In 2021, an Italian-Peruvian archaeological team began a research project in the Ancash Sierra to investigate the origins of early monumental architecture in the northern-central Andes. The large complex of Tumshukayko—located in the northern part of the town of Caraz in Ancash, Peru—was immediately found to be the most suitable site for this project. This report presents an initial description of the current state of the remains, topographical data, and test pit results. Preliminary data suggest that Tumshukayko is a multicomponent site comprising at least two mounds that were built during the Initial Formative period (2500–1500 BC).

This article investigates the utility of a chaîne opératoire approach centered on technologies of ceramic production for identifying Inca mitmaqkuna archaeologically. Although early documents suggest that the Inca program of resettlement (mitmaq) was massive in scale, archaeologists have had minimal success in identifying such relocated populations. Here we test a novel approach that focuses on technologies of production and associated tool assemblages used within different communities of practice. Previous studies indicate that the ethnic Cañari of southern Ecuador used a distinctive method of pottery manufacture involving a specific chaîne opératoire and a unique set of production-related tools. According to early sources, the Inca deported Cañari peoples to various sectors of Tawantinsuyu. In this article, we investigate the contemporary manufacturing style of ceramics from the Ancash region of north-central Peru—an area where Cañari mitmaqkuna were purportedly resettled—to determine whether distinctive communities of practice potentially representing relocated communities might be visible. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to identify connections among distant communities of practice via a focus on craft production technologies that, in certain historical contexts, may be construed as evidence for the presence of resettled populations.

Members of the genus Spurilla are nudibranchs with circumtropical distribution. Spurilla neapolitana is reported for the first time inhabiting subtidal soft-bottom habitats of the central coast of Peru. Adult specimens were found in Bahía Ferrol (09°04′S 78°35′W) at 10 m depth in November of 2009. Spurilla neapolitana is characterized by the presence of a long body with numerous cerata along the dorsal side of the body and a distinctive orange colouring with white dots. This finding extends the geographical range of Spurilla spp. into the south-eastern Pacific and adds a new contribution to the macro-mollusc diversity thriving in the Humboldt Current Upwelling Ecosystem.