NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 93 
Her (1961, p. 107) has noted, the introduction of maize made very 
little difference to the life of Horticultural Villagers for a considera- 
ble length of time. It does, however, mark the end of what seems to 
have been pretty nearly complete isolation, and foreshadows a rather 
slow but, in view of the facts of geography, inevitable growth and 
change. The introduction of pottery occurs at about 1200 B.C. — at first 
simple, competently made plain ware, with no definite foreign stylistic 
affinity, and known in the literature only from Viru Valley (Strong 
and Evans, 1952) and Aldas (Lanning, 1959). 
It has been suggested (Evans, Meggers, and Estrada, 1959) that 
the early Valdivia wares of the Ecuador coast (apparently at least a 
thousand years older than any in Peru), resemble the earliest pottery 
of north coastal Peru. We have not been able to find any strikingly 
comparable traits of shape in available literature to support this view. 
Cultist Temple Centers (800 to 300 b.c). — The transition from the 
static communities of Horticultural Villagers to the height of the 
Chavin climax is rather hazily understood. Basically, it is a change 
from an essentially archaic way of life that had reached a level of 
what may be called "river mouth efficiency," to use Caldwell's (1958) 
concept, to a state of very considerable dependence on agricultural 
lands at some distance from the sea. Settlements are still found near 
lagoons and beaches, but there are also many well up the valleys, 
which could only have subsisted by means of irrigation, although there 
is no physical evidence of canal systems. 
What may be among the earliest, if not the very earliest, of the 
specialized religious structures from which this stage takes its name, 
are the platform and mounds at the still sketchily reported site of 
Aldas near Casma on the central coast, thought to be pre-Chavin 
(Engel, 1957c; Lanning, 1959; Colher, 1962). Sherds from pits at the 
site show no traits of Chavin style, and resemble some pre-Chavin 
pottery found by Engel at Curayacu, south of Lima (Lanning, per- 
sonal communication to Donald Collier). Aldas also produced a 
broken figurine, which in the opinion of some Mesoamerican special- 
ists most closely resembles a style characteristic of southeastern 
Mexico, popular in the Middle Formative of that area, dated between 
about 800 to 500 b.c. (Ishida et al., 1960) . 
On the Peruvian coast, there appears to be a gradual expansion in 
elements of pottery form and decoration that by about 700 B.C. in- 
clude certain specific resemblances to some of the wares of the Meso- 
american Formative. Peruvian pottery at this time is still largely un- 
painted, but such traits as zoned incision, the flat-bottomed, gently 
flaring-sided bowl, and the stirrup spout suggest influence from 
