Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:04:06.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

My State or Yours? Wari “Labor Camps” and the Inka Cult of Viracocha at Raqchi, Cuzco, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bill Sillar
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY England ([email protected])
Emily Dean
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Utah University, Centrum 225 G, 351 West University Blvd., Cedar City, UT 84720U.S.A. ([email protected])
Amelia Pérez Trujillo
Affiliation:
Ministerio de Cultura Cusco, domicilio Urb. Ttio Q-2-22 Segundo Paradero Pasaje America Huanchac, Cusco, Perú ([email protected])

Abstract

The archaeological site at Raqchi is best known for the large Inka building identified by colonial sources as the “temple of Viracocha.” The site also has an enclosure with 152 circular buildings that have previously been interpreted as Inka state storage: collcas. Although Inka pottery was found within some structures, the utilitarian pottery, carbonized plant remains, and hearths found on the floors of the buildings at Raqchi date their construction to the Middle Horizon. These results have caused a significant reinterpretation of the site and highlight a distinction between the political economies of the two largest Andean states. We suggest this sector of the site functioned as a Wari compound for seasonal work groups, similar to those at Pikillacta and Azángaro, suggesting a potential coercive aspect within Wari colonization. This prompts a reevaluation of the Viracocha cult during the Inka period, its reclaiming of Tiwanaku and Wari state sites, and the role of public ceremony within Inka state policy.

El sitio arqueológico de Raqchi es famoso por el gran edificio inka llamado el “Templo de Viracocha.” Este sitio presenta también un sector con 152 estructuras circulares, dispuestas de manera ordenada y planificada, que son conocidas e interpretadas como almacenes o collcas del estado inka. Durante nuestras excavaciones arqueológicas en este sector registramos fragmentos de cerámica de tipo utilitario (sin decoración), restos de plantas mezcladas y fogones, permitiendo fechar a estas construcciones en el Horizonte Medio. Estos resultados han provocado que se efectúe una re-interpretación del sitio y una aclaración de las diferencias entre las políticas económicas de los dos mayores estados andinos. Sugerimos entonces que este sector funcionó como un complejo wari conformado por grupos de trabajo temporal, similares a los de Pikillaqta y Azángaro, resaltando un aspecto coercitivo de la colonización wari. Esto lleva a una re-evaluación del culto a Viracocha durante el periodo inka, y del papel del ceremonial público en la política del estado inka.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anders, Martha. B. 1991 Structure and Function in the Planned Site of Azángaro: Cautionary Notes for the Model of Huari as a Centralized State. In Huari Administrative Structures: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by William H. Isbell and Gordon F. McEwan, pp.141164. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Astuhuaman, Cesar 2008 The Organisation of the Inca Provinces within the Highlands of Piura, Northern Peru. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.Google Scholar
Ballesteros Gaibrois, Manuel 1981 Racchi (Perú), un enigma arqueolágico. Investigacián y Ciencia 54:716.Google Scholar
Ballesteros Gaibrois, Manuel 1982 Especulaciones en torno a las ruinas de Racchi. Revista española de antropología americana XII: 175179.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 1999 The Early Ceramics of the Inca Heartland. Fieldiana Anthropology, New Series 31. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 2004 Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S., and Stanish, Charles 2001 Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes: The Islands of the Sun and the Moon. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Betanzos, Juan de 1996 [1557] Narrative of the Incas. Translated by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2009 Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates. Radiocarbon 51(l):337360.Google Scholar
Chavez Ballán, Manuel 1963 El sitio de Raqchi en San Pedro de Cacha. Revista Peruana de Cultura 1:101105.Google Scholar
Cieza de Leán, Pedro de 1986a [1553] Cránica del Perú. Segunda parte (prálogo y notas de F. Cantú). 2da. ed. Coleccián Clásicos Peruanos, Pontificia Universidad Catálica del Perú/Academia Nacional de la Historia, Lima.Google Scholar
Cieza de Leán, Pedro de 1986b [1553] Cránica del Perú. Primera parte (introductián de F. Pease G.-Y.). 2da. ed. Coleccián Clásicos Peruanos, Pontificia Universidad Catálica del Perú/Academia Nacional de la Historia, Lima.Google Scholar
