Overview
The site of Los Batanes (500 masl) overlooks the middle Sama Valley from atop the desert alluvial plain. This 8-hectare site is a walled settlement occupied during the Terminal Middle Horizon and early Late Intermediate Period (AD1000-1200). Adjoining room-and-patio complexes were inhabited by groups whose Cabuza-style material culture suggests affiliation with the highland Tiwanaku state or its descendant communities. Excavations in residential structures and open areas have revealed that inhabitants engaged in an agro-pastoralist subsistence strategy and diet based on maize, quinoa, and camelid products supplemented with marine resources. Mortuary evidence from Los Batanes – Tiwanaku-style funerary rituals, textiles, and ceramics – points to the emergence of a new cultural and social identity in the wake of state collapse.