ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Number 96: 234 pp. November 2, 2011

Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2011

ISSN 0065-9452

http://dx.doi.org/10.5531/sp.anth.0096

[PART 1 OF EPUB]

The Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project

Volume I: The Plaza and Palace Complex

Craig Morris, R. Alan Covey, and Pat Stein

ABSTRACT

This volume represents the first in a series of publications detailing the archaeological research conducted by Craig Morris and his colleagues at Huánuco Pampa, an Inka provincial administrative center located in highland Peru. The site offers a unique opportunity to study Inka urbanism, and the present publication discusses the form and function of Inka cities, as well as the extent to which the Andean urban form could be coopted by the Spanish empire after the conquest of the Inkas. Open spaces and special state compounds were key components of Inka administrative centers, and attention is given to the archaeological remains found in and around the central plaza at Huánuco Pampa. Buildings on the plaza were probably used by local provincial groups for festive and ceremonial activities presided over by Inka officials. While the central plaza provided space for a broad provincial constituency, a series of smaller open spaces in the Zone IIB administrative palace offered more exclusive areas for encounters between provincial and Inka elites. After discussing Inka palace compounds, the archaeological focus turns to excavations inside structures and in exterior spaces in the palace, revealing patterns of access and degrees of status in the transit from accessible administrative spaces to restricted residential ones. An appendix to the volume provides a detailed description of the analysis of ceramic artifacts from excavations at Huánuco Pampa.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This monograph is the product of roughly 40 years of research and analysis in the field and laboratory. The Huánuco Pampa project would never have been designed or implemented without Craig Morris’ perseverance and professional commitment, and it would never have achieved success without the determination and good judgment that he invested over the years as he established himself as the preeminent Inka researcher of his generation. Sadly, Morris’ untimely passing in June 2006 prevented him from shepherding this monograph through its final drafts, and his absence is felt in the final production of this publication.

The Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project successfully conducted excavations and laboratory analysis at a scale seldom achieved in Andean archaeology, and Morris would have been the first to note that this was only because he could rely on dedicated fieldworkers, capable supervisors, devoted friends, and supportive colleagues along the way. The full dramatis personae of the project—more than 300 people working from the 1960s to the present—is too long to list, and in his absence I cannot name every individual who made valuable contributions to the overall success of the project. Instead, I recapitulate acknowledgements that Morris made over the years in print, correspondence, and conversation, with apologies to those whom I fail to mention.

Morris’ excavations at Huánuco Pampa came on the heels of his participation in John Murra’s anthropological study of the region in the 1960s, a project that served as the model for interdisciplinary research at the Inka administrative capital. Murra provided inspiration, advice, and collegial input throughout the many years that Morris directed archaeological research in the Huánuco region. Morris’ dissertation excavations and the subsequent urban excavation project benefited from interactions with colleagues who were involved in other aspects of Murra’s Huánuco research, including Ramiro Matos, Robert Bird, Cesar Fonseca, Peter Jensons, Santiago Japa, Emilio Mendizabal, and Daniel Shea. During the major excavation campaigns at Huánuco Pampa, a considerable number of researchers worked as field supervisors and laboratory analysts; among them were Pat Stein, Idilio Santillana, William Burke, Freddy Ferrua, Carlos Meneses, Patricia Netherly, James Donegan, Hugo Ludeña, Oscar Paredes, Juan Carbajal, Cesar Durand, Judith Cardich, Corine Varon, Aldo Bolaños, Juan Raimerez, Manuel Calderon, María Dianderas, Elizabeth Wing, Elizabeth Reitz, Denise Pozzi, Carmen Cardoza, Cay Loria, and Peter Kvietok. Delfín Zúñiga provided especially valuable contributions to topographic work at the site, as well as logistical support throughout the research and assistance in the laboratory.

To this group must be added several individuals who continued to labor with the recorded laboratory data at the American Museum of Natural History following the excavations and laboratory analysis. Delfín Zúñiga, John Hyslop, and Peter Kvietok were responsible for the entry of the ceramic database into computerized form, as well as line-by-line editing of a database comprising some two million distinct data cells. Hyslop provided important insights into the preliminary results of project research, and was engaged in the archiving, organization, and analysis of data while also conducting his own groundbreaking research on Inka archaeology. Hyslop’s death in 1994—along with an increase in Morris’ administrative responsibilities (as department chair, dean of science, and senior vice president at the AMNH)—contributed to a hiatus in data analysis that lasted until 1999.

At that time, project funds were invested in new computers and software, and the field data were reformatted and a new analysis of project data began under the supervision of R. Alan Covey. Using coded artifact data and Pat Stein’s field notes, Covey prepared the first draft of the present monograph, which was nearly complete by the summer of 2001. During the final stages of the project, several people provided critical assistance. Sumru Aricanli contributed to final stages of data entry and provided countless hours digitizing and archiving the thousands of slides and black-and-white images that comprise the project’s photographic archive. She was assisted in these latter tasks by Pamela Ossona and Lily Carey. Christa Cesario, Carla de la Rosa, Nick Griffis, Caryn Lewi, and Ariela Zycherman participated in the project through the Anthropology Internship Program at the AMNH, working to scan and edit field drawings and notes.

By 2006, the final editorial work for this monograph was in sight, but its completion would not have been possible without Charles Spencer’s guidance as chair of the anthropology division at the AMNH and Morris’ literary fiduciary. Spencer arranged for support and approved necessary resources to see the project to completion, and provided encouragement in the final editorial stages. Brian Bauer and Joyce Marcus reviewed the completed manuscript and offered helpful comments throughout the text that have proven invaluable for improving the substance and presentation of the volume.

Funding for the Huánuco Pampa project came from a series of grants from the National Science Foundation (grant numbers 7139895, 7466194, BCS7825109), as well as funds from the American Museum of Natural History. The Junius B. Bird Fund at the AMNH supported the purchase of equipment and costs associated with data analysis and write-up. The Anthropology Internship Program at the AMNH supported internships for a number of motivated undergraduate and graduate students.

R. Alan Covey

Hanover, NH

August, 2011

Note on Orthography

In this monograph we use Spanish and Quechua words for personal names, Inka settlements, and Andean concepts. For personal names, we follow Spanish spellings as they commonly appear in major 16th- or 17th-century chronicles. Inka settlements are also spelled this way, although the spellings of archaeological sites follow previously published forms. For Andean concepts, we employ Quechua terms using a three-vowel orthography that is as consistent as possible with the Colonial period dictionaries, maintaining consistency wherever possible with the Cusco Quechua dictionary of Antonio Cusihuamán (Diccionario quechua, Cuzco-Collao, published in Lima by the Ministerio de Educación, 1976).

INTRODUCTION: RECONSTRUCTING INKA URBANISM AND PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION

The anthropological tradition in Inka studies seeks to describe the largest native empire in the Americas in its totality. One of the many challenges that contemporary scholars face is that the record available today is biased and fragmentary, typically focused either on documentary descriptions of Cusco, the Inka capital, or on archaeological surveys and excavations in provincial regions. Piecing together the puzzle of Inka civilization involves accounting for the tremendous diversity—environmental, ethnic, administrative—that underlay and shaped the imperial apparatus. The great Inka scholars of the 20th century attacked this problem through top-down perspectives focusing on the organization of the Inka elite (e.g., Rostworowski, 1953; Rowe, 1946; Zuidema, 1964), as well as by developing bottom-up views that accounted for the socioeconomic and ideological worlds of Andean peasants (e.g., Murra, 1980 [1956]). One challenge for research in the 21st century is to compare and synthesize these two valuable components of the Inka imperial dialectic, accounting for the dynamic nature of Inka administrative strategies and their local responses.

The provincial city represents a critical context for realizing the goal of strengthening intermediate links between the Inka elite and the farmers and herders that constituted the bulk of the empire’s populace (Morris, 1972). If studied holistically by anthropologists, an Inka provincial center and its surrounding hinterland may shed light on Inka notions of urbanism and contextualize life in Cusco and other late pre-Hispanic cities in the Andes. It can also potentially provide baseline data for comparing imperial infrastructure and practices for incorporating provincial groups under Inka governance, especially in the south-central Andean highlands, where Inka power was particularly pronounced (see fig. i.1).

This monograph and the publications that follow it represent a sustained effort to realize the potential of the provincial center through the comprehensive investigation of Inka urbanism and imperial administration at Huánuco Pampa, an abandoned Inka city in the highlands of northern Peru. Combining decades of archaeological research with detailed reference to the Colonial period documentary record, this volume takes steps toward reconstructing the urban form of a particular Inka center, describing not only how it was designed to promote a distinct model of provincial administration, but also how the city evolved through encounters between imperial administrators and local groups.

Figure i.1. The Inka Empire, with roads and important centers. The Inkas developed new administrative installations in highland regions, while working through existing centers in coastal regions.

HUÁNUCO: AN INKA HIGHLAND PROVINCE

The Inka empire consolidated its provincial control over the Huánuco region of Peru’s central highlands in the century prior to the European invasion (Morris and Thompson, 1985). In the centuries before Inka annexation, the Huánuco region had been home to several local groups, including the Chupaychu, Yacha, and Wamali, whose principal settlements were located on ridgetops overlooking the Huallaga Valley (Cieza de León, 1985 [1553]: chap. 80; Matos, 1972; Morris and Thompson, 1985: 119–162). Because local political organization in this region was decentralized at the time of the Inka conquest, imperial administrators imposed decimal administration on their new province, appointing a hierarchy of new imperial officials from among existing local leaders. An Inka governor directly supervised these officials (Ortíz de Zúñiga, 1967 [1562]: f. 9v), as was the case for other parts of the central highlands (Bandera, 1965 [1557]: 177–179; Carabajal, 1965 [1586]: 207; Espinoza, 1977; Monzón, 1965a [1586], 1965b [1586]; Vega, 1965 [1582]: 169).

In reorganizing the Huánuco region as a new province with as many as 30,000 tributaries (Cieza de León, 1984 [1553]: chap. 80; cf. Ortíz de Zúñiga, 1967 [1562]: f. 9–9v), the Inkas built a provincial capital, laying out the new city of Huánuco Pampa in response to the administrative needs of the reconfigured ethnic and political units of the decimal administration (see Morris and Covey, 2006: 138–146). Reportedly built shortly after the conquest of the region by Tupa Inca Yupanqui, Huánuco Pampa was established on unpopulated high-elevation grasslands (puna) along the royal highway (qhapaqñan). Some Colonial writers describe the site as a “second Cusco,” a label restricted to just a few of the most important centers in the empire (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1980 [1615]: f. 185/187; Ortíz de Zúñiga, 1967 [1562]: f. 42v., 55r., 61v.). The city was laid out around a large central plaza, and included an administrative palace to facilitate encounters between imperial officials and local groups. Local informants describe the city as a key storage location for staple goods, and a place where exotic goods were accumulated for transport to Cusco. It was also a place where local populations congregated to observe imperial ritual activities (e.g., Hernández Príncipe, 1923 [1622]: 32).

Huánuco (fig. i.2) was neither the wealthiest nor most populous province in the Inka empire, and its annexation and administration seems to have been achieved more easily than some other highland regions, resulting in less vivid Colonial period narratives of imperial conquest and local resistance and rebellion. Because it lacked the dazzle of the wealthy coastal states and the resistant stance of many imperial frontier zones, the Huánuco region may not have been at the forefront of the Inka ruler’s mind, but fortuitous circumstances have guaranteed its importance in Inka studies. A detailed documentary record preserved in Spanish archives describes the early Colonial and late Inka occupation of the indigenous farming communities distributed throughout the Huánuco region. Not only do basic accounts of rural life exist for this Inka province, but Huánuco Pampa, the provincial capital, is one of a very limited number of major Inka administrative facilities not obliterated by Colonial period settlement. The recognition of the importance of the ethnohistory and archaeology of the Huánuco region inspired large-scale anthropological studies that today offer us the prospect of a detailed reconstruction of an Inka highland province.

Figure i.2. The Huánuco region, showing Inka imperial infrastructure and the locations of other sites known through archaeological and ethnohistoric research.

THE STUDY OF INKA PROVINCIAL LIFE (1963–1966)

The anthropologist John V. Murra became interested in the Inka and early Colonial villages of the Huánuco region following the publication of a 1549 tribute levy (tasa) (Helmer, 1955–1956), as well as 1562 administrative (visita) documents produced by Iñigo Ortíz de Zúñiga and published in Lima in the 1920s and 1950s (Murra, 1967: v). In 1962, Murra authored a short piece in American Antiquity about the potential for archaeologists to return to the region to visit the sites mentioned in the visita. Murra (1962: 3) also noted the great prospect for interdisciplinary research in the Inka provinces to reconstruct “a local, ‘provincial’ or, to be precise, a peasant version of highland civilization in Inca times.” He subsequently applied for and received a National Science Foundation grant through the Institute for Andean Research to carry out an interdisciplinary study of Inka provincial life in the Huánuco region. The research took place from 1963–1966 and comprised ethnographic, botanical, ethnohistoric, and archaeological components. Preliminary results were published in Spanish in the first volume of Cuadernos de Investigación, published by the Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, which includes chapters by Murra, Craig Morris, Donald Thompson, Daniel Shea, Robert Bird, César Fonseca, among others.

The archaeological components of this project focused on local settlements and lower-order administrative installations, rather than the abandoned capital of the Inka province—a site known at the time as Huánuco Viejo (and subsequently called Huánuco Pampa). Morris (1966, 1972a) participated in Murra’s project as a supervisor of test excavations at rural sites in the Huánuco region (e.g., Ichu, Tunsukancha). Having gained a sense of the Inka economic impact on rural settlements, he then carried out research at Huánuco Pampa to study how storage facilities at the provincial capital differed from local storage systems and reflected Inka political economy at the provincial level. The project involved the excavation of a sample of storage structures (qollqa) at a local village (Aukimarka), an Inka tampu (Tunsukancha), as well as roughly 100 circular and rectangular structures at Huánuco Pampa. Morris’ storage project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of Chicago and provided the data for his doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago (Morris, 1967).

While several of Murra’s field crew carried out archaeological research in rural regions—to forge an important link between local production and imperial political economy (e.g., Matos Mendieta, 1972; Thompson, 1967; Thompson and Murra, 1966)—part of the project also focused on cleaning and consolidating certain monuments at Huánuco Pampa. Daniel Shea oversaw a two-month project, working on the large platform (commonly called an ushnu) situated at the center of the site’s main plaza. Shea (1966) reported that his excavations revealed large quantities of Inka pottery, as well as evidence that the layout of the platform was coordinated with that of the nearby palace complex. In addition to directing excavations in the sector of storage buildings at the site, Morris also supervised the excavation and consolidation of one of the large rectangular kallanka structures delimiting the eastern side of the central plaza at Huánuco Pampa (Murra and Hadden, 1965: 136) (fig. i.3). Finally, Luis Barreda Murillo excavated an unusual structure on a platform in the easternmost part of the administrative palace.

Figure i.3. Final excavation of a great hall (kallanka) structure on the eastern side of the central plaza.

INTENSIVE EXCAVATIONS AT HUÁNUCO PAMPA, AN INKA CENTER

Regional archaeology and selected excavations at Huánuco Pampa helped to clarify the overall distribution of Inka architecture and material culture in the Huánuco region, but the archaeological interpretation of the Inka city remained incomplete at the time Murra’s project ended. The archaeological research initiated by Murra permitted the identification of functional variability and residential diversity at Huánuco Pampa, as well as the observation that Inka architectural forms and ceramics were common at the provincial capital, but virtually nonexistent in rural contexts throughout the region (Morris and Thompson, 1970).

In collaborating with Donald Thompson to complete an overview of Inka urbanism at Huánuco Pampa, Morris recognized that the considerable archaeological and anthropological potential of the site would remain unrealized unless a major citywide excavation project could be carried out. Although he had only recently completed his doctoral degree, Morris applied for and received a grant from the National Science Foundation (grant 7139895) to begin the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project in 1971–1972 with the excavation of 117 structures. A second NSF grant (grant 7466194) allowed fieldwork to continue from 1974–1976. Morris’s move to the American Museum of Natural History provided him with additional research funds to supplement a third NSF grant (BCS7825109) for laboratory analysis in 1981.

The Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project: Field Research

Inka urbanism was the theme that drove the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project, and Morris’ approach to the Inka city combined elements of Robert McC. Adams’s scholarship on preindustrial cities with Murra’s focus on the social groups and constituent populations that build cities and sustain and restructure urban institutions (Marcus, 2007; Morris, 1972, 1974). The project represents a bold example of the positivist tradition and reflected the goals and ambitions of the New Archaeology. Excavations were designed to sample Huánuco Pampa as an urban system, using a carefully designed research methodology to avoid “the heavy emphasis on temples and palaces so pervasive in early urban sites archaeology” (Morris, 1975: 206). While special structures were to be excavated systematically, research targeted the excavation of a representative sample of building types and activity areas throughout the city, collecting a massive database for considering the residential and administrative aspects of an Inka provincial city.

Sampling Strategies: Morris developed the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project excavation strategy not only to consider the interactions between Inka officials and local populations at the provincial capital, but also “to reconstruct, as well as the resources and the nature of the data permit, a site ethnography which will give a fairly detailed picture of activities in the city, its internal structure, and the role it played in the empire as a whole” (Morris, 1975: 192–193; see Morris, 1975, and 1978–1980: 141–146). The first step to undertaking such a project was the careful mapping of the identifiable architecture at the site (estimated to be about 80%–90% of the total number of buildings), and the clarification of access patterns throughout the site (see fig. i.4). The topographic work, conducted in 1971, registered the locations of approximately 3700 buildings and the layout of individual structures in identifiable compounds and larger clusters across the site. Following mapping work, the site was divided into 10 zones based on open spaces lying between distinct architectural clusters (fig. 1.5). The large central plaza was designated Zone I. The zones to the east, south, west, and north sides of the plaza were designated Zones II, III, IV, and V, respectively. Zone VI is an architectural cluster to the north of Zone V, and separated from it by a prominent gully. Zone VII is a somewhat arbitrary zone lying between Zone III and Zone VIII, the area of hillside storage structures studied by Morris for his dissertation. These zones exhibit different degrees of central planning, and their constituent structures show diverse building types and patterns of layout suggestive of variations in construction, function, and residential identity (Morris, 1971, 1978–1980; Morris and Thompson, 1970).

Figure i.4. Photograph of 1971 mapping work.

Figure i.5. Huánuco Pampa site map with zone designations.

Once the site map was complete, the next research priority was to obtain an excavation sample from 7%–10% of the surviving structures at the site. To collect data from a representative subset of the city, it was necessary not only to excavate within the various urban zones at appropriate levels of intensity, but also to select a proper sample of building types and exterior spaces (fig. i.6). It was thus essential to develop some sense of architectural variation and distribution. Morris and colleagues developed a rough architectural typology, designating 14 types of building, as well as a number of atypical or unique structures. This typology served as the basis for selecting a sample of buildings to excavate to represent all possible strata, although nonprobabilistic techniques were also applied for areas of the site with a wide range of special structures (e.g., the Zone IIB administrative palace, discussed in this monograph).

Figure i.6. Excavation sampling strategy employed at Huánuco Pampa. Interior spaces were divided into transects, while exterior areas were conceptualized as a series of potential units—representative samples of units from interior and exterior spaces were randomly selected and excavated.

With the exception of open plaza spaces (see Morris, 1975: 205), the excavation sampling strategy focused on the individual building as the principal unit. The vast majority of buildings at the site were single-room structures (in the case of multiroom buildings selected for excavation, each room was sampled). Circular structures were divided into quadrants from which excavation units were randomly selected. Rectangular structures were divided along their long axes into transects of equal width (of at least one meter and not more than six). Field crews excavated a random sample of at least 25% of interior space for structures smaller than 100 m2, and a minimum sample of 10% of building area for larger structures. The minimum sample established a baseline for consistently selecting and excavating a significant proportion of building interiors—units were frequently expanded to clarify deposits or complete the excavation of features.

Excavators employed a distinct sampling regime for exterior areas linked to sampled structures. Exterior trenches radiated outward from buildings, and were excavated either to where they encountered other structures or walls or to 2 m beyond the point where significant cultural deposits had been found. The width of excavation trenches depended on the dimensions of the associated building. Trenches were selected by establishing a grid of potential units on all sides of the structure and then randomly selecting units to represent all four sides of rectangular structures. Larger buildings sometimes had more than four exterior units excavated. As with interior transects, these units could be widened to complete the excavation of cultural contexts, such as doorways. As excavations proceeded, it was clear that a wide range of important activities took place in exterior spaces, which justified the cumbersome sampling strategy that was employed.

Field Methods: Having randomly selected excavation units, work proceeded to cleaning and excavation. Virtually all of Huánuco Pampa was built and occupied solely during the Inka imperial period, so stratigraphy was straightforward, and few distinct strata were identified. (Research identified a small early Colonial occupation within the central plaza (Zone I) and parts of the Zone IIB compound, discussed later in this monograph.) Prior to excavating it was necessary to clear rubble from collapsed walls, and field crews documented the architectural remains of selected structures on a standardized form and made a plan of the structure designating interior transects and exterior test trenches. Once a unit had been cleaned, crews cleared an upper stratum consisting of deposition above the floor level (figs. i.7–8). A second stratum terminating at floor level in the unit typically yielded the highest concentration of artifacts. Large interior transects were occasionally subdivided, and the designation of features led to their segregation and excavation as separate contexts. Excavators frequently mapped key artifacts and features onto the building plan, and maintained a photographic record of the excavations as work proceeded. Proveniences were registered on standard forms, and to varying degrees each excavation supervisor recorded separate notes. While the second stratum was the principal context of data collection, subfloor test units were excavated in many structures to determine the presence and extent of any pre-Inka occupation.

Figure i.7. Field crews use foot plows to remove the root zone in a unit in the central plaza.

Figure i.8. Excavation of the Inka occupation stratum.

Artifacts: The implementation of the site-level sampling strategy yielded massive quantities of artifacts—during the first season of large-scale excavations, the entire season’s collection bags were exhausted in the first days of fieldwork. Rather than abandon the systematic approach to the site, excavators continued to collect all excavated artifacts, except for some large ground stone tools that were cumbersome to transport. Fieldworkers separated artifacts by material and recorded the bag count coming from each provenience. All material was taken back to the laboratory in the modern city of Huánuco, and vessel reconstructions were made in the laboratory whenever possible (fig. i.9).

Figure i.9. Reconstruction of narrow-neck (Form 1) jar in the laboratory.

The Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project: Laboratory Analysis

The huge mass of excavated material presented great logistical challenges for managing fieldwork and coordinating curation and analysis. The laboratory analysis involved registering material and randomly selecting a representative sample of ceramic fragments for detailed analysis.

Preliminary Coding: In the laboratory, crew members began analysis with an overview of excavated materials from a provenience, which involved completing a code sheet that included location information on a given provenience, as well as characteristics of the unit. For proveniences with smaller artifact assemblages, analysts counted and weighed the total sample of pottery and recorded the count/weight of each paste/temper category. Two of us (Morris and Stein) wrote a coding manual in 1974, establishing analytical parameters and a standard coding scheme (this is summarized in the appendix). Researchers recorded the same data for randomly selected subsets of large assemblages. The standard provenience code sheet contained cells for recording all artifact classes, but in practice the analysis of ceramics proceeded separately from other material, and pottery often represents the sole artifact category recorded on code sheets.

Feature Sherd Analysis: To facilitate more detailed ceramic analysis researchers separated the diagnostic sherds from each provenience (or its randomly selected sample) and designated them as feature sherds. Feature sherd analysis focused on individual fragments or multiple pieces from the same vessel, and employed a second code sheet recording data on provenience, paste/temper, carbonization, vessel form, slipping, decoration, and size. Analysts did not record key vessel measurements (e.g., mouth and neck diameter) uniformly, and it is difficult to make use of vessel size data for sitewide comparisons.

As with preliminary coding of nonfeature ceramics, the coding of feature sherds followed protocols laid out in the project coding manual. This determined the different kinds of diagnostic fragments to be coded, and identified vessel form typology, paste and temper categories, and interior code categories for surface treatment (see the appendix for an overview of these). The potential for interobserver error when using a complex vessel typology hindered the overall efficacy of large-scale analysis, as did the limited existing knowledge of local and regional ceramic styles. Decorated fragments represented a small percentage (about 4%) of all feature sherds, and stylistic designations were recorded in a way that makes many statistical analyses inappropriate. Still, the methodological rigor employed in the field makes the dataset useful for other researchers.

Other Artifact Analysis: The vast majority of excavated artifacts consisted of ceramic fragments, but analytical specialists also studied samples of stone tools, animal bone, macrobotanical remains, metal implements, and other special artifacts. One of us (Stein) produced a report on the stone tools and completed preliminary analysis of metal implements from the excavations. Elizabeth Wing and Elizabeth Reitz completed analysis of the faunal collection. Macrobotanical remains are frequently mentioned in excavation notes and identified in laboratory collections, but no formal ethnobotanical analysis was conducted at the site. Other special artifacts were photographed and cataloged separately.

Data Entry and Analysis of Ceramic Data

When Morris and his colleagues completed their final laboratory analysis of Huánuco Pampa materials in 1981, major analytical components still remained to be completed. The project data existed as thousands of pages of ceramic code sheets, architecture and excavation provenience forms, and catalogs and databases of special artifacts. Placing these materials in working order and analyzing the data required many additional years of work in the Junius B. Bird Laboratory at the American Museum of Natural History.

Data Entry: The first step toward statistical analysis was the recording of project data. Delfín Zúñiga, John Hyslop, and Peter Kvietok labored on this project, focusing on entering the feature sherd data from each subzone into dBase files. The result was that the 56,000-plus feature sherds were entered into several distinct files that were difficult to coordinate and manipulate (more than 40 cells of data were entered for each feature sherd). The overall provenience data were not entered into a single Excel database until after 1999, when one of us (Covey) and Sumru Aricanli carried out this task. Following data entry, line-by-line checks established accuracy, and computer sorts of the database also aided in identifying typographic errors and coding patterns not consistent with the project’s coding manual.