Cobo, Bernabe 1964 [1653] Obras del Padre Bernabé Cobo. edited by Francisco Mateos. Ediciones Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
D'Altroy, Terence N. 1992 Provincial Power in the Inka Empire. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
D'Altroy, Terence N. 2002 The Incas. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
D'Altroy, Terence N., and Hastorf, Christine A. 1984 The Distribution and Contents of Inca State Storehouses in the Xauxa Region of Peru. American Antiquity 49:334349.Google Scholar
Dean, Emily 2005 Ancestors, Mountains, Shrines and Settlements: Late Intermediate Period Landscapes of the Southern Vilcanota River Valley, Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca 1989 [1612] Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. Translated by Harold. V. Livermore. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Gasparini, Graziano, and Margolies, Luise 1980 Inca Architecture. Translated by Patricia. J. Lyon. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Mary, Glowacki 2002 The Huaro Archaeological Site Complex: Rethinking the Huari Occupation of Cuzco. In Andean Archaeology I: Variations in Sociopolitical Organization, edited by William H. Isbell and Helaine, Silverman, pp. 267286. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Glowacki, Mary, and Malpass, Michael 2003 Water, Huacas, and Ancestor Worship: Traces of a Sacred Wari Landscape. Latin American Antiquity 14(4):431448.Google Scholar
Gose, Peter 1993 Segmentary State Formation and the Ritual Control of Water Under the Incas. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 35(3):480514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe 1980 [1615] El primer nueva coránica y buen gobierno (editián de John. Murra, Rolena Adorno y Jorge Urioste), 3 vols., Siglo XXI, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Harth-Terré, Emilio 1959 Pikillacta: ciudad de depásitos y bastimientos del imperio incaico. Revista de Museo e Instituto Arqueolágico 18:319.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. 1993 Agriculture and the Onset of Political Inequality Before the Inka. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. 1999 A Manual for Building a Mechanized Flotation Machine, Modified from the SMAP Machine First Described by Patty Jo Watson in 1976. The McCown Archaeological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A., and Popper, Virginia S. (editors) 1988 Current Paleoethnobotany: Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hemming, John, and Ranney, Edward 1982 Monuments of the lncas. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Higham, Tom, F. G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Brock, Fiona, Baker, David, and Ditchfield, Peter 2007 Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry Datelist 32, Archaeometry 49(Sl):l60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Torre, Huaycochea Núñez, Maria, Flor de 1994 Qolqas. Bancos de Reserva Andinos, Cuzco.Google Scholar
Hyslop, John 1990 Inka Settlement Planning. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Isbell, William H., Brewster-Wray, Christine, and Spickard, Lynda E. 1991 Architecture and Spatial Organization at Huari. In Huari Administrative Structures: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by William. H. Isbell and Gordon F. McEwan, pp. 1953. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Isbell, William H., and Young-Sanchez, Margaret 2012 Wari's Andean Legacy. In Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes, edited by Susan E. Bergh. pp. 250267. The Cleveland Museum of Art and Thames and Hudson, Cleveland and New York.Google Scholar
Jennings, Justin 2006 Understanding Middle Horizon Peru: Hermeneutic Spirals, Interpretative Traditions, and Wari Administrative Centers. Latin American Antiquity 17(3):265285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julien, Catherine. J. 1983 Hatunqolla: A View of Inca Rule from the Lake Titicaca Region, Publications in Anthropology 15. University of California, Berkeley/Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Lanning, Edward P. 1967 Peru before the lncas. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
LeVine, Terry Y. (editor) 1992 Inka Storage Systems. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Lápez, y Sebastián, , Eladio, Lorenzo 1981 Rajchi en la arqueología de la Sierra Sur del Perú, informe preliminar. Revista española de antropología americana IX: 137160.Google Scholar
Martin, A. C., and Barkley, W. D. 1961 Seed Identification Manual. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
