The Cloud People of Naupallacta: Middle Horizon Camelid Management in the Hinterland of the Chicha Soras Valley

Archaeological, ethnographic, and rural development work over the past 50 years in the Chicha Soras area has revealed that the region was first intensively used from the Middle Horizon Epoch 2 (AD 680/700–900) onward. An introduced population here had its seven occupation sites focused on the southern part of the Chicha valley and supported agriculture and textile production, while settlement in the upper Rio Yanamayo and west of the Rio Huayllaripa comprising the Naupallacta complex, served the management of camelid herds, which provided transport, fiber, and meat resources. The interrelationship between the arable farmers and camelid pastoralists produced a mutually supportive resource base for the local agropastoral community, and tribute produced for distant elite Wari administrators. This is confirmed by the interdisciplinary data sets presented here, including demographic, architectural, artefactual, archaeozoological, paleoenvironmental and aDNA results.