Data Analysis: Analysis of the ceramic database had commenced as soon as the data had been entered and checked line-by-line for accuracy, but this work did not progress substantially during the 1980s and early 1990s for a number of reasons. One is that until the 1990s the available computer technology did not match the forward-thinking excavation methodology and coding system employed by the project. The nature of the site, its excavations, and its massive dataset were well suited to the kinds of GIS analyses that are conducted by archaeologists today, but not to the bulky mainframes that Morris and colleagues worked with in the 1980s. Of equal importance, John Hyslop passed away in 1994, depriving the project of one an eminent Inka researcher and of its key collaborators during data management and statistical analysis.

Data analysis resumed in 1999, supervised by one of us (Covey), and the present monograph was written based on this final phase of work. Because Huánuco Pampa represents such a valuable baseline dataset for Inka archaeology, the statistical goal of this monograph and future publications is the descriptive treatment of materials, with relevant subsets of the project data to be made available for future study by other researchers.

Organization of Publications

This volume represents the first of a series of publications aimed at the dissemination of the data from the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project, as well as the realization of the research goals of the project. Because the project was designed to employ archaeological data and Colonial documents to assess Inka urbanism, this monograph includes chapters that focus on both ethnohistory and archaeology. The opening section (chap. 1) addresses Inka urbanism vis-à-vis its Spanish documentation at the time of the European invasion, as well as the characteristics of the Andean settlement template as indicated by early Colonial Quechua dictionaries. It also considers the nature of planning and urban layout at Huánuco Pampa, setting the stage for the discussion of centrally planned state infrastructure and local constructions at the site. The second section (chaps. 2 and 3) turns to the functions of central plaza spaces in Inka urban centers. Having reviewed the ethnohistoric literature, we describe the archaeological investigations in Huánuco Pampa’s central plaza, including a discussion of the brief Spanish occupation of the Inka city. The third section (chaps 4–10) focuses on the role of palaces in Inka administration. A review of the ethnohistory lays out the architectural and spatial parameters of the Inka palace, setting up the detailed discussion of excavations in the administrative palace at Huánuco Pampa. Finally, some of the general features of artifact analysis are dealt with in greater detail in an appendix on ceramic typology.

CHAPTER 1: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON THE INKA CITY

Indigenous urban centers in the Andes shared some features with other early cities of the ancient world, but Andean urban forms developed independently to meet the specific needs of societies living in the Pacific coastal desert and in the Andean highlands (von Hagen and Morris, 1998). Inka cities reflected the diversity of cultures and environments encompassed by their empire, and the Inka promotion of urban aggregation was an important provincial strategy in many highland regions. Huánuco Pampa was one of a series of large Inka administrative centers constructed along the empire’s highland road network, and its layout and occupation history provide critical information on the role of such centers in Inka provincial government and society (Morris and Thompson, 1985) (fig. 1.1).

Figure 1.1. Site photo of Huánuco Pampa.

Looking at the nearly 4000 structures that make up Huánuco Pampa, it is easy to see that parts of the site were laid out to facilitate the centralized and specialized administration of large numbers of people, but there are other aspects of the site’s layout and occupational history that deviate from Western notions of urbanism. To avoid applying European standards inappropriately to Inka urban centers, it is worthwhile to refer to early Colonial period documents for descriptions of how Andean cities functioned at the time of the European invasion, as well as how native Andeans may have conceptualized the urban form. Two lines of written evidence—contact-period eyewitness accounts and Colonial dictionaries—aid in the identification of the characteristics of Inka urbanism and the concomitant development of archaeological correlates for the present study.

ANDEAN CITIES THROUGH SPANISH EYES

The first European encounters with the Inka world occurred at its periphery, as Spanish ships worked their way south from Panama along the Pacific coast. Long before the Pizarro expedition reached Cusco, the Inka capital, Europeans had visited important centers along the coast and had journeyed into the Andean highlands on Inka roads, passing through the Inka centers of Cajas, Huancabamba, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Pumpú, Xauxa, and Vilcashuamán. Eyewitness descriptions of these centers vary in their focus and detail, but they do indicate that a number of urban features were present at highland centers at this time, and that some of these facilities continued to function even in times of civil war and foreign invasion.[1]

Features of Coastal Cities and Inka Provincial Centers

Two features of Andean urban centers were a nucleated layout and large populations. Early Spanish eyewitnesses did not call all native settlements cities, referring to most communities of several thousand residents as towns (pueblos) (e.g., H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 127, 129; Mena, 1968 [1534]: 137, 141; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 88, 103; see fig. 1.2). Early writers almost always describe Cusco as a city (ciudad), a term employed only for a few other centers such as Tangarará (Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 80), Cajas (Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 85) and Vilcas (Sancho de la Hoz, 1968 [1534]: chap. 8).

Figure 1.2. The route of the Pizarro expedition, with important Andean centers noted. Small groups were also sent out to explore important centers in the highlands and coast.

Population numbers are difficult to gauge for highland and coastal centers. While eyewitnesses estimated that some settlements had several thousand houses or residents (e.g., Mena, 1968 [1534]: 138; Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [c. 1545]: 419; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 103), they encountered others either in a state of reduced population or abandonment or of temporary congregation, owing to regional ceremonial events or festivals. The former condition was attributed to the destruction of some centers (e.g., Cajas) in the Inka civil war (Mena, 1968 [1534]: 137–138), while other centers may have been abandoned out of fear of the invading Spaniards. Cajamarca is said to have had only 400–500 people present at the time of the Spanish entry, most of them either guards or women in the aqllawasi complex (Mena, 1968 [1534]: 141). By contrast, the first Spaniards arriving at the highland center at Xauxa estimated that 100,000 people gathered daily in the city’s main plaza to celebrate a regional festival and provide service for the Inka army—the density of the crowd was such that from a distance the arriving Spaniards mistook it for a great burnt spot (H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 129; Estete in Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 144).

The variations in population size in Inka provincial centers suggest phases of residential aggregation and dispersal that are unlike what would be expected for modern cities.[2] While some coastal cities are described as having permanent populations of elites and commoners (H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 126), other centers appear to have cycled between periods when only essential personnel were present, and times when groups administered by the city assembled for a variety of reasons. Highland centers that lacked substantial populations at the time the Pizarro expedition passed through them are still described as having a local administrator or governor, state record-keepers, religious practitioners, and guards (H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 126; Mena, 1968 [1534]: 137–138, 141; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 86). Early Spanish writers understood that these centers were linked to towns and villages in the surrounding regions—administrative ties were marked by periods of regional aggregation that involved feasting, dances, and exchange activities (Estete in Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 144).

DESCRIPTIONS OF PROVINCIAL INKA URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Public processions, feasts, and dances took place in the large central plazas found in Inka cities.[3] Large plazas were a common feature in regional centers on the coast and in the highlands (e.g., Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 77). When Hernando Pizarro’s contingent passed through the highlands on their return from Pachacamac to Cajamarca, they were offered lavish hospitality—including drinking events and performances of song and dance—in every major Inka center they passed through (H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 126). Native lords arranged festivities at administrative sites along the highland road, offering the Spanish forces food, drink, and entertainment as they passed. This appears to have been a royal perquisite; according to Miguel de Estete, “the natives say that when the lords of that land [i.e., the Inkas] passed by there, they gave them banquets and festivals” (in Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 147). Military maneuvers also appear to have called for such activities, and the same author mentions that locals were accustomed to provide the same hospitality and support for Atahuallpa’s general Challcuchima (145).

In addition to public plazas, the early Spanish eyewitnesses attest to the presence of lodgings in Inka cities where they were invited (or chose) to spend the night. Some of these appear to be large halls (galpones) that were situated near the central plaza of Inka cities, while others are described as walled compounds (cercados) (e.g., P. Pizarro, 1986 [1571]: chap. 9; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 77). Not all the rooms (aposentos) used by the Pizarro expedition were necessarily intended for the use of travelers—in some cases the Spaniards lodged in palace complexes, and in others they occupied whatever buildings they thought would provide shelter and security (e.g., Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 73, 77). It is clear that the central parts of many large settlements had facilities for lodging travelers, as well as palaces or royal lodgings for the Inka ruler and local elites.

Early eyewitnesses describe other evidence of Inka state facilities in the provincial cities they encountered. Spaniards encountered large storage complexes at Cajas, Huancabamba, Saña, Xauxa, and other Inka centers. These structures, occasionally identified as silos, contained a range of products, including maize, salt, dried potatoes, and clothing and footwear for the army (Mena, 1968 [1534]: 137; Trujillo, 1985 [1571]: 199; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 88; cf. H. Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 126). Local elites managed state interests at these centers, overseeing accumulated stores and enjoying certain latitude in distributing them (e.g., Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 77). Food from Inka storehouses helped to sustain the Spanish advance into the highlands. Inka armies also relied on provincial storage facilities, but at times chose to sack or burn storehouses to keep them from supporting the European invaders—for example, Inka soldiers attempted to burn the storage complex at Xauxa to keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing Spaniards and their Andean allies (P. Pizarro, 1986 [1571]: chap. 13; Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [c. 1545]: 426).

Religious activities at Inka cities required permanent staffing of certain complexes. Eyewitnesses observed temples in a number of Inka centers, identifiable architecturally by having walled compounds and generally located on high ground in prominent places (Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 90). Although many temples appear to have been laid out away from the main plaza and administrative core, the aqllawasi—a cloister of provincial girls selected to learn gendered weaving, brewing, and cooking skills from initiated women who were full-time state specialists—does appear to have been placed on or near the plaza of several Inka centers. The Spaniards were particularly attentive to these installations of young women in Inka centers on the coast and in the highlands (e.g., Trujillo, 1985 [1571]: 199), although they failed to appreciate the social and religious functions of the aqllawasi, focusing instead on the production of cloth and the preparation of food and drink for the passing army.

To sum up the preceding, various eyewitness accounts of important Inka provincial centers identify some basic urban characteristics and suggest the degree to which these were centrally planned settlements. Sizeable central plazas were laid out at the core of the settlement and sometimes delimited by large halls that could be used for a range of functions including temporary sleeping facilities for groups passing through or visiting the site. Storage complexes were prominent at these sites, although chroniclers rarely specify the location of such buildings. Besides the open plaza space and its surrounding buildings, several enclosed compounds might be present nearby—the aqllawasi, sun temple, and palace complex were often situated on or near the plaza. Other temple complexes and small plazas were found mixed among the residential structures at these centers (e.g., Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 103).

Descriptions of the Imperial Capital

These general urban features of Inka provincial centers varied in particular highland and coastal settings, and these contrast with early descriptions of Cusco, suggesting that peripheral sites only partially replicated the urban plan and functions of the capital. Cusco was laid out to facilitate its connection to the royal highways, which emanated from the Haucaypata, a large central plaza (see Bauer, 2004, for a recent overview of Inka Cusco). Royal palace compounds and Cusco’s aqllawasi compound delimited this plaza, while the sun temple (Qorikancha) was located nearby and minor temples and small plaza spaces were found in other parts of the city. Early eyewitnesses do not mention the presence of large halls surrounding the Haucaypata, as they were found around provincial plazas—instead, such structures were part of the palaces and temples delimiting the space. Storage facilities for staple goods were located on the slopes above the residential part of the city, while exotic raw materials and wealth goods were stored in more restricted locations, such as palaces and the fortress of Saqsaywaman (Pizarro, 1986 [1571]: chap. 15; cf. Noticia del Perú, 1968: 393; Trujillo, 1985 [1571]: 206; Sancho de la Hoz, 1962 [1534]: chap. 17).

Wealth was more pronounced in Cusco than in provincial centers. Not only were exotic goods produced and stored at the capital, but the imperial elite resided in palaces and lavish houses in and around the city (P. Pizarro, 1986 [1571]: chap. 15; Noticia del Perú, 1968 [1535?]; Sancho de la Hoz, 1962 [1534]: chap. 17; Ruiz de Arce, 1933 [c. 1545]: 368). Spanish eyewitnesses describe variations in residential architecture, but note that Cusco was laid out in an orderly fashion, with paved streets, an overall gridlike plan, and channeled water to remove waste and prevent flooding. These features are not generally observed in the descriptions of other Inka centers, and later chroniclers attribute them to imperial period urban renewal projects intended to increase the grandeur of the capital (e.g., Betanzos, 1999 [1551–1557]: book 1, chap. 16). Moving away from the central plaza and monumental core, urban Cusco gave way to more dispersed outlying communities, a metropolitan region with tens of thousands of permanent residents whose numbers would have greatly increased at times of important imperial festivals and ceremonies.

In sum, urban forms varied considerably throughout the Inka empire. The Inka capital and some coastal centers had large permanent populations and the kinds of layouts and institutions that were comparable with contemporary European cities, while the construction of highland centers along the royal highway did not necessarily result in the permanent aggregation of large populations. Not all highland centers were located close to the lands and communities of the populations that they administered, and they were designed more for the periodic assembly of large provincial populations than for the permanent residence of large numbers of nobles, state administrators, and craft specialists.

The Inka state invested labor tribute in laying out open spaces for assembling provincial populations, as well as planned compounds for administrative activities and ritual life. The formal layout of provincial centers included the construction of large storage facilities, with more modest complexes established at lower-order sites along the royal highway system. Highland centers developed according to military needs and evolving provincial administrative strategies, as well as their compatibility with existing subsistence systems. These centers should be considered urban insofar as they replicated the most essential features of the imperial capital, but it is clear that many were artificial emplacements on the landscapes—and in the minds—of local highland groups.

QUECHUA URBAN VOCABULARY IN A SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM

Accessing the native sense of urbanism presents a complementary problem to the one just described for eyewitness accounts. Andean informants themselves often lacked direct experience of life in Inka cities. Also, the promotion in the 16th and early 17th centuries of a Spanish model for cities and towns encouraged the rapid replacement of certain native concepts and categories with European ones. The Spanish colonial urban model developed over time, with Spaniards establishing new settlements in accordance with their own urban template even before the implementation of detailed imperial policies (e.g., Hardoy, 1978). As the founding and government of Spanish settlements became more regimented, so too did the sense that native Andeans should live separately in ordered communities consistent with the European model.[4]

Andean Particularities: Matienzo’s Gobierno del Perú

Writing in 1567, the jurist Juan de Matienzo argued for the reduction of native settlement into nucleated Spanish-style towns, a process that had been ordered for the Andes as early as 1549 but only really began to be implemented in the 1570s by the viceroy Francisco de Toledo (see Rowe, 1957). Matienzo also laid out clear recommendations for provincial town planning in the Colonial Andes (1967: part I, chap. 14). The ideal native town was to be laid out on a grid, with wide streets and basic divisions at the level of the block (cuadra), which had four internal divisions (solares). The central block of the town was left as an open plaza, and one of the four blocks abutting the plaza was to be assigned to the town church (iglesia). The other blocks fronting the plaza were also to be given over to spaces for Spanish colonial administration: a house (aposento) for Spanish travelers, a house for the Spanish administrator (corregidor), a jail (la cárcel), a hospital, and a council house (casa de consejo, or cabildo). Those blocks also contained a space for a native overseer (tukuyrikuq in Quechua) and a corral (fig. 1.3). Other blocks located near the plaza were to be given to married Spaniards who desired to live among the natives, and the local priest was to be housed next to the church. Natives would be given space in the surrounding town, with local elites given either half a block or an entire block (depending on their status) and commoners given one solar (a quarter-block). Matienzo recommends a town size of 500 married male tributaries, so an ideal town footprint would be about 11–12 blocks square (fig. 1.4). While these standards are idealized versions of Colonial Andean towns, they do provide a point of departure regarding the Spanish settlement model and its associated vocabulary.

Figure 1.3. Features of an early Colonial indigenous town, following Matienzo (1967 [1567]). The municipal center is occupied by buildings and spaces focused on Spanish administration.

Figure 1.4. Approximate size of an ideal indigenous town, according to Matienzo (1967 [1567]). Shaded area represents the buildings in figure 1.3.

Quechua Urban Vocabulary in 1560

The earliest surviving Quechua dictionary—published by the Dominican priest Domingo de Santo Tomás in 1560—has few entries for urban planning and institutions. In this source, the unmarked term for native settlement (llacta or marca) connotes a village or town, although it is occasionally used loosely to apply to cities.[5] Small communities are referred to with a diminutive of the same term (vchullallacta) (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 34). Terms for town walls, gateways, and fortifications suggest that larger native settlements could be enclosed spaces with community defenses.[6] Native villages and towns would include open plaza spaces (pampa, catu), flat areas without houses where periodic exchange activities would take place.[7] Settlements were comprised principally of houses (sing. guaci), with informal accessways (sing. purina) separating them (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 68, 73, 190). Overall, the typical Andean community that emerges from this dictionary is a modest-sized one with some sort of community coordination for defense and the maintenance of open spaces where economic and festive activities could take place.

The grid plan proposed by Matienzo was not part of the typical native settlement, but what of the important buildings that were recommended for native towns in Colonial Peru? Santo Tomás (1951 [1560]: 153) includes two entries for iglesia in his dictionary, one of which has “iglesia” entered in lieu of a corresponding Quechua term, while the other translates as “house of God” (dios paguacin). Santo Tomás (1951 [1560]: 215) lists a term for native shrine (guaca), but this does not imply any special spatial placement within a settlement plan. Although several of the other special structures in Matienzo’s recommended settlement have entries in the early dictionary, many of these have the same linguistic construction as vocabulary introduced after the Spanish conquest.[8] Nonresidential architecture was present in larger settlements of the early Colonial period, but the dictionary of Santo Tomás does not indicate a large lexicon for Quechua urban planning, except insofar as it related to the person of the Inka ruler. This is seen more clearly in the dictionary of González Holguín.

Quechua Settlement Vocabulary in 1608

By the early 17th century, Spanish vocabulary had replaced many Quechua concepts regarding the organization of towns and cities. Like Santo Tomás, the 1608 dictionary of Diego González Holguín (1986: 645) defines llaqta, the town or large village (pueblo), as the unmarked unit of settlement.[9] A smaller village or hamlet (aldea) is defined as a small (huchuy) llaqta, while a city (ciudad) is a qhapaq llaqta (kapakllakta)—a combination of the words for paramount ruler and town (González Holguín, 1986: 399, 470). The latter term was an archaism, as native lords of the title qhapaq had not reigned autonomously in Peru for more than 70 years. Nevertheless, this connection between cities, special architecture, and a native royal title suggests that urban forms were still conceived of as being linked to centralized state governments and the person of the ruler.

González Holguín demonstrates a conceptual focus on settlements around the size of those advocated by Matienzo, but there is incomplete representation of Spanish settlement vocabulary, indicating a partial replacement of native categories. Important Spanish terms missing in the dictionary include cuadra, iglesia, hospital, and casa del Corregidor. The Spanish term for street (calle) is combined with Quechua adjectives to describe different kinds of streets (for example, a wide street is quimraycalle [González Holguín, 1986 [1608]: 443]). Native terms still existed at that time for house plot (solar = wasichasqa rukri allpa), plaza (pampa or pata), travelers’ lodgings (aposento = pititawasi), jail (cárcel = wataywasi), and council house (casa del cabildo = kamachikunawasi), and it is clear that these terms do not completely correspond to Spanish administrative ideals (González Holguín, 1986 [1608]: 412, 440, 447, 449, 632, 672).

Quechua settlement vocabulary in the early 17th century consists of a limited number of words for open spaces (pampa, pata), with architecture referred to with the word wasi (house) modified by adjectives connoting special function. While the word for road or trail (ñan), corresponding to the Spanish word camino, has several entries in the dictionary, there does not appear to be a sense that settlements have planned streets and an urban grid.[10] As will be discussed later in this monograph, several of the special structures described for the Quechua settlement (e.g., pititawasi, kamachikunawasi) are linked to palace complexes rather than particular locations in a city.[11]

CITIES IN TAWANTINSUYU

Together, early Spanish accounts and the Colonial Quechua dictionaries provide us with a means for approaching the dynamics of Inka urbanism. The city was not a settlement that was widespread in the Andean highlands in the 200 or so years prior to Inka imperial expansion. Although highland urban centers developed in the Ayacucho Valley (Huari) and the Titicaca Basin (Tiwanaku) in the first millennium, the states that built them collapsed between a.d. 900–1100. Instead of sustaining urban networks, most communities organized themselves around local production interests, with farmers and herders living in villages and towns lacking significant monuments, civic institutions, and qualitative domestic displays of hereditary status inequality (Covey, 2008a). While the highlands lacked cities just before the Inka expansion, a few centers on the central and north coast are known to have had urban characteristics. Chan Chan, Pachacamac, and other major coastal centers were capitals of centralized polities that continued to house large populations even in Inka times, albeit with regional roles that changed as imperial administration connected coast and highlands more directly (fig. 1.5).

The urban expansion of Cusco was linked to processes of Inka state formation and imperial expansion, and the city grew into a capital and was probably rebuilt to communicate the glory of the empire and its ruling dynasty. The promotion of the imperial capital unfolded at the same time that certain aspects of an urban apparatus were established in highland areas where such infrastructure facilitated the implementation and modification of dynamic administrative strategies. As noted, Inka administrative centers in the highlands shared some of the urban features of Cusco (Morris, 1985), but are more accurately viewed as extrapolations of facilities distributed along the royal highway rather than replications of the imperial capital—in other words, they were established to carry out specific activities and their population profiles evolved according to functional contingencies. Several chronicles state that the Inkas conceived of certain provincial centers as “second Cuscos,” but this status appears to involve the layout of a few central buildings and spaces for the performance of imperial encounters rather than the permanent concentration of large local populations (cf. Coben, 2006).

Figure 1.5. Close-up of a palace compound at Chan Chan, capital of the coastal Chimú empire. Centers on the coast were established in a tradition of urban development distinct from that of the Inka highland centers (negative no. 334900, courtesy Library Services, American Museum of Natural History).

STUDYING AN INKA CITY ARCHAEOLOGICALLY

Given that the provincial urban form represented a partial template, and that Inka provincial strategies varied considerably between regions, archaeologists should not attempt to treat a given administrative center as typical of sites that have not survived. Instead, it is most profitable to consider the elements of Inka settlement planning by looking first at centrally planned structures and spaces that reflect imperial administrative strategies. Having considered the layout of an administrative center at its initial construction, patterns of residence and settlement growth may be considered.

In practice, multidisciplinary studies of Inka urbanism have been limited, not simply by the logistical and financial challenges to studying urban sites archaeologically (Morris, 1975), but also by the fact that many Inka centers were reoccupied as Spanish Colonial towns, making horizontal excavation work impractical or impossible. After decades of research in the field and laboratory, Huánuco Pampa represents the only Inka highland center where a well-preserved architectural layout has been studied in coordination with data from large-scale problem-oriented excavations. A brief consideration of the city plan illustrates some of the patterns drawn from the preceding discussion of early Colonial documents and dictionaries.

State Infrastructure and Evidence of Central Layout

Certain open spaces and architectural complexes at Huánuco Pampa were laid out and constructed at the time that the city was founded. The central plaza was sufficiently huge (550 × 350 m) that the main highland highway passed through it, with a large platform (ushnu) made of fine masonry built in its center. Buildings on the platform provide a sight line through the principal gateways of the Zone IIB compound located on the eastern side of the plaza, where two large halls with multiple doorways were also built (Morris and Thompson, 1985: 58–60). This suggests that the site’s administrative palace (discussed later in this monograph) was also a key part of the site layout. Several other large halls delimited the margins of the central plaza, and the shape and orientation of certain centrally planned compounds (such as the Zone V-B-5 aqllawasi compound) indicate that spacing was left to provide room for accessways, perhaps also providing spacing for ritual circuits linking the city to its sustaining hinterland (Morris, 1987). Excavations have determined that some of these plaza structures were remodeled or rebuilt in roughly the same locations where they were originally constructed. The hillside south of the city was laid out with rows of storage structures, which may have been among the first buildings constructed at the site (fig. 1.6).

Figure 1.6. Zone III of Huánuco Pampa planned architecture, probably used for administrative activities. Many parts of the Inka city show a centrally coordinated layout of rectangular structures and open spaces.

In terms of formal layout, it appears that the most important parts of the new Inka city were (1) the plaza and a network of radiating roads and accessways, (2) buildings at the edge of the plaza that were probably used by travelers or for festival preparations, and (3) a few important state compounds that were essential to the administrative and religious functions of the Inka center and its surrounding hinterland. Significantly, the palace and aqllawasi complexes demonstrate intensive occupation—approximately half of the site’s feature pottery comes from the 50 buildings excavated in these compounds—while other parts of the city appear to have been occupied less continuously.

Unplanned Architecture and Hybrid Compounds

Outside of the limited number of open spaces and walled compounds, the remainder of Huánuco Pampa appears to have grown organically and opportunistically in the decades that it served as an Inka center. Residential structures of varying sizes, forms, orientations, and construction materials were built behind and among the planned compounds. Minor compounds are found among these single-room structures, some of them displaying construction techniques that conform to Inka canons, while others exhibit hybrid forms that combine elements of both Inka and local styles. Residential structures tend to have limited occupation, suggesting that they were inhabited only on certain occasions, were built later in the site’s history, or both (fig. 1.7).

Figure 1.7. Zone III unplanned domestic structures. The haphazard plan of rectangular and circular structures surrounding the central plaza suggests that the location of residential structures was opportunistic.

The encroachment of residential areas onto open spaces and accessways suggests that the Inka state took a fairly hands-off approach to local residence at the provincial capital—local groups might be required to be in the plaza on a given day for a festival or administrative proceeding, but state administrators were not necessarily concerned with how they arrived at the city or the nature of their accommodations or activities outside of state-sponsored events. The overall picture of Huánuco Pampa is that of an administrative enclave that at certain times of the year would pull in much of its administered rural population for temporary periods of urban activity. This sort of impermanent urbanism could explain the lack of investment in well-defined streets, drainage and sewer systems, and large-scale water supplies, as well as the haphazard and ephemeral nature of non-Inka architecture and domestic refuse. It is also worth noting that human remains were rarely found in the excavations at the site, and that mortuary facilities are unknown in the vicinity—this suggests short-term residence by a population living and burying their dead elsewhere.

