Huamachuco

CONCLUSIONS

The Inca expansion clearly had a major impact on the province of Huamachuco. It is interesting to consider how well we would understand the changes introduced by the Inca if we had to rely only on the archaeological record, unaided by ethnohistorical information. We suspect that in such a scenario the overall historical picture would emerge, but the political and administrative nuances would be lost. Traditional archaeological methods would verify Inca presence in the area. Artifact distributions would not suggest heavy influence, but the major settlement shift after the Late Intermediate Period would draw attention. The regional center was abandoned and a new town built; a loss of local autonomy might well be inferred from the diminished grandeur of the new center compared to the old. Late Intermediate Period Huamachuco elites had not undertaken any new construction at Marcahuamachuco, but had lived and worked in very impressive surroundings. An archaeologist studying Late Horizon Huamachuco without benefit of ethnohistory would certainly note that Huamachuco lacked embellishments seen at other centers and would conclude that Huamachuco was less important and less powerful than Huánuco Pampa or Cajamarca.

The storerooms on the hills around Huamachuco would document Inca involvement in the local economy, but again, comparison to other areas would suggest that this involvement was less intensive than elsewhere; the total storage capacity is relatively low, and the virtual absence of terracing suggests that the Inca invested less heavily in the Huamachuco area. The location on the road system would be eloquent witness to the overwhelming importance of communication to the Inca, but survey would show that the road predated the Inca presence in Huamachuco.

Many of the organizational changes that are revealed by the ethnohistorical sources would be archaeologically invisible. The division of the two original huarangas into four may have no material correlates, and the assignment of chaupi yungas territory to .the province might well escape notice, even with extensive survey. With luck it might be possible to document the presence of mitima enclaves in the province, but it is most unlikely that their number, roles, and home territories could be identified.

Moreover, the tantalizing suggestions of political maneuvering that appear in the documentary sources would be entirely lost. These include, on the one hand, the efforts to break up the Chimu kingdom and disperse the population. On the other hand, the Garcilaso de la Vega account may be erroneous in fact, but not in its reflection of political ideology. There is definite archaeological evidence that the Late Intermediate Period saw the decline of Marcahuamachuco as the dominant provincial center. This decline corresponded to the rise of several major sites on the western slopes overlooking the coast. Certainly, from the point of view of the Good Prince Huamachucu, this reflected political disintegration to conditions of "behetría," a state of anarchistic chaos preceding the development of kingship. He would have welcomed the recentralization of his position under the Inca and direct access to coca and other resources of distant areas of "his" province. The fact of the Inca conquest would be demonstrable in Huamachuco on solely archaeological grounds, and its role as a tertiary Inca center, perhaps largely administered through Cajamarca, could be correctly interpreted. The ethnohistorical sources allow these bare bones to be fleshed out considerably, greatly increasing our understanding of Huamachuco at the end of prehistory.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The fieldwork on which this article is based was made possible by generous grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Trent University Research Committee. Permission for the fieldwork was granted by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura of Peru. We wish to express our thanks to the many colleagues and students who have collaborated with the project during its lifetime. Special thanks are due to John H. Rowe and Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, who provided transcriptions and a copy of the Ordenanza, and to Eric Deeds, whose notes on a number of documents were extremely useful. Susan Niles suggested that we look at the size of blocks in Huamachuco. Conversations with Geoff Spurling have broadened our perspective on the ethnohistorical literature.

NOTES

1. - Our phase designations for the latter part of the Middle Horizon, the Late Intermediate Period, and the Late Horizon differ from those proposed by Thatcher (1972). Thatcher brought considerable order to the Huamachuco sequence, but worked primarily from surface collections, with some reference to pieces purchased by Uhle in 1900 and excavated by McCown in 1942. Thatcher defined a Tuscan Phase for the latter half of the Middle Horizon, a Toro Phase for the Late Intermediate Period, and a Sazón Phase for the Late Horizon. We have made the following changes (Topic and Topic 1987: 22-25): (1) Because of considerable continuity in the Huamachuco ceramic tradition as expressed at Marcahuamachuco, we have defined an Early Huamachuco Phase (A.D. 400-600) and a Late Huamachuco Phase (A.D. 700- 1000), separated by the Amaru Phase (A.D. 600-700), during which Huari influence was felt in the area. The Tuscan ceramic phase definition remains unchanged but is moved into the Late Intermediate Period. The dominant style in this phase, characterized by geometric designs painted in red and/or brown on a light slip (illustrated by McCown 1945: pl. 22c-e, h-k, r, v), has been named Huamachuco-on-White by Andrzej Krzanowski (1986). (2) The ceramic assemblage characteristic of Thatcher's Toro Phase is now recognized as intrusive from the Upper Chicama Valley, and represents the presence of a different ethnic group in the Huamachuco area. (3) The Sazón Phase of the Late Horizon has been renamed Santa Barbara; for reasons given in the text.

2. - In the tasa, the total tribute which was to be paid by the population of the province was divided into three parts, as follows: (1) Married highland taxpayers (indigenous and mitima) and married mitima yunga taxpayers from San Agustín de Huamachuco, San Felipe de Chusgón, San Cristóbal de Cochulla, San Mateo de Cachicadán, Santiago de Chuco, San Salvador de Guaso, Santa Cruz de Yagón, and Santiago de Lúcuma paid three pesos, two tomines in silver, one bird, and one-half hanega of maize each. (2) Married mitima yunga and chaupi yunga taxpayers from Cormoc (Cormot?), Guataca, Callanca, Chiquibamba, Churucpampa, Colcapampal, Poqueda, Muchar (Mochal?), Mayachua, and Catin paid one piece of cotton cloth, nine tomines in silver, one-half hanega of maize, and one bird. (3) All unmarried taxpayers paid one peso, six tomines in silver, and one-half hanega of maize. Espinoza (1974: 86) takes these figures to mean that mitimas yungas were mixed with serranos in each of the reducciones named in (1), and that mitimas yungas were present in each of the reducciones named in (2). Since the eighteen towns listed in (1) and (2) above are only about half the number of towns listed in other places in the González de Cuenca Residencia and Ordenanza, it is clear that residents of the towns listed in the tasa are being singled out in some way. It is also clear from the total number of taxpayers listed and the total tribute owed that married taxpayers living in the towns not mentioned paid the same tribute as those in (1) above. It is also clear that all the cloth was provided by the towns mentioned in (2). Thus, it seems that the tasa is simply defining which mitimas yungas were assigned part of the tribute in clothing and which were assigned a larger portion of the monetary tribute. This interpretation implies that there were indeed mitimas yungas in each of the towns mentioned in (1), but not necessarily that each town had a mixed population of yungas and serranos. Similarly, on the basis of the Ordenanza it seems that some of the towns listed in (2) were occupied by mitimas yungas while others were occupied by chaupi yunga groups, but that the two populations were not necessarily mixed in any of these towns.

3. - This information has been provided by Eric Deeds, who cites a document in the Archivo Departmental de La Libertad, Sección Judicias, Corregimiento, Causas Ordinarias 168: 336.

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