Ancient Kingdoms of Peru

Although it is a little outdated (published in the 1990s), Nigel Davies's The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru provides a nice overview on the history of ancient Peru. Covering the period from the preceramic and Chavin cultures to the Spanish conquest, Davies attempts to elucidate the development of civilizations in Peru (and neighboring areas, to a certain extent) as well as the shifting analysis of these past cultures by archaeologists and historians. Obviously, the lack of a system of writing and records prior to the Spanish period means that most of the book draws from studies by archaeologists who have examined various sites, developed ceramic typologies and chronologies, and have endeavored to understand the nature of political, social, and economic organization. As the author gets closer to the era of the Spanish conquest, written sources from the colonial period become useful, particularly for the Incas and, to a lesser extent, the Chimu state of the coast. Davies masterfully draws upon this vast written corpus when appropriate, although occasionally delving into problematic "language" of "savages" when discussing Indians in Ecuador who opposed Inca expansion. But this probably reflects the time in which the book was published. As a brief introduction to a very complex center of early human civilization, Davies wrote a useful work. He probably did not need to include his critiques of wacky theories of ancient aliens visiting the Nasca, but perhaps a book aimed for a non-specialist audience had to do so to dispel pseudoscientific ideas. It could have potentially been strengthened by a more detailed breakdown of the verticality theory for Andean civilizations, as well as an overview of how long-distance trade with Ecuador and the Amazon may have impacted pre-Inca civilizations. Nonetheless, for those new to the Moche's marvelous arts and the long-lasting iconographical symbolism across much of the region's civilizations, there was clearly much interaction, migration, exchange, and cultural borrowing from the coast to the highlands. Now, we have to find copies of Miguel de Cabello Balboa, Cieza de Leon, and other early Spanish sources on Peru for a deeper dive into the precolonial past.