The Wari Culture

Remains of the Wari city of Piquillacta.

The Wari (Spanish Huari) was a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the Andes in the south of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1200 A.D. The capital city of the same name is located near the modern city of Ayacucho, Peru. This city was the center of a civilization that covered much of the highlands and coast of modern Peru. Early on, their territory expanded to include the ancient oracle center of Pachacamac, though it seems to have remained largely autonomous.

Small doorway leading to the archeological site. Supposedly it wss made so narrow to prevent animals from entering. Currently it mostly prevents the entrance of some oversized western tourists.

The Wari are historically important for a number of reasons. They were contemporaries of the Tiwanaku and shared similar artistic styles. Contact between the two cultures appears to have been limited to a span of 50 years in which there was sporadic fighting over a mine first occupied by the Tiwanaku. The mine straddled the border between the two cultures' spheres of influence and the Wari attempted, but failed, to secure it for themselves.

While not much is known about their government, as they did not leave behind any written records, the Wari state established architecturally distinctive administrative centers in many of its provinces.

Only a little part of the archeological site has been excavated and the uncovered structures are very impressive.

The native language of the Wari area in recent times has been Quechua, though the comparative and historical study of the Andean languages suggests that the language of the Wari culture may have been a form of Aymara. The Wari culture is not to be confused with the modern ethnic group and language known as Wari', with which it has no known link. The also had access to many natural resources, including minerals, petroleum, fish, coffee, cotton, sugar, and wool. This is perhaps why the Wari civilization was comparatively so successful.

The Wari was a great empire and though the Inca Empire is more well-known, the Wari lasted four times as long and it may have been the reason that the Inca Empire had cultural unification. During the time of the Wari Empire, the people put an end to cultural regionalism and began cultural unification.

Some local bug...

The Archaeological Park of Piquillacta covers the remains of a city from Wari culture named with this Quechua word meaning "town of fleas" supposedly for the small stones used in its construction (as apposed to the immense stones used by the Incas). Obviously this is not an original name for the site and as usual, the original name has long been forgotten.

Pikillacta, a satellite city of Wari (from VI to XIII AC centuries) an important civilization prior to the Incas, is over about 50 acres along an agricultural valley southeast of Cuzco. After the fall of the Wari culture, Piquillacta was populated by the Chancas: a fighter nation that fought the emerging Incas and were finally defeated and the city fell under the influence of the Inca empire.

In Piquillacta, we still find numerous Wari structures showing remains of more than 700 buildings, 200 patios and many houses with up to three levels divided into blocks and located along straight high walled streets. It is believed in the years of its apogee, more than ten thousand people were living in Piquillacta.

Currently, most of the archeological site is still unexcavated but the small part that has been explored shows the remains of an impressive city with structures rivaling those of the best known Inca sites.