| ?-circa 200 b. c. | Preliminary migrations. |
| circa 200 b. c.-600 a. d. | Megalithic Empire. |
| circa 600-1100 a. d. | Tampu-Tocco Period, decadence. |
| circa 1100-1530 a. d. | Inca Empire. |
He also gives in the same article, p. 241, a most interesting comparative restoration of the chronologies of the sequence of culture in the several Peruvian and Mexican centres, namely:
TABLE DESIGNED TO SHOW THE SEQUENCE OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN CULTURES AND THEIR CHRONOLOGIC RELATIONS
[129] For the myths and religion of the coastal peoples of Peru the important early authorities are Arriaga, Avila, Balboa, Cieza de León, and Garcilasso de la Vega. Markham [a], especially chh. xiv, xv, is the primary authority here followed. For archaeological details the authorities are Baessler; Bastian; Joyce [c], ch. viii; Squier [e]; Tello; Putnam; and Uhle. It is from this coastal region that the most striking Peruvian pottery comes, the Truxillo and Nasca styles respectively typifying the Chimu and Chincha groups.
[130] Tello, "Los antiguos cementerios del valle de Nasca," p. 287, suggests three criteria by means of which the mythological nature of such figures is to be inferred: When symbolical attributes are indicated by the animal's carrying mystical or thaumaturgical objects; when the figure retains, through a variety of representations, certain constant, individualizing traits; and when the same image is used repeatedly on the more notable types of cultural and artistic objects. Señor Tello believes Nasca religion to have been totemic in character.
[131] It is reproduced by Joyce [c], p. 155.
[132] Garcilasso's accounts of the coastal religion are scattered through his inchoate work, the more important passages being bk. ii, ch. iv; bk. vi, chh. xvii, xviii.
[133] Summarized by Markham [a], p. 217.