Laying Siege to Violent Narratives: Disrupting Ontostories Reveals Variability in Conflict in the Salinar (ca. 400–200/150 BCE) of the Peruvian Andes

Archaeology’s tendency to rely on narrative templates, as Hannah Chazin argues, can reinforce particular narratives and foreclose other interpretive paths. In the Central Andes, the late Early Horizon (ca. 400–200/150 BCE) has been constituted as time of escalated conflict and warfare. Revisiting foundational studies in conjunction with new data in the Early Horizon of the Central Andes reveals spatial, material, and bioarchaeological variability in conflict. I test the hypothesis that Salinar is characterized by conflict through osteological trauma analyses from the José Olaya-La Iglesia (JO-IG) site, a Salinar cemetery of a small coastal fishing community on the North Coast of Peru. I evaluate whether interpersonal trauma is more prevalent for particular social identities. Trauma analyses suggest interpersonal violence does not characterize the cemetery. JO-IG is also compared with inter- and intravalley contemporary bioarchaeological analyses from Cerro Oreja (Moche Valley) and Puémape (Jequetepeque Valley). I argue escalated conflict may be overstated for the Salinar as a whole. Just as Salinar was a time of immense sociopolitical change with variable expressions, conflict too was likely just as variable across the Salinar landscape. Revisiting ingrained narratives provides opportunity to more accurately understand spatial variability of conflict.