McEwan, Gordon F. 1987 The Middle Horizon in the Valley of Cuzco, Peru The Impact of Wari Occupation of the Lucre Basin. BAR International Series 372. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
McEwan, Gordon F. 1991 Investigations at Pikillacta: A Provincial Huari Centre in the Valley of Cuzco. In Huari Administrative Structures: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by William H. Isbell and Gordon F. McEwan,pp. 141164. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
McEwan, Gordon F. 2005 Pikillacta: The Wari Empire in Cuzco. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
McCormac, F. G., Hogg, A. G., Blackwell, P. G., Buck, C. E., Higham, T. F. G., and Reimer, P.J. 2004 SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere Calibration 0–1000 cal BP. Radiocarbon 46: 10871092.Google Scholar
Meyers, Albert. 2007 Toward a Reconceptualization of the Late Horizon and the Inka Period: Perspectives from Cochasqui, Ecuador, and Samaipata. In Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited by Richard Burger, Craig Morris, and Ramero Matos, pp. 223254. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Monzán, Luis de 1965 Descriptián de la tierra del repartimiento de Atunsora, encomendado en Hernando Palomino, Jurisdictián de la ciudad de Guamanga, año de 1586. In Relaciones geográficas de Indias (Perú), edited by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, pp. 220225. Biblioteca de autores españoles 183. Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1967 Storage in Tawantinsuyu. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1981 Tecnología y organizatián inca del almacenamiento de víveres en la sierra. In Runakunap Kawsayninkupaq Rurasqankuna: La tecnología en el mundo andino, edited by Heather Lechtman and Ana María Soldi, pp. 327375. Universidad Nacional Autánoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1982 The Infrastructure of Inka Control in the Peruvian Central Highlands. In The Inca and Aztec States 1400–1800: Anthropology and History, edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, pp. 153171. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1992 Foreword. In Inka Storage Systems, edited by Terry Y. Le Vine, pp. ixxiii. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig, and Thompson, Donald E. 1985 Huánuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Murra, John V. (editor) 1975 Formaciones econámicas y políticas del mundo andino. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima.Google Scholar
Nash, Donna J. 2002 The Archaeology of Space: Places of Power in the Wari Empire. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Niles, Susan A. 1999 The Shape oflnca History: Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Nuñez del Prado, Oscar 1962 Sicuani, un Pueblo Grande. Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Indígenas, Lima Google Scholar
Ogburn, Dennis E. 2010 Inca Manipulation of the Sacred Landscape of Saraguro, Ecuador. Ñawpa Pacha 30(2): 167188.Google Scholar
Pardo, Luis A. 1946 Ruinas del santuario de Huiraccocha. Revista de la Seccián Arqueolágica de la Universidad Nacional del Cuzco 2:74111.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M. 2000 Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures. 2nd ed., Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Pizarro, Hernando 1920 A los Señores Oydores de la Audiencia Real de Su Magestad. In Informaciones sobre el antiguo Perú, edited by Horatio H. Urtega, pp. 16180. Coleccián de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú 3 (second series). Imprenta y Librería Sanmartí, Lima.Google Scholar
Pizarro, Pedro 1921 [1571] Relation of the Discovery and Conquest of the Kingdoms of Peru. Translated by Philip Ains worth Means Cortes Society, New York.Google Scholar
Polo de Ondegardo, Juan 1916 [1571] Relatián de los fundamentos acerca del notable daño que resulta de no guardar a los indios susfueros. In Coleccián de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Peru, Vol. 3, edited by Horacio H. Urteaga, pp. 45188. Sanmartí, Lima.Google Scholar
Protzen, Jean-Pierre 1993 Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1956 Archaeological Explorations in Southern Peru, 1954–1955; preliminary report of the Fourth University of California Archaeological Expedition to Peru. American Antiquity 22(2): 135151.Google Scholar
Salomon, Frank 1995 “The Beautiful Grandparents”: Andean Ancestor Shrines and Mortuary Ritual as Seen through Colonial Records. In Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices, edited by Tom D. Dillehay, pp. 315354. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Sancho de la Hoz, Pedro 1917 [1532–1533] Relatián. In Coleccián de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú, Vol. 5, edited by Horacio H. Urteaga, pp. 122202. Sanmartí, Lima.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1973 The Significance of Pikillacta in Andean Culture History. Occassional Papers in Anthropology 8:380428. Pennsylvania State University, State College.Google Scholar
Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, Juan de 1993 [c.1915] Relacián de antigüedades deste reyno del Perú. Centra Bartolomé de las Casas, Cuzco.Google Scholar
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro 1960 [1572] Historia de los Incas. Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (continuatián), Vol. 135, pp. 193297. Ediciones Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J. 1978 Planned Architecture of Middle Horizon Peru: Implications for Social and Political Organization. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J. 1987 Conquest and Consolidation: A Comparison of the Wari and Inka Occupations of a Highland Peruvian Valley. American Antiquity 52:266284.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J. 1992 Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru. Anthropological Papers of the Museum of Anthropology No 87. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J. 2004 Sacred Landscapes and Imperial Ideologies: The Wari Empire in Sondondo, Peru. In Foundations of Power in the Prehispanic Andes, edited by Kevin J. Vaughn, Dennis E. Ogburn and Christina A Conlee, pp. 131150. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 14. American Anthropological Association, Washington.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill 1996 The Dead and the Drying: Techniques for Transforming People and Things in the Andes. Journal of Material Culture 1(3): 259289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sillar, Bill 2002 Caminando a traves del tiempo: geografías sagradas en Cacha/Raqchi, Departamento del Cuzco (Perú). Revista Andina 35:221246.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill 2012 Potential Causes of Language Change across the Cuzco-Lake Titicaca Border 2000 BC to 2000 AD. In Archaeology and Language in the Andes: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Prehistory, edited by Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones, pp. 295320. British Academy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill 2013 The Building and Rebuilding of Walls: Aspirations, Commitments and Tensions within an Andean Community and the Archaeological Monument They Inhabit. Journal of Material Culture 18(1). Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill, and Dean, Emily 2004 Identidad étnica bajo el dominio inka: una evaluatián arqueolágica y etnohistárica de las repercusiones del estado inka en el grupo étnico canas. Boletin de Arqueología Pontificia Universidad Catálica del Peru 6:205264.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill, Dean, Emily, and Trujillo, Amelia P. 2004 Informe final del Proyecto Raqchi: prospecciones y excavaciones arqueolágicas en los valles de Vilcanota y Sallca 1998–2001. Submitted to the Instituto National de Cultura, Cuzco and Lima.Google Scholar
Snead, James 1992 Imperial Infrastructure and the Inka State Storage System. In Inka Storage System, edited by Terry Y. LeVine, pp. 62106. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Squier, Ephraim George 1877 Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas. MacMillan, New York.Google Scholar
Topic, John R. 1991 Huari and Huamachuco. In Huari Administrative Structures: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by William H. Isbell and Gordon F. McEwan, pp. 141164. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Urton, Gary 2003 Signs of the Inka Khipu. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Wagner, Gail E. 1982 Testing Flotation Recovery Rates. American Antiquity 47(1):127132.Google Scholar
Watson, Patty Jo 1976 In Pursuit of Prehistoric Subsistence: A Comparative Account of Aome Contemporary Flotation Techniques. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 1(1):77100.Google Scholar
Yaeger, Jason, and Maria, Jose Bejarano, Lopez 2004 La reconfiguratián de un espacio sagrado: los Inkas y la pirámide Pumapunku en Ti wanaku. Chungara, Revista de Antropologia Chilena 36(2):335348.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1973 The Origin of the Inca Empire. In Les Grandes Empires pp. 733757. Recueils de la société Jean Bodin pour L'Histoire Comparatives des Institutions Vol. XXXI. Ed. Libraire Encyclopédique, Brussels.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Sillar et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Sillar et al. Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 136.9 KB