Huánuco Pampa is remarkable for both its architectural preservation, as well as the monumental scale of excavations conducted at the site. The site confirms certain aspects of the Spanish eyewitness accounts of Inka cities: it has a large open plaza with great halls and walled administrative and religious complexes around it, as well as evidence for the permanent presence of state representatives and occasional gathering of large provincial groups. Its residential areas are also consistent with early Colonial Quechua settlement vocabulary: there is little evidence of central planning or layout, and houses are fairly undifferentiated and laid out opportunistically, leaving open spaces for accessways and modest open spaces for communal activities. The available evidence permits us to consider this Inka city in terms of the imperial functions that it was designed to serve, but we can also see how local populations added to the administrative infrastructure to make the site a functioning urban community. In this monograph and publications that follow, we will devote discussion to the open spaces and major complexes that were designed to facilitate Inka provincial rule in the Huánuco region. Subsequent publications will focus on provincial contexts in the Inka city, providing us with the most complete reconstruction possible of an urban center in the Inka provinces.

CHAPTER 2: INKA CENTRAL PLAZAS

The most important feature of Inka administrative centers—particularly in the highlands—was a large plaza used to assemble the site’s residents, as well as groups living in the surrounding hinterland. The scale and regional administrative function of Inka central plazas set them apart from patterns of urban layout seen in other state capitals in the Andean region, suggesting that the periodic assembly of multiple groups in open spaces was a key aspect of Inka statecraft (Covey, 2008b; Morris and Covey, 2003). The civic/administrative functions of the Inka central plaza become apparent when considering the various characteristics of an Andean encounter called tinku, and how such social interactions were performed in Cusco’s Haucaypata plaza in Inka times.

The Tinku in Andean Ethnography and Ethnohistory

The Quechua term tinku (or tinkuy) signifies a relationship between paired groups or concepts in which “social unity is created dialectically and expressed in terms of complementary opposition” (Allen, 1988: 205; Arkush and Stanish, 2006; see also Covey, 2002; Morris and Covey, 2003).[12] As ethnographers and historians have noted recently, the concept of tinku involves the pairing of two things in a complementary relationship that is nonetheless antagonistic in many ways.[13] Recent ethnographic literature describes two kinds of conflicts (referred to, variously, as tinku, puqllay, topay, and chaj’wa): (1) episodes of intercommunity violence occurring in unoccupied lands at the margins of communities, and (2) intracommunity oppositions performed in the central plazas of towns.

Intercommunity violence includes ritual battles, competitive dances, and fighting, which are important for boundary maintenance and occur in “wild” spaces outside of the communities involved (Gorbak et al., 1962; Isbell, 1978: 57–59; Platt, 1986, 1987). These interactions regularly result in injuries, occasionally lead to deaths, and sometimes escalate to land wars between groups. Participants describe bloodshed as essential for ensuring agricultural fertility, making these events an important part of the ritual and agrarian calendars (Bolin, 1998: 99; Gorbak et al., 1962: 250; Hopkins, 1982: 178). The sacred character of these encounters is localized, and despite their scheduling as part of a Catholic festival, they are focused on tellurian forces (in particular, the earth mother, Pachamama) and the essential sacrifice of human blood occurs unpredictably in the course of fighting rather than through a formal ritual act.

Competition between groups from the same community—codified as processions, dances, or games, rather than battles intended to spill blood—tends to be less overtly violent and such within-group conflicts appear to be more spatially ordered, with members of opposing groups facing off in fixed locations in a town’s central plaza (e.g., Abercrombie, 1998; Platt, 1987). While not the ostensible reason for community festivals, violence is not an unanticipated outcome, usually taking the form of limited scuffles and brawls that break out when groups encroach on each other’s spaces (e.g., Abercrombie, 1998: 102). Relationships of ambivalent complementarity run through festival contexts associated with holy days in the Catholic calendar, although any associated violence is not generally described as sacrificial in nature. Contrasting the potential for violence and role of bloodshed in the paired antagonistic displays found within and between Andean communities, it appears that shared administration and community identity serve to reduce and codify potentially violent competition, simultaneously altering the sacred role of such encounters.

Ethnographic observations of inter- and intracommunity fights and festivals echo descriptions of Inka and Colonial period communities (e.g., Hopkins, 1982; Stavig, 1999; Urton, 1993; Zuidema, 1991; see below), and the observation that the within-group tinku differs conceptually from encounters between groups has implications for considering central plaza spaces and the role of urbanism in Inka provincial administration. Inka imperial expansion led to the construction of new provincial centers at key locations in the central highlands, including Huánuco Pampa. These regional capitals restructured the interactions between multiple ethnic and political units, uniting them under a single administrative jurisdiction. At the same time, local identities could be articulated in the large central plazas at provincial centers, where locals could assemble and play out their differences in administratively supervised contexts. While local elites could act as leaders of their people in provincial encounters, they were also required to participate in imperial encounters in the central plaza at Cusco, joining other Inka subjects to communicate their place as subordinates in the imperial hierarchy.

Tinku Encounters in the Haucaypata

Eyewitness accounts of Spanish conquest written in the 1530s and after describe the central plaza in Cusco as a place of festivals, religious ceremonies, ancestor veneration, judgment, and military assembly (fig. 2.1).[14] Several authors describe important tinku events occurring in Cusco’s Haucaypata, showing us how this plaza functioned to mediate a multiplicity of dangerous oppositions, reinforce the imperial hierarchy, and unify the empire. Spatially and conceptually, the Haucaypata was the center of the empire, the point from which Inka order emanated, and where the components constituting the imperial whole were united. Not only was this plaza the endpoint of the provincial highways that crossed the empire, but it provided a space for bringing together the upper and lower moieties of the city (Hanan [Upper] Cusco and Hurin [Lower] Cusco). As the conceptual dividing/unifying point of the four suyu regions and the moieties of Cusco, a platform (often called an ushnu[15]) in the middle of the plaza was the spatial embodiment of Tawantinsuyu (the “Four Regions United”). The Haucaypata did not simply unify Inka space; it also was the interface of ritual and real time, a place where the living convened with mummies of dead Inka rulers and ancestors, and where specific dates in the ritual calendar could be reckoned (Bauer and Dearborn, 1995: 35; cf. Aveni, 1981; Zuidema, 1977, 1980, 1981; fig. 2.2).

Figure 2.1. Inka Cusco plan. The Haucaypata plaza was the scene of important municipal and imperial encounters.

Figure 2.2. Drawing of a state ceremony in the Haucaypata (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1980 [1615], f. 318). The Inka ruler is seen “singing” in the plaza with a special ceremonial red llama.

While some of the functions of the Haucaypata relate specifically to the needs of the imperial capital, a brief discussion of three Haucaypata ceremonies illustrates the kinds of activities that would have also occurred in central plazas of provincial centers.

Moiety Tinku between Cusco Elite: The most localized function of the central plaza in Cusco was the spatial organization of the royal Inka moiety system (comprising the lineages of Hanan Cusco and Hurin Cusco), and the ranking of descent groups within each moiety. Many early accounts underscore the importance of seating arrangement and spatial order in the central plaza (see Platt, 1986: 239–240; and Urton, 1990, on modern moiety opposition). Based on the arrangement of the Haucaypata, members of Hurin Cusco probably grouped themselves in dynastic order on the southeastern side of the plaza, while members of Hanan Cusco sat on the northwestern side. Cristóbal de Molina (1989 [1575]: 78) writes that following the entrance of the ruler, as well as the images of Viracocha, the Sun, the Moon, Thunder, and the mummies of dead rulers,

at this time all the people of Cusco came out by ayllus [kin groups] and divisions, those that came were adorned as richly as they were able, and having arrived, they made mucha [a sign of obeisance] to the Creator, and to the Sun, and to the Inka lord, and then they were seated in their seats, each one conforming to the rank that they had, divided: the Hanan Cuscos to their part and the Hurin Cuscos to theirs.[16]

Based on this observation and others, it is apparent that within such ceremonies, order of procession and place of seating were based on the seniority or status of the royal lineages. Such processions also appear to have involved competitive displays, with individuals parading their finery in the presence of an elite audience.

Spatial opposition between the moieties was not the only kind of tinku occurring in the central plaza. Molina (1989 [1575]: 111) describes a ritual battle between newly initiated Inka youths that took place there, observing that individual and group antagonism were involved:

They called the month of December Camayquilla, in which on the first day of the moon, those who had been armed as knights, both from the faction of Hanan Cusco as well as Hurin Cusco, came out in the plaza with some slings in their hands, called huaracas, and those of Hanan Cusco threw slingstones at those of Hurin Cusco … and they repeatedly came to blows to prove their strength, until the Inka—who was already there in the plaza—rose up and put them at peace. They called this chocanaco [chuq’anakuy = to pelt each other with stones]; they do this so that the strongest and most valiant might be recognized. Having concluded this, all were seated according to their divisions.[17]

Seated at the center of the plaza with religious icons and dead rulers, the Inka ruler mediated the competition, and the plaza provided a forum for individuals to distinguish themselves before their ruler and ancestors, reinforcing the power of the ruler and royal ancestors to supersede individual and group rivalries. Similar ritual battles may have occurred at provincial centers such as Huánuco Pampa, pitting rival ethnic groups against each other in conflicts brought to a ritual close by an Inka administrator (Morris, 1988: 47).

Imperial Encounters in the Situa: Internal divisions among the Cusco elite were muted in ceremonies focusing on the tinku between Inka and non-Inka that took place as imperial order was articulated ceremonially. This is clearly illustrated in the annual situa ritual, during which Cusco was ritually cleansed and the links between the capital and the four provincial quarters were reestablished (Bauer, 1998: 143–145; Covey, 2006: 210; Rowe, 1953). Held in August to mark the first rains of the new growing season, the situa involved rituals first to purify the capital and reinforce traditional boundaries of the early Inka polity, and then to define relationships between the imperial core and its provinces. The first part of the situa began with the expulsion of foreigners and the physically infirm, after which 400 Inka warriors from the royal and nonroyal lineages of Cusco assembled around the ushnu in the center of the Haucaypata.[18] They were divided into four groups of 100 and assembled to face the four quarters of the empire. On a signal from the Inka ruler (who came from the Qorikancha temple with a retinue of priests), the warriors set off along the main roads leading out of the city, running in all four directions and crying out to drive away impurity. Upon reaching traditional Inka boundaries (the Vilcanota River at Pisac and Quiquijana, the Apurímac River near Markawasi, and the Cusibamba River) the runners bathed ceremonial weapons in the respective rivers (fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3. Map of situa ritual paths. The Inka ceremony began in the central plaza of Cusco with a purification ritual of the capital and its surrounding hinterland.

The second principal part of the ceremony occurred several days later as the subject peoples of each province made a procession into the Haucaypata along the major highways. As Molina (1989 [1575]: 94) describes:

In the morning, all the nations that the Inka had subjugated entered, coming with their huacas [wak’a: sacred objects or talismans] and clothing common to their lands, the richest available; and the priests whose charge it was brought their huacas on litters. And arriving in the plaza, they entered in their three divisions of the four suyus [provincial quarters], and went making reverence to the Creator and Sun and Thunder and to Guanacauri, huaca of the Inka and then to the Inka, who at that point was already in the plaza….[19]

Having arrived in the plaza, provincial visitors went to sit in “their places that had already been assigned, because to give them more room, the people of Hanan Cusco and Hurin Cusco were made from both divisions into one, and thus they left the plaza unobstructed” (Molina, 1989 [1575]: 94).[20] There was literally no place in the imperial ritual for intramural rivalries that were acceptable in other contexts, and the situa demonstrates imperial tensions and their resolution by the Inka ruler. After two days of feasting, the provincial groups requested permission from the Inka ruler and the principal Inka supernatural entities to leave the city. This was granted, but under the condition that they leave hostage the sacred objects and talismans (wak’akuna) that had been brought to the city that year, returning with those held hostage the previous year. Provincial wak’akuna were honored during this festival, and the right of provincial lords to be carried in litters was reinforced. The ceremony orchestrated an encounter between Inka nobles and provincial groups, communicating the uneasy complementarity between these imperial elites.[21]

Provincial groups participated in festivals and important ceremonies at Inka centers in which local identities contrasted with imperial ones. This could involve individual investment in fine clothing, but provincial costuming in empirewide ceremonies in the Haucaypata might also have served as performances in which local sacred geographies and mythologies were recapitulated—and the Inka universe assembled and made whole—at the cosmic center. Garcilaso de la Vega (1965 [1609]: part 2, book 8, chap. 1, 128) describes such a procession occurring as part of the celebration of Corpus Christi in Cusco in the early Colonial period:

The local rulers of each district of that great city [Cusco] came there to observe the festival, accompanied by their relatives and all the noble people of their provinces. They brought all the costumes, ornaments, and devices that they used in the time of the lord Inkas in the celebration of their greatest festivals.… Some arrived (as Hercules is painted) dressed in the skin of a lion, their heads enclosed in the head of the animal, because they considered themselves to descend from a lion. Others bore the wings of a great bird that they call a condor placed on their backs, the way that they paint angels, because they considered themselves to descend from that bird. And thus others came with other painted devices, as springs, rivers, lakes, mountains, caves, because they said that their first ancestors emerged from those things. They bore other strange devices, with the vestments plated with gold and silver. They carried their drums, flutes, shells, and other musical instruments. Many provinces brought their women after the men, whom they helped to play instruments and sing.… Each nation entered based on its antiquity (how they were conquered by the Inkas).…”[22]

Large central plazas at provincial centers provided spaces for imperial encounters, and Molina (1989 [1575]: 96) notes that Inka governors oversaw critical elements of imperial rituals at key provincial centers. Such preliminary rites probably included selecting the people and sacred objects to be sent to Cusco for the situa and other ceremonies (including the human offerings of the qhapaqhucha) (Hernández Príncipe, 1923 [1622]: 32; Molina, 1989 [1575]: 120–128). Molina states that initiation rituals described for Cusco were also carried out in the major provincial cities and would have included at least the children of Inka governors. It is possible that such ceremonies would separate Inka officials and colonists from local populations, and the central plaza may have been used as a public forum for such activities. At the provincial level, ceremonial activities of this sort would have emphasized the relationship between imperial administrators and local populations, but in such a way could be interpreted locally as upholding (and perhaps enhancing) the prestige of the community leaders and sacred objects that participated in the Inka system.

The Living, the Dead, and the Inka Ruler: The presence of sacred objects alongside the Inka ruler lent a ritual power that allowed the mediation of both internal and external ritual conflict. The encounter between the living and the dead, moderated by the Inka ruler, was a central element in many of the rituals in the Haucaypata (for a recent discussion of the royal Inka mummies, see Bauer, 2004, and Bauer and Coello Rodríguez, 2007; fig. 2.4). For example, Molina (1989 [1575]: 112) notes that following the ritual battle between initiated youths of Cusco, there was a feast in the plaza with the mummies of the Inka ancestors:

For this festival, they brought out to the plaza all the huacas already mentioned and the bodies of dead Inka lords and ladies, in order to drink with them, placing those that had been lords from the faction of Hanan Cusco in it, and those of Hurin Cusco with theirs, and thus they brought them food and drink as if they were alive…[23]

Figure 2.4. Drawing of Inka mummy on litter (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1980 [1615], f. 256). Revered dead were frequently brought to the central plaza of Cusco for ritual activities.

The dead did not just commune with the living as members of their moieties and lineages. Pedro Pizarro (1986 [1571]: chap. 15, 89–90) describes how living Inkas communed with their dead in the plaza:

every day they took them [the dead] out to the plaza, seating them in a row, each one according to his or her antiquity, and there the male and female servants ate and drank. For the dead they made fires in front of them with wood that they had worked and cut very evenly, and that was very dry. And having burned this, they burned here everything that they had placed in front of the dead person in order that he might eat all the things that they ate, and here in this fire they consumed it. They also had in front of these dead people some large pitchers (which they call verquis), made of gold, silver, or pottery, each one according to his wish, and here they poured the maize beer that they gave to the dead person, showing it to him, and the dead offered toasts to each other as well as the living, and the living drank to the dead. When these verquis were full, they poured them out on a round stone that they held to be an idol, in the middle of the plaza….[24]

The links of male and female ancestors to living male and female attendants reflect the focus on relations between members of Inka noble lineages and their revered dead. Other rituals focused on the relationship between the current ruler and the mummies of his dynasty. Cieza de León (1988 [c. 1550]: chap. 11) states that

it was permitted and ordered by the same [Inka] kings that they should be eulogized and exalted in such a manner that all people would marvel to hear their heroic deeds and acts of such greatness; and that these should not be displayed or pronounced at just any time or place, but only when there should be made some great civic assembly of people coming from all over the kingdom for some purpose, and when the principal lords should be assembled with the king in their leisure times, or when they perform their taquis [takiykuna: see note] or drinking events. In these places, those who knew the ballads, in loud voices, gazing at the Inka, sang to him of what his ancestors had done.…[25]

Festivities including musicians and dancing groups and the consumption of huge amounts of food and maize beer occurred in the main plazas of Inka cities, as well as in the open spaces of palatial complexes. The indigenous chronicle Guaman Poma de Ayala illustrates such an event occurring in the Chinchaysuyu province, identifying Húanuco Pampa as a site of praise songs and provincial dance performances (fig. 2.5). At least some reenactments of the deeds of Inka rulers were also conducted in public contexts.[26] The relationship between the living and dead in establishing and maintaining social order in Cusco created ambivalence for the Inka ruler—his power derived from his relationship with such ancestors, but he was in competition with these influential dead for resources and political power (e.g., Pizarro, 1986 [1571]: chap. 10).

Figure 2.5. Drawing of Chinchaysuyu dancers (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1980 [1615], f. 320). Huánuco Pampa is the location identified for the performance of this ceremony.

Other Functions of the Haucaypata: The chronicles describe other kinds of ceremonies and events that occurred within the Haucaypata in Cusco, including military triumphs (Pachakuti Yamqui, 1993 [17th c.]: f. 25v.–26r.), the mustering of warriors (Betanzos, 1999 [1551–1557]: part 1, chap. 18), judgment of the city’s populace by the Inka ruler (ibid., part 1, chap. 21), and public celebrations of royal marriages (ibid., part 1, chap. 17). These involved a variety of participants whose ethnicity, gender, social status, and even health or physical appearance dictated whether they could participate in a given ritual or festival. Events taking place in this plaza were often public recapitulations of restricted ceremonies for which only the Inka ruler and a few of the highest elites or religious figures could be present.

The Central Plaza as a Provincial Locus for the Imperial Tinku

Based on the ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature, the construction of an Inka provincial center would have reconfigured the relationships within and between local ethnic groups and polities. Provincewide assemblies occurred on festive occasions involving processions and dancing, the large-scale consumption of food and drink, and probably occasional scuffles and orchestrated fights between groups. Such spectacles would have taken place within the central plaza, with surrounding buildings used to prepare for the event.[27] What was once “wild” space lying between the territories of several local groups was transformed into a cultural space in which new social groups—the multiple ethnic groups arranged within Inka decimal units—were assigned spaces in and around the central plaza, bringing them into prescribed interactions with each other.[28] Despite the domestication of space through urbanization, elements of competing local geographies could still be introduced to festive events. Several authors describing such encounters in the ethnographic literature (Bolin, 1998: 94; Gorbak et al., 1962: 282–283; Platt, 1987: 170) mention elements of the “wild” persisting in dancing, with dancers wearing llama and alpaca skins or being said to assume the form and nature of wild animals like deer, pumas, or condors.[29] City or town spaces may have codified aspects of intergroup encounters, but this did not make them completely predictable or safe. Some fighting between groups may have broken out as one group encroached on the assigned space of another, and it is possible that ritual battles and dances would also have provided similar opportunities for real violence.

THE CENTRAL PLAZA AT HUÁNUCO PAMPA

At Huánuco Pampa, the construction of a new Inka provincial center in an area of unoccupied high-elevation grassland (puna) represents an important symbolic statement of imperial spatial reorganization (fig. 2.6). In addition to providing an expedient administrative node along the royal road, the center would have created an ordered social space that brought multiple groups—some newly created through the imposition of imperial administrative hierarchies—together in political, ritual, and festive encounters monitored by representatives of the Inka state. Based on the documentary record, the central plaza at Huánuco Pampa represents a key location for the performance of various kinds of imperial tinku and other public events, including: (1) ceremonies in which the products of labor tribute were collected and imperial largesse distributed; (2) the initiation of elite youths; (3) the public judgment and punishment of certain crimes; (4) the selection of sacrificial victims and sacred objects for empirewide ceremonies; (5) the public reception of Inka elites and administrators; and (6) other public events in which local identity could be situated within an imperial milieu, brought together to have its oppositions and contradictions played out in Inka fashion. The architectural remains and excavation data from Huánuco Pampa provide a means of evaluating how provincial plaza spaces mediated between the imperial elite of Tawantinsuyu and the local populations under their administration.

Figure 2.6. Plan of Huánuco Pampa central plaza area, which measures 550 × 350 m.

Excavations in and around the Plaza

Recovering archaeological evidence of Inka activities that occurred in the central plaza at Huánuco Pampa is a difficult task, since it is an open area that would have been cleaned regularly, and it was later occupied briefly by Spaniards. Nevertheless, aspects of plaza use may be discerned by looking at the archaeological remains from the structures delimiting the plaza (and opening inward onto it), as well as the large ushnu platform at the center of the plaza. Excavations conducted in three flanking buildings (IIIB-1-1, IVA-1-1, and VC-15-3) offer evidence on how these structures were used, while the discussion of cleaning on the ushnu platform provides contrasting use patterns. A considerable amount of excavation was conducted in the plaza itself, but these operations targeted the short-lived Spanish occupation of the site and will be discussed separately in chapter 3.

Building IIIB-1-1

One of two north-facing kallanka structures defining the south side of the main plaza, this rectangular building was excavated during the 1971 field season (fig. 2.7). The interior area of the building was nearly 400 m2, divided into six parts by field crews who excavated roughly one third of the interior space in two transects (IIIB-1-1-A and IIIB-1-1-F). Excavations conducted in the western transect (IIIB-1-1-F) revealed the remains of an interior wall, possibly constructed in a Colonial modification of the building. This unit was subdivided, and the divided area is discussed separately from the remainder of the building interior. In addition to the interior transects, excavation units were placed in one doorway, and in three exterior test trenches.

Figure 2.7. IIIB-1-1 building plan. Shaded areas show the locations of three interior excavation transects, as well as six exterior units.

Building Interior: Work in the easternmost transect of the structure (including the northeastern and southeastern corners) revealed a major food-preparation context with a dense artifact assemblage. More than 12,000 fragments of pottery were present in Transect A (IIIB-1-1-1) and the upper stratum of Transect F (IIIB-1-1-6), including 631 feature sherd identifications (table 2.1; see appendix for an explanation of ceramic analysis and coding criteria). Among these was a high percentage of narrow-mouth jars (67.7%, or 361/534), many of which were slipped (53.2%, or 192/361) and decorated (2.77%, or 10/361). The latter figures are slightly above the site average, but much higher than is seen for other buildings in and around the plaza. The diversity of decoration seen in the pottery of this building provides an interesting contrast with compatible structures in the Zone IIB palace compound. While narrow-mouth jars in the palace are almost exclusively decorated with imperial designs (Huánuco Pampa Polychrome A [HPPA] and Huánuco Pampa Polychrome B [HPPB]), the decorated jars in IIIB-1-1 include HPPA (n = 3) and HPPB (n = 3), as well as local incised designs (circular incisions n = 2; crossed lines n = 2) and provincial Inca designs (n = 1). Other decorated vessels included a plate and a bowl (both HPPB), while unidentified fragments of HPPA (n = 2) and circular incising (n = 1) were also encountered. In terms of fancy and decorated pottery, this building contained large serving vessels whose decoration was not restricted to the communication of imperial patronage.

TABLE 2.1: Ceramic Data from IIB-1-1 Excavations

IIIB-1-1 Int. A(a)

IIIB-1-1 Int. F(a)

Jars

419/523 (80.1%)

244/288 (84.7%)

Ollas

65/523 (12.4%)

30/288 (10.4%)

Bowls/plates

30/523 (5.7%)

11/288 (3.8%)

Slipping

292/620 (47.1%)

154/373 (41.3%)

Decoration

13/620 (2.1%)

10/373 (2.7%)

Carbon/soot

103/620 (16.6%)

40/373 (10.7%)

Grit-temper (NF)

2234/3490 (64.01%)

2072/3567 (58.09%)

Mica-temper (NF)

1167/3490 (33.44%)

1329/3567 (37.26%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

74/3490 (2.12%)

112/3567 (3.14%)

(a)Proveniences: IIIB-1-1- Int. A: IIIB001/IIIB002/IIIB003; IIIB-1-1 Int. F: IIIB004/IIIB121/IIIB122/IIIB123/IIIB124.

The pottery and other artifacts suggest that food preparation was occurring within the building. Most of the 83 burnt feature sherds where vessel form could be identified were jars and ollas, and the proportion of ollas with soot or other evidence for surface burning is high for this area (43%, or 29/67). The large collection of burnt pot and jar fragments was encountered in association with other evidence of cooking. The floor of Transect A was compact burnt earth, discolored from repeated burning, and with ash lenses swept away from the center of the room toward the walls. Excavations revealed charred maize, potatoes, wood, and straw, as well as animal bone and a variety of tools and other artifacts. The faunal assemblage included deer, camelid, unidentified artiodactyl, and a fragment identified as cow bone. One bone had been worked for use as a spoon or scoop, and a metal lunate knife was encountered in the cooking area. Stone tools included a pounder/anvil, a grinder, and a mortar, indicating that some primary food preparation occurred here.

Secondary activities are also signaled by an unfinished spindle whorl and fragments of a metal needle (fig. 2.8), suggesting various stages of spinning and weaving, possibly occurring while food was cooking. A fragment of a bone flute (fig. 2.9) attests to a ceremonial use of the building, as does the presence of personal ornaments, including a wooden bead and two metal pendants (figs. 2.10–2.12).

Figure 2.8. Metal needle (scale = 5 cm).

Figure 2.9. Bone flute fragment (scale = 5 cm).

Figure 2.10. Wooden bead (scale = 5 cm).

Figure 2.11. Metal pendant (scale = 5 cm).

Figure 2.12. Metal pin (scale = 5 cm).

