Sighting theapu: a GIS analysis of Wari imperialism and the worship of mountain peaks

In the Andes, prominent mountains are revered as earthly spirits that protect, but may also punish, their human constituents. These apu were often linked to distant ancestors and are considered the most important local deities. During the phase of the earliest highland Andean expansive states (ad 600–1000), the Wari and Tiwanaku utilized mountain worship as a means of establishing hegemony over local peoples who considered these mountains as places of ancestral origins. By usurping the apu, or including them in the pantheon of imperial deities, the expansive state effectively held these sacred places hostage and incorporated local belief systems into an imperial ideology. Recent research has yielded new clues to the worship of mountain peaks, including the usurpation of a unique geological mesa formation at Cerro Baúl as the basis for the Wari colonization of its southern frontier. Furthermore, research on the mountain summit has revealed architectural complexes oriented to, and presumably dedicated for, rites of veneration to the higher snowcapped volcanic peaks visible from this mountain summit. Keywords: Cognitive landscapesarchitecturestate ideologyGIS viewshed analysisPeruTiwanaku Acknowledgements Research on the architectural complexes discussed here was funded by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0074410, BCS-0226791). Permits for excavations were authorized by Peru's National Institute of Culture via Resolución Directoral Nacional numbers 613/INC (2001) and 646/INC (2002). Kenneth Sims supervised the excavations in Sector E. Juan Lopez was kind enough to share his knowledge of the apu with us.