THE INCAS AND THE CHACHAPOYA

The Inca conquest of Chachapoyas began in the fifteenth century during the reign of Topa Inca. Inca presence in Chachapoyas was brief, yet intense, not only transforming religion, language and settlement patterns, but also restructuring social and political institutions. The Incas reorganized local sociopolitical hierarchies, elevated some local leaders to curaca status and appointed a yana, an outsider, as apical administrator (Espinoza 1967; Pease 1982). They curried the curacas’ favor by lavishing them with gifts of women and fine cloth and other trappings of Inca-sanctioned authority. Yet many Inca policies kindled resentment and disputes among competing curacas (Espinoza 1967).

It is no surprise, then, that Inca rule was fraught with rebellions. Ironically, the same institutions that united autonomous ayllus into a centralized and governable province may have ultimately galvanized Chachapoya ethnic identity (Church 1996; Schjellerup 1997,

1999), spawning pan-regional alliances born of resistance. In response to the frequent uprisings, the Incas banished many people as mitmaq colonists (as much as 50% of the population according to Espinoza [1967] and Lerche [1995]) to distant parts of the empire, including Lake Titicaca, the Lucumayu Valley northwest of Cuzco, and in Cuzco itself where Chachapoya served as Huascar’s palace guards (Bandelier 1907; Espinoza 1967; Rostworowski 1993). In turn, the Incas resettled Chachapoyas with bureaucrats, potters and loyal subjects whose presence fractured any allied resistance. The pottery-producing community of Huancas, just north of modern Chachapoyas, was inhabited by the descendants of Wanka mitmaq, relocated from the Mantaro Valley during the reign of Huayna Capac. Chachapoya and Canari mitmaq installed in the Mantaro Valley appear to represent “matched exchanges” of colonists (D’Altroy 1992:197). Mitmaq from the north coast controlled the strategic Maranon crossing at Balsas (Zevallos 1995), while 200 Chupaychu from Huanuco manned garrisons. Despite the turmoil, researchers have not identified Inca forts in Chachapoyas such as those at the northern and southeastern extremes of the empire (Hyslop 1990; D’Altroy 1992).

Ethnohistorical accounts differ regarding the number of Chachapoya hunos (units of 10,000 taxpayers) created by the Incas. We suspect that the Incas established three hunus (Lerche 1986; Schjellerup 1997), but that only two remained by the time the Spaniards arrived (Espinoza 1967). War casualties, mitmaq policies and Inca failure to control less organized or more elusive societies to the north and east must have resulted in substantial population

Attrition, provoking repeated political and demographic reorganization. On the eve of the Spanish invasion, the population may have numbered 100,000 individuals, assuming a ratio of one taxpayer for each family of five within two hunus. Site density alone suggests that pre-Inca Chachapoyas’ population was at least three-fold greater than the documentary evidence indicates.

According to Espinoza (1967), the Incas administered a southern huno from Cun-turmarca, where archaeologists documented a large Inca complex above the modern town of Condormarca. The seat of a northern huno is more difficult to determine, but may have been Levanto, just south of modern Chachapoyas, at the junction of the north-south road and the road east to Moyobamba. Early documents say Topa Inca had a sun temple and a “palace” built there (Espinoza 1967). Alternatively, centrally located Cochabamba may have served as the northern hunu seat, as well as the principal Inca administrative center for all of Chachapoyas. Located above Balsas where the road from Cajamarca joins the north-south road, Cochabamba is one the few Inca sites in the region to boast classic, imperial style architecture with double jambed doorways, kancha compounds and fountains (Schjellerup 1997).

Why did the Incas invest such effort and time conquering and re-conquering the rebellious Chachapoya? The overarching goal of Inca expansion was to harness labor, and siphon sufficient wealth to meet the needs of the Inca state and the nobility’s opulent supporting infrastructure. Although Chachapoyas’ human resources and commodities such as coca and gold must have been desirable, the Incas chiefly aimed to expropriate frontier highland-lowland exchange systems wholesale for access to vital tropical forest resources (Salomon 1986). These networks provided medicinal plants and herbs, honey and beeswax, cacao and wild vanilla, cotton, vegetal dyes, animal pelts, the hardwood of the chonta palm, and the feathers of tropical birds used to decorate headdresses and textiles (von Hagen 2004). Beyond natural resources, ethnohistorical and ethnographic studies portray the eastern lowlands as a pharmacopoeia and home to powerful shamans. Amazonia served as the primordial source of esoteric knowledge, which was also traded into the Andes. If esoteric knowledge was valued as political capital, then controlling access to Amazonia must have been paramount.

