This chapter focuses on the Andean region of South America, including the coast and highlands, from the beginning of sedentary settlement to the rise of the Inca empire, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The first sedentary communities are found in western South America and date to 3500 BC, much earlier than in Mesoamerica and 1,000 years before the first Peruvian evidence of pottery. We begin with El Paraíso, a preceramic coastal village dating to 2000 BC that was composed of at least eight large masonry compounds. Although there is no consensus about the kind of sociopolitical organization at El Paraíso, planning and large quantities of labor would have been necessary to quarry and shape the stone blocks and to coordinate the construction of the compounds.

Soon thereafter, greater social differentiation and the first positions of leadership become evident in the archaeological record. Between 900 and 200 BC the Chavín style, similar to the Olmec Horizon in Mesoamerica, developed and was shared from the edges of the Amazon to the Pacific Coast. This style is named for the carvings found on a temple in the uplands of central Peru at Chavín de Huántar

The end of the last century BC was marked by the rise of major centers that became the core of states administering regional populations. Here we discuss Moche on the north coast and refer to the fantastic geoglyphs constructed by the Nazca in the south. We also discuss the coastal site of Sipán, where spectacular Moche-era tombs have been excavated. Later, Tiwanaku, a giant economic and religious center near the southern end of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, began to incorporate larger areas outside its local region.

As with the Aztecs in the highlands of central Mexico, the end of the pre-Hispanic era in South America was characterized by a powerful people, the Inca, whose rulers exacted tribute from a large domain. Yet this much larger South American empire had clearer imperial predecessors, such as the Tiwanaku polity and the Chimú kingdom. After AD 1000, the latter, which was centered on the north coast at Chan Chan, consolidated a large, primarily coastal domain. This political sphere was engulfed by the expansive Inca between AD 1462 and 1470. We examine the nature and organization of this New World empire by looking at Cuzco, the Inca capital, the famous high mountain settlement of Machu Picchu, and the provincial administrative center of Huánuco Pampa.

The Inca contrast with the Aztec in many ways. There was no traditional writing system in South America, but by the time of the Inca, the quipu was used to record and convey information. The Inca empire also was organized very differently from the Aztec empire in Mexico. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Inca eventually incorporated the area from the coast to the eastern slopes of the Andes and from the north to the south of the Andean region.

As part of this review of ancient South America, specific blocks and site sections cover the role of nonagricultural resources in early Andean sedentism, the importance of cloth and textiles, the geoglyphs of Nazca, and the great road systems of the Inca empire.