Chiquitoy Viejo: An Inca Administrative Center in the Chicama
Valley, Peru
Geoffrey W. Conrad
Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring, 1977), pp.
1-18.
Stable
URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-4690%28197721%294%3A1%3C1%3ACVAIAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
Journal of Field Archaeology is currently published by Boston
University.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of
JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions
of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior
permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or
multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR
archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this
work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/journals/boston.html.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the
same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of
such transmission.
The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for
long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and
scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is
supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and
foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit
organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take
advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding
JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
http://www.jstor.orgFri Dec 14 23:02:20 2007ChiquitoyViejo: An
Inca Administrative Center in the Chicama Valley, Peru
Geoffrey W. Conrad
Harvard University
Until recently most knowledge of Inca government was derived
solely from Colonial Spanish chronicles, which contain only
generalized, idealized accounts. Lately, however, investigations at
several sites have begun to provide data that will ultimately
permit a more detailed picture of the complexity and variability of
Inca provincial administration.One provincial regionfor which some
archaeological data are now available isthe North Coast of Peru,
once the seat of the Incas' most powerful rival, the Kingdom
ofChimor. Excavations at Chiquitoy Viejo in the Chicama Valley have
identified the site as an Inca administrative center established
for the supervision of commerce along the empire's coastal highway.
More specifically, it is argued that one of Chiquitoy Viejo's
principal functions was the inspection ofshipmentsof high-status
goods being sent from the Chimu heartland to the Inca capital at
Cuzco. This function made the site a strong and direct symbol of
the Inca subjuga tion ofChimor. Furthermore, the existence of
Chiquitoy Viejo shows that the prevailing interpretation of the
Inca government of the North Coast, which postulates minimal
interference with native Chimu administrative patterns, mustbe
modified. I
IntroductionDespite an existence spanning less than a century,
the Inca Empire became the largest political unit ever formed in
the native Americas. Around 1438 A.C., the traditional date for the
beginning of imperial expansion, Inca leaders governed only a
small, tribal nation in the
I. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 40th
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Dallas,
Texas, May 1975. The fieldwork on which it is based was carried out
in Oc tober and November, 1971, as part of the research program of
the Chan Chan-Moche Valley Project (1969-1975), directed by Drs. M.
Edward Moseley and Carol J. Mackey. The project was sponsored by
the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, funded by the National
Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, and
authorized by the Republic of Peru under Resoluciones Supremas Nos.
0203 and 857. My own participation (summer 1970, June 1971- June
1972) was made possible by a National Science Foundation Graduate
Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Training Grant, and the Sinclair
Kennedy Fund of Harvard University. I would especially like to
thank Luis Watanabe M. of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San
Marcos for his assistance during the excavations at Chiquitoy
Viejo; Japhet Rosell, Carlos Felipe, Miguel Alvarez, and German
Ocas for drafting the iIlustrations; George Robert Lewis and S.
Whitney Powell for preparing the final figures; and Drs. Moseley,
Richard W. Keatinge, and Craig Morris for their aid and advice dur
ing the preparation of this paper.
Cuzco area of the South Peruvian Highlands. By 1532A.C., when
their empire fell to its Spanish conquerors, the Incas dominated
the Andean highlands and coast from northern Ecuador to NW
Argentina and central Chile.2Colonial Spanish chronicles indicate
that Inca expansion was accompanied by the development of a complex
bureaucracy and a sophisticated system of provincial
administration. However, modern authorities on An dean culture
history agree that the Inca provincial ad ministrative system
described in those chronicles represents an ideal. At the time of
the Conquest of Peru the system as described by the Spanish
characterized the area around the imperial capital at Cuzco, but it
was still incompletely established elsewhere.' In fact, provincial
administrative patterns displayed regional variations
2. John H. Rowe, "Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Con
quest," Handbook of South American Indians 2 (Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin 143 [Washington 1946]) 201-209.
3. Ibid. 183; John V. Murra, "On Inca Political Structure,"
Systems of Political Control and Bureaucracy in Human Socieites,
ed., Verne F. Ray (American Ethnological Society 1958) 36; Dorothy
Menzel, "The Inca Occupation of the South Coast of Peru," SWJA 15
(1959) 25.
Journal of Field Archaeologyf Vol. 4,19773
2 Chiquitoy Viejo: An Inca Administrative Center/Conrad
that were only minimally discussed by the
chroniclers.Furthermore, with several important exceptions, most
ethnohistorical and archaeological studies of Inca organization
have also been concerned with the Cuzco area.' As a result. for
most provincial regions there are still only scattered scraps of
information on the details of Inca administration.The purpose of
this paper is to provide some new data on the Inca government of
one conquered region, the North Coast of Peru. Those data are the
results of ex cavations in 1971 at the Inca administrative center
of Chiquitoy Viejo in the Chicama Valley. After present ing some
brief background information, I will describe the site and then
offer an interpretation of its function. Finally, I will discuss
some of the site's broader im plications for the Inca
administration of the North Coast (and, by extension, of other
provincial regions).
Background
Inca Provincial AdministrationSince detailed accounts of what is
known about Inca provincial administration are available
elsewhere,' only a brief characterization will be given here.Inca
provinces were divided into a series of hierar chically ordered
territorial and population units, each led by a provincial
functionary who was, whenever possible, a member of the hereditary
local nobility.
