The beginning of the EIP around 300 BC marks the first widespread occurrence of archaeological sites throughout northern and southern Chachapoyas. Sherd scatters (but no preserved surface architecture) on low ridge tops between 2,500 and 3,100 m above the Maranon probably indicate incipient population nucleation (Church and Valle n. d.; Schjellerup
1997). At Huepon (2,960 masl), Schjellerup (1997) excavated local ceramics radiocarbon dated to AD 10 (calibrated using Stuiver and Pearson 1993), and associated with EIP Initial and Early Cajamarca styles. The EIP also marks the first evidence of human occupation deep in the eastern cloud forest at Gran Pajaten, where excavations in construction fill recovered ceramics, maize kernels, and a stone hoe blade. Ceramic assemblages from Gran Pajaten and Manachaqui’s Colpar Phase layers feature short-necked jars, convex bowls with beveled rims (Figure 45.3v-bb), and radiocarbon dates ranging from 300 BC to AD 200. At Manachaqui, Ecuadorian ceramic attributes, and bones of a “sleeper,” a warm-water estuary fish, attest to continued long-distance connections with northern lowland societies.
During the mid-EIP, a dramatic change in Chachapoya tradition pottery technologies coincides with the incorporation of local populations into expanding EIP Central Andean interaction spheres (Church 1996, 2004). The shift to a coarse brown ware emphasizing larger, globular jars with thick walls and longer, everted rims (Figure 45.3cc-hh) was thought by Lathrap (1970) and Isbell (1974) to represent the arrival of migrating Quechua-speakers who cultivated maize on artificial terraces and favored settlement locations on high, defensible ridge tops above 3,500 masl. At Manachaqui, however, the simultaneous appearance of these new pottery attributes with camelid bones suggests the introduction of llama caravan transport technologies from the southern Andes. Jar characteristics were modified to facilitate transport in cloth or net “saddlebags” rather than by hand.
Additional archaeological data demonstrate that Chachapoyas became firmly linked into EIP Central Andean interaction spheres, participating in vast interregional exchange networks. At Kuelap (Ruiz E. 1972) and Huepon (Schjellerup 1997), fine kaolin-ware
Bowls imported from Cajamarca indicate sustained mid-EIP trade alliances across the Maranon. Farther south, however, similar fine wares (Figure 45.3ii-oo) attest to exchange across the Maranon with societies in the Recuay and Conchucos regions (Church 1994,
1996). The co-occurrence of positive-painted Recuay fine wares at Manachaqui, Gran Pajaten and in coastal valleys such as Nepena (Proulx 1982), provides evidence for chains of east-west mediated exchange. The striking resemblance of Cajamarca modeled rims (Onuki and Terada 1982) to rims of undated assemblages collected in the Huallaga lowlands (Ravines 1978) suggest that Chachapoya societies were now mediating Andean-Amazonian exchange.
Although supporting data is scant, we hypothesize that the stone carving traditions for which Chachapoyas is so renowned originated in the Recuay and Conchucos regions and spread northward through the Chachapoya site of Nunamarca to proliferate during the Middle Horizon (MH) and subsequent centuries. Resemblances between Nunamarca’s lithic sculpture illustrated by Tello (2004) and Curtin (1951), and sculpture throughout the Recuay and Conchucos regions suggest reliable mid-EIP cross-dates for sculpturally embellished Chachapoya monumental constructions. Indeed, these architectural, technological and iconographic similarities prompted Tello (1942) and his students (Mejia 1956;
Rojas 1970) to include Chachapoyas within their hypothetical Maranon or Huaylas culture area. Images of splayed human figures, felines, and feline-human hybrid creatures with fanged teeth, shown in profile, are broadly distributed throughout north highland Peru. The similarity between the splayed stance of a figure gracing a Recuay stone relief (Grieder 1978: fig. 148) and Chachapoya human images portrayed at Gran Pajaten may offer compelling evidence for contemporaneity and culture contact. Nevertheless, their contexts indicate that a thousand years separate their dates of manufacture. Great caution must be exercised in using iconographic attributes for dating purposes, since such stylistic elements evidently persisted for many centuries in Chachapoyas (Church 1994; Kauffmann 1983).
World History
