Earthen dialogues: the cosmopolitics of adobe architectural construction in the Jequetepeque Valley of Peru (600–1000 CE)

At the scale of the individual brick, adobe construction preserves a record of the decisions, labour, and political relationships through which it was made. This study compares Huaca Colorada and Tecapa, two neighbouring ceremonial centres in the Jequetepeque Valley, whose construction practices diverged markedly during the late Middle Horizon (600–1000 CE). Through morphological, grain-size, and pXRF analyses of over 1,600 bricks, distinct construction regimes emerge at each site: heterogeneous, inclusion-rich bricks and episodic building at Huaca Colorada reflect a decentralized process tied to ritual cycles and community labour, while standardized brick types and coordinated planning at Tecapa suggest a hierarchically organized regime consistent with highland building traditions. A discrete morphological and material convergence in Huaca Colorada’s final phase, concentrated in the east-facing platform oriented towards Tecapa, is interpreted as evidence of inter-site political negotiation, registered in the dimensions, sediment makeup, and geochemistry of individual bricks.