Wari Empire

Tiwanaku-Wari Empire
Tiwanaku-Wari
500–1100
Wari and Tiwanaku zones of influence
Capital		Huari
Languages		Aymara?, others.
Religion		Staff God
Government		Not specified
Historical era		Pre-Columbian
•	Established	500
•	Disestablished	1100
Preceded by Succeeded by Wari culture Tiwanaku Culture Kingdom of Cuzco Chimor
Today part of		Peru

The Wari Empire was a political formation that emerged around AD 600 in the central highlands of Peru and lasted for about 500 years, to 1100 AD. It operated about the same time as the Tiwanaku culture and at one time was thought to have been derived from it. In 2008 archeologists found a prehistoric city, the Northern Wari ruins, also called Cerro Pátapo, near modern Chiclayo. The find was the first to show an extensive settlement related to the Wari culture that far north and demonstrate that they had a long span of influence.

Some scholars in the field debate whether the Wari communities can be termed an "empire". For instance, the archaeologist Ruth Shady has suggested the society could better be considered a loose economic network of Wari centres.

Scholars who contend the society did constitute an empire include William Isbell, Katherine Schreiber and Luis Lumbreras. They note its construction of an extensive network of roadways linking provincial cities, as well as the construction of complex, characteristic architecture in its major centres, some of which were quite extensive. Leaders had to plan projects and organize large amounts of labor to accomplish such projects.

The discovery in early 2013 of an undisturbed, imperial royal tomb, El Castillo de Huarmey, provides evidence of the material wealth and political power exercised by the Wari for centuries. The discovery of three royal women's bodies and their burial wealth plus the accompanying sixty bodies demonstrates a culture with the material wealth, political power, and administrative apparatus to provide extended veneration of the royal dead.

The Wari Empire was a second-generation state of the Andean region; both it and Tiwanaku had been preceded by the first-generation Moche state. When expanding to engulf new polities, the Wari Empire practiced a policy of allowing the local leaders of the newly acquired territory to retain control of their area if they agreed to join the Wari empire and obey the Wari. The Wari required mit'a labor (non-reciprocal public labor for the state) of its subjects as a form of tribute. Mit'a laborers were involved in the construction of buildings at the Wari capital and in the provinces.