Doorway Excavation: Excavations in the doorway next to Transect A also yielded abundant material, including more than 2400 fragments of pottery, camelid and artiodactyl bone, and burnt maize and potatoes. Of the 92 feature identifications, 89 vessel identifications indicate an assemblage with serving and cooking functions. Narrow-mouth jars dominated the assemblage (59.6%, or 53/89), of which 21 were slipped and three decorated. As observed for the building interior, the large serving jars found in the doorway had diverse decorations, including HPPA (n = 1), incised circles (n = 1), and provincial Inca (n = 1). Charred foodstuffs attest to a cooking function, as does a high proportion of burnt wide-mouth jars and ollas (60%, or 9/15) and a large percentage of unslipped pastes (66.0% of the sample, or 746/1131). These findings are consistent with the description of the building interior.

Subdivided Interior Area: The excavations of Transect F (IIIB-1-1-6) revealed an interior division of the westernmost part of the building that may date to the Spanish occupation of the site. The interior wall creates a small south-facing room of the western extreme of the building. This area was designated a feature (IIIB-1-1-6z), while the remainder of the unit was excavated as IIIB-1-1-6y. Comparison of the two artifact assemblages shows that they are similar enough to be considered a single provenience, although artifact analysis supports the conclusion that the interior wall is not pre-Hispanic.

The lower strata of the two areas had artifacts similar to the other interior proveniences of this building. A total of 5255 pottery fragments included 275 feature identifications, distributed almost evenly in the two divided areas. The identified vessels were dominated by narrow-mouth jars (66.5%, or 127/191), which were again decorated with diverse styles, including HPPA (n = 1), HPPB (n = 2), incised circles (n = 1), and provincial Inca (n = 1). A small pot (VTYPE6) was decorated with crossed incised lines, while 23 body sherds of HPPB and two of Huánuco Pampa Red-on-White fragments were also found. Like the other side of the building, this area had a high percentage of decorated pottery, but with a proportion of slipped pottery corresponding approximately to the site average (48.3%, or 1484/3075). One less common vessel form that was abundant in this unit was the Form 2 jar, a pitcherlike vessel that represented 13% (25/191) of all identified vessels. This may indicate the serving of liquids in and near this building.

As with the other interior proveniences, evidence of food preparation was apparent in the lower strata of the western provenience. Animal bone (camelid, artiodactyl, and possible guinea pig) was encountered in abundance, as well as charred maize, potatoes, and wood. Stone tools (a grinder and grinding slab) indicate primary food processing activity, while spindle whorls (two, one unfinished) suggest secondary textile work. Unidentified bronze fragments were also found in this area.

Plaza Unit: An exterior unit (3 × 10 m) was excavated into the central plaza to the north of IIIB-1-1-1, yielding pottery (4089 sherds), animal bone, a stone grinder and pestle, and an unfinished spindle whorl. Excavations revealed a pavement of small pebbles at the level of the plaza continuing at least 10 m to the north of the building. The ceramic assemblage corresponds well with the materials found inside the building, and the absence of less common vessel types from this area may indicate that much of the pottery in the exterior unit came from inside the building. Narrow-mouth jars were the most common vessel form (55.7%, or 89/161), although present in a lower percentage than in the building interior. This is due to the presence of three olla forms (VTYPES6–8) in greater abundance (29.2% of the identified vessels, or 47/161). The high proportion of burnt ollas (46.8%, or 22/47) is consistent with the results from the building interior, indicating either that some cooking occurred around this exterior area, or that some kinds of food were served from the vessel in which they were cooked. Decorations were observed exclusively on narrow-mouth jars, of which 11% were decorated (compared to a site-level decoration average of about 2%). Motifs reflect the same diversity seen in the interior: HPPA (n = 3), provincial Inca (n = 5), and circular incised (n = 2). In addition to fancy serving jars, fragments of pitchers (VTYPE2) were prevalent (12/161), and ceramic cups were encountered. Plates and bowls represent a small component of the pottery from the unit (8/161).

East Test Unit: A unit of nearly 50 m2 was excavated in the accessway to the east of IIIB-1-1, revealing another pebble pavement and a similar artifact assemblage to that seen in the other proveniences discussed. The artifact sample comprised more than 2000 pottery fragments, as well as a small quantity of camelid and unidentified animal bone. As with other proveniences, narrow-mouth jars were the most common vessel form, accounting for just under half (46.8%, or 52/111) of the identified vessels. These were highly decorated (10%, or 5/52), with HPPA (n = 1), HPPB (n = 1), circular incised (n = 1), and provincial Inca designs (n = 2). Narrow-mouth jars were the only decorated vessels observed, but the overall percentage of slipped pottery was slightly higher than in other proveniences associated with IIIB-1-1 (52.0%, or 625/1201), and mica-temper pottery accounts for a larger proportion of the studied sample (44.4%, or 533/1201). As with the plaza unit, there was less vessel diversity in this unit. The pitcher form, abundant inside the building, is less common (5/111), and plates (12/111) and ceramic cups (2/111) represent a small component of the ceramic assemblage. As with other proveniences, common olla forms (VTYPES6–8) are prevalent (26.1%, or 29/111), and many of these (34%, or 10/29) showed evidence of burning. There is no evidence that cooking activity occurred in this accessway.

West Test Unit: Located to the west of IIIB-1-1, the final test unit encountered the same pebble pavement already described, as well as a small canal running north-south (out of the main plaza). A large sample of animal bone was encountered here, including deer and camelid (as well as a piece of deer antler). More than 3000 fragments of pottery were present, representing many of the same characteristics as seen inside the building. These include a high proportion of narrow-mouth jars (57.7%, or 90/156) and ollas (23.1%, or 36/156). The narrow-mouth jars were the only decorated vessels, displaying a decorative diversity that included two HPPA identifications, a circular incised, a provincial Inca, and one unidentified design. The olla forms were again disproportionately smudged with soot or carbon (61.1%, or 22/36). As with other nearby contexts, plates constitute a small component of the assemblage. The frequencies of slipped sherds and mica-temper pottery are both similar to the site averages.

To summarize, excavations encountered considerable evidence for cooking within this structure, where there were artifacts indicating multiple stages of food preparation, as well as artifacts suggesting preparations for rituals or other celebrations. The space outside the building was paved with pebbles on three sides, and exterior units encountered abundant evidence for more cooking, as well as the consumption of food and drink. Ceramic decoration was frequent on narrow-mouth jars, which display a remarkable decorative diversity when compared to areas like the palace complex (discussed in Chapters 5–10), where imperial designs dominated. This may indicate a local use of this building during public events, and may account for the low incidence of slipping and decoration on some kinds of serving pottery.

Building IVA-1-1

This building was one of three east-facing kallanka structures delimiting the western side of the main plaza (fig. 2.13). With nearly 500 m2 of interior area and several doorways, IVA-1-1 was likely to have been used during public activities in the plaza. Excavations included three interior transects (a total area of 210 m2), two doorways, and four exterior units, including one (IVA-1-1-220) in the main plaza proper. The large artifact assemblage encountered in this structure included pottery (7405 fragments), animal bone, weaving tools, and metal objects. Some of the excavated contexts yielded evidence of Colonial reuse (pottery and metal fragments), but this was a minor component of the overall assemblage.

Figure 2.13. IVA-1-1 building plan. Shaded areas show the locations of three interior excavated transects and four exterior units.

Building Interior: The excavations of the building interior revealed the remains of what appears to have been an earlier construction—a small multiroomed building with roughly the same orientation as the later kallanka. The artifacts from the three rooms encountered in IVA-1-1-E (designated IVA-1-1-5a, b, and e) will be discussed separately from the remainder of the building interior.

When compared to other contexts, the building interior appears to have had a lower status (or more utilitarian) affiliation, and the presence of a hearth in IVA-1-1-A indicates a cooking function. Two hundred and 79 feature sherds were coded from the interior (a total of 311 sherds) and this sample had a low incidence of slipped pottery (30.5%, or 85/279) (table 2.2). This low percentage of slipped pottery was also seen for nonfeature sherds (42.68%, or 2399/5621), and only 2 decorated body sherds (1 HPPA, 1 HPPB) were encountered in the total interior collection (0.0036%, or 2/5621). The low incidence of slipped and fancy pottery can be explained in part by a large olla component among the identified vessels (30.0%, or 74/247), of which few (19%, or 14/74) were slipped and an approximately equal number (13/74) showed signs of soot from a cooking fire or other burning. Serving vessels (e.g., slipped or decorated narrow-mouth jars, pitchers, and cups) were present in low frequencies, or were completely absent.

TABLE 2.2: Ceramic Data from IVA-1-1 Interior Units

IVA-1-1 Int. A(a)

IVA-1-1 Int. E(a)

IVA-1-1 Int. F(a)

Jars

68/105 (64.8%)

31/63 (49%)

45/89 (51%)

Ollas

29/105 (27.6%)

16/63 (25%)

28/89 (31%)

Bowls/plates

8/105 (7.6%)

15/63 (24%)

10/89 (11%)

Slipping

39/118 (33.1%)

40/93 (43%)

27/100 (27%)

Decoration

0

1/93 (1%)

1/100 (1%)

Carbon/soot

9/118 (8.3%)

10/93 (11%)

11/100 (11%)

Grit-temper (NF)

1616/2534 (63.77%)

871/1611 (54.07%)

664/1765 (37.62%)

Mica-temper (NF)

653/2534 (25.77%)

596/1611 (37.00%)

1026/1765 (58.13%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

176/2534 (6.95%)

75/1611 (4.66%)

42/1765 (2.38%)

(a)Proveniences: IVA-1-1 Int. A: IVA001/IVA002; IVA-1-1 Int. E: IVA005/IVA006/ IVA007/IVA008/IVA009; IVA-1-1 Int. F: IVA003/IVA004.

Other artifacts found within this structure support the interpretation that food preparation occurred there. A large quantity of animal bone was present inside the building, including camelid (179 identified bone fragments), deer (2 fragments), and guinea pig (4 fragments). Five hundred and sixty unidentified bones and bone fragments were also found, as well as a worked-bone weaving tool. Stone tools from the unit with the hearth include fragments of two stone bowls, two pestles, and an unfinished spindle whorl. Other stone artifacts included several pieces of quartz and some polished stones. Copper fragments were also present in the building interior.

In sum, the artifact assemblage indicates that meat was prepared in this building, and other cooking activities took place here as well. The building lacks the kinds of vessels used to prepare and serve maize beer, and the pottery that would be used for personal consumption (i.e., plates and bowls) is a minor component that tends to lack slip and decoration.

Earlier Occupation: As mentioned above, remnants of an earlier structure were encountered in the lower stratum of IVA-1-1-E. These three small rooms appear to have opened onto the plaza, and may represent earlier buildings that were replaced with the larger single-room kallanka. Excavations within the rooms recovered a small sample of pottery (639 fragments) and animal bone (comprising 14 camelid, 1 deer, and 74 unidentified bones and bone fragments). The ceramic assemblage for this lower stratum displays some marked differences with that already discussed. For example, the frequency of slipped pottery was much higher (60.1%, or 384/639) for this area, and while no decorated fragments were encountered, none of the feature sherds coded showed any signs of carbon deposits. Identified vessels consisted of jars (VTYPE1 n = 4; VTYPE3 n = 1) and ollas (VTYPE7 n = 1; VTYPE10 n = 2; VTYPE12 n = 2). Over 40% of the pottery found was mica tempered, a higher percentage than was observed for any other contexts in the plaza area. While the relationship of this building to the later kallanka is uncertain, there are clear differences in the kinds of artifacts found here. The rooms of the early building were smaller, the orientation slightly different, and the building does not appear to be rectangular. It is possible that this was a high-status structure that was rebuilt as the orientation of the site was formalized.

Exterior Units: Four exterior test units were excavated in association with IVA-1-1, one in each direction (table 2.3). Because one of these (IVA-1-1-220) is in the plaza proper, it will be considered in comparison with the other three units, excavated to define accessways to the sides of and behind the building.

TABLE 2.3: Ceramic Data from IVA-1-1 Exterior Units

IVA-1-1 Ext. 101(a)

IVA-1-1 Ext. 220(a)

IVA-1-1 Ext. 304(a)

IVA-1-1 Ext. 407(a)

Jars

17/27 (63%)

1/4 (25%)

2/12 (17%)

9/10 (90%)

Ollas

5/27 (19%)

3/4 (75%)

5/12 (42%)

1/10 (10%)

Bowls/plates

5/27 (19%)

0

3/12 (25%)

0

Slipping

14/28 (50%)

8/11 (73%)

11/29 (%)

8/12 (67%)

Decoration

4/28 (14%)

0

0

0

Carbon/soot

5/28 (18%)

2/11 (18%)

0

0

Grit-temper (NF)

309/483 (64.0%)

52/146 (35.6%)

127/274 (46.4%)

78/144 (54.2%)

Mica-temper (NF)

118/483 (24.4%)

74/146 (50.7%)

128/274 (46.7%)

52/144 (36.1%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

56/483 (11.6%)

20/156 (12.8%)

10/274 (3.6%)

9/144 (6.3%)

(a)Proveniences: IVA-1-1 Ext. 101: IVA013; IVA-1-1 Ext. 220: IVA014; IVA-1-1 Ext. 304: IVA011; IVA-1-1 Ext. 407: IVA010

The artifact assemblage for the exterior units is much smaller than for the building interior, which is expected, given the differences in excavation area. In addition to 980 pottery fragments, the accessway units yielded animal bone and other artifacts. The bone was found in the north and south test units (42 camelid, 1 deer, and 114 unidentified; and 25 camelid and 66 unidentified fragments, respectively). The north unit also had an unfinished spindle whorl, a worked-bone weaving tool (fig. 2.14) and a metal tool, possibly a chisel (fig. 2.15). The west unit contained only 52 pottery sherds, dominated by narrow-mouth jars (7/10 vessel identifications) and with a high percentage of slipped feature sherds (8/12).

Figure 2.14. Bone tool (scale = 5 cm).

Figure 2.15. Metal tool (scale = 5 cm).

In fact, the overall percentage of slipped pottery in the west unit was slightly lower than average for the three units (46.2%, or 453/980), although it was higher than the building interior. Four decorated sherds were identified, consisting of three (two soot-covered) narrow-mouth jars decorated with a provincial Inka design, and a fragment from an unidentified vessel decorated with circular incisions. Serving plates were found in these units, and while they were not decorated, most (5/8) were slipped. The exterior deposits appear to be refuse from public events, as well as from food production and/or craft activities.

The Plaza Unit: The plaza unit, like the unit behind the kallanka, had little material, and no evidence of food production or tool use. Of the 166 pottery fragments found, only 11 were feature sherds, and only four of these were identified by vessel (VTYPE1 n = 1; VTYPE6 n = 1; VTYPE7 n = 2). The two pedestal ollas were both slipped and soot smudged. Slipped pottery was more common than in the other exterior units (55%, or 91/166), although the sample size was small. There does appear to be a larger component of mica-temper pottery in this unit (45%, or 74/166). This may indicate that pottery used in public events was more likely to be slipped and mica tempered—that is, fancier and more closely affiliated with imperial pottery production. Still, as will be seen for the palace, the decoration of serving vessels in the main plaza suggests an openness and local flavor for these less restricted festivities than is seen for the more exclusive contexts found within the palace. The small artifact sample in front of and behind Building IVA-1-1 is consistent with periodic cleaning of these areas, while other areas between buildings may have been used for refuse.

Building VC-15-3

Located on the northeast corner of the plaza, this rectangular structure measured approximately 65 × 8.8 m (interior, an area of 572 m2), with eight doorways opening onto the central plaza (fig. 2.16). A single transect sampled 20% of the interior area. Given the large sample area (114 m2), the quantity of artifacts encountered was rather low, consisting of 2747 pottery fragments, a grinding stone fragment, and a few animal bones, including one identified camelid, one identified deer, and an unidentified artiodactyl. The bone and lithic artifacts were found exclusively in the upper stratum.

Figure 2.16. VC-15-3 building plan. Shaded area shows the location of an interior excavation transect.

The ceramic assemblage was sampled to include 62% of the total ceramic weight (2004 sherds), including 142 feature identifications (164 total sherds), from which 61 discrete vessel identifications were made (table 2.4). Vessels included a high percentage of narrow-mouth jars (70.5%, or 43/61), and small numbers of other types, including other jars (VTYPE3 n = 2; VTYPE4 n = 1), ollas (VTYPE6 n = 1; VTYPE7 n = 3), bowls (VTYPE13 n = 2), plates (VTYPE17 n = 2), a cup (VTYPE21), and several lids (n = 6). The sample of nonfeature sherds had a low overall frequency of decoration (0.25%, or 5/2004), including three fragments of HPPA, a fragment of Red-on-White, and one decorated with crossed incised lines. None of these was identified by vessel form. Slipped sherds were also less frequent than the site average for some categories. For example, only 26% (11/43) of narrow-mouth jars were slipped, although the proportion of all slipped sherds in the study sample was 48.6%.

TABLE 2.4: Ceramic Data from VC-15-3

VC-15-3 Int. C(a)

Jars

46/61 (75%)

Ollas

4/61 (7%)

Bowls/plates

4/61 (7%)

Slipping

30/142 (21.1%)

Decoration

4/142 (2.8%)

Carbon/soot

5/142 (3.5%)

Grit-temper (NF)

987/1839 (53.67%)

Mica-temper (NF)

723/1839 (39.31%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

85/1839 (4.62%)

(a)Provenience: VC-15-3 Int. C: VC208/VC209.

During the excavation of this building several areas with evidence of burning were encountered. Although a grinding-stone fragment appeared in the excavation, it is not likely that this building was used to prepare food for plaza feasts. The burnt areas do not include hearths or other good evidence of food preparation, and only five of the feature sherds (3%) had evidence of carbonization. The only sooty sherds identified by vessel type were narrow-mouth jars, not ollas. It is possible that cooking took place in other parts of the building and not in the excavated area. As will be demonstrated for some parts of the palace area, the presence of burnt areas, burnt narrow-mouth jars, grinding stones, and vessel lids are part of an artifact complex consistent with brewing activities. Such artifacts are also associated with carbonized maize, vessel supports, and fermentation areas, which are absent in this particular building. It is possible that this kind of building was used for multiple purposes, perhaps including temporary dormitory or cooking spaces, or shelter during poor weather. The presence of post-Inkaic pottery may also indicate that the upper stratum—where evidence of cooking was isolated—reflects an early Colonial reoccupation of the structure.

Overview of Plaza Buildings

The excavations in and around buildings on the central plaza suggest some functional distinctions between structures, as well as between interior and exterior spaces. The building on the south side of the plaza appears to have been used to prepare large-scale events involving the consumption of food and drink, which were served in vessels that show a mix of imperial and local forms and decoration. The building on the north side of the plaza does not appear to have been used for food preparation—at least not the part that was excavated. The western building has a modest artifact assemblage and appears to have been rebuilt at some point in the site’s occupation. The exterior units on the plaza indicate that at least some parts of this large open space were paved and drained by small canals. The artifact assemblage in these units is modest and consistent with what was encountered within the buildings.

Excavations on the Ushnu Platform

The excavation of the ushnu at Huánuco Pampa was conducted as part of John Murra’s 1965 Institute of Andean Research project. These excavations were supervised by Daniel Shea (1966, 1967) and the information included here is based on his reports. Built of fine Inka masonry, the ushnu at Huánuco Pampa is the largest known example at any Inka site (Hyslop, 1990: 87–89). Rivero and Tschudi (1855: 278) provide an early description of the platform (fig. 2.17):

The look-out is quadrilateral, fifty-six paces in length and thirty-six in width; the height of the wall is about five yards, and inclined inward from the base. It rests upon two courses of round stone about a yard and a half high. The walls are a yard and a quarter in thickness, and are of cut stone, terminating in a cornice, which is composed of a blue shell limestone: the stones are a yard and a half in length, and half a yard thick. With few exceptions, the stones which compose the walls are of equal dimensions, and are, generally speaking, very well cemented. The interior is composed of gravel and clay.… On the southern side is a door, and instead of steps a terrace after the manner of an inclined plane.… At the door-way are observed two partially effaced figures, of which it is hard to say whether they were meant for monkeys or other animals. From the upper story may be distinguished the whole plain, and the gates of the famous palace.

Shea (1967: 13–14), who supervised cleaning and excavation of the platform, provides more details (figs. 2.18–19):

The outside measurements are 32.5 × 48 meters … the width of the wall being 1.30 meters measured across the top. The top of the wall has a cornice, so the actual width of the wall below the cornice is a little less than 1 meter. The wall gives the appearance of getting wider toward the terrace below, until it reaches the same width as the cornice at the base; however, since the inside of the wall is a false facing that only extends to the level of the interior platform, this is in part illusory.… The interior platform is 1.5 meters below the top of the wall, or 3 meters above ground level.

Facing the interior platform are six niches, each two meters wide and 90 cm deep. At one time there were ten, but four have been destroyed by pothunter’s [sic] excavations. Four in the North wall, are symmetrically centered so that the outer two face directly the gates in the South wall….

Figure 2.17. Ushnu drawing from Rivero and Tschudi, 1853: 277 (also published in Squier, 1853).

Figure 2.18. Photograph of the ushnu at Huánuco Pampa.

Figure 2.19. Detail of corner of ushnu platform. Note the carved animal in relief on the cornice.

During the 1965 season, Shea cleaned and consolidated around the structure, excavated 12 test units on and around the platform, and conducted preliminary laboratory analysis on materials from all excavated contexts. These included the ushnu proper, as well as four post-conquest structures on and around the platform. The artifact assemblage included pottery (more than 14,000 fragments) and animal bone pertaining to the Inka and Spanish occupations, and the material encountered indicates an important ritual use of this platform. Pottery from these excavations was limited to vessel fragments, many of which appear to have come from large vessels. Shea identified 136 different vessels with an estimated capacity of about 40 liters each, and observes that fragments from large containers far outnumber those from small ones, by as much as 6:1 (Shea, 1967: 20).

Nearly half of all rim sherds were slipped (mostly red), although the bodies of many vessels were undecorated. Few soot-covered sherds were encountered, and these were considered to be the result of postdepositional burning of later residences rather than cooking on or around the platform. Little material was found on the platform proper, although Shea (1967: 21) concludes that this area may have been kept clean, and that broken pots and refuse were thrown off the sides. The pottery that was found suggests an elite use of the platform. A hard, well-fired orange paste that is rare at the site was found in quantity (over 250 body sherds identified) on the second platform in the area Shea identifies as House 3.

More than 1000 fragments of pottery were encountered in the upper platform, and these artifacts demonstrate a function and access distinct from the lower platform and plaza area. Whereas the overall ushnu assemblage was dominated by large vessels (with 85% of all handles classified as large, and the observed presence of rim sherds from large narrow-mouth jars), the upper platform had a proportion of small vessel handles that was nearly 2.5 times that of the ushnu average (and accounting for 47% of the vessel handles from the inner platform). The proportion of small vessels is also higher on the stairs and front of the platform, while the sides and back (excluding the domestic contexts) have almost no small vessel handles. The restricted platform space and paucity of large vessels suggests a more exclusive use of the inner platform by a limited number of people. Whereas the lower platform can be reached by six different staircases, the upper platform can be reached only by the south staircase, which was gated to control access. Given that floor level of the upper platform was 1.5 m below the wall level, it is unlikely that rituals performed here were meant to be accessible or even visible to the public. This creation of multiple ritual spaces with degrees of accessibility is common in religious architecture in many archaic states, and an important principle in Inka spatial planning that will be addressed in more detail for the palace complex.

Vessel size is not the only evidence that the upper platform was a place for restricted elite activities. The upper platform pottery is also distinct in terms of the presence of both decorated and soot-covered sherds. Only about 5% of all studied fragments from the upper platform had evidence of burning (in comparison with an area average of 17.16%), and while some of the house contexts clearly demonstrate postdepositional burning, no other contexts show such a marked lack of evidence for cooking or burning. In terms of slipping and decoration, the upper platform has the highest percentage of red-slipped pottery for any context (36.57%, compared to an area average of 23.95%), most significantly for body sherds—Shea notes that many vessels had red-slipped rims without any body decoration. Seventy-one fragments of black-painted pottery were found in the upper platform, as well as a fragment of HPPA. On the lower platform, decorated pottery, including 41 white-painted sherds and 24 fragments of HPPB, was found against or close to the walls. Some of this may have been associated with the two buildings on this platform, but other material probably came from the cleaning of the upper platform. In sum, the upper platform appears to have been the location of restricted high-status activities. The presence of two doorways leading off the south stair into the inner platform may suggest the spatial division of participants into two opposed groups, as already observed for many Inka rituals.

The lower platform was probably used for more public activities, possibly including the observation of festivals that were timed by astronomical observations from the ushnu. As has been noted (Morris and Thompson, 1985), the ushnu platform is aligned to the east with a series of gateways in the IIB palace complex. The two buildings on the east side of the second platform may have been used for astronomical observations determining the timing of annual events related to the ritual and agricultural year, although aspects of this remain to be clarified.[30] Deposits behind House 1 had a large proportion of decorated pottery, as mentioned above. House 1 was a rectangular 8.5 × 4 m structure that was built as part of the original Inka complex. The building walls are aligned with those of the platforms, and a small alleyway separates the house from the inner platform wall. According to Shea (1967: 16), an unobstructed view through the palace gateways was possible only by accessing this alleyway and establishing a sightline with the two ushnu buildings and the palace doorway.

House 2, located east of House 1, was constructed later in the use of the platform, probably during the expansion or refurbishment of the complex. This building had four niches in its east wall, but it is unclear from the artifacts how it was used.

The other structures were located in the plaza proper, and had evidence of extensive burning that is probably postdepositional. It should be noted that most of the ushnu contexts had evidence of Spanish occupation of some sort. Nails and other iron artifacts, Colonial glazed pottery, and the bones of European animals (cow, horse, sheep) all attest to a reuse of the space.

