Study Suggests Remembrances of Dead Played Role in Rise of Architecture in Andean Region

Archaeologists have long thought that monumental architecture — large, human-built structures that emphasize visibility — were products of societies with power structures, including social hierarchy, inequality and controlled labor forces. But this notion is being questioned as researchers uncover evidence that hunter-gatherer groups also built such structures.

In new research published June 24 in the journal Antiquity, University of California researchers report evidence of monumental structures built by hunter-gatherer groups at Kaillachuro, a collection of burial mounds located in the Titicaca Basin of the Peruvian Andes. The discovery places monumental architecture in the region 1,500 years earlier than previously thought, researchers said.

“Most researchers in the Andes argue that monumental architecture is a product of elites, intentionally constructed as a space of centralized power,” said the study’s corresponding author Luis Flores-Blanco, who conducted the research while a doctoral student in anthropology at UC Davis. “We propose that monumentality can emerge from hunter-gatherer groups without institutionalized inequality.”