The end of the first millennium BC saw the rise of a series of civilizations in the central Andes and in Ecuador supported by irrigation works, connected by elaborate road systems, featuring growing populations and monumental architecture, elaborate “royal: burials, and continual warfare. The outstanding cultures of this time period are those of the Moche or Mochica in the north of Peru, the Nazca in the south, and a series of states in the Altiplano which gave rise to Tiahuanaco as well as the Chorrera derived cultures o the Ecuadorian coast.