THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF CHAVIN DE HUANTAR’S RESIDENTIAL POPULATION

Decades of excavations demonstrate that the monumental core of Chavfn de Huantar was devoted exclusively to religious ceremonies and related activities. However, there were habitation areas associated with the public constructions throughout the history of the temple and excavations in these areas have provided evidence of the changing social and economic context of the temple activities (Burger 1984). These data suggest a society that was undergoing profound changes and a dynamism (see Burger 1984: maps 2, 3, 4) hidden by the continuity in the architecture and iconography of the temple itself.

In order to study these changes, a ceramic sequence was developed from stratigraphic excavations in the habitation areas and dated using radiometric measurements. While this chronological tool remains crude, it is sufficient to provide a broad overview of many of the changes that occurred at Chavfn de Huantar during the late Initial Period and Early Horizon. It consists of three phases: the Urabarriu phase (approx. 900-500 cal BC), the Chakinani phase (approx. 500-400 cal BC) and the Janabarriu phase (approx. 400-250 cal BC). During the Urabarriu phase, there were two small residential areas—one next to the Huachecsa River just north of the Old Temple and one 600 m to the north on the other side of the Huacheca (and beneath the modern town of Chavfn de Huantar). A third area utilized during the Urabarriu phase was located 200 m further north and was associated with a wall of massive stones which crosses the valley where it narrows. This wall was almost 1 m high and 7 m thick, and it runs for at least 160 m. Burger hypothesized that this wall could have served to limit movement through the valley, but Wilhelm Diessl (2004) has collected additional data on similar walls in this zone and he believes that they formed a gigantic enclosure measuring 900 by 1000 m. Whatever the case, based on the available evidence it would be hard to argue for a population at or near the temple of more than a few hundred people. It is significant, however, that the occupation spanned both sides of the Huachecsa, which is impassable during rainy season without a bridge.

The Urabarriu phase refuse provided evidence of an economy based on hunting of deer and wild camelids, as well as herded llamas, and the animals consumed were butchered in the settlement itself. Isotopic studies indicate that maize was being consumed but

That the bulk of the diet consisted of C3 plants, probably potatoes and other high altitude crops (Burger and Van der Merwe 1990). Although the tools used were made of local raw materials, there is ample evidence for contact with distant communities in the highlands and coast, including ceramics from Huanuco, Casma, Chicama and even Pacopampa. There are also mussel and clam shells and fish bone from the Pacific coast. The subsequent Chakinani phase is marked by the abandonment of the two northernmost zones of activity and the concentration of residences around the temple itself, although the north side of the Huachecsa continued to be occupied. In terms of the economy, there was a sharp decline in hunted animals, and domesticated llamas became the principal source of meat in the diet (Miller and Burger 1995). The evidence for long-distance contacts continued with an increase in the kinds of clams, mussels and fish being brought from the coast as well as various kinds of exotic pottery, including from Cajamarca (Burger 1984).

During the Janabarriu Phase there is a population explosion extending along the west bank of the Mosna both to the south and the north of the temple. Recent research has uncovered substantial evidence of occupation on the eastern bank of the Mosna as well. This occupation may have covered some 40 ha and the population could have reached 2,000 to 3,000 individuals or more. This settlement constitutes a proto-urban pattern without clear precedent. It is interesting—given this concentration of population around the center—that there is increasing evidence for specialization and social differentiation. In terms of food, the pattern of maize consumption appears to remain the same but the pattern of meat consumption undergoes a transformation. People living in high altitude villages now produced llama meat for consumption by the residents of Chavin de Huantar; they sent down only select cuts of meat, often in the form of dried meat packages. Rather than using local cherts for chipped tools, the valley population began provisioning itself with obsidian brought from southern Ayacucho, located some 500km to the south (Burger and Glascock 2000).