In conclusion, the ushnu demonstrates a series of platforms that present multiple patterns of accessibility and visibility for the complex. Lower levels are more public and visible, perhaps used by palace administrators during public festivals in the plaza, and for administrative activities. The upper levels appear to have been much more restricted and less visible, perhaps being used only by elites for very restricted ceremonies. It is possible that these different levels represented conceptual categories in the Inka cosmos (see Zuidema, 1973, 1980), although this is difficult to demonstrate using the archaeological evidence. The same kinds of restricted accessibility and redundancy of space are also seen in the layout of open spaces in the IIB palatial complex.

CONCLUSIONS

The Inkas designed Huánuco Pampa with a huge central plaza space (covering about 10% of the site’s area) where provincial social and ethnic groups could gather under Inka supervision. Excavations on the ushnu platform indicate an Inka-affiliated elite presence that was literally above the swirling sea of individual and group rivalries on display in the plaza below, while at the same time tied to plaza festivities in the role of generous patron. Test units in the plaza reveal the investment of labor to channel water out of the plaza and pave parts of it, although these features may represent improvements made to the spaces associated with specific buildings on the plaza rather than a state-mandated improvement of the entire plaza.

The architecture and artifacts in excavated structures on the plaza provide some important perspectives on local participation in state assemblies. Inka administrators did not necessarily assign all plaza buildings for local use, but there is evidence that some structures were used for staging festivities—preparing costumes and musical instruments, cooking food, and serving food and drink in vessels decorated with both Inka and local designs. The artifact differences among the plaza buildings contrast with the ushnu assemblage, but the differences within and between buildings suggest functional diversity rather than a communication of the identities of the groups using a given part of the plaza.

CHAPTER 3: THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION OF THE CENTRAL PLAZA AT HUÁNUCO PAMPA

Inka central plazas were locations designed for encounters between groups—for municipal rivalries, administrative performances, and ritual transformations—so it is not surprising that these spaces saw some of the first interactions between Inkas and Europeans. In the most famous encounter at Cajamarca, Pizarro’s men occupied buildings flanking the central plaza, and after fortifying the ushnu platform with artillery and placing cavalry and foot soldiers in ambush, they captured Atahuallpa in a bloody battle in the plaza. While Inka urban layout facilitated the Spanish invasion and the first years of colonial rule, the function and layout of Inka plazas ultimately proved to be incompatible with emerging Spanish imperial policies. Over time, most central plazas of important Andean centers were reconfigured as the central spaces of new Spanish towns. These new plazas were designed to fulfill a different set of urban and administrative functions.

At the Inka capital, for example, the Haucaypata plaza served as the focus of the establishment of Colonial Cusco. Francisco Pizarro initially ordered his soldiers to occupy Cusco’s central plaza, and prominent members of Pizarro’s forces took possession of the royal palace complexes surrounding it, subdividing them into house lots when the new Spanish city was founded. The conversion of Cusco into a Spanish colonial city involved major changes in and around the Haucaypata, where the ushnu was replaced with a gallows, and a council building (Cabildo) and Catholic church were established. The plaza was considered too large for a Spanish community, and it was divided into two smaller spaces. Similar processes occurred at other Inka highland centers from Quito to La Paz, and the continued occupation and transformation of these sites make it virtually impossible to develop comprehensive perspectives on Inka urbanism. Huánuco Pampa represents a rare example of an Inka center where the Spanish urban transformation was attempted and failed.

First Encounters at Huánuco Pampa

As with many other Inka centers, the first encounter between Europeans and Andeans at Huánuco Pampa occurred in the central plaza, and it was here that the short-lived attempt to establish a permanent Spanish town played out. In late March of 1533, a small company of Spanish cavalry and musketeers led by Hernando Pizarro passed along the Inka road through the northern Andean highlands, heading north from the Inka city of Hatun Xauxa to join their comrades at Cajamarca. The group had been sent along the Pacific coast to the regional pilgrimage center at Pachacamac, and from there had entered the central highlands in search of the general Chalcuchima, who commanded the Inka armies that were still active in the central highlands. Having negotiated Chalcuchima’s surrender, the group traveled northward, passing through Inka centers and way stations where they were offered lavish feasts and entertainment by local populations. The Spaniards passed the nights of 29–30 March, 1533, at Huánuco (Guaneso), where they spent their time enjoying festivities organized by the local people (Estete in Xerez, 1985 [1534]).

The Founding and Failure of the Spanish City

Following this early visit to Huánuco Pampa, no mention of the site was made for several years—many parts of the central highlands remained outside Spanish control during the 1530s and 1540s. The Huánuco region appears to have been affected by the widespread unrest that followed Manco Inca’s 1536 rebellion (and his subsequent retreat to Vilcabamba), which probably accelerated processes of abandonment by the provincial capital’s support personnel and tributary population (Morris, 1980). By 1537, Manco Inca’s northern general, Illa Tupa, had established himself as warlord over the Huánuco region, perhaps using the Inka city as his base of operations (Hemming, 1970: 238). For at least two years, Illa Tupa’s army controlled the Inka road and administrative sites north of Jauja (including Pumpú and Tarma), harrying Spanish expeditionary forces. It appears that they were driven out of the region in 1539 during a bloody and destructive campaign led by Francisco de Cháves (Hemming, 1970: 248–249; Kerr, 1812: 443–444; Rostworowski, 1993: 414). According to Varallanos, this resulted in the burning of some parts of the Inka center (Varallanos, 1959: 132; cf. Morris, 1980: 211).

Cieza de León (1986: 232 [1553]: ch. 79) notes that the establishment of a new Spanish city at the site of Inka Huánuco occurred as Inka rebels were driven out if the region, and was motivated in part by Pizarro’s desire to placate supporters of Almagro and provide new encomienda grants for Spaniards living in Los Reyes (modern Lima):

In order to speak of the foundation of the city of León de Guánuco, it is necessary to know that when the Marquis Francisco Pizarro founded the rich city of Los Reyes on the plains and sandy beaches, all the provinces presently subject to this city served it; and the citizens of Los Reyes held encomienda over the Caciques; and that the tyrant Illa Tupa with other Indians of his lineage and his allies could come bringing war to the natives of this city and ruin their communities. And there were too many repartimientos and there were many conquistadores without encomienda. The Marquis [Pizarro] wanted to eliminate such inconveniences as much as to gratify these others—giving also Indians to some Spaniards among those who had followed the governor don Diego de Almagro, whose friendship he should try to cultivate, desiring to satisfy everyone—because they had worked and served his Majesty, they should have some benefit in the land. And notwithstanding that the council in Los Reyes attempted with protests and other requirements to obstruct that which was being done, to the detriment of the republic, the Marquis named as his lieutenant the captain Gómez de Alvarado [a conquistador who had campaigned with Almagro in Chile], brother of the governor Pedro de Alvarado, and he ordered him that he should go with a contingent of Spaniards to populate a city in the provinces called Guánuco. And so Gómez de Alvarado departed, and after having passed some things with the natives, in the part that seemed best to him he founded the city of León de Guánuco....[31]

The location that Gómez de Alvarado selected in 1539 as ideal for the new Spanish settlement was within the central plaza of Inka Huánuco (for additional details on the expedition and founding, see León Gómez, 2002). Writing nearly 100 years after the conquest, Vázquez de Espinosa (1969: 329 [c. 1600: 1.361]) states that

the city of León de Guánuco de los Caballeros el Viejo is 60 leagues to the east of Los Reyes; Gómez de Alvarado founded it by order of the Marquis don Francisco Pizarro in 1539 [15 August] in a very delightful, large plain, with a lovely view, although without a single tree because of the cold that there is in that region; where there were grand structures of very good stonework, royal houses of leisure of the Inka kings and a fortress, all of worked stone two estados high, as a reasonable place, where over 4,000 people could be contained, with a great quantity of housing all around....[32]

Although Spanish urban canons were still developing in the Americas at this time, the establishment of a new Spanish city at Huánuco should have involved the designation of a cabildo, church, and gallows and the layout of new buildings and streets (see Morris, 1980; Morris and Covey, 2003).

When Francisco Pizarro was assassinated in 1541, his supporters were beginning to consolidate control over the area around Huánuco. For example, in a 1543 letter to the emperor Charles V, Inés Muñoz states that her husband Francisco Martín de Alcántara (Francisco Pizarro’s half brother) had received an encomienda grant of 2200 natives originally assigned to the Inka city (in Porras Barrenechea, 1959: 545–546).[33] Pizarro’s death was followed by waves of fighting between Spanish factions that destabilized the occupation of the site. After the younger Diego de Almagro took control of Lima in 1541, all citizens of Huánuco are said to have traveled to Trujillo with Captain Alonso Cabrera, Pizarro’s steward (mayordomo), to join with royalist forces massing under Alonso de Alvarado, an army that would crush the Almagrists at Chupas on 16 September 1542 (Zárate, 1995: 157–157 [1553: book 4, chap. 10]; cf. Varallanos, 1959: 134–137). The number said to have gone with Cabrera is 18–25 cavalry (Vaca de Castro, [1541], in Porras Barrenechea, 1959: 436). Any other inhabitants still remaining at Huánuco may have joined the royalist forces marching northward from Cusco along the highland road to meet Cristóbal Vaca de Castro’s army (Cabildo de Lima, [1542], in Porras Barrenechea, 1959: 454).

Cieza de León suggests that the Inka warlord Illa Tupa continued to threaten the Huánuco region, which also encouraged the abandonment of the site. He writes that “after a few years, the new city was abandoned due to a native uprising throughout the kingdom. And after a few days, Pedro Barroso returned to rebuild this city. And one last time, after the cruel battle of Chupas, Pedro de Puelles went with the power of licenciado Cristóbal Vaca de Castro to address the things of the city, and its occupation was ended”[34] (Cieza de León, 1986: 232 [1553]: chap. 79). The viceroy Vaca de Castro ([1543], in Porras Barrenechea, 1959: 506) confirms this in a letter to the Spanish emperor on 24 November 1542:

I sent Pedro de Puelles to the province of Huánuco, which was depopulated at the time of the Marquis’ [Pizarro] death and was not at peace, so that he might return there to populate and pacify it, and conquer Illa Tupa, who is another Indian who is in rebellion like the Inca, and who is his kin....[35]

Inés Muñoz complains in her 1543 letter to Charles V that the viceroy had dispossessed her of her Huánuco encomienda in favor of Puelles (Porras Barrenechea, 1959: 546), probably as a reward for his service. Although Cieza de León states that Illa Tupa was finally captured in 1542 by Juan de Vargas,[36] Zárate says that he was still marauding in the region in 1544 (Zárate, 1995 [1555]: 206).

Spanish infighting and native resistance contributed to the abandonment of the Spanish settlement at Huánuco within a few years of its founding, but the consolidation of colonial control did not see a reoccupation of the Inka center. The advantageous location of Huánuco Pampa on a principal Inka highland road was offset by the site’s cold and marginal climate, and the native tributary population assigned to the city lived in neighboring valleys. In 1543, the viceroy Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (1908 [1543]: 447) ordered the reestablishment of Spanish settlements and way stations in the central highlands, and a new Spanish town was refounded in the Huallaga Valley, where the indigenous Chupaychu group resided. According to Zárate (1995 [1555]: 48), the new Spanish city was named León de Huánuco after Vaca de Castro’s birthplace in Spain.

Postabandonment Occupation of Huánuco Pampa

The relocation of Spanish Huánuco highlights significant differences in Inka and Spanish imperial strategies. The Inkas built their provincial center along their road network and in a depopulated space that could be used periodically to congregate populations from the surrounding region, while the Spaniards settled in a more comfortable climate close to the natives in their encomiendas. Huánuco Pampa was abandoned as a population center, but it continued to be used by local herders and travelers passing through the region. Vázquez de Espinosa (1969: 330 [c. 1600: 1.361]) visited the site in the early 17th century, noting that “where the city was founded there is presently a tambo or poor inn with some Indians who serve it for the accommodation of travelers, because it is the Royal Road, and the site retains the name Old Huánuco.”[37]

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION

Although the formal Spanish occupation of Old Huánuco lasted just two years, a post-Inka occupation is seen clearly in architectural remains and artifacts found in and around the Inka central plaza. It is important to note that unambiguous evidence for the short-lived Spanish settlement cannot easily be coaxed out of the material record for a broader Colonial period use of the site. In fact, some of the clearest archaeological markers of the Colonial period—for example, lead-glazed pottery and bones of European domesticated animals—are unlikely to have been deposited in significant quantities in a remote highland region within a decade of the European invasion (e.g., Covey et al., 2011; Jamieson, 2001). In this discussion, we consider post-Inka contexts to reflect a Colonial use by local populations, rather than a formal municipal settlement by Europeans (fig. 3.1).

Figure 3.1. Colonial remains in the central plaza. A possible grid layout is reflected in the distribution of Colonial architecture.

Colonial structures in the plaza include 38 identified buildings, most of them laid out as part of seven multistructure compounds. The Spaniards also made internal divisions within some of the larger Inka buildings on the plaza, and total room count for the Colonial occupation is 78 or 79 for the plaza area. As will be discussed, a sporadic post-Inka occupation in other parts of the site was also encountered during excavations, with the clearest evidence of intensive occupation discovered in the eastern part of the palace complex (IIB-4) and other parts of Zone II.

While a functional interpretation of the Spanish structures may not always be possible, some general architectural categories appear to include residences, barracks or a jail, and a possible smithy. The lack of an unambiguously identifiable church may be due to the short span of the Spanish occupation, although many early Colonial churches in the Andes were built by remodeling large Inka structures, which might not leave a clear architectural signature. The superimposition of a Colonial occupation within the Inka plaza and palace leaves some ambiguous artifact assemblages, but it is possible to discuss the seven excavated post-conquest buildings in the plaza as a distinctly post-Inka occupation.

All told, excavations in Colonial buildings in the plaza encountered 8433 pottery fragments, with 5719 analyzed for basic paste and temper information. Another 707 feature sherds, representing at least 351 different vessels, were analyzed more fully. Of the 6426 paste/temper identifications, there were some notable distinctions in the Colonial pottery when compared to other parts of the site.

Building Summaries for the Colonial Occupation

As mentioned above, a Colonial occupation is difficult to identify with certainty across much of the site. The Spaniards arriving in 1539 probably found an abandoned city that had already been ransacked to some degree by groups of Andean resistors. Given the remoteness of the site and short duration of the Spanish settlement, it is not surprising that a real urban infrastructure never developed, and the remains of the early Colonial occupation represent an opportunistic use of building materials and supplies present at the site. This explains minor architectural modifications seen in some Inka buildings, and might account in part for patterns of ceramic distribution. Local people would have continued to produce many of the same vessel forms used before the conquest, but Spaniards may simply have extracted and reused whole vessels found nearby.

The initial Spanish occupation was probably supported by plundering any agricultural goods remaining in the Inka storehouses near the city, which may also explain the high proportions of undecorated narrow-mouth jars in areas most strongly associated with the Spanish presence. In other cases, building-level analysis reveals some distinct patterns in the plaza assemblage, but does not always help to distinguish whether these are due to Inka-period function or Colonial reoccupation.

Building IA-2-2

Building IA-2-2 is part of a complex of at least five structures located on the west side of the plaza, comprising perhaps seven rooms and delimited by a compound wall (fig. 3.2). Excavations associated with this north-facing rectangular building included a transect of roughly one third of the interior area (14.5 m2) and two exterior test units. Carbonized maize was found in a lower stratum, with a feature identified as an interior wall (fig. 3.3), which may have been part of an earlier structure, as it ran parallel to the back wall of the structure. A single spindle whorl was recovered in the building interior.

Pottery fragments were present only in the interior unit, and only 10 feature sherds were coded, four of which were slipped (but with no decoration). The 446 nonfeature sherds (6 kg) analyzed for paste and temper also lacked decoration, and the 38.1% proportion of slipped sherds (170/446) is lower than the site average (48.54%). Vessel identifications made on feature sherds indicate a variety of cooking types, including narrow-mouth jars (VTYPE 1 n = 2), wide-mouth jars (VTYPE 3 n = 2, VTYPE 5 n = 1), and large pots (VTYPE 8 n = 2). None of the feature sherds exhibited evidence of exposure to fire (see table 3.1).

Given the presence of burnt maize and a suite of cooking vessels (and the spindle whorl found in excavation), this building appears to have been used for small-scale cooking, possibly by native laborers for the Spaniards living in the compound. There is no evidence of plates, bowls, or cups used for service and consumption of food and drink.

Figure 3.2. Zone IA-2 compound (inset) within larger central plaza plan. Excavated areas are shaded.

Figure 3.3. Building IA-2-2, internal wall feature.

Table 3.1: Ceramic Data from IA-2-2, IA-4-1, and IA-4-4

IA-2-2 Int.(a)

IA-4-1 Int.(a)

IA-4-1 Ext. 201/204(a)

IA-4-4 Int.(a)

Jars

5/7 (71%)

20/24 (83%)

4/4 (100%)

11/20 (55%)

Ollas

2/7 (29%)

1/24 (4%)

0

6/20 (30%)

Bowls/plates

0

1/24 (4%)

0

2/20 (10%)

Slipping

4/10 (40%)

14/25 (28%)

3/5 (60%)

15/25 (60%)

Decoration

0

2/25 (8%)

0

0

Carbon/soot

0

2/25 (8%)

0

4/25 (16%)

Grit-temper (NF)

273/446 (61.2%)

84/193 (43.5%)

69/102 (67.6%)

222/426 (52.1%)

Mica-temper (NF)

147/446 (33.0%)

75/193 (38.9%)

24/102 (23.5%)

161/426 (37.8%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

14/446 (3.1%)

5/193 (2.6%)

2/102 (2.0%)

6/426 (1.4%)

(a)Proveniences: IA-2-2 Int.: IA056/IA057/IA058; IA-4-1 Int.: IA002; IA-4-1 Ext. 201/204: IA003/IA004; IA-4-4 Int.: IA005/IA006/IA008/IA009/IA017.

Building IA-4-1

The IA-4 compound (fig. 3.4) consists of four single-roomed rectangular structures oriented around a patio area in a manner consistent with the kancha organization commonly employed in Inka compounds at the site (cf. Rowe, 1946: 223). Excavations were made in buildings IA-4-1 and IA-4-4 (see below), consisting of interior transects and exterior test units. This compound has a different artifact assemblage from the preceding building, with clear evidence of post-conquest occupation.

A single interior transect of 14.4 m2 was excavated in building IA-4-1, as well as two exterior test units (of 2.9 m2 and 3.5 m2) (figs. 3.5–6). Excavations recovered 228 fragments of pottery in the interior unit (35 were coded as feature sherds representing an estimated 25 distinct vessels), as well as an additional 107 fragments in the exterior unit (including 5 feature sherds). The total collection of 335 sherds had a high incidence of slipping (61.5%, or 206/335), and the feature sherds included a much larger component of narrow-mouth jars (68%, or 19/28) than the IA-2-2 assemblage. These jars had a high percentage of slipping (74%, or 14/19), and one was decorated with an unidentified design. Overall decoration was slightly lower than the site average (1.5%, or 5/335) and included a fragment of HPPA, two fragments of Huánuco Pampa Red-on-White, and two fragments of unidentified designs.

Other vessel types identified from this building included a small pitcher (VTYPE 2 n = 1), wide-mouth jars (VTYPE 3 n = 2), other jars (VTYPE 5 n = 1), a pedestal cooking pot (VTYPE 7 n = 1), a large pot (VTYPE 8: n = 1), a bowl (VTYPE 13 n = 1) and a vessel lid (VTYPE 22 n = 1). The larger jars and lid were unslipped, and the two jars had signs of burning. With the presence of a stone mortar and quantities of animal bone in both interior and exterior contexts (identified as camelid, cervid, and cow) the assemblage suggests that food preparation occurred within the building.

The presence of cow bone, as well as two iron nails and a fragment of horseshoe clearly indicate a post-conquest occupation of this area, one that might be mixed with remains from the Inka occupation of the site. The horseshoe fragment and one nail were found in the upper stratum of an exterior excavation, while all coded pottery came from the lower stratum, mostly from the building interior. The distribution of vessel types indicates that while almost all cooking vessels were found in the interior unit, narrow-mouth jars were found both inside and outside of the building.

Figure 3.4. Zone IA-4 compound (inset) within larger central plaza plan. Excavated areas are shaded.

Figure 3.5. Excavation of Building IA-4-1 interior.

Figure 3.6. Excavation of exterior unit of Building IA-4-1.

Building IA-4-4

Like IA-4-1, this building is a single-room rectangular structure. Associated excavations included a total interior area of 32.6 m2, comprising three transects, as well as three exterior units. For analytical purposes, three provenience groups will be compared: (1) the interior space, (2) the south test unit, and (3) all other test units. The south test unit (IA-4-4-301/302) is distinguished from the other units because of its association with an exterior feature identified as a hearth.

The Interior Excavations: The artifact sample from the building interior is rather small, given the large excavation area. Only 458 ceramic fragments were present inside of the building, of which 32 were coded, with a total of 25 feature identifications (see table 3.2). Eight nonfeature fragments were decorated (2 HPPA, 2 HPPB, 4 Red-on-White), and the overall sample has a high proportion of slipping (65.5%, or 300/458). As with IA-4-1, the mixing of Colonial and Inka contexts may account for some of the characteristics of the artifact assemblage of this building. Not only was the proportion of slipping high, but there was a larger than average proportion of narrow-mouth jars (11/20), the majority of which were slipped (n = 8), while only one had evidence of soot deposits. Other vessels identified included ollas (VTYPE 7 n = 2; VTYPE 8 n = 3; VTYPE 9 n = 1) that may have been used in small-scale cooking during the Colonial occupation; a plate (VTYPE 17) and a bowl (VTYPE 13) were identified, as well as a vessel lid (VTYPE 22). Of these, two of the ollas were burnt. This occupation appears to have included some small-scale cooking, given the vessel identifications and the presence of a variety of animal bones, including deer, camelid, horse, pig, and an unidentified bird. Along with European domesticates, the presence of numerous iron nails indicates that the context dates to the Colonial occupation.

TABLE 3.2: Ceramic Data from IA-4-4 Exterior Units

IA-4-4 Ext. 104(a)

IA-4-4, Ext. 301(a)

IA-4-4 Ext. 302(a)

IA-4-4 Ext. 404(a)

Jars

24/43 (56%)

42/59 (71%)

23/28 (82%)

3/3 (100%)

Ollas

13/43 (30%)

12/59 (20%)

3/28 (11%)

0

Bowls/plates

5/43 (12%)

3/59 (5%)

1/28 (4%)

0

Slipping

21/47 (45%)

44/70 (63%)

25/36 (69%)

1/3 (33%)

Decoration

0

4/70 (6%)

0

1/3 (33%)

Carbon/soot

10/47 (21%)

8/70 (11%)

2/36 (6%)

0

Grit-temper (NF)

343/711 (48.2%)

551/1042 (52.9%)

252/444 (56.8%)

50/81 (62%)

Mica-temper (NF)

295/711 (41.5%)

397/1042 (38.1%)

152/444 (34.2%)

14/81 (17%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

34/711 (4.8%)

43/1042 (4.1%)

17/444 (3.8%)

5/81 (6%)

(a)Proveniences: IA-4-4 Ext. 104: IA010/IA011; IA-4-4 Ext. 301: IA012/IA013; IA-4-4 Ext. 302: IA014/IA015; IA-4-4 Ext. 404: IA016.

The Hearth: At the south of IA-4-4 a test unit of 7.4 m2 was excavated, and that area was expanded after a feature identified as a hearth was encountered in the test unit (fig. 3.7). The hearth measured 1.1 m in diameter, and included an ash lens and a modeled clay vessel support used to position vessels with pointed bases. A large assortment of artifacts appeared in and around the hearth, including animal bone, metal objects, and pottery. The faunal sample was large and diverse, including identified bones from deer, camelid, cow, pig, sheep/goat, guinea pig, chicken, and other unidentified bird species. Many of these bones were burnt and found in direct association with the hearth. Three spindle whorls found around the hearth suggest that spinning took place at the same time as cooking activities. The metal objects encountered consisted of iron nails and unidentified pieces of iron (fig. 3.8).

The pottery also shows a distinct Colonial influence, including several glazed fragments. Totaling 1667 sherds—of which 181 were coded as 106 feature identifications—the pottery sample is much denser than that from the building interior. This sample is dominated by narrow-mouth jars (58.6%, or 51/87), but includes a large sample of vessels commonly used in cooking: wide-mouth jars (n = 10), other jars (n = 3), small ollas (n = 2), pedestal ollas (n = 7), large ollas (n = 6), and vessel lids (n = 3). Eight of the identified vessels showed signs of exposure to fire. A limited group of serving vessels was identified, including a small pitcher, bowls (n = 2), and plates (n = 2). As with other proveniences discussed, this one has a high proportion of slipping (60.6%, or 1011/1667), and the narrow-mouth jars represent a particularly large component (86.3%, or 44/51). At least some of these may be associated with the Inka imperial use of the plaza, and there is a diversity of Inka imperial decorations, including HPPB (on a narrow-mouth jar), Red-on-White, and other designs (on a narrow-mouth jar, a bowl, and a lid). Most unslipped, undecorated narrow-mouth jars (6/7) come from the upper stratum, where Colonial glazed pottery was encountered.

Other Exterior Proveniences: The remaining exterior proveniences had more pottery than the building interior (855 fragments, including 63 fragments coded as 50 feature identifications). Pig and cow bone and iron nails were found in both strata. As with other proveniences in this part of the plaza, these contexts had a high proportion of narrow-mouth jars (54.5%, or 24/44) and a higher than expected percentage of slipped sherds (64.3%, or 550/855). Decorative motifs included HPPA (4 nonfeature sherds) and Red-on-White (11 sherds). Other identified vessels included jars and ollas associated with small-scale cooking (VTYPES 3, 5–9), as well as three different plate forms (VTYPES 17–19). A total of 8 jars and ollas exhibited evidence of burning, while one of the four plates identified was burnt. The assemblage appears to be consistent with small-scale cooking activity superimposed on the remains of large food service and consumption events.

Figure 3.7. South test-unit excavations from Building IA-4-4.

Figure 3.8. Iron nails from exterior test unit (scale = 5 cm).

