The centuries between the fall of Huari and the rise of the Inca were marked in Peru by the florescence of several large states along the coast north (Sicán, Chimor) ad smaller ones along the central and south coasts (Chancay, Pachacamac. Ychsma, Ica etc).. Some of these are mentioned in early Spanish accounts taken from native oral histories, others, those of the northern Andes are completely prehistoric.

Because of the extreme dryness of the coast of Peru textiles survive from the Paleoindian period onwards and show us the importance of this art in local value systems. A relatively simple technology featuring the back strap loom and hand held spindles, domesticated cotton, bast fibers and in the Andean region camelid hair produced some of the most elaborate textiles the world has ever seen.

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.

Trade in the central Andes was not market based but under the control of various governments and government agencies. In the north markets are known for international exchange of salt, gold, slaves and similar luxury items in both Colombia and Ecuador.

The period of AD 500-1000 saw the development of the first international state is Peru and Bolivia: Tiahuanaco and Huari. Tiahuancaco controlled the Altiplano and, perhaps, northern Chile, whereas Huari, formed a huge conquest state in Peru which may have provided a model for the later Inca.

The first inhabitants of South America came from North America down the Central American isthmus (or, perhaps, along the coast in canoes) at ca. 15,000 BC. They rapidly moved into a wide range of ecosystems, including very high altitudes in the Andes and the tropical rain forest and developed numbers of new strategies for survival. Including hunting of both herd animals and megafauna, seacoast fishing and gathering, and in the northern Andes, began to improve plant species, leading eventually to domestication.

The first complex civilizations in the central Andes—those of Chavín de Huantar in the north and Paracas in the south—were very different but also very obviously shared many of the same religious ideas. This period saw the spread of metallurgy, international art styles and religious cults and the beginning of many practices which formed the basis for later civilizations as well.

As the Ice Ages drew to a close South American societies had to deal with rapidly changing climates and a subsequent necessity for a change in subsistence base. On the coast people lived in small villages and gathered seashells and fished, whereas in the highland we see the domestication of camelids and in all areas the first steps towards agriculture.

Indian corn, Zea mays, was an important crop in Mesoamerica and popular theories of its appearance in South America all rest on its having been brought there (by means unknown) at an extremely early date. Recent analyses, however, show fundamental differences in the two groups of maize, suggesting that maize spread south well before it had become domesticated in Mesoamerica.

Does the South American continent have a future? Between gross exploitation by European and Asian countries, corrupt and incompetent local governments, many in thrall to foreign interests, environmental degradation, overpopulation and weak economies plus widespread looting of archaeological sites to supply European and North American museums, the future does not seem very bright.

South America was cut off from Eurasia for some 15,000 years and is generally ignored by North Americans and Europeans in any manner but superficial tourism. Yet the separate development of such features of civilization as agriculture, monumental architecture, conquest states and elite art allow us to test our own, Eurasian centric views, of what is a civilization and how do they arise.

Metal working in South America has at least two independent foci: the Altiplano of Peru/Bolivia and the closely related coastal technologies, with an emphasis upon hammered and joined sheet metal ornaments and the very different, casting oriented, traditions of the northern Andes. These latter features gold and gold alloys whereas the Peruvian traditions also used different kinds of bronze.