Huamachuco

OTHER LATE HORIZON OCCUPATION

Late Horizon occupations have proved difficult to distinguish ceramically from Late Intermediate Period occupations.1 Known Late Horizon assemblages are small and nondescript, and there is considerable continuity in paste, form, and decoration from ceramics of the preceding Tuscan phase. Thatcher (1972: 94) dated eleven sites to the Late Horizon by seriating a local style found in mixed surface collections to this phase; none of the sites actually exhibited Inca sherds. Our resurvey of the eleven sites also failed to find any Inca sherds, and excavations at the site which provided the phase name produced evidence of a significant Early Intermediate Period and Middle Horizon occupation, but no Late Horizon. We considered it preferable to rename the phase "Santa Barbara," after a site with demonstrated Inca presence. While acknowledging that many Late Intermediate Period sites probably continued to be occupied into the Late Horizon, we have taken a conservative approach to dating. Late Horizon sites and include here only those which have either diagnostic ceramics or architectural evidence of Late Horizon occupation. Inca provincial ceramics are relatively rare in the Huamachuco area but are, of course, useful indicators of site date where they occur. The aryballoid jar is the most frequently encountered form, as it appears through much of the territory controlled by the Inca (fig. 2.4). The animal head lugs often found on aryballoid shoulders (called "rope nubbins" by Bingham 1930: 123133) also occur with some frequency. A light, hard paste with crushed rock temper is usually associated with Inca forms; this paste can sometimes be recognized at suspected Late Horizon sites in the area and is considered diagnostic when it occurs on tall jars with sharply everted lips that are not decorated in the Tuscan Phase, Huamachuco-on-White style. Also suggestive are certain gridlike geometric designs painted in dark red or brown on orange paste.

In addition to the storeroom complexes and Huamachuco itself, which have already been discussed, we date seven sites to the Late Horizon. These seven sites seem to represent three types, mainly local occupations, a possible tambo, and possible mitima occupations. Late Horizon remains have been found at Canibamba, on the same ridge as Marcahuamachuco but at a much lower elevation. Here a rather large aryballoid jar in good Inca provincial style and an olla (cooking pot) with everted painted lip and horizontal handles were turned up by farmers plowing a field. Subsequent excavation cleared a room that had been covered by a mudslide, but the only other artifact of Inca inspiration was a face-neck jar of distinctly nonlocal appearance (see Bingham 1930: fig. 118-f for a very similar specimen). No other Late Horizon structures could be found in the vicinity, but the area is much affected by slump and by farming. Canibamba controls ,the access to Marcahuamachuco but also overlooks some prime lower elevation fields. The site is also located just at the foot of Cerro Amaru, which was a major shrine during the Middle Horizon and continued to have some occupation in the Late Intermediate Period. Uhle (1900: 133) mentions that he saw an Inca bottle which had been found at Cerro Amaru, but it is possible that this bottle actually came from the area we would call Canibamba.

Two other sites are located on the ridge between Laguna Sausagocha and Laguna Collasgón. One of them (site 40), on Cerro Negro, had been occupied in both the Early Intermediate Period and the Late Intermediate Period. There is virtually no preserved architecture, but sherds extend over an area of approximately 300 by 50 meters. The Late Horizon occupation is inferred from ceramic paste characteristics and the diagnostic tall neck jar form. The other site (site 69), on Cerro Pan de Azucar, does have preserved architecture and seems to date only to the Late Horizon. The architecture is constructed with low, unchinked, double-faced stone walls. The rooms, about 3 meters on a side, are arranged in conjoined rows, and the rows of rooms often bound one or two sides of an open space; this is a common arrangement for rooms in the Huamachuco area. Some of the rooms have rounded interior corners. There are also a few larger rooms and walled, but probably unroofed, enclosures which might be corrals. The ceramics include no diagnostic features; but share paste and shape characteristics with other Late Horizon collections.

An interesting, though enigmatic, site (site 36) is located on the very peak of Cerro El Toro, a steep-sided hill which dominates the whole area from Laguna Sausagocha to Huamachuco. The site covers an area of only 48 by 60 meters and is very poorly preserved. We estimated that there might have been about 18 small (2 by 2 meters) rooms, and there are indications of slate paving stones. The site is distinguished by an unexpectedly high sherd density for such a small and isolated site and a high proportion of kaolin and decorated sherds from a number of different time periods. The Late Horizon ceramics include an animal head rope nubbin, tall-neck jars, and an example of the gridlike geometric painting.

The possible tambo (site 157) is very poorly preserved. It is located on the road which leads directly south from Huamachuco at an elevation of 4,050 meters. The road probably ran directly past the site, but was destroyed by bulldozers when a dam was built nearby. Now only a few double-faced wall foundations can be seen. These seem to form a rectangular plaza surrounded by rectangular rooms. Overall, the site is about 25 by 10 meters. Ceramics were scarce, generally very small and eroded but consistent with Late Horizon dating by paste and the presence of strap handles.

One possible mitima site (site 165) is located on a small hill below and north of Marcahuamachuco. The hill is called Cerro Cañaris, and the name obviously influences our interpretation. It is quite clear from the González de Cuenca Ordenanza and other sources (Espinoza 1974: 89) that there were mitimas of Cañaris in Huamachuco from the Cañar province in Ecuador. It is not as clear, however, where these mitimas were located. The Ordenanza suggests that at least some Cañaris were located in San Marcos de Chuco (in other documents also referred to as San Marcos de Cañar, de Cucho, and de Corchop), where they were mixed together with another, unspecified, group of mitimas serranos. San Marcos de Chuco may be modern Marcochuco, located seven kilometers east of Cerro Cañaris, although this identification is not at all certain. San Marcos, however, was a reducción founded in 1565 (Espinoza 1974: 89), and the Cañaris may have been located elsewhere earlier. Espinoza (1974: map following p. 12) places them some 23 kilometers northwest of Huamachuco, where there is a modern hamlet called Cañaris.

The site of Cerro Cañaris is located in good maize-growing land, and there are agricultural terraces which probably date to the main occupation of Marcahuamachuco (A.D. 400-1,000), about 1.5 kilometers away. It is covered by dense brush that obscures most of the architecture. There are two partly artificial and partly natural terraced platforms separated by 60 to 80 meters. One of these platforms has on it a circular building 6 meters in diameter and other rooms, patios, and possible corridors on the lower terraces. The ceramics include pastes characteristic of the Late Horizon, tall-neck jars, and strap handles.

The other possible mitima site, Alto Corazón (site 179), is located on a hill just south of and overlooking Marcochuco. Though it probably covers at least 1.5 hectares, it has been only partially surveyed. A typical complex has an unroofed enclosure or patio measuring 6 by 12 meters, with rows of small (2 by 4 meters) rooms flanking one or two sides. Many of the animal head rope nubbins were observed on the surface during survey in 1986. If Alto Corazón is in fact a mitima settlement, the original homeland of the settlers is not known; if Marcochuco is the colonial reducción of San Marcos de Chuco, the people from Alto Corazón may have been resettled there, together with those from Cerro Cañaris.

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