Building IA-6-1

The IA-6 compound comprises nearly 20 rooms around a quadrangle, as well as some attached enclosures that may have been used as corral space (fig. 3.9). Unlike most of the Inka buildings at the site, several of the structures in this complex have multiple rooms, and excavations were made in two of these (IA-6-1 and IA-6-3, figs. 3.10–11). The formal differences in compound architecture between IA-4 and IA-6 are marked, the former consisting of a more typically Andean architectural plan, while the latter resembles barracks and is laid out with different kinds of buildings and open spaces.

An area of 26.7 m2 was excavated in the accessway of IA-6-1, a three-room rectangular structure consisting of a medium central room that gave access to two small square rooms. Based on room size and access, it is possible that the side rooms were used as dormitories—as has already been noted (Morris, 1980: 212), a consolidated, barracklike residence pattern would meet the requirements of Spaniards in the early Colonial period, many of whom were soldiers without families. Such a compound would also be consistent with descriptions of a modest Colonial way station for travelers along the old Inka road. Although the excavation data from this particular building do not help us in making the unambiguous identification of dormitories/barracks, the paucity of material suggests that other activities did not take place here.

Some of the small ceramic assemblage (n = 425 sherds) may be a remnant of the pre-Hispanic plaza occupation, and it has some interesting characteristics (see table 3.3). Of 15 identified vessels, 13 were narrow-mouth jars (87%), of which 12 were slipped. As a whole, the ceramic assemblage had a much higher slipping frequency than the site average (59.8%, or 254/425), and the excavated sample also had a somewhat higher proportion of mica-temper pottery (44.5%, or 189/425). Apart from narrow-mouth jars, the only other vessels identified from this building were a small pitcher and a plate. Three Huánuco Pampa Red-on-White sherds represent the only decorated pottery; none of the pottery found showed evidence of exposure to cooking fires.

The ceramic evidence suggests that this was not a location for food preparation, but that food and drink may have been consumed here. Although the discovery of small amounts of deer bone do not contradict this interpretation, the presence of a grinding slab and grinder—used in the primary stages of food production—is surprising, given the absence of other evidence for primary food-preparation activities. These objects appeared in the first stratum of the excavation, a level that yielded only a small proportion of the ceramic remains (14%, or 61/425).

Figure 3.9. Zone IA-6 compound (inset) within larger central plaza plan. Excavated areas are shaded.

Figure 3.10. Building IA-6-1 entryway. Unlike most Inka buildings, this structure has three rooms.

Table 3.3: Ceramic Data from IA-6-1, IA-6-3, IA-8-1, and IA-11-2

IA-6-1 Int.(a)

IA-6-3 Int.(a)

IA-8-1 Int.(a)

IA-11-2 Int.(a)

Jars

14/15 (93%)

47/65 (72%)

13/23 (57%)

11/16 (69%)

Ollas

0

18/65 (28%)

9/23 (39%)

4/16 (25%)

Bowls/plates

1/15 (7%)

0

1/23 (4%)

1/16 (%)

Slipping

13/18 (72%)

19/70 (27%)

10/26 (38%)

8/16 (50%)

Decoration

0

1/70 (1%)

0

0

Carbon/soot

0

5/70 (7%)

4/26 (15%)

3/16 (19%)

Grit-temper (NF)

144/390 (36.9%)

411/931 (44.1%)

336/636 (52.8%)

174/317 (54.9%)

Mica-temper (NF)

182/390 (46.7%)

333/931 (35.8%)

276/636 (43.4%)

135/317 (42.6%)

Carbon-temper (NF)

7/390 (1.8%)

139/931 (14.9%)

4/636 (0.6%)

4/317 (1.3%)

(a)Proveniences: IA-6-1 Int.: IA052/IA053/IA054; IA-6-3 Int.: IA050/IA051; IA-8-1 Int.: IA061/IA062; IA-11-2 Int.: IA060.

Building IA-6-3

Like IA-6-1, this structure was a three-room building, although exterior access was possible from the southern room rather than the central one. This building formed part of the eastern side of the IA-6 compound, but it does not appear to have doors opening onto the interior patio of the complex. Excavations of an area of 31 m2 were conducted within the central room. This room yielded evidence of small-scale cooking activity, including two hearths and associated ash lenses. One of the hearths appears to have been lined with stone slabs, indicating that it was not simply an ad hoc cooking location. Two grinding stones were also encountered, suggesting that a range of food preparation activities took place here (fig. 3.11). Animal bone was present, including identified fragments of deer, cow, camelid, and horse.

The ceramic assemblage also indicates a food preparation function for this room. The 1143 sherds excavated included 65 distinct vessel identifications, which included narrow-mouth jars (VTYPE 1 n = 35), small pitchers (VTYPE 2 n = 2), wide-mouth jars (VTYPE 3 n = 10), pedestal cooking ollas (VTYPE 7 n = 6), and large cooking ollas (VTYPE 8 n = 12). These identified vessels had a low incidence of slipping (29%, or 19/65), and some of the ollas and one wide-mouth jar had soot deposits on them. The only decoration observed in the feature sherd sample came from a narrow-mouth jar, decorated with HPPA designs. For the assemblage as a whole, 11 Inka decorated sherds were observed: 7 HPPA, 3 HPPB, and 1 Red-on-White. This was a somewhat lower proportion of decorated sherds than was seen for the site, and some of the paste categories were also markedly different than those seen in other buildings in the plaza. Mica-temper pastes were found in lower percentages than the plaza average (32.5%, or 372/1143; plaza average was 38.3%), while carbon-temper pastes were found in greater abundance (12.2%, or 139/1143; the plaza average was 4.9%).

Food preparation took place in this building during the Colonial occupation. The lack of serving vessels suggests that food was not eaten in this room, and the location of the doorway—opening out onto the plaza outside of the IA-6 compound may indicate that cooking was not done for the residents of the complex.

Figure 3.11. Building IA-6-3 grinding stone fragments.

Building IA-8-1

Located to the south of the IA-6 group, this single-room structure does not appear to have been part of a larger complex, and is not placed to conform to any urban grid layout that might have existed in Colonial times. It is small and of a poorly executed rectangular plan (fig. 3.12). A single transect of 17.8 m2 was excavated in the center of the building, an area that included the doorway. The artifact assemblage suggests that, like the preceding, this building was used for food preparation. No hearths were found, although the corners of the structure were not excavated. Animal bone (including deer, camelid, and cow) was encountered in the lower stratum, associated with carbonized maize.

Figure 3.12. Building IA-8-1 excavations.

The small sample of pottery from this building (677 sherds, including 86 sherds coded as 26 discrete feature identifications) included 23 vessel identifications, of which a small proportion were narrow-mouth jars (n = 9). Additional vessels identified included other jars associated with cooking (n = 5), pedestal cooking ollas (n = 4), large cooking ollas (n = 4), and a single plate (VTYPE 17). Although 13 fragments of HPPA were identified in the overall assemblage, these may have come from the same vessel. No other decorated pottery was present in the unit, but the proportion of slipped pottery was somewhat higher than expected (54%, or 365/677). Carbon-temper sherds (paste types 9 and 10) were almost absent from the assemblage, and grit-temper pastes were present in high proportions (61.9%, or 419/677; plaza average is 50.9%). Like other buildings identified with food preparation functions, this one lacked an assemblage of serving vessels. The diversity of faunal/botanical remains and small size of vessels suggests a small-scale food preparation activity.

Building IA-11-2

Excavations were conducted in a 20% interior transect (area 16.1 m2) in the northern part of this rectangular structure (fig. 3.13). The building is part of a three structure, seven-room group in the south-central plaza space, a compound whose north side is defined by a perimeter wall. While the other two buildings have the same barracklike room division described for other plaza structures, IA-11-2 is a single room structure. Excavations revealed a low stone support running against the east wall of the structure, possibly used as a bench for sitting or sleeping (fig. 3.14).

The artifact assemblage from this structure offers few conclusive clues about the function of this building. The lower stratum yielded a small ceramic sample (only 355 pottery fragments, of which 38 were coded as 16 feature identifications), as well as animal bone identified as deer, camelid, and possibly pig. One deer bone had been modified to make a weaving tool. The only other artifact encountered was an unidentified fragment of glass.

Ceramic vessel identifications include narrow-mouth jars (n = 7), wide-mouth jars (n = 4), pedestal cooking vessels (n = 4) and a single bowl (VTYPE 13). None of these was decorated, although five of the narrow-mouth jars and three of the pedestal cooking ollas were slipped. The small overall collection size explains the low paste and vessel diversity, as well as the low incidence of decoration (only three fragments of Red-on-White decoration were found, possible all from the same vessel). The high proportion of slipped pottery (66%, or 220/355) is interesting, particularly since several of the vessels identified as cooking types are slipped. Only three of the identified vessels displayed evidence of burning: a narrow-mouth jar, a wide-mouth jar, and a pedestal olla.

Figure 3.13. Zone IA-11 compound (inset) within larger central plaza plan. Excavated areas are shaded.

Figure 3.14. Building IA-11-2 excavations with interior bench.

SUMMARY OF THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION

Excavations in the central plaza reveal important evidence of an ephemeral Colonial occupation that continued after the failure of the short-lived Spanish settlement of Old Huánuco. Over time, individuals residing in and passing through the site brought European animals (cow, pig, horse), as well as small quantities of Colonial material culture, such as iron nails and glazed pottery. Most of these materials are unlikely to date to the first decade after the European invasion, a time when glazed pottery was not yet produced in Peru and European animals were kept to build herds and were considered too valuable to slaughter for meat. The Colonial settlement was established within the Inka central plaza, built by reusing construction materials from Inka buildings to lay out a rudimentary grid of compounds that were distinct from the existing architectural patterns at the site. Just as the stone for Colonial houses came from Inka buildings, Andean tools and ceramics were used to carry out daily activities, including food preparation that involved substantial amounts of maize and other local plant and animal products. Even though Inka storage jars were common in post-conquest contexts, the low incidence of Inka decorated pottery (a total of three feature sherds) suggests an avoidance of the imperial style in the selection of what would be reused at the site. The presence of spindle whorls and weaving tools indicates that European males were not the sole inhabitants of the early Colonial settlement.

CHAPTER 4: FORM AND FUNCTION OF INKA PALACE COMPLEXES

Palaces—the residences of rulers, important elites, and key administrators—have long been considered critical contexts for understanding the social dynamics of early states and empires (for example, see Evans and Pillsbury, 2004). The written records of many of these societies emphasize the political and private lives of the ruling dynasties, describing the palace as a backdrop for lavish feasts, momentous political decisions, and acts of both wisdom and folly that communicate the fitness of a ruling dynasty to posterity. In cases in which written records have not survived, archaeologists have found themselves drawn to the monumentality and splendor of ancient palaces, often with a correspondingly diminished pursuit of broader social themes.[38] An exclusive focus on palaces and royal tombs may lend itself to a biased view of a given society, but because of their roles in the operation of state societies, palaces stand out as valuable anthropological contexts.

The introduction of central governing institutions represents an organizational departure from prestate social arrangements, but the extent to which such institutions took hold and thrived over the long term depended strongly on the civil arrangement of existing social strata, kinship structures, and social identities. Military action might provide an external means of forging civic identity (by defining an external threat requiring civic unity), but the internal need to communicate, organize, and edit local identities into civic ones required specific places where the diverse groups comprising the state could come together and interact with state institutions. For the Inka empire, open plaza spaces in urban centers (described in the preceding chapters) represent one dimension of civic aggregation; palaces represent another, one that was more directly controlled by the ruling elite.[39]

A COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION OF EARLY PALACES

Palaces are structures or groups of structures built to meet a wide range of functions (Flannery, 1998; Morris, 2004) that can be viewed along a continuum between private function (residence) and public function (administration). Residential functions, broadly speaking, are those that confer upon the palace residents certain exclusivity and inaccessibility. The daily activities of the ruling elite are kept from the common gaze, and are perhaps accentuated through ritual or display. Some residential contexts emphasize elite recreation, with gardens, baths, or spaces providing physical seclusion. Religious rituals related to patron deities or kin-group rituals should be considered part of the residential activities that might take place in the palace. Conversely, administrative functions are those implying accessibility—the necessary encounters between rulers and those they govern. These may include military, economic, religious (state ritual), and political interactions, which occur in palace spaces as a means of bringing subjects into controlled encounters with the pomp and grandeur of the state or the ruling elite. From the perspective of midlevel elites or commoners, access to the mysteries of the palace would confer a prestige encouraging loyalty to (and dependence on) state institutions, as opposed to more local manifestations of status and authority that would tend to mute or stand in contradistinction to centralized power. A given state or empire might have several kinds of palaces to serve a broad range of residential and administrative functions.

The construction and occupation of palaces reveal important dynamics in the legitimization of ruling elites. In some states, the palace in the capital was not associated with a specific ruler, but rather with the office of the ruler, and its occupants could draw authority from a complex where the functions of state occurred. In other states, a ruler’s ability to lay out and construct a palace reinforced a temporal and supernatural governing legitimacy. Inka rulers pursued the latter strategy, with successful rulers establishing new palaces in and around the capital according to their personalities and tastes (e.g., Niles, 1999). These lineage-oriented constructions were part of a system of royal estates that supported a ruler’s descendants and to a certain extent reduced elite competition in the capital region. For the Inka as well as other empires, palaces functioned to resolve not only the chronological issue of dynastic legitimacy, but also to accentuate the geographical relationships between the capital region and provinces. In addition to serving as residences for the ruling elite, other kinds of palaces were necessary for provincial administration of large territories. Governors or client rulers required spaces in which to reside and administer, and depending on the relationship a state had with its provinces, these were constructed in different ways (e.g., Morris, 2004).

Palaces existed on several levels within archaic states and empires, resolving paradoxes in governmental structures. It is particularly important to consider how palaces buttressed state economic, ideological, and administrative institutions through the arrangement of encounters among ruling elites, lower-order elites, and commoners. The key to the functional success of a palace is how well its spaces balanced the simultaneous need to be both inclusive and exclusive and to provide access to the ruler (or state representatives) while creating a grandiose atmosphere that conveyed the power of the state. For the archaeologist, the study of early palaces should consider (1) layout and accessibility, (2) construction techniques, and (3) elite associations of a private and public nature. The Inka case allows such considerations to proceed in both the documentary and material records.

QUECHUA DEFINITIONS OF THE INKA PALACE: FORM AND FUNCTION

As with the discussion of Inka urbanism, important material clues can be gleaned from the systematic review of early eyewitness accounts of Inka palaces, as well as the architectural vocabularies found in Colonial Quechua dictionaries. Although eyewitness descriptions of Inka palaces are rare for the conquest period, the language used by Spanish and Quechua speakers to describe Inka architecture permits us to move toward an Inka-centered definition of palace construction, layout, and use. Chronicles from the late 16th and early 17th centuries describe layout patterns and name particular structures comprising palace complexes; although these are not based on the direct of the experience of the writer, they contain valuable details that to a certain extent can be substantiated with eyewitness accounts and dictionary entries. Taken together, these disparate lines of evidence suggest that Quechua speakers thought of Inka palaces as special architectural compounds consisting of coordinated open spaces and finely built architecture. These compounds controlled access between administrative and residential spaces that were linked to the elites associated with their construction.

Special-Purpose Architecture

Early dictionaries contain a limited range of vocabulary for architectural form and function, naming buildings used for refuge or defense (pukara or q’ispina), imperial travel (tampu), storage (qollqa), and religious ritual (wak’a) (for overviews of Inka architecture and site planning, see Gasparini and Margolies, 1980; Hyslop, 1990; Protzen, 1993). Beyond these special functions, a basic structural term—wasi, which is generally glossed as “house” (e.g., Cobo, 1964 [1653]: book 14, chap. 3)—encompasses residential and administrative functions alike. Terms related to the wasi suggest that it was conceived of as a one-story, single-room rectangular structure, built of stone and with a thatch roof.[40] The Colonial dictionaries reveal categories of special architecture in which the word wasi is combined with other terms to reflect distinct attributes in a building’s size, status, or function (e.g., aqllawasi, qhapaqwasi, sunturwasi).[41] Multiple wasi units could be arranged around a patio or corral space to create larger complexes comprising architecture and open space.

The early dictionaries list the terms sapay qhapaqpa wasin and qhapaqwasi (king’s house) for “royal palace” (González Holguín, 1989 [1608]: 613; Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 181), and descriptions of these link them closely to special purpose architecture. Inka palaces consisted of clusters of individual structures, accessways, and open spaces—complexes with special residential and administrative functions not seen in the houses of common folk (see Cobo, 1964 [1653]: book 14, chaps. 3, 12). Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980 [1615]: f. 330) illustrates this in an early 17th-century description of the Inka palace:

The court and royal palaces and houses of the Inka called Cuyos Mango, Quinco Uaci, Muyo Uaci, Carpa Uaci, Suntor Uaci, Moyo Uaci, Uauya Condo Uaci, Marca Uaci, Punona Uaci, Churacona Uaci, Aca Uaci, Masana Uaci, Camachicona Uaci, Uaccha Uaci: the powerful lords and authorities and children of the Inka all had their own....[42]

Guaman Poma de Ayala’s drawing of the palace shows a U-shaped building (quenco uaci), a round structure (suntur uaci), a building with beamed ceiling (carpa uaci), and an open-ended structure labeled cuyus mango, which has a guard in it (fig. 4.1). The multiplicity of special-purpose buildings mentioned by Guaman Poma de Ayala includes structures for sleeping, preparing maize beer, storing and preparing food, and governing.[43] The camachicona uaci mentioned may refer to special spaces for palace officials, royal advisors, or local administrators.

Figure 4.1. Drawing of the Inka palace (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1980 [1615], f. 330). Although this author never saw a functioning Inka palace, his description of the architectural diversity of the complex echoes that of earlier writers.

Open Spaces

The creation of building clusters involved the delimitation of open spaces linked to the distinct functions of the arranged structures. As Cobo (1964 [1653]: book 14, chap. 3) suggests, large open spaces, specialized buildings, fancy masonry, and painted plaster were the prerogatives of palatial residences: “the main houses of the caciques (native lords) usually had the walls painted with various colors and figures (all of them crude and without skill). . .only the houses of the caciques had large patios—where the townspeople gathered to drink during their festivals and celebrations—and more rooms.”[44] Eyewitness accounts of Inka palaces mention patio spaces of different degrees of size, accessibility, and function (e.g., Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [1545]: 419; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 103, 117–118).

Given the importance of open space in Inka social life, the Quechua vocabulary for different kinds of space should be examined in detail. For example, the word kancha connotes open space delimited by buildings, perhaps to distinguish it from more accessible open spaces (e.g., pata, pampa). The dictionaries of both Santo Tomás and González Holguín define the kancha as an enclosed space like the patio of a house, whereas Garcilaso de la Vega (1965 [1609]: book 8, chap. 9) gives the definition of “ward, suburb, or large enclosure.” Numerous Inka palaces mentioned in the chronicles (e.g., Hatunkancha, Mullukancha, Amarukancha) possessed a kancha name, implying an importance deriving from ordered building compounds laid out around restricted open spaces. This may be true for certain temples—for example, Cobo’s description of the Qorikancha temple complex in Cusco (1964 [1653]: book 13, chap. 12) reveals a similar form: an enclosure of approximately 25,000 m2 delimited by a stone wall, and consisting of numerous buildings, the most important of which were placed around a central patio (cf. Cobo, 1964 [1653]: book 14, chap. 12; see Bauer, 2004, for a recent description of the palace and temple complexes of Inka Cusco).

Conversely, pampa is used to describe an open or common space. The early dictionaries define it as similar to the Spanish word plaza, and Santo Tomás (1951 [1560]: 335) adds that it is a “place where there are no houses.”[45] González Holguín includes an entry for Maucaypata (Haucaypata), defining the central plaza of Cusco as a “plaza for eating, and drinking and rest, or merrymaking.”[46] Compared to pampa, the word pata is associated with a more restricted space—used to refer to a terrace, step, or bench attached to a building (e.g., González Holguín, 1989 [1608]: “Poyo, grada, anden, y relex de edificio”).

Construction Materials and Techniques

The vocabulary for architecture and construction materials in the early Colonial dictionaries indicates that wasi structures were built of a range of materials, including mud brick, fieldstones, cut stone masonry, and high quality stone.[47] The verb for construction (pirqay) is linked to the cutting of stone, and is modified (e.g., pircatica, a brick wall) for use with other building materials, suggesting that cut stone was the ideal construction material in the minds of early Colonial informants.

Eyewitness accounts of Andean palaces indicate that building walls were built of superior materials—of poured mud on the coast and cut-stone masonry in the highlands (e.g., Pizarro, 1968 [1533]: 126–127; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 103)—and that doorways in particular were made of exotic stone and were decorated and adorned with rare materials. Pedro Sancho de la Hoz (1968 [1534]: chap. 17) notes that the Inka palaces in Cusco were painted and made of finely cut masonry, while the gateway of the palace of Huayna Capac in Cusco was built of multicolored stone (see also Enríquez de Guzmán, 1886 [1543]; Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [1545]: 419; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 118). Other writers state that doorways and certain palace structures were covered with gold and silver plates (e.g., Estete, 1968 [c. 1535]: 390; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 85).

Lavish construction materials and special forms were employed in Inka palace architecture, but open spaces were also laid out in a manner distinct from what would be seen in commoner households. Several eyewitnesses attest to the presence of gardens in the residential patios of Inka palaces (as well as some temples) (e.g., Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [1545]: 419, 421; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 104, 118), and many of these had fountains or basins of water brought in by means of a system of covered canals (often referred to as pipes) (Estete, 1968 [c. 1535]: 371; Ruiz de Arce, 1968 [1545]: 419, 421; Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 117).[48] Canals, fountains, baths, reflecting pools, and other hydraulic features have been identified at Inka country palaces as well (e.g., Niles, 1999).

Elite Associations and Access

Another important characteristic of the Inka palace was its association with elites. Palaces were for the residence of the Inka ruler, as well as other important men and women in the empire, including nobles and imperial administrators. Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980 [1615]: f. 328) notes that palaces were for “the Inkas and the principal lords of those lands. . . and of the nobles or children of the Inkas, the local governors, the managers; and of the ladies—queens, noblewomen, princesses—and the wives of kings and lords throughout the realm.”[49] The functions of a particular palace would require a particular combination of administrative and residential facilities, which were managed by extending or restricting access to the different parts of the complex.

Colonial writers mention more than one kind of building cluster and enclosed space in Inka palaces, suggesting that they were designed to provide varying degrees of access to residents, servants, imperial administrators, and visitors. The most detailed eyewitness account of an Inka palace is that of Juan Ruiz de Arce (1968 [1545]: 419), who describes an enclosed residential compound in the coastal town of Túmbes, one of the first Andean communities encountered by the Pizarro expedition in 1532:

In this town was a fortified house, built with the most lovely skill that has been seen. It had five doorways before one would arrive at the lodgings. From one doorway to the next it was more than one hundred paces. It had many enclosures, all made of earth, built by hand. It had many lodgings, with many paintings. In the middle was a good-sized plaza; beyond this were other lodgings, which had a patio. In the middle of this patio was a garden, and next to the garden was a fountain. The natives said that the person who built the house was called [Huayna Capac], and they said that he was lord of all that land, and he ordered that they build that house….[50]

This description of multiple kancha clusters—with a more accessible group of buildings surrounding a plaza space and a smaller group surrounding a patio with more residential functions—can be compared to the more detailed early 17th-century source of Martín de Murúa, who describes a palace in Cusco that probably also belonged to Huayna Capac (see Morris, 2004, 2008). Although we do not know the source of Murúa’s account (he wrote long after the Inka palaces of Cusco had been converted to Colonial house plots) his descriptions of the palace guards and the access of people into various parts of the palace provide us with an opportunity to interpret some aspects of the spatial hierarchy of the palace complex.

As with Ruiz de Arce, Murúa describes the palace as a complex of buildings laid out in groups delimiting open spaces of differing function and degrees of access. Movement in the palace from administrative to residential spaces was highly restricted and controlled through guarded gateways. According to Murúa (2001 [c. 1590]: book 2, chap. 2),

The Royal Palace … had two magnificent doorways, one at its entrance and the other farther in … and their construction was of famous and well-worked masonry.… At the first entry … was a native guard of 2000 with its captain … who were [brought to Cuzco] from the hosts of the Cañaris and Chachapoyas. These soldiers were privileged and exempt from personal service; the captains who commanded them were native lords of great authority, and when the Inka went [on campaign in the highlands], they went together with his person.… This first doorway … was followed by a plaza, into which those who accompanied the Inka from outside entered, and they stopped there. And the great Inka with the four lords of his council continued in, passing through the second doorway, at which there was another guard, this one of Cuzco natives [who were] lords and relatives and descendants of the Inka, whom he trusted; and they were the ones who had the charge of raising and teaching the sons of governors and lords from throughout the Kingdom, who went as boys to serve the Inka and to assist him at court. Next to this second doorway was the Inka’s armory, where there was all manner of weaponry that they used … all placed in order. At this second doorway there were 100 of the best-trained and most battle-hardened captains.… Beyond this door was another great plaza or patio for palace officials and those who had regular duties in the palace, and they were there awaiting their orders according to their offices. After this, [the Inka and his lords] entered the halls and rooms and lodgings, where the Inka lived, and this [place] was full of delight and contentment, because it had stands of trees, and gardens with a thousand kinds of birds that went about singing; and there were lions and tigers and pumas and all manner of wild animals that were found throughout this kingdom. The lodgings were grand and spacious, constructed with remarkable skill … the walls were … rich and adorned with much gold and markings depicting the feats of their ancestors, and the transoms and windows were embellished with gold and silver and other precious stones.…[51]

This description not only concords with many of the preceding observations regarding the special architectural forms, spatial arrangements, and functions of the palace complex, but it also indicates how ethnicity and status determined access to the administrative, religious, and social events occurring in the main plaza, the palace plaza, and residential patio areas. Murúa demonstrates how the Inka palace balanced administrative and residential functions, using control over access to monitor the inclusivity and exclusivity of spaces and buildings.

In summary, the special architecture, open spaces, building materials, and elite associations and access patterns can be used to advance a Quechua definition for an Inka palace: a well-constructed complex of buildings housing elites that included permanent habitation areas, special-purpose structures and administrative spaces, as well as multiple enclosed spaces for use in administrative and ritual activities, and for private domestic activities and personal enjoyment. Such distinctions provide a suite of material markers for identifying Inka palaces within a considerable range of functions and forms seen across the empire.

