An Aguada Textile in an Atacamenian Context William J
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Andean Past Volume 8 Article 21 2007 An Aguada Textile in an Atacamenian Context William J. Conklin [email protected] Barbara Mallon Conklin American Museum of Natural History (retired), [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Conklin, William J. and Conklin, Barbara Mallon (2007) "An Aguada Textile in an Atacamenian Context," Andean Past: Vol. 8 , Article 21. Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past/vol8/iss1/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Andean Past by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN AGUADA TEXTILE IN AN ATACAMENIAN CONTEXT WILLIAM J CONKLIN Field Museum BARBARA MALLON CONKLIN American Museum of Natural History (retired) INTRODUCTION 1961). Stylistic analysis of the artifacts in these burials suggested to Le Paige that the burials Thousands of ancient burials surround the indicated the characteristics of the early inhabit- Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama and ants of the adjacent neighborhoods. Le Paige make a mute statement about its ancient impor- once told these authors (personal communica- tance. Atacama, the name of the altiplanic tion 1976) that he believed the San Pedro desert, seems to be a word that occurs in the inhabitants represented by the burials with Kunza language (Mostny 1954:139-140; Lehnert Tiwanaku artifacts had not only been influenced 1994:18-19) spoken by the people who inhab- by Tiwanaku but had actually assisted the ited this portion of the northern Chilean and people of Tiwanaku in the development of their Argentinean highlands and who formed what iconography–that the relationship between San Wendell Bennett (1946) and Max Uhle(1913a, Pedro and Tiwanaku was a two-way street. 1913b) called the once extensive Atacama Subsequent scholars, understandably, have been culture. Perhaps the word culture in this case much less certain of those connections. requires some consideration for the desert itself, although apparently uninhabited, has traces of Nevertheless, the extent and richness of the nomadism with rock art along apparent valley data in the San Pedro burials exceed that of any routes. The word culture refers then, in this other cemetery in South America. Each burial case, to the network of oasis-focused villages characteristically contains a clothing-covered with their extensive connecting trails. body that had been placed in a seated position within a pit. The burials often have evidence of The burials discussed in this paper are found the use of hallucinogens (Torres 1995). Occa- in distinct cemeteries outside of, but adjacent sionally the burials contain textiles or other to, the ayllus or ethnic neighborhoods that artifacts that by their iconography or structure constitute the town of San Pedro de Atacama. seem alien to the local traditions and seem to Although both Max Uhle (1913a) and Wendell have been designed and constructed far from Bennett (1934) and others had previously their burial location. This paper is concerned explored in the vicinity of San Pedro, the dis- not with a characteristic inhumation, but with covery of the pattern of these edge-of town one of these apparently unique burials. It ex- burials and their naming based on their ayllu plores the implications emanating from the adjacency was the work of R.P. Gustavo Le burial contents. Paige, S.J., a priest and self-taught archaeologist and founder of the town’s museum (Lanzarotti ANDEAN PAST 8 (2007): 407-447. ANDEAN PAST 8 (2007) - 408 HYPOTHESES ON THE FUNCTION OF SAN Although Tiwanaku certainly had cultural PEDRO DE ATACAMA influence on both local textile and ceramic traditions, there is no physical architectural Probably the most widely-accepted explana- evidence, i.e., no Tiwanaku stone carvings, tion for the seemingly anomalous textiles or buildings or palaces, to support the sovereignty other artifacts occasionally found at San Pedro claim. These exist in known Tiwanaku colonies, is the following: the cluster of oasis-based ayllus such as the one in Peru’s Moquegua Valley that make up the present town of San Pedro de (Goldstein 1993) and in other Tiwanaku colo- Atacama formed, in ancient times, a populous nies. desert trading post. Surrounded as it is by the vast Atacama desert, but being itself a well- To better understand the different interpre- watered oasis at 2463 meters in elevation, San tations of San Pedro grave goods, the reader can Pedro was a crossing point of the many desert consider a parallel between ancient San Pedro trails (Bowman 1924, Browman 1974) of the and the even-more ancient city of Petra, the vast Andean altiplano used by caravans of carved-in-stone Nabatean city whose ruins are people and camelids carrying products (Figure in present-day Jordan. Neither Petra nor San 1). San Pedro