Ancient Cuzco

by Brian S. Bauer

  The archaeological survey of the Cuzco Valley was designed as a 100 percent coverage survey, which was necessitated by the fact that the survey data were to be analyzed in conjunction with historic information concerning the distribution of kin groups and their land-holdings in the valley at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The combination of archaeological survey data and extensive historic information provides the database to document the social organization of the valley on the eve of European conquest and to analyze the changes that occurred in its social organization through time.

  The study area encompassed approximately 350 km2.

  It ran from the area of Cachimayu in the west to the town of Oropesa in the east. In the north it extended to the Cuzco-Chit’apampa ridge and in the south to the ridges of Anaguarque and Huanacauri (Map 1.4). In 1994, while holding a Fulbright-Hays Teaching/Research Fellowship, I covered approximately 10 percent of the valley. This pilot project allowed me to test the survey methodology and to develop time estimates for the coverage of the entire valley. In 1997, with the aid of a Campus Research Board grant from the University of Illinois at Chicago and with funds from the Heinz Foundation, Alan Covey and I then extended the survey to cover an additional 30 percent of the valley. With support from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, we completed the entire survey during 1998 and 1999.

  The goal of the fieldwork was to identify the locations of all prehistoric occupation sites and support facilities in the research zone (including terraces, canals, roads, bridges, and storehouses). To conduct the survey, teams of three to four persons, spaced at 50-meter intervals, walked assigned areas identifying the locations of prehistoric sites (Photo 1.3). When a site was found, its location was marked on aerial photographs (approximate scale 1: 10,000) and on topographical maps (scale 1: 10,000) that the surveyors carried in the field. Its location was also plotted with a Global Positioning System. Standardized survey forms were completed and photographs taken of each site. The Inca divided the Cuzco region into four geopolitical parts (or suyus): Chinchaysuyu (Ch.), Antisuyu (An.), Collasuyu (Co.), and Cuntisuyu (Cu.). During the Cuzco Valley Archaeological Project, sites were assigned numbers according to the Inca suyu divisions of the valley. For example, the site of Kasapata, which lies within the area of Antisuyu, was given the number of An. 309, and the site of Pukacancha, located in Collasuyu, was labeled as Co. 141.

  MAP 1.4. Area surveyed and sites excavated during the Cuzco Valley Archaeological Project

  PHOTO 1.3. Surveying the area near Larapa in the Cuzco Valley

  One of the most challenging aspects of regional survey work is estimating the dimensions of specific components within multicomponent sites. That is to say, if a site was occupied during two or more time periods, it may be difficult to estimate site sizes for each of the occupations. To address this problem, we implemented an additional step, which we simply called second collections. Second collections involved revisiting sites larger than 100 × 50 m and all sites that had evidence of two chronological components. The goal of the second collections was to gather additional information on the distribution of artifacts at the sites.

  We timed the second collections so that at least one year had passed between visits to the site. This was so that agricultural work and natural forces would bring new artifacts to the surface. During the second collections, the surveyors walked the sites marking the locations of certain styles of ceramics with small flags. The flag distributions were then used to help estimate the size and density of the various components of the site. The second collection also provided an opportunity to recheck other important information recorded on the survey forms. Although this additional procedure—which involved revisiting hundreds of sites—required additional time and resources, it enabled the survey teams to check, improve, and further strengthen previous observations, and it has greatly increased our ability to model prehistoric change in the Cuzco Valley through time.

  After the surface materials were collected from the sites, they were brought to Cuzco to be washed and processed. In the laboratory, the diagnostic sherds from each site were separated into homogeneous groups based on wares, design elements, pigment colors, and surface treatments. These groups were then further subdivided according to vessel forms. Pottery samples were then analyzed to determine the periods of site occupation. At the close of the project in 2001, the artifacts were deposited in the Institute of Culture in Cuzco in specially constructed wooden containers for permanent storage.

