Introduction

From the Pacific OceanPacific Ocean to the Amazon forestAmazon forest, Peru’s relief creates three contrasting geographical zones: theCosta costa (the coastal plains), the sierraSierra (the Andean mountains), andAmazon forest the selvaSelva (the Amazon forest). A major corollary is the diversification of ecosystems. With such marked geographical transitions, the local populations had to be well adapted to the landscape. The intensive exploitation of harsh natural environments, essential for their survival, has favored a constant exchange of goods and ideas between the different peoples and a shared cultural tradition, despite local variants associated with different places and times. Andean history oscillates between tendencies towards standardization specific to vast ‘temporal horizonsTemporal horizons,’ with the dominance of clearly asserted cultures such as those of the Chavín, the Wari, or the Incas, and ‘intermediate periodsIntermediate periods,’ where regional specificities are manifested in particular through artistic creation.