Eyes of the empire: A viewshed-based exploration of Wari site-placement decisions in the Sondondo Valley, Peru

Abstract

The Wari empire (AD 600-1000) deployed a variety of strategies to consolidate its provinces in Middle Horizon Peru. One strategy may have been building imperial sites in places with large visual magnitudes, which are attractive to empires because they are more defensible, they are suitably located for direct and implied surveillance, and they project a visually-dominant presence on the landscape. In the Sondondo Valley, Peru, the Wari empire made a significant investment of labor and resources in the construction of terraces, roads, and five imperial sites. The viewsheds of these sites are compared to those of 20 non-imperial sites, 495 randomly-placed individual sites, and 99 randomly-placed groups of five sites each. Parametric and non-parametric comparisons reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference between viewsheds. Imperial sites had significantly larger and better-coordinated viewsheds, as estimated from overlap and coverage indices. These results support the argument that imperial agents' site-placement decisions considered the benefits of locations with large viewsheds. From these sites, the empire's representatives effectively advanced imperial goals for two and half centuries. Similar factors may have been salient in other imperial settings, so this approach may help explore site-placement decisions in other regions.