Empires in Motion

  • The Archaeology of State Infrastructures, Mobile Objects, and Powerful Ideas
Empires in Motion focuses on the successive Wari (CE 600-1000), Inka (CE 1400-1532), and Spanish (CE 1532-1824) empires in the south-central Andes of Peru through the investigation of a single road network and its associated sites. In the modern region of Arequipa, each empire had their own specific footprints and relationships with local communities witnessed by the people, mobile goods, and powerful ideas transported across these roads. We address questions such as: ○ Why did ancient state societies form? How did they respond to climate change events and navigate institutional fragilities across vast geographic distances, cultures, and languages? ○ How did ancient empires transform their surrounding landscapes through networks of infrastructure and use emergent technologies to acquire and maintain power?
Project excavations at the Wari temple center Pakaytambo in Chuquibamba, Arequipa. During the Middle Horizon (CE 600-1000), both the Wari state and local communities developed religious and ceremonial centers along the major highland-coastal road.
contact: dreid5@uic.edu
CV
Dr. David A. Reid
I am a Visiting Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois - Chicago and Research Associate at The Field Museum of Natural History. As an anthropological archaeologist, I take a landscapes approach to examine the complex social relationships that develop when empires expand into frontier and borderland regions.
Academic CredentialsPh.D. Anthropology, University of Illinois – ChicagoM.A. Anthropology, University of Illinois – ChicagoB.A. Anthropology, University of Maine