  FIGURE 1.1. The Cuzco Chronology

  FIGURE 1.2. The Cuzco ceramic sequence

  THE EXCAVATION PROGRAM

  As recently pointed out by Stanish (2001), it is a common misunderstanding that regional studies confine themselves to survey data and do not include excavation components. On the contrary, many of the most successful regional studies actively incorporate excavations as a critical research tool within their multiphase research programs. The primary purpose of survey work is to locate, describe, and date all archaeological sites. Such survey data are inherently important as a means to characterize the settlement history of a research area. They also serve as a database for additional stages of research. That is, once a settlement history is defined, strategically important sites can be chosen for excavations based on the anthropological and historical problems researchers consider most important (Stanish 2001). In other words, once the full range and number of sites in a region are known, investigators are able to select particular sites to answer very specific research questions, rather than simply conducting their work at the largest or at the best-known sites of the area.

  Building on the results of our systematic survey (1994, 1997–1999) of the Cuzco Valley, which documented the locations of more than 1,200 archaeological sites, we chose three small- to medium-sized sites for test excavations in 1999: Peqokaypata (Co. 31), Pukacancha (Co. 141), and Tankarpata (Co. 195). These three sites were selected for excavation because they contained different combinations of ceramic styles dating from AD 200 to AD 1000 (Map 1.4). By conducting test excavations at multiple small sites, we hoped to isolate and date the various ceramic styles used in the Cuzco Valley during this era (Bauer and Jones 2003).

  During the course of our systematic survey of the Cuzco Valley, we also recorded the surface remains of numerous lithic sites. Accordingly, the results of the survey challenged the long-held view that there were no preceramic cultures in the valley and that the area was occupied relatively late in prehistory. A tentative comparison of the surface remains from these newly discovered sites with projectile points found elsewhere in the Andean highlands, especially in the Lake Titicaca Basin, pushes back the date of the first occupants of the valley from around 1000 BC to 7000 BC, a time when much of the southern Andean highlands was being colonized. Thus, systematic identification of and collection from lithic sites in the Cuzco Valley provided the opportunity to define a new lithic tradition for the region and to study the lifeways of its earliest inhabitants. Building on this new data, we conducted excavations at the preceramic site of Kasapata (An. 309) in 2000. This site was selected for excavation because it was the largest and the best-preserved lithic site in the Cuzco Valley.

  The Cuzco Chronology

  In the 1950s and early 1960s, through a series of excavations in the Ica Valley on the south coast of Peru, John Rowe and his colleagues developed a “master ceramic sequence” that divides Peruvian prehistory into a series of temporal periods based on absolute dates (Rowe 1962; Rowe and Menzel 1967). The beginning date for each period is defined by the appearance of specific ceramic types in the Ica Valley. Divisions within each period are defined by more subtle changes in local pottery styles. For example, Rowe (1962: 50) writes, “. . . the Early Intermediate Period represents the time covered by Phases 1 to 8 of the Nasca style at Ica. We can therefore divide the Early Intermediate Period into eight subdivisions (‘epochs’), each corresponding to one of the Nasca Phases.”
Some scholars have attempted to use the Ica sequence to organize archaeological settlement data recovered in the Cuzco region (Kendall 1997); however, the sequence proves to be problematic in discussing cultures and events that occurred before the arrival of the Wari (ca. AD 600). This is not a problem unique to the Cuzco region. Stanish et al. (1997: 9) describe similar circumstances in the Lake Titicaca region: “The basic problem with using this framework (i.e., the Ica sequence) is that the cultural history of the south coast is simply too different prior to the Middle Horizon to be directly applicable to the Titicaca Basin in any but the most general manner. Our research indicates that a modification of the existing chronologies for the Titicaca Basin is warranted.”

