LAUSR

237 pottery, cinnabar, and striped felines were all probably transported by domesticated llamas. At Pacopampa, the ability to mine and produce items like copper beads, pins, or chisels and control their distribution is hypothesized as the origins of power. The conclusions argue for administered trade, a topic of great interest among historians in the late 1970s and 1980s. Despite all this effort and the resulting cornucopia of information, two issues require more attention. The first is the significance of female burials, for example of the Lady of Pacopampa. Gold and shell grave goods and evidence of special preparation—being adorned with red (cinnabar) and blue (azurite) pigments—show the emergence of leadership and social differentiation. Most scholars associate control with men. So, what do these women represent? Are they founding mothers of matrilineal societies? How did they actively wield power? The second area requiring more attention are the commoners. The almost universal excavations of monumental architecture carried out at ritual centers exclude them, except as a mute source of communal labor. The notable exception here is the study by Milan, whose excavation unearthed not as first thought a U-shaped public center but, under refuse heaps, a hamlet with common people’s dwellings. Until more attention is paid to such dwellings and the scattered inhabited sites around the monumental, attention-grabbing centers, the story of these early peoples will remain incomplete.