Deep in the forest east of Cochabamba the Incas constructed several substantial complexes, including Pukarumi, a walled site at a bottleneck in the Huabayacu river valley (Schjellerup 1997). A few kilometers downriver along a paved road lies Tampu Eje, apparently under construction on the eve of the Spanish invasion. Farther east, researchers recorded the remains of Chachapoya and Inca constructions, agricultural terraces, and the foundations of a sixteenth or seventeenth century chapel (Muscutt 1998; Schjellerup 1997). Inca and Chachapoya constructions have also been identified at similar elevations north of the Huabayacu in the Huambo and Jelache valleys (Schjellerup et al. 2003) and elsewhere in the Huabayacu drainage (Cornejo et al. 2004). These and other installations on the forested slopes of the upper Huayabamba watershed were likely to have functioned as staging areas for feasting and exchange among the Incas, Chachapoya and forest groups such as the Hibito, who occupied territories between the Chachapoya and Huallaga valley lowlanders. Inca tambos, possible garrisons and sites of unknown function (see Lennon et al. 1989; Schjellerup 1997; Coello 2000) dot the Chachapoya landscape, but conspicuous by their scarcity are Inca storage facilities, ubiquitous in other Inca provinces. The extreme humidity of the region, the highly perishable nature of the products, and perhaps distrust of unruly local populations may explain their paucity. Much of the region’s output could have been promptly dispatched to Inca provincial centers across the Maranon in Cajamarca, Huamachuco or perhaps south to Huanuco.

The LIP witnessed a proliferation of Chachapoya settlements poised near the forest’s edge, many of which controlled entryways into the tropical lowlands. The Incas “colonized” many such settlements by adding their hallmark constructions. Near traditional routes to Moyobamba and the Huayabamba lowlands east of Levanto, fieldwork at the 400-ha settlement of Purun Llaqta de Cheto revealed some 600 constructions, many of them Inca (Jorge Ruiz B., personal communication, 2005). Similarly, Inca constructions were probably late additions at settlements such as Inticancha above Uchucmarca. The eastern slopes between Purun Llaqta and ancient Cajamarquilla (modern Bolivar) are crisscrossed by pre-Hispanic roads (Church 1992; Lerche 1995; Schjellerup 1997), traces of which have even been observed along the lower Huayabamba River (Savoy 1970). The especially dense clustering of Chachapoya settlements between Leymebamba and Bolivar, and the “trailhead” locations of La Jalca, Cunturmarca and other sites attest to the tendency to maximize access to the eastern lowlands.

One trailhead site, Llaqtacocha (2,800 masl) at Laguna de los Condores, lies in the heart of territory once occupied by the Chilchos, a Chachapoya subgroup that inhabited the forested slopes east of Leymebamba and northeast of Bolivar, between the Huabayacu and Chilchos rivers (Espinoza 1967; Lerche 1995). The Inca presence at Llaqtacocha is marked by two rectangular constructions at the 33-ha site, which includes the remains of some 130, mostly circular structures (Guillen 2000; von Hagen 2000, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). Excavations unearthed late Chachapoya and provincial Inca ceramics, indicating that the settlement and the burial site across the lake are contemporary. More recent survey at the neighboring lakes of Quintecocha and La Mona (Panaifo et al. 2005) has documented similar lakeside settlements and tombs in the surrounding cliffs. The Incas appropriated many of the lakes’ burial sites, physically and spiritually usurping the sacred tombs of the communities’ ancestors overlooking venerated lakes.