For the Janabarriu Phase, there is clear status differentiation in the remains of the settlement: the area immediately to the west of the monumental core contains high prestige materials, while the zone on other side of the Huachecsa River either lacks these materials or contains them in much lower quantities. In the high status zone, excavations recovered finely crafted gold jewelry, cinnabar from south-central Peru and Spondylus shell from Ecuador, as well as greater quantities of exotic pottery and foods (Burger 1984, 1998). It is particularly telling that while all groups relied on the consumption of llamas for their protein, the high status group ate younger, more tender animals than those living in the lower status residential zone (Miller and Burger 1995). There was also some evidence for activity differentiation with possible evidence of hide preparation in the low status area and for the preparation of Spondylus shell jewelry in the high status zone. In a detailed petrographic study of ceramics from Chavin de Huantar, Isabel Druc (2004) concluded that there was a more diverse and intense local production of pottery during the Janabarriu phase. In summary, during the Janbarriu Phase there is a notable increase in the size and complexity of the population living around the temple area, and this growth is probably a function of the increasing success of the temple itself both in attracting visitors (i. e., pilgrims) and in creating the conditions for increased long-distance trade from which Chavin de Huantar was an important beneficiary. The ability to rely on outsiders for meat production, lithic raw materials and even 30-40% of the pottery utilized was a remarkable achievement and was a testament to the exceptional wealth and power of the site. In my view, the Janabarriu Phase can be correlated with the construction of the New Temple, including the Black and White Portal and the Rectangular Plaza (Burger 1984, 1992). Not coincidentally, these architectural additions greatly enhanced the temple’s ability to accommodate visitors in their ceremonial activities.

Within the Mosna drainage, the Chavfn de Huantar ceremonial-civic complex is much larger than any other known Initial Period or Early Horizon site. The pioneering explorations of Tello and Espejo (Tello 1960; Espejo 1951, 1955) have now been supplemented by the more systematic surveys in the drainage by Hernan Amat (1971, 1976), Wilhelm Diessl (2003, 2004) and Bebel Ibarra (2003). These studies reveal that while there are numerous small mounds with stone terracing distributed along the valley slopes and small residential settlements on ridges near the upper limits of agriculture, there apparently are no equivalent pyramid complex equivalent to or even similar to Chavfn de Huantar. Indeed, the settlement pattern suggests a small city-state or complex chiefdom with Chavfn de Huantar at its center. The cohesion of these different settlements is, in part, suggested by the presence of stone sculptures carved in the characteristic Chavfn style representing the same supernatural figures that are shown so prominently at the center. My excavations at Pojoc, one of the small villages above Chavfn de Huantar, uncovered additional evidence of Chavfn ceremonial activities at these high altitude sites (Burger 1983). Similarly, the presence of exotic shell and stone in these small sites, as well the results of the faunal analysis (Miller and Burger 1995), suggest a strong interdependency between Chavfn de Huantar and the smaller sites surrounding it within the Mosna drainage (Burger 1983).

The large size of Chavfn de Huantar and its massive public constructions appear to be unique in highland Ancash. Fieldwork in the neighboring Chacas, Maribamba and Yanamayo valleys, also located within the Callejon de Conchucos region, has encountered sites like the second and third tier settlements in the Mosna, but has failed to find centers comparable to Chavfn de Huantar (Herrera 2003; Orsini 2003; see also Burger 2002). To the west of the Mosna in the agriculturally rich Callejon de Huaylas Valley, formed by the highland section of the Santa Valley, many small Initial Period and Early Horizon sites have been located.

Many of them, even those with evidence of public constructions, are quite modest in scale, rarely exceeding a few hectares (e. g., Burger and Salazar 1985). Tumshucaico is a conspicuous exception to this statement but recent excavations there by Alberto Bueno (2003) led him to conclude that the public constructions there date to the Late Preceramic, many centuries prior to Chavfn de Huantar’s establishment. Another center, Pomacayan, has been so badly destroyed by later occupations and the expansion of Huaraz that it is impossible to estimate its original size. One of the few large sites in highland Ancash with an important Initial Period and/or Early Horizon component is Chupacoto near the town of Huaylas, but no systematic investigations have ever been carried out there (Burger 1992:123; Thompson 1962).

At the present time, Chavfn de Huantar appears to have been a unique center of power and complexity within the Ancash highlands. The emulation of Chavfn de Huantar’s iconography and ceramic style by other sites in highland Ancash attests to the site’s special regional importance, as does the adaptation of Chavin’s religious art in stone and bone (Tello 1960; Diessel 2004; Burger 1983,1993).