VARIATIONS IN FUNCTION AND FORM OF INKA PALACES

Palaces found near the Inka capital and in provincial regions fulfilled different administrative and residential functions that influenced their spatial layouts and structural compositions. These can be seen through the brief description of (1) royal palaces in Cusco, (2) the country palace of Huayna Capac at Quispeguanca, and (3) an Inka complex at La Centinela in the Chincha Valley. These palaces reveal some important variations and commonalities with an intensively excavated compound at Huánuco Pampa that has been identified as the site’s administrative palace.

Inka Elite Residential Palaces

The royal palaces of Cusco provided some limited access on certain occasions, but this was extremely restricted. The chronicles mention that while activities relating to the capital brought the sapa inka out from his palace to preside over events in the central Haucaypata plaza, other administrative activities—war councils, political discussions, funeral rites, reception of military prisoners—occurred in palaces, as subordinates were brought into the presence of the ruler. The urban palaces of Cusco were associated with specific rulers, and eyewitnesses to the conquest marveled at their elaborate decoration and the size of the buildings (e.g., Sancho de la Hoz, 1968 [1534], P. Pizarro, 1986 [1571]). Unfortunately, complete plans and good archaeological data are not available for these palaces.

Urban palaces in Cusco, while rather restricted, were probably designed to fulfill more administrative functions than the private estates of royal Inka lineages, found throughout the Cusco region and in other parts of the empire. Some rural palace complexes in the Cusco Valley and the neighboring Sacred Valley (e.g., Tipón, Pisaq; see fig. 4.2) lack large, open public spaces, indicating that personal enjoyment—for example, hunting grounds, baths, gardens, fountains—was the primary function (see Covey, 2006, on the possible political significance of such facilities). Instead of enclosed patio groups, other country palaces (e.g., Juchuy Ccoscco, Chinchero) possess open spaces for public events, which are associated with great halls built on platforms (fig. 4.3).

Figure 4.2. Remains of the estate of Pachacutic Inca Yupanqui at Pisaq. The site includes fine masonry, religious structures, and ornamental terracing. The founding ruler’s descendants still lived at the site in the early Colonial period (negative no. 334762, courtesy Library Services, American Museum of Natural History).

Figure 4.3. The country estate of Viracocha Inca at Juchuy Ccoscco. The open space at the center lies below a large kallanka hall that could be used to review activities. A residential complex is in the upper right of the photograph (negative no. 334770, courtesy Library Services, American Museum of Natural History).

Colonial documents from Huayna Capac’s estate at Yucay suggest that the royal estate was constructed and maintained by a special class of people working primarily for the recreation of the ruler. For example, one witness (ADC, Colección Betancur, vol. 7, f. 96v.–97r.) testified:

This Yucay Valley was called the house of the Inka, and all the labor colonists and local residents that were in it served that Inka and his children and women and relatives, and they maintained the fields that they had for them, and served them as retainers and production specialists….[52]

Other witnesses emphasize that this estate was constructed for recreation and rest, and that the specialized architecture included houses, stone buildings, terraces, and fountains (fig. 4.4).[53] Recent work by Niles (1999) and others (Farrington, 1984, 1985; Heffernan, 1995; Valencia, 1982) has shown that the Yucay estate included a restricted palace complex, as well as several other buildings constructed throughout the valley (for the regional settlement context, see Covey et al., 2008). While buildings and open spaces in the complex would allow for feasts or the reception of visitors, the Colonial documents pertaining to the estate identify a worker population including many yanakuna (retainers), mitmaqkuna (labor colonists), and kamayuqkuna (production specialists), suggesting a distinct constituency for the estate (Covey and Amado, 2008; Covey and Elson, 2007).

Figure 4.4. Remains of Huayna Capac’s estate, which included elaborate terraces at Yucay (foreground) and a palace at Quispeguanca (background).

Country palaces are mentioned in the chronicles as places where Inka rulers went to rest, but they also served a practical purpose linked to the palaces in Cusco, in that they were associated with important productive resources, including camelid herds, lowland coca plots, and agricultural land used for intensive production. In addition to cultivating maize, chiles, and other vegetables for domestic use (Covey and Amado 2008[1574]: f. 165), the yanakuna and mitmaqkuna of the valley were responsible for working coca plantations on the Amazonian slope, as well as for craft production. Products of the estate provided the basis for elite feasts at country palaces, as well as more public displays of royal generosity in the city of Cusco.

In looking at the system of palaces in Cusco, it is possible to see how such complexes in the imperial heartland would necessarily have more exclusive or distinguished functions. Still, considering the administrative and residential aspects of these palaces, it is possible to see their transformation and extrapolation in the Inka provinces. Administrative functions of provincial palaces focused on local government and the management of large-scale farming, herding, and craft production; and variations in residential function (based on the political relationship between Inka and local elites) would result in a variety of palace forms.

Inka Administration and Local Palaces

In places where local elites were left in positions of authority, Inka administrators needed to establish a parallel with local rulers, and the construction of Inka buildings had to fit into existing urban contexts (see Morris, 1998; Morris and Santillana, 2007). From the ethnohistory and archaeology at La Centinela in the Chincha Valley, for example, we see that architectural development had to account for an indirect Inka administrative presence, consisting of the residence of Inka officials who could inspect the region periodically; as well as the side-by-side existence of two religions, represented by the imperial Sun/aqllawasi complex, and the cult of Chincha Kamaq, the creator of the local people. Preliminary results of archaeological studies in Chincha (Morris, 1988, 2004; Morris and Covey, 2006) indicate that the Inka compound at La Centinela was built simultaneously to stand apart from Chincha architecture (through the use of trapezoidal niches and doorways), while still being integrated into the system of Chincha elite administrative compounds (fig. 4.5). Although an in-depth analysis of the Chincha case is beyond the scope of this publication, some of the distinctions between Chincha and other Inka provincial areas become clear when compared with Huánuco Pampa. As has been noted elsewhere (Morris, 2004), the Chincha example is consistent with Inka palace construction in highly populated coastal valleys—kingdoms that acquiesced to Inka rule saw parallel administrative palaces established, while those that resisted experienced a more comprehensive administrative overhaul (see Santillán, 1927 [1563]: 14–15).

Figure 4.5. Plan of La Centinela, capital of the Chincha polity. The Inkas established a palace complex in the site center, next to an important shrine and the palace of the local ruler (Negative no. 334732, Courtesy Dept. of Library Services, American Museum of Natural History).

Inka Palaces in Highland Provinces

Areas where the Inka rule was superimposed above existing governmental hierarchies contrast with cases where imperial infrastructure had to be developed in the absence of local precedents. The Huánuco region represents the latter, as the many pre-Inka ethnic groups of the area were not organized into a centralized polity at the time of the Inka conquest. The imposition of Inka order required the rearrangement and extrapolation of political authority, including some resettlement practices. Construction of a new Inka city along the highland imperial highway permitted the layout of facilities needed to support the road system and the functions of provincial government (see Morris, 1972). Administrative palaces at highland centers would have played several important roles, including housing Inka governors and other key officials, accommodating the ruler or his close relatives during royal visits, and providing spaces for bringing together commoners with local elites, and local elites with imperial nobles and administrators.

At Huánuco Pampa, the Zone IIB compound is an excellent candidate for the provincial administrative palace at the site, given the suite of characteristics laid out in this chapter. Because this complex was well preserved and extensively excavated, it is possible to use architectural layout and material remains to address the orchestration of access within the complex, as well as the particular balance between administrative and residential functions seen there.

CHAPTER 5: AN ADMINISTRATIVE PALACE AT HUÁNUCO PAMPA

European travelers provide a number of descriptions of a palace at Huánuco Pampa. Pedro de Cieza de León offers the first description of the palace at Huánuco Pampa, writing in 1553 (1985: chap. 80):

In the place that they call Guánuco there was a royal house of admirable construction: because the stones were large and very cleanly joined. This palace or lodging was the head of the provinces bordering on the Andes … and the local people supported this palace with their service.[54]

Although it is likely that Cieza de León never visited this palace, the Carmelite priest Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa (1969 [c. 1600]: f. 1361) provides a more detailed description of the complex based on a visit made roughly 50 years later, stating that:

there were great buildings of very fine masonry, Royal houses for the recreation of the Inka kings … and at the beginning two great dormitories or rooms with many doorways—large enough inside for racing horses—that would be where the native leaders and lords arriving on royal business were lodged. At present they serve as corrals for cattle. Through these two great halls one enters an enclosed square plaza. Across from these two doors were, and still are, another two with finely worked masonry bearing the arms of the Kings, and above them a finely wrought flagstone as the arch of the doorways, more than three varas [about 2.5 m] long; the doorways lined up, about ten feet [about 3 m] apart, and through them is another closed plaza, well laid-out with another two doors placed one in front of the other; then another plaza of the same style as those described with another two doors on the opposite side of the same masonry, and from outside, all the doorways are seen, and within are many lodgings and private rooms—all of fine masonry—and some baths. Without a doubt, this was where the King lived.…[55]

Other travelers produced sketches and descriptions of the palace, remarking on its fine masonry, special buildings, and controlled access pattern (e.g., Enock, 1905, 1907; Rivero and Tschudi, 1853; Sobreviela and Sierra, 1786; Squier, 1877; figs. 5.1–2). Two important observations can be made on the basis of these early descriptions: first, that this complex met both administrative and elite residential functions; and second, that it consisted of a series of nested open spaces into which access was tightly controlled.

Figure 5.1. One of two long halls (kallankas) flanking the Zone IIB compound entrance.

Figure 5.2. Sketch of Huánuco Pampa palace gateway from Rivero and Tschudi, 1853: 276 (also published in Squier, 1853). The animal figures echo Vázquez de Espinosa’s account of royal insignias on palace gates.

IDENTIFYING THE PALACE COMPLEX AT HUÁNUCO PAMPA

Early European travelers visiting Huánuco Pampa consistently identified the Zone IIB compound as an Inka palace, but the received wisdom should be put to the test of what has been discussed regarding the architectural characteristics of Inka palaces. The palace complex at Huánuco Pampa should be identifiable based on layout and construction characteristics that distinguish it from other residential and administrative architecture. It should be a large, enclosed compound located on or near the central plaza and characterized by tightly controlled access. It should have structural elements (buildings, gateways) built of high-quality materials and special architectural features. The interior architecture should consist of single-room structures of diverse forms laid out around a series of open spaces. Fountains and landscaping in the least accessible part of the complex would be consistent with documentary descriptions of Inka palaces.

Looking at the plan of Huánuco Pampa, only two compounds (VB5 and IIB) located on or near the central plaza meet the criteria for scale and control of access (fig. 5.3). Of these, the VB5 compound is characterized by architectural uniformity, lacks multiple open spaces, and does not have the special architectural features expected for a palace. The other compound, IIB, possesses all of the characteristics mentioned in ethnohistoric accounts. The compound is walled, and entry is gained through a single trapezoidal gateway with a massive stone lintel (although there are a few back entrances that access the private parts of the complex). The compound has multiple open spaces of diminishing size that are reached through other gateways and restricted accessways (fig. 5.4). As illustrated in figure 5.5, a limited number of gateways or other control points provide access to clusters structures delimiting plaza or patio spaces. Building forms vary considerably in the compound, with very fine masonry employed in gateway construction and the small buildings located in the innermost part of the complex (fig. 5.6). This area also contains the remains of a canal and fountain or bath (fig. 5.7). In addition to controlled-access patterns, multiple open spaces, use of high-quality construction materials, and presence of fountain or bath facilities, the IIB compound contains a wide range of architectural forms. Interior area of buildings varies considerably, with several size tiers suggesting a multiplicity of functions (fig. 5.8). Most structures are of modest size (<50 m2), suggesting functions involving limited numbers of people. In addition to these, there are several structures of medium size (100–200 m2), as well as about 10 buildings larger than 200 m2. All of the largest buildings are laid out around larger plaza or patio spaces.

While variations in building area suggest some functional variation in the architectural forms of Zone IIB, building dimensions illustrate both the central planning of the compound, as well as the spatial clustering of different building forms. Figures 5.9 and 5.10 illustrate the considerable variation in building dimensions at the subcompound level. IIB-1 has too small a sample to be considered alone, but its buildings do not appear to cluster, as seen in the other groups. IIB-2 has a strong relationship between length and width (meaning that dimensions are more or less standard), but two distinct clusters of areas: a group of large plaza buildings, and another group of smaller ones with areas generally less than 50 m2. This kind of building constitutes nearly all structures in IIB-4, although there appear to be two distinct modal widths (these represent buildings that have two rooms, each under 50 m2). Finally, IIB-3 has a much less standard dimensionality, and except for the group of large plaza buildings, this group does not seem to cluster at all.

Based on these observations, the administrative focus of the IIB compound would be expected to be found concentrated in two groups of large public buildings (IIB-2a and IIB-3a), the larger of which is in the more accessible part of the palace. The areas and dimensions of these buildings vary quite a bit, and this may connote differences in public or administrative function. By comparison, there is a kind of smaller building with more or less regular dimensions, found in two areas that may correspond to visitors’ quarters and elite dormitories. Finally, in parts of IIB-1 and IIB-3, there is considerable variation in the building size and the ratio of length to width, suggesting that a broad range of functions were met by in distinct architectural forms (particularly in IIB-1b and IIB-3b).

Figure 5.3. VB5 compound and IIB compound compared. The latter compound exhibits the construction qualities and access patterns expected of an Inka palace.

Figure 5.4. Gateway in the IIB compound. Finely made gateways controlled access between a series of plaza and patio groups.

Figure 5.5. Access pattern for IIB compound. The overall flow through the spaces of the compound is controlled at a small number of key gates and doorways.

Figure 5.6. High-quality cut-stone masonry in the most restricted part of the IIB compound.

Figure 5.7. Inka bath or fountain in the most restricted part of the IIB compound.

Figure 5.8. Building areas in the IIB compound. Differences in building area suggest functional variations in the buildings in the compound. Most buildings are smaller than 50 m2, but there are 9 buildings in the 100-200 m2 range, and 10 buildings ranging from 200-450 m2.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CORRELATES FOR STUDYING AN INKA PALACE

Overall, the IIB complex at Huánuco Pampa possesses many of the architectural characteristics that early Colonial writers observed in Inka palaces. The ethnohistoric record can also be used to develop some archaeological correlates for analysis of the excavation data from the IIB palace complex at Huánuco Pampa. It is important to note from the outset that many of the buildings in the palace would have been used for multiple functions and that in some cases the archaeological evidence does not point to any single functional category.

Murúa’s palace description discusses a gradation between administrative and residential functions, with public buildings found laid out around plaza spaces of greater accessibility. The plaza and patio groups in the IIB complex are architecturally consistent with his account, and excavation evidence from these areas should show gradations in artifact assemblage that indicate status and connections to imperial style. Murúa also describes restricted residential areas, which should be found in areas with more limited access than the plaza spaces.

Guaman Poma de Ayala’s description of the Inka palace includes 14 different building names, many of which are mentioned in early dictionaries or other chronicles. His list of structures identifies specific functions (administrative and residential), but does not locate them in any particular part of the Inka palace. The IIB complex contains a wide range of architectural forms, which may have some correlates with those noted by Guaman Poma de Ayala. In the case of functional variability, it is worth considering some of these building uses and the kinds of archaeological signatures that might be found.

Administrative Buildings

While open spaces of Inka palaces were used for some administrative functions, at least two buildings suggest that there were special structures for governmental activities. Guaman Poma de Ayala mentions the cuyos mango and the camachicona uaci as belonging to the Inka palace, and González Holguín describes the former as “the council house or courthouse, of three walls with one open,” and the latter as the house of the council or municipal council,” respectively.[56] These buildings would serve as the spaces where the ruler or administrator would receive visitors and preside over council meetings. References to the administrative power of the provincial decimal hierarchy (Morris and Covey, 2006; see Ortiz de Zúñiga, 1967 [1562]: 45, 54) suggest that the punishment of serious crimes beyond local authorities, and carried out during annual visits by an Inka governor or inspector (tukuyrikuq). A palace space such as this one may have been the location for meting out punishments for serious crimes or those involving local elite leaders.

The archaeological identification of administrative buildings at Huánuco Pampa is difficult, given that council meetings would not necessarily be distinguished by any particular artifacts. However, the tentative identification of possible administrative spaces may be made through the absence of evidence for craft or domestic activities, as well as the presence of distinguishing architecture (fig. 5.11). While some food consumption might have accompanied council meetings or judicial proceedings, it should be distinguishable from areas with extensive evidence for food preparation and service.

Figure 5.9. Distribution of building dimensions in Zone IIB-1/2.

Figure 5.10. Distribution of building dimensions in Zone IIB-3/4.

Figure 5.11. Possible cuyus mango or marca uaci in the IIB compound.

Buildings for the Preparation, Storage, and Consumption of Food

This category comprises several food-related functions, including the drying or preservation of foodstuffs (masanawasi), food storage and dispensation (churakunawasi or wakchawasi), and the preparation of maize beer (aqha) for state festivals (aqhawasi). Food storage would probably be found in the residential part of a palace, and if the architecture and artifact assemblage were compatible with other provincial storage facilities, one would expect to find small rectangular or circular structures containing high percentages of undecorated jars. Given the presence nearby of a large zone of specialized storage structures, large-scale food preservation and storage facilities may not have been necessary within the palace at Huánuco Pampa (see Morris, 1967; Morris and Thompson, 1985: 97–108). In addition, as will be discussed, it seems that some of the brewing and food preparation for public feasts was done outside the palace area. As Cobo (1964 [1653]: book 15, chap. 5) describes, locals brought their own food and vessels to these events, and this would have added to imperial food and drink prepared in the palace or brought from elsewhere.

In addition to food storage and distribution, areas for cooking and food service are not specified in Guaman Poma de Ayala’s building list, but certainly are evident in the palatial complex at Huánuco Pampa. For this analysis, the distinction will be made in the intensity and relative status of cooking activities, as well as the identification of possible contexts related to brewing. The association of areas for reheating or serving food may be distinguishable at times, by the prevalence of decorated sherds and abundance of plates, bowls, drinking vessels, and serving containers.

Basic cooking is indicated by the presence of maize and potato remains and the prevalence of small vessels for cooking these foods (e.g., small ollas [VTYPE 6], pedestal cooking ollas [VTYPE 7], and perforated maize-toasting ceramics). In addition, we would expect to see elevated frequencies of burnt sherds, and perhaps a lower incidence of slipped or decorated ceramics.

In contrast to simple cooking, large-scale cooking involves preparation of maize and tuber foods, supplemented by the prevalence of animal remains (especially wild game like deer) indicative of meat consumption, a central element in important state-sponsored events (Cobo, 1964 [1653]: book 14, chap. 5). These areas would be expected to have higher amounts of burnt camelid and cervid bone, as well as larger cooking vessels. Buildings used for elite cooking could also be used for small-scale cooking.

Finally, brewing areas would be distinguished by a suite of archaeological indicators, identified by Hastorf and Johannessen (1993; see also Cobo, 1964 [1653]: book 14, chap. 4). This includes the prevalence of maize, grinding slabs and grinding stones for preparing maize for fermentation, wide-mouth jars for fermentation, large jars for storage, as well as identifiable places for vessel storage.

Buildings for Sleep, Domestic Activities, or Other Functions

Finally, buildings used for sleeping (puñunawasi) or other domestic or craft activities were a part of the palatial complex. In a few cases, sleeping areas may be distinguishable by the presence of sleeping platforms, thick plastered walls, and interior niches (fig. 5.12). These would be expected to be smaller, and lack evidence of heavy use in preparing food or carrying out other activities. Because these might be kept cleaner than large cooking or serving areas, in looking for dormitory areas in the palace, it is a relative scarcity of artifacts that may indicate some sleeping areas. However, it is possible that such buildings could have other functions (e.g., storage areas looted in Colonial times). Because parts of the palace were heavily reoccupied or looted, it is impossible to distinguish many of the other special function buildings, particularly in the elite residential part of the palace (Zone IIB-4).

Turning from the architectonic and historic consideration of building function, we can now consider the results from excavations. The following four chapters will present building-by-building discussions of excavations in each of the four principal subcompounds, and the final chapter will return to the issues of function and access in the complex.

Figure 5.12. Possible sleeping rooms in domestic zone of IIB compound. Because of reoccupation and looting, it is not possible to verify many buildings that had special functions.

EXCAVATIONS IN THE ZONE IIB PALACE COMPLEX

The data obtained from three seasons of excavation in the palace complex (Zone IIB) at Huánuco Pampa substantiate many of the conclusions of the architectural observations recorded prior to excavation (fig. 5.13). Between 1971 and 1974, excavation crews sampled 30 of the more than 60 structures comprising the palace, a total of some 210 proveniences from inside buildings and in doorways and plazas. The artifact assemblage from the palace was large, including several metric tons of ceramic fragments (more than 180,000 sherds); hundreds of stone tools, metal objects, and spindle whorls; and numerous samples of soil and charred faunal and botanical remains. The collections were analyzed and coded primarily during a yearlong laboratory season (1979–1980). While many proveniences were fully analyzed for paste and temper and vessel type, the overwhelming number of artifacts in some proveniences (more than 10,000 sherds in some cases) favored a sampling strategy. In total, the preliminary analysis included more than 80,000 sherds. In addition, more than 6000 feature sherds were coded for characteristics including paste, temper, slipping, decoration, vessel type, presence/absence of burning or soot deposits, and size.

The database developed from the archaeological study of the Zone IIB compound permits not only the contextualization of the architectural study, but also progress toward identifying patterns of access and activity for comparison with the ethnohistoric descriptions of Inka palaces.

Figure 5.13. Huánuco Pampa IIB compound plan, showing subcompound areas. Excavations were conducted between 1971 and 1974.

[1] Spaniards writing about Andean cities viewed them through a particular lens. Some would have had only passing experience with the larger cities of Europe, while others drew clear comparisons between Spanish and Inka cities. Spanish eyewitnesses often encountered Inka political institutions via a Caribbean model, while viewing some native religious institutions through a Moorish one (Covey, 2007). These writers passed through regions that had been ravaged by disease and civil war, and they certainly failed to observe elements of Andean urbanism that would have been obvious to natives.

[2] As Teofilo Ruiz notes (2001: 54–65), urban patterns in early 16th-century Spain were also quite variable, with only a few cities (e.g., Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo) having populations comparable with the Inka capital at the time of the Pizarro expedition. Many of the centers of central and southern Spain had wards of peasants or agrarian day laborers, making the transition from urban to rural areas less distinct.

[3] Estete (in Xérez, 1985 [1534]: 144) suggests that the periodic congregation of provincial people at Inka centers like Xauxa involved exchanges in the plaza and surrounding streets, which was overseen by state officials. He specifically mentions officials managing labor service and the movement of people, as well as others who monitored the flow of goods and worked to provision the passing Inka army.

[4] This represents a break from the utopian coexistence of Spaniards and natives ordained in the 1512 Laws of Burgos. By the time of the Toledan reforms of the 1570s, administrative policy focused on two theoretically distinct commonwealths—the republica de españoles and the republica de indios. A set of standards for new Spanish communities was articulated in 1573 in the Ordenanzas de descubrimiento y población (Altamira y Crevea, 1950: 260–271).

[5]Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 79, 189, 193. Examples where llacta is translated for city (ciudad) include llactantin (“a cada ciudad”) and pungollactap (“puerta de la ciudad”) (23, 193). The Spanish word ciudad is not an entry in this dictionary.

[6]Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 79, 189, 193. Examples where llacta is translated for city (ciudad) include llactantin (“a cada ciudad”) and pungollactap (“puerta de la ciudad”) (23, 193). The Spanish word ciudad is not an entry in this dictionary.

[7] The term pampa is variously defined as a flat space and an open one with no houses (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 161, 188, 335). It glosses as “plaza” in Spanish, as does the term catu, which is used in relation to marketplace exchanges, often of a temporary fairlike sort (e.g., 136, 188).

[8] These terms include aposento (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 43: Aposentarse gente, o real = siricani .gui o tynquircayani .gui), cárcel (72: Carcel publica = hochap guaci, o aragua), hospital or poorhouse (133: Espital de pobres = guachaconap guacin), and council-place (71: Capitulo, lugar de concejo = yutoronacunga guacin). It is important to look at each of these terms separately. The verb sirikay connotes an encampment rather than a formal lodging, and should not be taken as evidence for an equivalent to the aposento in native Andean communities. The hospital and council-place entries are terms that take the term for house (guaci or wasi) and create a new architectural form by adding the building function before it—thus, hospital is literally “house of the poor” and the council-place might be translated as a “house of the counting of people.” It is important to note that Santo Tomás includes a number of early Colonial structures whose special function is created by this same formation, including bodega (60: açua guacin), iglesia (153: diospa guacin), and various tiendas (217: weaver’s = aguana guacin, potter’s = sañop guacin, silversmith’s = collquip guacin). For the pre-Hispanic period, an entry that shares this form is the royal palace (73, 181: capac guacin), which is described as containing diverse architecture and is discussed later in this monograph.

[9]The Quechua entries related to llaqta (González Holguín, 1986: 207–208) are all oriented to the level of town or village. The vocabulary listed implies a lack of permanence in human settlement, with words for founding towns (llaqtayachiy), reducing them into other settlements (llaqtaqta yaycuchiy), and forcing a town’s residents to move (llaqtamanta qarquy). Some of this language was probably a response to Spanish reducción policies. The social dimensions of llaqta vocabulary indicate that elite titles (apu, kuraka) were present at the town/village level, and that the residents of a town belonged to the same community (llaqtamasintin), and at times were part of larger multivillage units (llaqtantinruna).

[10]The term for house plot (wasichasqa rukri allpa) uses two words that mean land that is cleared of rocks and vegetation, either for farming or house construction (rukri allpa) (González Holguín, 1986 [1608]: 319). This usage suggests that the house plot was not conceptualized within a larger block layout, as Matienzo’s chronicle describes for Spanish towns.

