was predominant. The Wari engaged in economic and cultural exchange with other states, particularly the Tiwanakus, despite the fact that relations between the two appear to have been tense. The Wari agricultural economy relied on staples such as maize, potato, and quinoa and on raising herds of llamas and alpacas. Nevertheless, this was an urban culture that directed its economy with strategic planning, making its cities the driving force behind the production and distribution of agricultural goods and manufactured wealth.

• Art

  Wari ceramic crafts display influences from three different styles. Many of their designs are similar to those of Tiwanaku and Pukara, such as the figure of the winged shaman or the Sceptered Figure, while what is perhaps their most notable ceramic vessel—the twin-necked bottle—is evocative of the Nazca culture. Wari ceramics are polychrome, with a highly polished surface. Some large, elaborately decorated polychrome pieces were probably used for ceremonial purposes and display the high technical expertise achieved by Wari craftsmen in terms of large-scale production. The culture also produced high quality textiles that featured the use of polychromatic yarns, brocade and double weave, as well as in the use of feathers for ornamentation.

• Social Organization

  Being an urbanized and militaristic culture, the Wari maintained a rigid social hierarchy with governing classes at the head. Priests and especially warriors seem to have occupied an important place in Wari society and exercised their authority from its urban centers. At the base of the social pyramid was the great mass of peasant farmers and livestock herders. Some archaeologists believe that the Wari and Tiwanaku peoples formed a dual state, in which the Wari held political and military power while the Tiwanaku were more involved in ceremonial activities. Although this hypothesis is unproven, it is beyond doubt that there were connections between the two empires, as well as economic and political rivalries.

• Beliefs and Funerary Practices

  It is believed that the Wari state was a secular society with highly developed warrior castes, rather than a theocratic state in which priests held political power. However, the culture did maintain a religious structure that it imposed on the peoples it conquered, along with its economic and political customs. The Wari probably worshipped gods similar to those of the Tiwanaku people, as the same general array of iconography is found in the arts of these two cultures.

• Settlement Pattern

  The Wari were the first to develop ‘cities’ in the Andean area. They built great urban complexes with massive walls that protected homes, storehouses, streets, and plazas. They raised buildings for civil administration and military garrisons and their urban centers had districts for different trades such as potters and weavers. Their buildings were wide and consisted of a single floor, following a planned architecture with symmetrical rectangular buildings, reflecting a powerful social hierarchy. As a large empire, the Wari maintained a number of enclaves in different regions, such as those found in the valleys of Nazca and Moquegua.

• History

  The most immediate local forbears of the Wari were the people of the Warpa culture, which inhabited the Ayacucho highlands. The Wari also benefitted from early contact with the Nazca culture. As in the case of the Tiwanaku culture, it is believed that the motifs of Chavin iconography found in Wari artifacts may have been introduced through Pukara influences. The Wari Empire expanded rapidly through military conquest and reached its zenith around the year 650 CE, but its fall was equally fast. In the area of the present-day city of Lima, the Pachacamac culture developed its own sphere of influence to became a major rival of the Wari, and by 800 CE the Wari capital was deserted.

Location

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