Introduction

A brief introduction to the volume, its overarching goals, and organization, this section begins with a discussion of Linares Málaga’s 1970 excavations at Quilcapampa and his assertion that the site was a Wari military outpost connected to the spread of a conquest empire. We then consider the relationship between cities, states, and the spread of the first civilization in other parts of the world to argue that people from urbanizing centers moved into outlying regions for a wide variety of regions. Even if Quilcapampa was a site founded by Wari people, we argue that much more work then needs to be done to determine the relationships of these people to the state and surrounding populations. The volume is an attempt to investigate these relationships.