  Because this book is about the development of cultures in the Cuzco region, I use a Cuzco-based chronology to organize the archaeological materials rather than the Ica-derived sequence (Figures 1.1 and 1.2). The temporal periods used in this book are largely defined by the appearance of specific artifact styles in the Cuzco region. The projectile-point styles used in this book are derived from examples recovered in our survey and excavations in the Cuzco Valley as well as from known styles of the Lake Titicaca region. The ceramic classifications are based on an updated ceramic sequence for the Cuzco region (Bauer 1999, 2002; Bauer and Jones 2003).12 The calendar years assigned to each period are based on the most recent radiocarbon dates and are open to reassessment as more information becomes available (Appendix). As noted above, the latter periods of the Cuzco Chronology are very similar, though not identical, to those defined in the Ica sequence, but the early periods are distinctly different.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Inca Heartland

  THIS CHAPTER DEFINES the Inca heartland as it was described to the Spaniards by native informants. It also provides an introduction to the ethnic groups of the Cuzco region and an overview of the social hierarchy of the region as seen at the time of the European invasion. I am specifically concerned with the hierarchical and spatial relationship that existed between the Inca of Royal Blood, the Inca of Cuzco, and what are called the Inca of Privilege (Inca de Privilegio), the ethnic groups living within the Cuzco region but outside the capital city.

  The identification of the various groups that once inhabited the Cuzco region is an important first step in understanding the development of the Inca state because the processes of state formation do not simply affect a single “capital” city or just the populations that are immediately adjacent to it. Social transformations occur on a regional level, affecting dozens of ethnic groups and hundreds of villages. The development of the Inca state is largely about the creation of a heartland: how the many ethnic groups of the Cuzco region were forged into a single entity and how that entity was then able to expand across much of South America. In the chapters that follow, I examine the long process of indigenous cultural development in the Cuzco region that led to the formation of these various groups and their eventual unification into the Inca state.

  The Social Hierarchy of the Cuzco Region

  Detailed information concerning the ethnic groups of the region and the social relationships that bound them to the Inca of Cuzco is provided by three independent indigenous chroniclers—Guaman Poma de Ayala, Garcilaso de la Vega, and Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua—as well as one Spanish writer, Baltasar Ocampo Conejeros. The indigenous chroniclers were personally familiar with the Cuzco social hierarchy as it existed in the immediate postconquest period. Consequently, they offer unusually accurate information on the spatial distribution of ethnic groups in the Cuzco region (Table 2.1, Map 2.1). In addition, the range and depth of information that is provided by the indigenous chroniclers is enhanced by their differing ethnic backgrounds, which lead each of them to view the same social reality through differing perspectives. The Spanish writer provides a slightly different yet complementary view of the boundaries of the Inca heartland as seen through European eyes.

  GUAMAN POMA DE AYALA AND THE SOCIAL HIERARCHY OF THE CUZCO REGION

  Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala was an indigenous writer who wrote a thousand-page letter to the king of Spain in the early seventeenth century. This work, called El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, has become famous not only for the information found within its text but also for its several hundred fine line drawings. In several passages of his letter, Guaman Poma de Ayala describes the social hierarchy of the Cuzco region and the administrative organization of the empire in terms of ranked kin groups. For the purpose of this investigation, I will concentrate on four separate but nearly identical lists in which he describes his vision of the social divisions that existed in the Cuzco region during Inca rule. The first of these lists is presented in Guaman Poma de Ayala’s conception of the Pacariqtambo origin myth (Guaman Poma de Ayala 1980: 62–66 [1615: 79–85]; Bauer 1991). In this account he describes how the first mythical Inca, Manco Capac, and his three brothers and four sisters emerged from a cave called “Tanbo Toco” (Tampu-toco), or “Pacaritanbo” (Pacariqtambo), and made their journey to the Cuzco Valley via the mountain of “uana cauri” (Huanacauri).1 Guaman Poma de Ayala also describes how a large number of people traveled with the royal siblings on their mythical journey to Cuzco. This entourage included representatives of the groups that Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980: 66 [1615: 84–85]) calls the uaccha (poor) Inca of the Cuzco region, or what other chronicles have described as the Inca of Privilege:

