The founding of the Inca provincial center of Tambo Viejo, Acarí, Perú

Abstract

The Peruvian south coast was one of the regions annexed into the Inca state by diplomatic means. Tambo Viejo was the Inca center built in the Acarí Valley, which marks the southern boundary of the region. Building upon some dates found in ethnohistorical documents, the late John H. Rowe asserted that the Inca conquest of the region likely took place about AD 1476. Recent archaeological research at Tambo Viejo enabled us to secure AMS dates. The calibrated dates and Bayesian model suggest that the starting boundary of Inca occupation of Tambo Viejo began as early as ∼AD 1380, while the ending boundary is ∼AD 1510. The dates are earlier that Rowe's expected dates, but in line with other 14C dates from elsewhere the empire. What is clear is that the date is several decades earlier than the traditional chronology and agrees with the document known as Relación de Chincha.

La costa sur del Perú fue una de las regiones anexada por el estado Inca, la misma que se habría dado de forma diplomática. Tambo Viejo fue el centro construido en el valle de Acarí que marca la frontera sur de la región. En base a la información encontrado en algunas fuentes etnohistóricas, John H. Rowe acertó que la conquista Inca debió haber ocurrido alrededor del año 1476. Una reciente investigación arqueológica efectuada en Tambo Viejo permitió obtener fechados de AMS. Los fechados calibrados y modelo Bayesiano sugieren que la ocupación Inca de Tambo Viejo empezó alrededor del año ∼AD 1380, mientras que el límite final se enmarca alrededor de ∼AD 1510. Estas fechas son más tempranas de lo sugerido por Rowe, pero concuerdan con fechados provenientes de otras partes del imperio. Asimismo, las fechas concuerdan con los datos encontrados en el documento conocido como la Relación de Chincha.

Palabras claves:

• Estado Inca
• Costa sur del Perú
• Valle de Acarí
• Tambo Viejo
• Fechados de radiocarbono

Acknowledgements

Research at Tambo Viejo was carried out with authorization from the Peruvian Ministerio de Cultura (Resolución Directorial 10.13039/501100000155 086-2018/DGPA/VMPCIC/MC) and with funds granted to the first author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Grant no. 435-2017-0478 Canada. Field work was also possible thanks to the efficient participation of Marcelino Huamaní, Miguel A. Liza, Wilfred Alarcón, Katherinne Aylas, Sharmelí Manrique, Yanina Laura, Cruver Jayo, Lucie Dausse, Abel Fernández, Luis Cahuana, Karen Guzmán, Martín Roque, Nada Valdez, Modesto Canales, Brayan Guzmán, Valerie Valdez, Víctor Quintanilla, Eber Meléndez, Benjamín Guerrero, Ángel Iglesias, Rosa Mazuelo, Diana de Cárdenas, Gerson Cabello, Oscar Bendezú, Mario Ruales and Percy Rojas. Guillaume Labrecque of the Laboratoire de Radiochronologie of Université Laval conducted the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis, while David Beresford-Jones and Erik Marsh kindly assisted us with the calibration of the dates as well as with the Bayesian modeling. John Topic read an earlier draft of the paper and provided valuable comments and suggestions. Comments and suggestions were also received from Erik Marsh and an anonymous reviewer that helped to improve the original manuscript. To all of them, and to Dr. Jerry Moore, the editor of Ñawpa Pacha, our most sincere gratitude. Any shortcoming are ours alone.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with a minor change. This change does not affect the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In a subsequent paper, Rowe wrote:“While I have become less, rather than more, certain of the possibility of correlating traditional dynasty lists with archaeological periods since American Antiquity published my paper on the subject, the possibility is still worth exploring in an area where we have so few absolute dates to go on” (Rowe 1948: 51).

2 The excavation of the two structures discussed here was only the beginning of three seasons of field work at Tambo Viejo. Our original plan was to excavate several buildings to gain a better perspective of the role of Tambo Viejo within the Inca empire. However, the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has totally disrupted out initial plan and prevented us from continuing with field research. Currently, we are still uncertain when we will be able to return to the field and continue with this research. Once that happens, we will be collecting samples of organic samples of short life-span such as guinea pig bones and seeds for the purpose of radiocarbon dating.

3 Additional information is found in Garcilaso de la Vega (1989:162), who offers a different version from Cieza de León and Cabello Balboa and states that Acarí (Hacari) was the “place where the Incas reached the coastal plain” and its inhabitants were “easily reduced to obedience by the Incas.” According to this account, from Acarí the Inka army continued southward along the coast. In another part, Garcilaso de la Vega (1989:177) states that from the province of Rucana (Lucanas) the Inka “went down to the seacoast […] and reached the first valley in that direction, called Nanasca” (Nazca). These incorporations seemingly took place during the reign of the fifth Inka, CápacYupanqui. It is reported that in the incorporation of Nazca, a Prince named Inca Roca participated. Finally, during the reign of Pachakuti, the nineth Inka, the Inka army traveled from the province called Rucanas to Nanasca, from where the Inka dispatched messages to the valley of Ica, whose inhabitants “decided to receive the Inca as their lord, since they had heard and seen how mildly the Incas governed from their long proximity to Nanasca … ” (Garcilaso de la Vega 1989:349). If this information is accurate, the valleys of Acarí, Nazca and Ica were annexed at different times, where Acarí appears to be the first to have been absorbed into Inka control. Again, if this information is valid, Tambo Viejo in the Acarí Valley perhaps was the first Inka center built on the coastal region.

4 It is important to stress that following Cieza de León (1959:346), who asserted that the Chincha kingdom developed a powerful armed force and made incursions into the highlands and raided the Rucanas and the Soras, including the “large province of the Colla,” researchers tend to believe that the Chincha attacked the Lake Titicaca basin (see Julien 2008: 167; Bongers 2019:84). Considering that the Inca center built in the Ingenio Valley, just north of the Nazca Valley, was called Tambo de Collao (see Menzel 1959: 128–129), it appears that Cieza de León’s reference is to this neighboring coastal valley, that is geographically adjacent to the Rucanas and the Soras, and thus not to the Lake Titicaca region. Indeed, Cieza de León does not mention Lake Titicaca; instead, his reference is to “the large province of the Colla” (Cieza de León 1959:346) or “la gran provincial de Collao” (Cieza de León 1945: 208)

5 The excavated structures had been reused as stables perhaps from as early as the arrival of the Spanish thus the contexts representing the most recent Inka occupation of Tambo Viejo were severely disturbed. Excavation of other structures found beyond the plazas and where reoccupation perhaps had less impact may result in samples that can potentially extend the end boundary of Inka occupation of the site.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 435-2017-0478].

Notes on contributors

Lidio M. Valdez

LM Valdez, Peruvian-born archaeologist, completed his undergraduate studies at the colonial Universidad Nacional San Cristóbal de Huamanga, Ayacucho, Peru, and earned his doctorate from the University of Calgary, Canada. He has conducted several archaeological field studies on both the Peruvian central highlands and the South Coast. Currently he is a faculty adjunct at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary.

Katrina J. Bettcher

KJ Bettcher, Australian-born archaeologist, completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta, Canada, and earned her MA from Trent University, Canada. She has participated in various archaeological field studies in the Peruvian central highlands as well as on the Peruvian South Coast.