is, however, totally without any Pedro de Atacama had much surrounding architectural statement of centralized power, agricultural land, nor did either have valuable having no palaces, pilgrimage centers, monu- exportable natural resources. However, both ments, or ancient plazas. The sporadic distribu- were on very important trade routes and both, tion and variety of foreign textiles and other in their time, were flourishing settlements. We artifacts in San Pedro burials tends, we believe, can compare what we know about their locatio- to support the concept of San Pedro as a nexus nal characteristics and some of their characteris- of what we could properly call the Atacama tic products. San Pedro was a focal point of alti- network. This network was without a peripheral planic caravans. Petra was an important stop on boundary and without a hierarchical social the Silk Road. In the case of San Pedro and the structure that could impose its own style or Tiwanaku culture, hallucinogenic materials were beliefs. Yet, it was more than a series of simple important. This is confirmed by their extensive trading posts. It was a web that permitted a far- presence in San Pedro graves. However, the reaching, two-way exchange of ideas and prod- source of hallucinogens was far to the east of the ucts. altiplano (Torres 1986:49). This suggests that hallucinogenic materials could well have been Foreign textiles found in various San Pedro one of the valuable items exchanged in San burial grounds include textiles representative of Pedro. Petra caravans carried, among other the Tiwanaku culture and many alien, and as products, “frankincense and myrrh and the most yet culturally unidentified textiles. These foreign valuable kinds of spices” from far eastern textiles and other foreign artifacts found in the sources. From Petra they were shipped on to burials have been used by the first author Greece and Italy, “where they were highly (Conklin 1998) to depict the apparent wide- valued for a range of uses, including religious ranging contacts of the various buried individu- rituals, medicines, beauty products, and cook- als. Such contacts support the network nexus ing” (Augé and Dentzer 2000:39). interpretation of San Pedro’s role. Yet, the presence of Tiwanaku textiles in graves has However, even the presence of foreign- caused other scholars to interpret San Pedro as styled architecture in an archaeological site does a village occupied by colonizers (Rodman 1992). not prove the presence of an occupying power. 409 - Conklin & Conklin: An Aguada textile In the case of Petra, the predominant and Le Paige, the founder of the museum, but re- fabulous Greco-Roman architecture was not numbered in 1983. there because the city was part of the Roman Empire, but because the Greco-Roman style of The textiles surrounding and worn by this architecture was widely popular and respected at mummy were in excellent condition, still strong the time. Stylistic archaeological evidence can and durable. In terms of preservation, they are be the result of many causes: both formal causes, among the best ever recovered from burials in such as an occupying power, but also informal San Pedro. The textiles covering the head ones, such as style diffusion and popularity, showed limited deterioration, suggesting infiltra- confusing as that may be to the archaeologist tion of only small amounts of moisture from the seeking an understanding of cultural relations soil above. This, in turn, suggests that the through the study of artifact styles. mummy had been buried in topography that did not permit the accumulation of surface water. The primary artifactual evidence supporting The Quitor burial grounds are on a generally this paper is from a San Pedro burial. Its textiles well-drained hillside. seem unmistakably to have come from the ancient Aguada culture of what is now north- The mummy, stored in a museum store- western Argentina.1 Nevertheless we must use room, was in the seated position that is charac- care in discussing its meaning both for San teristic of all San Pedro mummies. This posture Pedro culture and for its own home culture. has been imaginatively referred to as the fetal position by many archaeologists because of its MUMMY QUITOR 2, 1983:15 resemblance to the position of an unborn child in the womb. A far more probable explanation In the course of our research, we examined has recently been developed by the physical mummies housed in the storerooms of the anthropologist, María Antonietta Costa (per- Museo Arqueológico R.P. Padre Gustavo Le sonal commmunication 1990). She has noted Paige S. J., at the Universidad Católica del that the burial position of the mummies in San Norte, in San Pedro de Atacama. Our broad Pedro should be called the sleeping position, goal was to investigate textile typologies present because of physical anthropological evidence of in San Pedro.