4. Notable exceptions include Menzel, op. cit. (in note 3);
Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Curacas y Sucesiones: Costa
Norte (Lima 1961); John V. Murra, "An Archaeological 'Restudy' of
an Andean Ethnohistoric Account," AmAnt 28 (1962) 1-4; idem, "Una
Apreciacion Etnologica de la Visita," Visita Hecha a la Provincia
de Chucuito ... en el Ano 1567; Garci Diaz de San Miguel
(Documentos Regionales para la Ethnologia y Etnohistoria Andina,
No. 1 [Lima1964]) 421-444; idem, "La Visita de los Chupacu como
Fuente Etnologica," Visita de la Provincia de Leon de Hudnuco,
Volume I, Inigo Ortiz de Zuniga (Documentos para la Historia y
Etnologia de Hudnuco y la Selva Central [H uanuuco 1967]) 381-406;
Donald E. Thompson, "An Archeological Evaluation of Ethnohistoric
Evidence on Inca Culture," Anthropological Archeology in the
Americas. ed., Betty J. Meggers (Washington 1968) 108-120; Craig
Morris and Donald E. Thompson, "Huanuco Viejo: An Inca
Administrative Center," AmAnt 35 (1970) 344-362; Craig Morris,
"State Settlements in Tawantinsuyu: A Strategy of Compulsory
Urbanism," Contemporary Archaeology: A Guide to Theory and
Contributions, ed., Mark P. Leone (Carbondale 1972) 393-401;
Patricia J. Netherly, "Los Senores Tardios en la Costa y Sierra
Norte" (Paper read at the SegundoCongreso Peruano del Hombre y la
Cultura Andina, Trujillo, 1974);Tom D. Dillehay, "Upstairs Looking
Down: A Geographic Perspective of Inca Activity in the Chillon
Valley, Peru" (Paper read at the40th Annual Meeting of the Society
for American Archaeology, Dallas, 1975).5. See especially Rowe, op.
cit. (in note 2) 257-274, and Murra, op. cit. (in note 3).
These administrators served as the immediate super visors of a
set of reciprocal obligations between the state and the local
community. The basic unit of provincial administration was the
taxpayer, or able-bodied adult male head-of-household. Taxes levied
upon those per sons were called mit'a and took the form of labor
obligations to the state.
Inca Roads and Roadside SitesProvinces were connected by an
extensive system of roads (many of which had pre-Inca origins). Two
main highways ran the length of the empire, one along the coast and
the other through the highlands. The two highways were connected at
intervals by transverse roads; settlements were linked to the
highways by branch roads, lesser roads, and paths. Use of the roads
was restricted to persons traveling on official business, and the
movement of goods along the network was un der state
supervision."Most of our knowledge of Inca installations along the
highways comes from the highlands, where two major types of sites
are found. The first type consists of small sites known as tampu,
or way-stations for the use of of ficials traveling on state
business. The second is com posed of larger sites that are usually
given the broad designation "administrative centers;" the best
known example is Huanuco Pampa in the North-Central Highlands.
Investigations at Huanuco Pampa have shown that such sites served
as centers of government, religion, craft production, and storage.
The large ad ministrative centers were separated by distances of
four to six days' travel on foot; tampu lay between them at in
tervals representing a convenient day's journey. 7
The North Coast of PeruThe archaeological region known as the
North Coast of Peru is a 350-km. strip of desert interrupted by 10
oasis river valleys, from the Casma Valley to the Lam bayeque
drainage (FIG. I). During the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1476
A.C.) this region was the heartland of the Chimu Empire, or Kingdom
of Chimor.The Chimu 'capital was Chan Chan in the MocheValley (FIG.
2).8 From legendary beginnings in the thirteenth century A.C. the
dynasty of Chimu rulers based in Chan Chan eventually expanded
their control over more than 1,000 km. of coast stretching from
the
6. Rowe, op. cit. (in note 2) 229-230, 270-271.
7. Rowe, op. cit. (in note 2) 231; Morris, op. cit. (in note 4)
394.
8. For descriptions of Chan Chan and other Chimu settlements in
the Moche Valley see Margaret A. Hoyt and M. Edward Moseley, "The
Burr Frieze: A Rediscovery at Chan Chan," Nawpa Pacha 7-8
(1971)41-58; Kent C. Day, "Urban Planning at Chan Chan, Peru,"
Man.
JEQUETEPEQUE .:
SANTA' ....
NORTH COAST OF PERU
o 50 100 KM
Figure 1. Map of the North Coast of Peru.
Settlement, and Urbanism, eds., P. J. Ucko, R. Tringham, and G.
W. Dimbleby (London 1972) 927-930; M. Edward Moseley and Carol J.
Mackey, "Chan Chan, Peru's Ancient City of Kings," NatGeog 143
(1973) 318-354; Kent C. Day, "Architecture of Ciudadela Rivero,
Chan Chan, Peru" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1973);
Richard W. Keatinge and Kent C. Day, "Socio-Economic Organiza tion
of the Moche Valley, Peru, During the Chimu Occupation of Chan
Chan," JAR 29 (1973) 275-295; Richard W. Keatinge and Kent C. Day,
"Chan Chan: A Study of Precolumbian Urbanism and the Management of
Land and Water Resources in Peru," Archaeology 27 (1974) 228-235;
M. Edward Moseley and Carol J. Mackey, Twenty Four Architectural
Plans of Chan Chan, Peru (Cambridge 1974); Anthony P. Andrews, "The
U-Shaped Structures at Chan Chan, Peru," JFA 1 (1974) 241-264; M.
Edward Moseley, "Chan Chan: An dean Alternative of the
Preindustrial City," Science 187 (1975) 219-225; Richard W.
Keatinge, "Urban Settlement Systems and RuralSustaining
Communities: An Example from Chan Chan's Hinterland," JFA 2 (1975)
215-227.
NEPENA .