The emblematic Chachapoya sites of Gran Pajaten and Los Pinchudos, built in the shadow of Inca hegemony, are considered the pinnacle of Chachapoya architectural achievement. Gran Pajaten is a small ridge-top settlement of approximately 25 buildings (Rojas 1967; Bonavia 1967; Church 1994). Four of the most prominent buildings feature geometric and zoomorphic mosaic-like slate friezes, and others depict frontal views of splayed, anthropomorphic figures with sandstone tenoned heads and elaborate headdresses. Quartz crystals and decorated pottery (Figure 45.3pp-uu) excavated in Building No. 1 suggest that they may have served as residences of privileged individuals who engaged in private rituals. Even larger, equally ornate settlements in the Montecristo Valley await further study. At Los Pinchudos wooden statues are cunningly arrayed under the eaves of the main burial chamber which bears a geometric frieze highlighted in shades of red and yellow ochre and white (Kauffmann 1980; Morales et al. 2002) (see Figure 45.8). Finds of Spondylus shell pendants and Chimu-Inca pottery attest to exchange linkages established with the coast under Inca aegis (see Figure 45.9). At both Gran Pajaten and Los Pinchudos, local leaders seem to have used Inca ceramics for private status displays while simultaneously constructing monuments declaring Chachapoya identity to a wider audience.

The mortuary complex at Laguna de los Condores across from Llaqtacocha is tucked into a cliff side ledge and consists of six intact chullpas and the foundations of a seventh (Guillen 1999; von Hagen 2002a, 2002b, 2002c; von Hagen and Guillen 1998). Although looters churned through the tombs, slashing mummy bundles with machetes and destroying valuable contextual information, the wide array of burial offerings that accompanied the more than 200 mummy bundles and other human remains display a cosmopolitan mix of local and exotic influences. Khipus, the only ones ever recovered in Chachapoyas,

Figure 44.7. Tallan phase burial containing copper ingots, from Cerro —Nananique. (Jean Guffroy)

Figure 45.8. Cliff tombs at Los Pinchudos. Tomb in foreground decorated with step-fret frieze painted in shades of red and yellow ochre with white, and including anthropomorphic wooden statues suspended under eaves. (Gregory O. Jones)

Figure 45.9. Artifacts from Los Pinchudos: a-c. Provincial Inca-style ceramics; d. Chimu stirrup-spout vessel; e. Spondylus shell pendants. (Warren Church)

Feature among the extraordinarily valuable finds (Urton 2001; see Chapter 41 in this volume). The well-preserved burial offerings are playing a vital part in finding answers to the genesis of the Chachapoya art style, revealing new imagery on perishable artifacts such as textiles and gourds. Burial goods included unmistakable tropical lowland imports such as a desiccated feline, apparently a margay (which lives at elevations below 900 masl, well below the lake) and headdresses festooned with feathers of lowland species such as parrots and macaws (von Hagen 2004) (see Figure 45.10).

Schjellerup (1997) and other researchers have viewed the widespread proliferation of shared architectural techniques and symbolism during the LH as an overt expression of Chachapoya ethnic identity. During times of conflict and rebellion, artistic archaisms and the prominent commemoration of ancestors can be interpreted as a form of resistance indicative of ethnogenesis. But does this resurgence date to Inca times or to the tumultuous years between Spanish conquest and the implementation of viceroy Toledo’s reduccion

Figure 45.10. Artifacts and iconography recovered from Laguna de Los Condores: a. Rollout of a pyroengraved gourd (CMA 1160) (Drawing by Cecilia Nunez); b. Tunic arrayed with profile felines (CMA 0394) (Adriana von Hagen); c. Detail of woven figure from a tunic (CMA 2070) (Drawing by Cecilia Nunez); d. pyro-engraved, profile feline on hollow bamboo container (CMA 1580) (Drawing by Cecilia Nunez); e. Desiccated feline, possibly a margay (CMA 1756). (Adriana von Hagen)

Policies in the 1570s? A small wooden crucifix, glazed pottery and glass trade beads indicate that the chullpas at Laguna de los Condores continued to be used into early Spanish colonial times. Although Gran Pajaten’s radiocarbon dates fall firmly within the LH, numerous dates from Laguna de los Condores, Los Pinchudos and the settlement of La Playa near Gran Pajaten suggest a powerful resurgence of Chachapoya cultural identity during the early Colonial era, reminiscent of what happened in the Ica Valley on Peru’s south coast where a renaissance of local ceramic styles occurred immediately following the fall of the Inca Empire (Menzel 1976). Similarly, as Inca power waned in Chachapoyas, weavers, potters and architects may have defiantly revived artistic traditions infused with Chachapoya imagery. Conversely, it is entirely possible that the late fluorescence of Chachapoya artistic and architectural expression reflects both resistance during Inca rule and revival following Inca collapse. Our analysis of calibrated AMS radiocarbon dates from several late Chach-apoya settlements does not allow us to reject either possibility entirely.