HUARI CULTURE

At the end of V century A.D., the urban centers of central Andes, especially around the Ayacucho zone, maintained commercial and cultural relationships with other developments as the Nasca and Tiahuanaco cultures. But since 500 A.D., the so called Conchopata tradition appears as the origin of the Huari culture. Between the year 500 and the 900 A.D., this culture achieves its highest apogee, which is associated with the development and the expansion from its capital, carrying the same name.

EXPANSION
Shortly after its beginnings, the Huari get to expand there selves by the south up to Acarí, by the north coast until the Santa valley and by the Andes they reach the "Callejón de Huaylas". With the consolidation of the empire, it extended from Sicuani and the Arequipa region up to Cajamarca by the Andes and from Ocoña and Sihuas to Lambayeque by the coast.

The evidences show a great Huari culture expansion, but they also show that it was not only a military conquest of foreign territories, but an assimilation process of this people to the Huari administration and other patterns of its culture, specially the religion and urbanism.

ENVIRONMENT
The region where the Huari culture originated is an arid zone, where the agriculture's development is pretty hard because of its wild territory and the water shortage. That is why the Huari's were forced to perform water canalization works and "andenes" (platforms) creation in order to enlarge the cultivable areas. The pasturelands from the high zones allowed the development of the camelid cattle rising.

ORGANIZATION
The Huari's created administrative institutions besides the hierarchical structure they keep at the centers they founded. They counted also with warehouses, craft ateliers and urban centers.

All of that inside an organization based on the reciprocity with the assimilated towns. That is why the Huari state organized parties and entertainments that later allowed them to get the work benefits. In the same manner, in such a complex empire, it was necessary to create an account and control method. The archaeological founds have demonstrated that the Huari people already used a kind of quipu and that they developed a network of roads that connected the capital with the regional centers.

RELIGION
The Huari religión was the result of the syncretism of local divinities, especially from Ayacucho, Nasca and Pachacamac. They achieved to expand their cult to the sticks' God (a local variant, different from the Tiahuanaco version). According to the researches, the diffusion of the Huari cult was an important element of the territorial and cultural expansion.

THE URBANISM
This culture introduced new notions and patterns in the formation of the cities at the Andes. The centralistic conception allowed controlling the population and their activities fulfillment. The centers were organized according a north-south axis and were constructed near the main roads that formed a vial network. Although, only the elite resided at the cities; the common people come along only to perform their works or participate at the religious ceremonies and lived at the surrounding rural zones. Between the main Huari centers we found, near Cusco, the provincial capital of Piquillacta, with walls of 40 feet tall and with an extension of 1.5 square miles. Similar cases we found in Moquegua, Cerro Baul and at the high zones of Lima and the "Callejón de Huaylas", where were Huaricoto and Huilcahuain, respectively.

CERAMICS
According to the evidences, the Huari ceramic was marked by different influences. The researchers, upon the period and the place where it developed and the characteristics it presents, have divided the Huari ceramic in different phases or styles, where we can distinguish Chakipampa, Conchopata and Robles Moqo. The Huari's manufactured fine ceramic principally for the use by the elite and the diffusion of the religious ideas. They also did a different one for domestic use, of less quality.