[11]The jail appears to have strong connections to Spanish colonial settlement. The term wataywasi derives from the verb “to tie up” and is linked to the Colonial office of alguacil (wataykamayuq). A related gloss for “jail” is zankawasi, and González Holguín (1986 [1608]: 186) defines huatisamca huaci as “the jail of the Inquisition, or of the King, or the perpetual prison for serious crimes” (La carcel de Inquisicion o del Rey, or la carcel perpetua por graues delictos). Several chronicles state that the Inkas maintained a zankawasi in Cusco (e.g., Betanzos, 1999 [1551–1557] part I, chap. 19; Guaman Poma de Ayala provides an early 17th-century account), but descriptions of punishment in Cusco and in the Inka provinces suggest that beatings and execution were common punishments, but extended incarceration was not. The zankawasi is said to have been a pit with deadly animals in it, and prisoners of war were thrown in it; in Betanzos’ narrative, those who survived were made retainers (yanakuna) serving the state.

[12]González Holguín defines tinku as “the joining of two things” (La junta de dos cosas). This joining connotes violence in some cases, and the verb tinkuy is listed as synonymous with maqay (“to beat”). González Holguín lists tincuni as “to wrangle or fight…to contend” (Tincuni, o tincunacuni, o macanacuni: Reñir o pelear trauar la pelea y porfiar), as well as “to be found to meet, or be given one to the other” (Encontrarse topar o darse una cosa con otra). Other related words are listed that suggest verbal arguments (Simihuan tincunacun = simiwan tinkunakun “with the mouth they fight each other”), and with opposition in games and rituals (Tincuc maciy [tinkuq-masiy]. Mi contrario en juego o fiesta, o porfias… “Fighter-partner. My opponent in a game or festival, or quarrels…”). These definitions are consistent with those of Domingo de Santo Tomás (1951: 218, 364), although González Holguín provides a much richer and more ambivalent series of definitions. The puqlla(y) is related to the tinku, but is more stylized in the form of a ritual battle or game (see Allen, 1988). Acosta (1940 [1590]: book 6, chap. 28) witnessed a puqllay that was “a kind of battle, performed as a game, that so enflamed the competitiveness between both sides that it came to be quite dangerous” (un género de pelea, hecha en juego, que se encendía con tanta porfía de los bandos, que venía a ser bien peligrosa). González Holguín (1989 [1608]: 293) and Santo Tomás (1951 [1560]: 342) define this practice as both a battle (pelea, batalla) and a game (juego).

[13] See, for example, Abercrombie, 1998; Allen, 1988; Bolin, 1998; Cama Ttito and Ttito Tica, 2003; Dean, 1999; Hopkins, 1982; Orlove, 1994; Platt, 1986, 1987; Stavig, 1999; Stern, 1982; Valencia Espinoza and Valencia Becerra, 2003; Zecenarro Villalobos, 1975, 1992; Zorn, 2002; Zuidema, 1991. Arkush and Stanish (2005) provide an overview of the tinku from the perspective of Andean warfare.

[14]In his Quechua dictionary, González Holguín defines Haucaypata as “the plaza of Cusco of festivals, merrymaking, and drunkenness” (la plaza del Cusco de las fiestas, huelgas, y borracheras).

[15] González Holguín defines ushnu as a mound constructed of worked stone and used for judgment (Mojon quando es de vna piedra hincada; Tribunal de un juez de una piedra hincada). Other chroniclers such as Albornoz and Betanzos relate that there was such a mound located in the center of the Haucaypata, and that it was used for public worship of the sun. This mound may have been somewhat different from the ushnu as seen in provincial Inka cities such as Huánuco Pampa and Vilcashuamán, and as Hyslop (1990: 69–101) has discussed, much variability in the form is seen throughout the empire (cf. Zuidema, 1980).

[16] “Y a esta ora [sic] salía toda la jente del Cusco por sus aillos y parcialidades, los quales venían lo más ricamente adereçados que podían, y llegados mochavan al Açedor y al Sol y al Ynca señor, y luego se asentavan en sus asientos cada uno conforme a la calidad que tenían, divididos: los Hanan Cuscos a su parte y los Hurin Cuscos a la suya.”

[17]“Llamavan al mes de diciembre Camayquilla, en el qual, el primer día de la luna, los que se avían armados cavalleros, así de la parcialidad de Anan Cusco como de Hurin Cusco, salían a la plaza con unas hondas en las manos, llamados huaracas, y los de Anan Cusco contra los de Hurin Cusco se tiravan hondaces … y benían algunas vezes a los braços a provar las fuerças, hasta que el Ynga que estava ya en la plaza se levantava y los ponía en paz. Llamauan a esto chocanaco; hacían esto para que fuesen conocidos los de más fuerças y más baliente; concluydo lo qual, se sentavan todos por sus parcialidades....”

[18]See Bauer (1998: 39–47) for a discussion of the nonroyal lineages of Cusco

[19]“Y otro día siguiente entravan, por la mañana, todas las naciones que el Ynca avía sujetado, las quales venían con sus huacas y vestiduras a uso de sus tierras, las más ricas que podían aver; y trayan sus huacas en andas los sacerdotes que a cargo las tenían y allegando a la plaza, como yban entrando sus tres partidas de los quatro Suyos dichos, yban haciendo reverencia al Hacedor y Sol y Trueno y a Guanacauri, huaca de los yncas y luego al Ynca que a la saçon estava ya en la plaza….”

[20]“Y así se yban poniendo por sus lugares que ya dedicados tenían, porque para darles más lugar, los yndios de Anan Cusco y Hurin Cusco se hacían entrambas parcialidades una, y así dejavan desembaraçada la plaza.”

[21] The Huarochirí manuscript (Salomon and Urioste, 1991: chap. 23) provides a provincial counterpoint to the Inka narrative of wak’a hostages. In this tale from the Yauyo province, the ruler Tupa Inca Yupanqui summons the provincial wak’akuna that have received gold and silver from him to the Haucaypata. Once they have arrived in their litters, he states that they should be helping with his conquests because he has honored them with food, drink, llama sacrifices, and ornate offerings. One wak’a, Maca Uisa, offers to aid the Inka and uses lightning, torrential rain, and mudslides to obliterate rebellious groups, at which point the Inka ruler provides him with retainers and participates personally in his religious festivals. The Huarochirí manuscript (chap. 5) also describes a mythical competition between the wak’a Huatya Curi and his rich brother-in-law—this involved dancing, drinking, and the display of costumes. While the location of these competitions is not specified, the narrative offers interesting details on processions, seating order, and other social aspects of encounters between individuals sharing an uneasy social relationship.

[22] “Los caciques de todo el distrito de aquella gran ciudad venían a ella a solemnizar la fiesta, acompañados de sus parientes y de toda la gente noble de sus provincias. Traían todas las galas, ornamentos, e invenciones que en tiempo de sus reyes Incas usaban en la celebración de sus mayores fiestas.… Unos venían (como pintan a Hércules) vestidos con la piel de león y sus cabezas encajadas en las del animal, porque se preciaban descender de un león. Otros traían las alas de un ave muy grande que llaman cuntur puestas a las espaldas, como las que pintan a los ángeles, porque se precian descender de aquella ave. Y así venían otros con otras divisas pintadas, como fuentes, ríos, lagos, sierras, montes, cuevas porque decían que sus primeros padres salieron de aquellas cosas. Traían otras divisas extrañas con los vestidos chapados de oro y plata.… Llevaban sus atambores, flautas, caracoles y otros instrumentos musicales. Muchas provincias llevaban sus mujeres en pos de los varones, que les ayudaban a tañer y cantar … Entraba cada nación por su antigüedad (como fueron conquistados por los Incas)….”

[23] Sacavan a la plaza para hacer esta fiesta todas las huacas ya dichas y los cuerpos de los yngas señores y señoras difuntos, para vever con ellos, poniendo los que avían de la parcialidad de Anan Cusco en ella y los de Hurin Cusco en la suya, y así trayan de comer y bevar a los muertos como si estuvieran vivos….

[24] “Cada día los [muertos] sacauan a la plaça, sentándolos en rrengle, cada uno según su antigüedad, y allí comían los criados y beuían y las criadas. Para los muertos hazíanles unas lumbres delante dellos de una leña que tenían labrada y cortada muy igual, y muy seca, y encendida ésta, quemauan aquí todo aquello que al muerto le auían puesto delante para que comiese de todo lo que ellos comían, que aquí en este fuego lo consumían. Tenían también delante de estos muertos unos canxilones grandes (que ellos llamauan birques) de oro, u de plata, u de barro, cada uno como quería, y aquí echauan la chicha que al muerto le dauan, mostrandosela, combinándose unos muertos a otros, y los muertos a los biuos, y los biuos a los muertos. Pues llenos estos birques, los derramauan en una piedra rredonda que tenían por ydolo, en mitad de la plaça….” Cieza de León (1988 [c. 1550]: chap. 11) provides a similar description.

[25]“Era permitido y ordenado por los mismos reyes que fuesen muy alabados y ensalzados en tal manera que todas las gentes admirasen en oír sus hazañas y hechos tan grandes y que estos no siempre ni en todo lugar fuesen publicados ni apregonados, sino cuando estuviese hecho algún ayuntamiento grande de gente venida de todo el reyno para algún fin y cuando se juntasen los señores principales con el rey en sus tiempos y solaces o cuando hacían los taquis o borracheras suyas. En estos lugares, los que sabían los romances, a voces grandes, mirando contra el Inca, le cantaban lo que por sus pasados había sido hecho….” González Holguín (1989 [1608]: 338) defines the first person singular form of takiy (taquini or taquicuni) as “to sing alone without dancing, or to sing while dancing” (Cantar solo sin baylar o cantando baylar). Cieza de León, Molina, and other authors consider the takiy to be analogous to the Spanish romance, a kind of ballad common in Siglo de Oro literature that often memorialized military achievements.

[26] Betanzos (1999 [1551–1557]: part 1, chap. 31) describes the purukaya ritual as including a public performance of a dead ruler’s accomplishments.

[27] Gutiérrez de Santa Clara (1963–1965 [1548]: book 3, chap. 64) describes an event in Cusco where “they took the sacrificed llamas and butchered them, and then they cooked them in large pots; there in the houses surrounding the plaza, and having brought out [the food] in an array of vessels, it was distributed among those who were found to be present. Having done this, they then ate and drank the maize beer and they made great drunkenness and they danced and sang many songs…” (tomaban los carneros sacrificados y los hacían pedazos, y luego los cocían en grandes ollas, allá en las casas cercanas de la plaza, y traídos en diversas vasijas, se repartía entre todos los que presentes se hallaban. Hecho esto, luego comían y bebían de la chicha o azúa, y hacían grandes borracheras, bailaban y cantaban muchas canciones…).

[28]In addition to recasting social interactions, the Inka development of formerly “wild” spaces probably had religious effects as well. Ceremonial bloodshed between communities was superseded by Inka Sun worship as the most effective means of guaranteeing agricultural fertility in the imperial system. The relaxing or inversion of sexual mores during periods of intercommunity conflict would also be transformed by imperial rule, and several Relaciones Geográficas mention that the imposition of Inka imperial order brought with it imperial control over marriages, which were contracted in central plaza spaces in public ceremonies overseen by Inka administrators.

[29]As noted above in the quote from Garcilaso de la Vega, this was true for the early years of the Colonial Period as well.

[30] Anthony Aveni conducted a brief survey of the site and did not find evidence that common Inka astronomical observations would have been made from the platform (cf. Pino M., 2005).

[31] “Para dezir la fundación de la ciudad de León de Guánuco, es de saber, que quando el Marqués don Francisco Piçarro fundó en los llanos y arenales la rica ciudad de los Reyes, todas la prouincias que están sufraganas en estos tiempos a esta ciudad siruieron a ella: y a los vezinos de los Reyes tenían sobre los Caciques encomienda. Y como Yllatopa el tyrano con otros Indios de su linage y sus allegados anduuiesse dando guerra a los naturales desta comarca y ruynasse los pueblos: y los repartimientos fuessen demasiados: y estuuiessen muchos conquistadores sin tener encomienda de Indios: queriendo el marqués tirar inconuenientes, y gratificar a estos tales: dando también Indios a algunos Españoles de los que avían seguido al adelantado don Diego de Almagro: a los quales procuraua atraer a su amistad, desseando contentar a los vnos y a los otros: pues auían trabajado y seruido a su Magestad, tuuiessen algún provecho en la tierra. Y no embargante que el cabildo de la ciudad de los Reyes procuró con protestaciones y otros requerimientos estoruar lo que se hazía en daño de su república: el marqués nombrando por su teniente al capitán Gómez de Aluarado hermano del adelantado Pedro de Aluarado, le mandó que fuesse con copia de Españoles a poblar vnu ciudad en las prouincias del nombrado Guánuco. Y assí Gómez de Aluarado se partió, y después de auer passado con los naturales algunas cosas, en la parte que le paresció, fundó la ciudad de León de Guánuco….”

[32]“La ciudad de León de Guanuco de los Caballeros el Viejo está de la de los Reyes al Oriente 60 leguas; fundóla primero Gómez de Alvarado por orden del Marqués don Francisco Pizarro, año de 1539 en un gran llano muy ameno, de alegre vista, aunque sin un árbol por el frío que hay en aquel paraje, donde había grandes edeficios de muy buena cantería, casas Reales de recreo de los reyes incas y un fuerte todo de cantería de dos estados de altos como una razonable plaza, donde cabrán más de 4.000 hombre y alrededor gran cantidad de casería….”

[33]This grant was made of the Chupaychu group, which Inés Muñoz inherited when her husband died. She remarried to Antonio de Ribera, and Pedro de la Gasca reassigned the encomienda to Gómez Arias Dávila for his support to the Crown during Gonzalo Pizarro’s rebellion (Cazalla, 1906 [1580]).

[34]“Y passados algunos años, se despobló la nueua ciudad por causa del alçamiento que hicieron los naturales de todo lo más del reyno. Y a cabo de algunos días Pedro barroso tornó a reedificar esta ciudad. Y vltima vez con poderes del licenciado Christóual vaca de Castro después de passada la cruel batalla de Chupas, Pedro de Puelles fue a entender en las cosas della: y se acabó de assentar….”

[35]“Al capitan Pedro de Puelles enbié á la prouincia de Guánuco, que se auia despoblado al tienpo de la muerte del Marques, y no estaua paçifica, para que la torne á poblar é paçificar, y conquiste á Yllatopa, ques otro yndio que anda alçado como el Ynga y es su pariente….” This text is also published with a 1542 date by Levillier (1921: 68).

[36]“Juan de varagas [sic] y otros auían preso al tyrano Yllatopa” (Cieza de León, 1986: 232 [1553]: chap. 79).

[37]“Y donde estuvo fundada la ciudad hay al presente un tambo o venta con algunos indios que lo sirven para el avío de los pasajeros por ser camino real y retiene este sitio el nombre de Guanuco el Viejo.”

[38] As Morris (1975) notes, the sampling strategy of the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project was designed to avoid this pitfall. The multiplicity of palace building forms were to be investigated intensively, but as part of the overall strategy to sample architecture throughout the site.

[39] 2. Depending on the state, marketplaces, temples, and facilities for spectacle, arts, or leisure represent some other possible spaces and structures that could serve to forge civic identity.

[40] The marked terms for wasi in the early dictionaries modify it to connote a circular form (González Holguín, 1989 [1608]: 449), a multistory building (González Holguín, 1989[1608]: 449), nonstone construction (see below), and buildings with internal subdivisions or windows (see below). The term is closely associated with family residence (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 73: Casa por la morada = guacin). Terms for doorway (Santo Tomás, 1951 [1560]: 193: Puerta, por do entramos en casa = pungo) and corner (23: A cada canton = cuchu chuchupi, o cuchuntin) suggest a rectangular layout with a single entrance, and it would not be uncommon for a house to be fenced in with cane or stone walls (92: Cercar de muro = quinchani .gui o moyocta pircani .gui). It is interesting to note that the 1560 dictionary of Santo Tomás uses the words for door and corner to describe teeth (incisors = pungo quero; molars = cucho quero), suggesting the house was conceived to be like a mouth.

[41]Santo Tomás (1951) makes such modifications in several entries that with pre-Hispanic contexts, including dormitory (68: Camara donde durminos = puñona guacin), council house (71: Capitulo, lugar de concejo = yutoronacunga guacin), jail (72: Carcel publica = hochap guaci, o aragua), palace (73: Casa real = capac guacin), a building for meat storage (73: Carnero donde se guarda la carne = aychap guacin), a building for food preparation (86: Cozina, lugar = concha guaci, o yanucuna guaci), and a guarded storage facility (107: Despensa, para guarder algo = churacuna guacin). This dictionary also includes entries for buildings reflecting a European function, including “hospital,” “church,” and “shop.” González Holguín also has numerous entries that modify the term wasi, but focuses considerable attention on describing formal characteristics rather than functional distinctions. His definitions include an outhouse (11: Acahuaci, o, canahuaci. Las necessarias), a building constructed on cyclopean foundations (44: Callancahuaci. Casa fundada sobre ellas [piedras grandes labradas]), a three-walled structure with an open front (50: Carppahuaci. Casa de tres paredes y por la otra descubierta, o corredor), a storage building (122: Churaccuna huaci. Despensa almacén), a multiroomed structure (289: Ppitita ppitita huaci. Casa atajada que tiene muchos atajos, o diuissiones, o camaras), and a building with windows in the walls (344: Ttokoy huaci. Casa de muchas alazenas). González Holguín (1989: 625) and Bertonio (1984 [1612]: 361) link the carppahuaci with pilgrimage architecture in both Quechua and Aymara, something that is seen in Ramos Gavilán’s 1621 [1976] chronicle describing the sanctuary of Copacabana and nearby Titicaca islands.

[42]“Corte y palacios rreales y casas del Ynga llamado Cuyos Mango, Quinco Uaci [“zig-zag house”], Muyo Uaci [“round house”], Carpa Uaci [three-walled house with open fourth side], Suntor Uaci [“round or well-made house”], Moyo Uaci, Uauya Condo Uaci [?], Marca Uaci [“tower or two-story house”], Punona Uaci [“house of sleep”], Churacona Uaci [“house for dispensing stores”], Aca Uaci [“house of maize beer”], Masana Uaci [house of drying food?], Camachicona Uaci [“governors’ house”], Uaccha Uaci [“house for the poor”]: Lo propio tenían los señores capac apoconas [powerful lords], apoconas [important lords], curacaconas [local authorities], allicaconas [children of the Inka]. Tenían la casa conforme la calidad y señorío que tenían en este rreyno y no salían a más negocio….” It is important to note that Martín de Murúa—whose manuscripts contain drawings by Guaman Poma de Ayala—describes an Inka palace called Cuusmanco as the royal residence in Cusco. A version of this description is discussed below, and should perhaps be considered as a description of access and space flow among the same set of buildings mentioned and drawn by Guaman Poma de Ayala.

[43] Some buildings in this description may refer specifically to the Inka fortress of Saqsaywaman above Cusco, which had zig-zag architecture, storage facilities, round towers, and administrative facilities.

[44] “Las principales de los Caciques solían tener las paredes pintadas de varios colores y figuras, todas toscas y sin primor … solas las [casas] de los Caciques tenían grandes patios, donde se juntaba el pueblo á beber en sus fiestas y regocijos, y más habitación de aposentos…” Cieza de León (1985 [1553]: chap. 44) mentions several of these characteristics in his description of an Inka palace at Tomebamba.

[45] “Lugar donde no hay casas.”

[46] “Plaza de las comidas, y bebidas y descanso, o huelgas.”

[47]Santo Tomás (1951 [1560]) includes entries for mud brick (26: Adobe de barro, o de tierra = tica), stone (187: Piedra = rumi), cut stone (70: Canteria, muro de piedra = rumi pirca), marble (165: Marmol de piedra = quispi rumi). His entries for Spanish building materials, such as brick (156: Ladrillo = tica), are drawn from existing Quechua terms. González Holguín (1989 [1608]) lists a broader range of Colonial construction materials, including stone slabs for paving (45: Callqui rumi. Losas, o piedras para enlosar), cane wattle (302: Quincha. Cañizo, seto, o barrera), mud brick (340: Tica. Adobe), fired brick (340: Sañutica. Ladrillos), foundation stones (341: Ticci rumi. Piedra fundamental), quarried stone (446: Canto piedra. Rumi), worked stone (446: Canteria labrada. Chheccoscca rumi), finely cut cyclopean and ashlar masonry (670: Silleria de piedras grandes para sobre el cimiento. Callanca, y chheccoscca rumi, menores para lo alto), thatch roofing (677: Techar con paja. Ychuhuan huacictan ccatani), and roof tiles (677: Techar con tejas. Sañuhuanccatani).

[48] Such artificial movement of water corresponds to the word paccha, which contrasts with the word for “fountain or spring” (pukyu) and is more closely related to liquid offerings.

[49] “Los Yngas y de señores prencipales destos rreynos… y de los yndios allicacconas, camachicoc, mandoncillos; y de las señoras coyas y nustas y pallas y capac uarmis y curaca uarmis en todo el rreyno.”

[50] “En este pueblo estaba una casa fuerte, hecho por el más lindo arte que nunca se vió. Tenía cinco puertas, antes que llegasen a los aposentos. De puerta a puerta había más de cien pasos. Tenía muchas cercas, todas de tierra, hechas a mano. Tenía muchos aposentos, de muchas pinturas. En el medio estaba una plaza de buen tamaño; más adelante estaban otros aposentos, los cuales tenían un patio. En medio de este patio estaba un jardín, y junto al jardín estaba una fuente. Decían los indios que el que hizo aquella casa se decía Gutimaaynacava. Y éste decían que era señor de toda aquella tierra y el mandó hacer aquella casa….

[51] “Tenía el Palacio Real … dos soberbias puertas, una a la entrada dél y otra de más adentro … y su obra era de cantería famosa y bien labrada.... A la primera puerta, en la entrada della, había dos mil indios de guarda con su capitán … que se mudaban de la multitud de los cañares y de chachapoyas. Estos soldados eran privilegiados y exentos de los servicios personales; los capitanes que los gobernaban eran indios principales de mucha autoridad, y cuando el Ynga iba a la Sierra, iban junto a su persona.… A esta puerta primera … se seguía una plaza, hasta la cual entraban los que con el Ynga venían acompañándole de fuera y allí paraban, y el gran Ynga entraba dentro con los cuatro orejones de su consejo, pasando a la segunda puerta, en la cual había también otra guarda, y ésta era de indios naturales de la ciudad del Cuzco, orejones y parientes y descendientes del Ynga, de quien él se fiaba, y eran los que tenían a cargo criar y enseñar a los hijos de los gobernadores y principales de todo este Reino, que iban a servir al Ynga, y a asistir con él en la corte cuando muchachos. Junto a esta segunda puerta estaba la armería del Ynga, donde había de todo género y diferencias de armas que ellos usaban … todo puesto muy en orden y concierto. A esta segunda puerta estaban cien capitanes de los que más se habían señalado en la guerra y se habían ejercitado en ella.... Más adelante de esta puerta, estaba otra gran plaza o patio para los oficiales del Palacio, y los que tenían oficios ordinarios dentro dél, que estaban allí aguardando lo que se les mandaba, en razón de su oficio. Después entraban las salas y recámaras, y aposentos, donde el Ynga vivía, y esto era todo lleno de deleite y contento, porque había arboledas, jardines con mil género de pájaros y aves, que andaban cantando; y había tigres y leones, y onzas y todos los géneros de fieras y animales que se hallaban en este reino. Los aposentos eran grandes y espaciosos, labrados con maravilloso artificio … estaban las paredes … ricas y adornadas de mucho oro y estamperías de las figuras hazañas de sus antepasados, y las claraboyas y ventanas guarnecidas con oro y plata, y otras piedras preciosas….”

[52] “El dicho valle de Yucay se llamaba la casa del Inca y todos los mitimaes y naturales que en el dicho valle habían servían al dicho Inca y a sus hijos y mujeres y parientes y les beneficiaban las chácaras que tenían y le servían de yanaconas y camayos.…” (For published transcriptions of this collection of documents, see Covey and Amado, 2008.)

[53]ADC, Colección Betancur, vol. 7, f. 107: “Guayna Capac tenía el dicho valle y asiento de Yucay como casa suya por ser apacible y así hizo los edificios y casas que en el dicho valle había para su recreación y vivienda”; (f. 170v.): “estaba en esta ciudad y en el dicho tiempo vio en el valle de Yucay muchos y grandes edificios de casas, fuentes, y otras recreaciones.”

[54] “En lo que llaman Guanuco había una casa real de admirable edificio, porque las piedras eran grandes y estaban muy polidamente asentadas. Este palacio o aposento era cabeza de las provincias comarcanas a los Andes … y las comarcas acudían con sus servicios a este palacio.”

[55] “Había grandes edificios de buena cantería, casas Reales de recreo de los reyes incas … y al principio dos galpones o salas tan grandes que cada una tiene una carrera de caballo con muchas puertas, que debía de ser donde los indios principales y señores llegados de los Reyes se aposentaban; al presente sirven de corrales para ganado; por medio de estas dos salas se entra en una plaza cuadrada y cercada; enfrente de estas dos puertas había y hay otras dos de cantería muy bien labradas por arco de las puertas de más de tres varas de largo; las puertas estaban enfrente de otra, distancia de 10 pies, y adelante está otra plaza cercada y muy bien dispuesta con otras dos puertas más delante de la misma cantería y desde fuera se veían todas las puertas, y dentro muchos aposentos y retretes, todos de cantería, y unos baños; sin duda era donde el Rey habitaba….”

[56]González Holguín, 1989 [1608]: 58: “Cuyusmanco huaci. La casa de Cabildo, o del juzgado de tres paredes y vna descubierta.” 449: “Casa de consejo o de cabildo. Yupturana huaci camachicuna huaci.” The vocabulary for judgment in this dictionary links it with the verb taripay (339), signifying an examination, collection of facts, and settling of accounts, whereas one term for a council house (yupturana huaci) derives from the verb yupturay (372), which means “to count people.” These terms are consistent with Spanish visitas and tasas, but also with Inka inspection practices where accounts of provincial people, animals, and labor service would be inspected by Inka officials and khipu specialists.