Subject: noble
Culture: Wari
Setting: Wari empire, Andes ca.600-900
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Tainter 1988 p16
"At its height, the Huari Empire dominated almost the entire central Andes and much of the adjacent coastal lowlands. This empire was controlled by the highland city of Huari. In a short time, Huari-derived ceramic styles (themselves influenced by Tiahuanaco wares) appeared in many regions. Early Huari ceramics (like the later Inca wares) tend to occur in politico-religious contexts: in ceremonial centers, cities, and in other high-prestige sites. Molds were used for the mass production of pottery. As these wares spread, local styles began to lose importance.
"The Huari Empire imposed economic, social, and cultural changes on the areas it dominated. Local cultures were disrupted. Major urban centers were established in each valley. Building complexes in the Huari architectural style (administrative structures, storehouses, or barracks) were constructed at various places. Cities rose and fell with the Huari Empire. Goods and information were exchanged across the Andes on a scale never seen before. Various authors have suggested that urbanism and militarism, state distribution of foodstuffs, the Andean road system, and the spread of the Quechua language began with the Huari Empire."
Costume
* Bergh 2012 p160-161
"In the Andes tunics were an essential article of men's attire; as the scholar R.Tom Zuidema has observed, they cannot be understood without imagining the presence of the lords who wore them -- the iconographic whole was the lord, including tunic, ornaments, headgear, and other paraphernalia. Based on artistic representations, ornaments included large ear spools that undoubtedly also signaled high status, as they did among the Inca. Headgear ranged over several different types, among which four-cornered hats were important. Other items certainly sometimes included staffs, one of the period's most important symbols of human and divine sovereignty.
"The sumptuousness and great standardization in the size, format, color, construction, and technical features of Wari tunics have long suggested that, as among the Inca, they were made under state auspices and worn by those important to the administration of the Wari polity: rulers, their representatives, and probably valued allies, who received them as prestigious gifts. This supposition raises the possibility that the tunics' imagery corresponds to official functions, if only in a loose way, since that imagery is also standardized to encompass a narrow range of motifs, only one of which usually repeats in different orientations and colors in any given tunic. Unfortunately, little can now be said about these functions as most representations of tunic-wearing individuals provide few hints and the vast majority of tunics come from unscientific excavations, most probably of tombs that may have held insignia related to the roles the deceased played in life."
