NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 97 
in the Titicaca Basin at least, obviously greatly increased since Chiripa 
times. 
On the coast, this stage is marked by the well-known climactic art 
styles of Mochica and Nazca, and the less spectacular ones of the 
Central Coast. Population expanded and the simple settlements of the 
previous stage grew into large agglutinated towns. Great adobe plat- 
forms for temples built on the north coast at this time were never ex- 
ceeded in size. The famous scenes of Mochica life painted on pottery 
indicate, as might be inferred from architectural structures and the 
highly developed irrigation system, a strongly theocratic social con- 
trol, with very considerable emphasis on warfare. This is in marked 
contrast to the Early Classic of Mesoamerica, but might be expected 
in an area where arable land cannot be expanded by cutting and 
burning more forest, but is limited by the amount of water available 
in individual rivers and by the contours of the land itself. It is there- 
fore no surprise that the art of Nazca, and even more so that of 
Mochica, shows so much belligerent activity. In the north this cul- 
minates in the expansion of the Mochica state as far south as the 
Santa Valley; the conquest of the intervening Viru Valley has been 
well documented archeologically. It would seem that for the remain- 
ing 1,100 years or so of native Peruvian history, continuing struggle 
for control of the arable land was the basis of politics, both along the 
coast and in the highland basins. 
City Builders (a.d. 600 to 1000). — There is much still to be learned 
about the social and political nature of the spread of ideas and stylistic 
elements from Tiahuanaco and Wari that penetrated to the northern 
Peruvian coast and south into northern Chile. We now believe (Lum- 
breras, 1960a, b) that in the Ayacucho region influences from late 
Nazca were in turn strongly affected by Classic Tiahuanaco, produc- 
ing the styles of Wari (often referred to as Coast Tiahuanaco). It 
now appears almost certain that it was from the Ayacucho region, 
with its great walled center at Wari, that military conquest was ini- 
tiated. This action was inspired by a vigorous cult, symbolized by an 
iconography of Tiahuanaco — via Wari, whose bearers took control 
of the coast as far north, perhaps, as Lambayeque. 
During this advance, the classic Mochica style and others along the 
coast were completely obliterated. In the highlands, including Cuzco, 
there is much new evidence for a similar conquest. In contrast, the ex- 
pansion of the pure style of Tiahuanaco was limited to the far south 
of Peru, northern Chile, eastern Bolivia, and to a small degree to 
northwestern Argentina (fig. 14). 
At this time urbanism appears at Cuzco and on the central and 
