One of the earliest complex societies in the Americas, centered in the Casma and Sechin river valleys of coastal Ancash, Peru. Its origin is dated to c. 3600 BCE by the carved frieze at its constituent site Sechín Bajo — the oldest monumental architecture yet found in the Americas — and its Initial-Period florescence produced the massive platform complex of Sechin Alto and the gruesome carved warrior reliefs of Cerro Sechín, attesting to organized political power and ritual warfare centuries before the Chavín horizon.
The dominant Sechin Alto polity of the Casma-Sechin culture declined around 1400 BCE, creating a power vacuum exploited by the Las Haldas polity, with the wider cultural complex fading out by approximately 900 BCE.
Key synthesis of Andean prehistory; covers the Casma-Sechin complex and its role in early Andean civilization development.
Contextualizes the Casma-Sechin culture within the broader trajectory toward the Chavín horizon, addressing questions of continuity and influence.
Classic survey of Peruvian prehistory; provides foundational coverage of the Initial Period cultures of the coast.
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