  All those who have pierced ears are called Incas, but not all are perfect, rather some are poor Indians and low people who are not gentlemen, but tribute payers. Of those mentioned who have pierced ears, only one was the first Inca king, Manco Capac. Because of this they called him capac;2 that is, Inca is common, it is not king, but capac apu3 means king, and so the first Inca was Manco Capac, the second Anta Inca, Caca Guaroc Inca, Quiuar Inca, Masca Inca, Tambo Inca, Lari Inca, Equeco, Xaxa Uana Inca, Uaro Conde Inca, Acos Inca, Chillque Inca, Mayo Inca, Yanahuara Inca, Cauina Inca, Quichiua Inca.4 (Translation by author)

  TABLE 2.1. Inca of Privilege as described by Garcilaso de la Vega, Guaman Poma de Ayala, and Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua

  MAP 2.1. The Inca heartland and its ethnic groups

  In this description Guaman Poma de Ayala takes care to explain that although Manco Capac and his royal siblings traveled with other groups, there was, nevertheless, a clear hierarchical order among them.

  The “poor Inca” (or the Inca of Privilege), described by Guaman Poma de Ayala as living in the Cuzco heartland, formed the lower class of producers who supported the ruling elite of the capital through their tribute. Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980: 96 [1615: 117–118]) specifically describes the subservient position and image of the Inca of Privilege in comparison to the ruling Cuzco elite:

  In the law of the Inca they ordained “Capac Apo Inca” to be king. Inca does not mean king. Instead as Inca there are low-status people like Chillque Inca potter; Acos Inca cheater; Uaroc Inca Llulla Uaroc liar; Mayo Inca false witness; Quillis Cachi and Equeco Inca, bearers of rumors and lies; Poquis Colla millma rinre.5 These are Inca. Therefore they are neither lord nor king nor duke nor count nor marquis nor gentlemen Inca, but rather they are common Inca people and tribute payers.6 (Translation by author)

  According to Guaman Poma de Ayala, these low-status, tribute-paying Inca of the territories surrounding the Cuzco Valley were “Inca” by virtue of two salient features. First, ancestral representatives of these ethnic groups had accompanied Manco Capac on his mythical journey from the royal origin place of Tamputoco to Cuzco. Second, various ethnic groups of the Cuzco region, like the Inca of Cuzco and the imperial ruler himself, wore earspools. The Inca custom of wearing earspools and the journey of Manco Capac from Tamputoco to Cuzco are intimately related. The huaca (shrine) of Huanacauri is said to be one of the brothers of Manco Capac that was turned to stone during their journey to Cuzco, and it was this shrine that, according to Inca mythology, introduced the custom of ear piercing to the Inca.

  In a later section
of his Primer nueva corónica . . . , Guaman Poma de Ayala, a native of the Huánuco region, presents another list of Cuzco ethnic groups very similar to the two outlined above. In this passage, Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980: 310 [1615: 337]) suggests that the Cuzco ethnic groups were classified as Inca by the people living outside the Cuzco region, and he stresses the symbolic linkage between Inca ear perforations and their hierarchical status:

  As they had their courts [vices], ear perforations, and ancient customs of the Incas Capac Apu Inca7 and other Auquiconas8 Incas and Inca commoners: Hanan Cuzco, Hurin Cuzco, Anta Inca, Tambo Inca, Queuar Inca, Uaroc Inca, Quillis Cachi Inca, Uaro Condo Inca, Lari Inca, Masca Inca, Acos Inca, Chillque Inca, Cauina Inca, Quichiua Inca, Yanahuara Inca, Chilpaca Yunga, Uro Collo, Puquis Colla, milma rinri.9 Each one of them, according to his rank, pierced his ears according to the law and ceremonies that they used in the time of the Inca.10 (Translation by the author)

  The social hierarchy of the various ethnic groups in the Cuzco region is emphasized in the above quote. Of paramount importance in the social hierarchy of the imperial capital, according to Guaman Poma de Ayala, were the royal and noble Inca by birth, the Capac Apu Inca (Royal Lord Inca) and Auquiconas (Nobles), respectively. Below them were the people of Hanan (Upper) and Hurin (Lower) Cuzco, who held a variety of different privileges and obligations to the Inca Empire. Below the Inca of Hanan and Hurin Cuzco, on the lowest level of the regional social hierarchy, were the ethnic groups living outside the Cuzco Valley.