Huamachuco

ROADS AND TAMBOS

Both archaeological and ethnohistorical information is available on the road system around Huamachuco. It is clear from this information that, while Huamachuco persisted as an important node on the road throughout the Late Horizon and Colonial periods, the road system around Huamachuco underwent considerable change.

Many fragments of roads are still preserved in the province of Huamachuco, and these have received some scrutiny from archaeologists. John Hyslop (1984: 59-67) surveyed the Inca road from Cajamarca south to Huamachuco. After crossing the Río Crisnejas (fig. 2.1), the road runs along the eastern side of the Río Condebamba, as does the modern road. On nearing Huamachuco, though, the pre-Hispanic road took a more direct route toward the city, passing only a few hundred meters to the east of Viracochapampa. This road undoubtedly predates the Inca expansion by a considerable margin. The road south from Huamachuco had two branches, although only the western branch is ever mentioned in colonial documents. The western branch leaves Huamachuco and climbs gently up the Pampa de Yamobamba to the jalca (high-altitude zone above the limits of vegetation); Betanzos (1987) refers to this area as ñamoc Pampa. The road skirts the steep flanks of Cerro Huaylillas, the highest peak in the area, at 4,733 meters above sea level.

We have found a few poorly preserved segments of this branch of the road in the Pampa de Yamobamba. The other branch climbs almost directly over the top of the peak itself and traverses a scenically more spectacular route. A small shrine on this route marks the first view of Marcahuamachuco. We have surveyed about 22 kilometers of this branch; because of a long flight of steps on Cerro Escalaría it is impassable to wheeled transport and difficult for horses. It clearly was of no importance to the Spanish in colonial times, and is not mentioned in contemporary documents. We see no reason to assume that it was not in use during the Late Horizon but expect that it was built well before then. The two branches of the road come together around modern Mollebamba, 40 kilometers to the south.

Both Estete (1947: 338) and Guaman Poma (1980a: 1094-1103) provide lists of tambos along this north-south road. [Editor's note: The place names are spelled as they appear in the documents and maps cited.] The tambos which Estete mentions within the province of Huamachuco are Guancasanga, Huamachuco, Tambo, Andamarca, Totopamba, and Coronga. In 1702, the toponym "Huancasanga" referred to land owned by the community of Lluicho (Espinoza 1974: 214), apparently located between Cauday and Cajabamba. Estete's "Tambo" is probably near the modern hamlet of Tambillo, 12 kilometers northeast of Santiago de Chuco, Andamarca is near modern Mollebamba, Totopamba is probably identified by the toponym "Cerro Tambillo" above the Pampa de Tuctubamba 12 kilometers east of Tauca, and Coronga is Corongo in the Santa drainage. Guaman Poma's list for the same area is less extensive and suggests that changes in the road system were already pronounced. In place of Guancasanga, Guaman Poma gives Caxa Pamba (Cajabamba), a reducción (settlement of local people founded by the Spanish). Guaman Poma's "Guamachuco" and "tanbillo" correspond to Huamachuco and Tambo in Estete's list. In place of Andamarca, Guaman Poma lists "Tanbo Nuebo," which may indicate that the tambo had been moved since Inca times. South of Andamarca there were again two branches to the north-south road; while Estete followed the western branch, which continued south through the province of Huamachuco, Guaman Poma lists only the tambos on the eastern branch, which runs through the province of Conchucos. Again, this may be an indication that the Andamarca-Corongo branch had fallen out of general use by the late 1500s.

Cabello Balboa (1951: cap. 16) states that after the conquest of Cajamarca the Inca army descended to the coast through the territory of Huamachuco. This road west from Huamachuco to the coast can be re- constructed, in part, by examining the González de Cuenca Ordenanza. Moving inland from the coast, the first tambo listed is Santa Cruz de Yagón, which was probably located near modern Challuacocha above the north bank of the middle Moche Valley, where the toponyms "Santa Cruz" and "Santagón" still occur. Near here there are still fragments of preserved roads which climb steeply up from the chaupi yunga to the highlands (Coupland 1979), passing sites dating to the Late Intermediate Period and the Late Horizon. The next two tambos, Cucho and Uruchal, have no modern toponymic equivalents but probably were located in the area around the modern hamlet of Tambillo, 10 kilometers north of Otuzco, and Laguna Tambo, 24 kilometers east of Otuzco, respectively. There is still a well-preserved road from Laguna Tambo to Santa Ana Cruz on the jalca near the Continental Divide; this road not only connects Otuzco to Huamachuco, but a branch from Santa Cruz also provides the most direct route to Santiago de Chuco. Mogrovejo (1920: 250) notes that, traveling from Santiago de Chuco to Otuzco, he spent the night at a tambo called Guarargual; we suspect that "Guarargual," "Uruchal," and the modern toponym "Huadalgual," located near Laguna Tambo, all refer to the same place. The next tambo, Cangayo, can be identified as modern Cuncalla, located east of the Continental Divide on the descent to the Pampa de Yamobamba. On reaching the Pampa de Yamobamba the road joined the north-south trunk route.

The Ordenanza lists five other tambos. One of these, Uruchal en el camino de Lima, corresponds to the modern toponym "Urucchalda" and probably is the proper name of Estete's Tambo and Guaman Poma's "tanbillo." Andamarca and Huamachuco are also listed. The document is internally inconsistent in the case of two tambos, Yanabamba and Lluicho; we feel that these names refer to a single tambo that either corresponds to or replaces Estete's Guancasanga. The final tambo listed, Collambay, is located in the chaupi yunga zone of the Río Sinsicap, a tributary of the Río Moche, and seems to be of only local importance.

The González de Cuenca Ordenanza provides two interesting insights into changes in the province's road system with the strengthening of Spanish control after the conquest. First, we see the increasing importance of the road from Trujillo to Huamachuco, a road which served to link the coast with the highlands. For the Inca, travel and communication along the length of the mountains had always been more important than connections to the coast, and this relative significance is shown clearly by the greater number of administrative centers, storage complexes, and tambos along the highland routes. The colonial Spanish were economically and politically oriented toward Spain, and Pacific ports provided the most direct links to that country. The Trujillo-Huamachuco transverse link in the road system became more important after the conquest, achieving equivalent status to the highland road segment within the province; each had sixty taxpayers assigned to a center (Yagón and Huamachuco, respectively) and three tambos.

The second point of interest is that no route to the east of Huamachuco is mentioned; in fact, only Martinez Compañon (1978), on his map of Huamachuco, mentions a road to the east, referring to it as the "camino para Chusgón" (road to Chusgón). His map indicates that the road to Chusgón leaves Huamachuco along what is now the route to Cajabamba and Cajamarca; in his day, the "calzada [paved road] para Caxabamba" was still the Inca road, which leaves town in the., direction of Viracochapampa. The street leading to Viracochapampa is still referred to by the older residents of Huamachuco as "Calle de los Calzados."

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