Viviana Siveroni

The nature of llama caravan traffic in Nasca on the south coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period (1000–1400 AD) and the Late Horizon (1400–1532 AD) is explored in this chapter. My analysis suggest that llama caravanners in late prehispanic Nasca society share some of the characteristics commonly associated with other caravanner groups found across environmentally similar desert zones further south in the Andes. Physical evidence from excavations at the late prehispanic settlement of Huayuri points to caravans in Nasca being organized in the lowlands. An analysis of various indicators from the excavations at Huayuri, including the presence of ceramic bells, strongly suggests involvement by some of Huayuri’s households in the organization of llama caravans. Faunal assemblages and artifacts provide further insights into the role these caravanners played in late prehispanic Nasca society. Finally, the regional distribution of similar bells suggests that caravanner groups comparable to Huayuri’s were involved in supplying cargo services from Ica, Nasca, and Acari to other Inca Road stations across the south coast of Peru.

En los Andes, el tema del tráfico caravanero prehispánico ha sido ampliamente estudiado especialmente en el norte de Chile y en el noroeste argentino. En el Perú, en cambio, las investigaciones arqueológicas tradicionalmente llegaron sólo a esbozar aspectos muy generales de los modos de explotación de los rebaños de camélidos. Recientemente, varios investigadores han aportado nuevas propuestas sobre el modo de tenencia de camélidos durante la época prehispánica en la Costa Norte, los que se basan en buena cuenta en estudios isotópicos de colecciones óseas. Este artículo pretende aportar al tema añadiendo detalles sobre otro caso prehispánico diferente de tenencia de camélidos, esta vez de la Costa Sur peruana. El punto de partida de esta reconstrucción son las primeras evidencias arqueológicas de campanas cerámicas
de la cuenca norte del río Grande de Nasca, la que se complementa con información de ejemplares adicionales provenientes de otros sitios de la región. Este grupo inicial de campanas proviene del sitio arqueológico Ciudad Perdida de Huayuri, en la quebrada de Santa Cruz, y se asocia particularmente al Horizonte Tardío (1470-1532 AD). Luego de un análisis del contexto en las que se encontró, sostengo que las campanas cerámicas se usaron como campanas de llamas (Lama glama) o cencerros, y a la luz de información etnográfica, su presencia en Huayuri sugiere la participación de las unidades domésticas en la organización del tráfico caravanero. A un nivel interpretativo más general, y a la luz de documentos coloniales tempranos y de la distribución espacial de los ejemplares adicionales, se sugiere la existencia de un
eje de circulación norte-sur a lo largo de la costa atravesando el desierto de Nasca e Ica, quizá extendiéndose desde Ica al norte hasta Arequipa al sur.
Palabras clave: tráfico caravanero, campanas de cerámica, cencerros, camélidos, unidades domésticas, Huayuri, Nasca, Costa Sur del Perú
Abstract
CERAMIC BELLS AS INDICATORS OF LLAMA CARAVAN TRAFFIC IN LATE PREHISPANIC NASCA,
PERU
The topic of Prehispanic llama caravan trade has been widely examined in the archaeology of Northern Chile and Norwestern Argentina. Comparatively speaking, in Peru the topic has been previously explored only minimally. Recently, research based on bone isotope analyses from sites in the North Coast of Peru is adding to our knowledge of Prehispanic camelid herd management systems. The present article aims at advancing yet a different case of camelid herd exploitation, this time from the South Coast of Peru. This interpretation stems from the first evidence of ceramic
bells from Huayuri, a Late Prehispanic Nasca settlement (1100-1532 AD) with a clear Late Horizon occupation (1470 – 1532 AD), and is complemented with information of other examples from the region not formally reported before. After presenting the context of the findings, I propose these ceramic bells were llama bells. As suggested by ethnographies of llama (Lama glama) herders, the presence of these bells in the domestic area of the site strongly suggests a direct involvement of some of Huayuri’s domestic units in the organization of the caravans. At a more general level, descriptions from colonial documentation and the regional distributions of additional bells, support the idea a north south axis of circulation crossing the deserts of Ica and Nasca, from Tacaraca in Ica to Arequipa to the south of Nasca.
Keywords: Andean caravans, Llama bells, household organization, South American camelids, herder’s residences, Huayuri, Nasca, South Coast of Peru

Richard Burger has defined the “Kostosh Religious Tradition” (KTR) as an architectural tradition that assembles a number of presumably religious structures of the Late Preceramic and Formative Period of the Central and North Highlands of Peru. The distinctive architectural feature of these KTR “temples” is a chamber with central hearth. Burger suggests that religious rituals staged in these structures provided an arena for social integration and expression of spiritual experience rather than for contestation, manipula­tion, and domination. Based on a comparative analysis of domestic architecture from the Early Formative site of Monte Grande, I propose that many of these presumably ritual structures may originally have been the residences of influential members of the early communities rather than temples. Some, particularly the larger ones, may have evolved into temples later on. This alternative interpretation of KTR architecture has profound implications for our understanding of the path to social complexity in the Formative Central Highlands of Peru.

Key words: ritual; Andean Preceramic period; Kotosh temples, aggrandizers; social inequality; analogy;