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Report for posting on WWW website. Other than Agent 109 representing a Cajamarca ethnicity, another possible event is being proposed here. The event focuses on the probability that the ethnic identity of Agent 109 represents the Huancavilcas of .

Who were the Huancavilcas?

At the time of conquest, the Huancavilcas occupied the Ecuadorian coastal area of Guayaquil Bay with the Isla de Puná and west through the Santa Elena Peninsula whereas the regions north are considered the Manteño heartland though with their possible dominance over the Huancavilcas (McEwan and Delgado-Espinoza 2008: 509-510; Stothert 2001: 251-271). Among the hundreds of post-colonial drawings by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala there are three depicting males who wear nose rings and (Guaman Poma 1615/1616: 163, 246, 386), and have simple caps or a headband tied in front. One is shown as a cargadore with ropes around the shoulders (IBID: 246) and another designates tribes that the Inca subdued as represented by captain, Challco Chima (IBID: 183). Among the named tribes (Chachapoya, Cañari, Ciccho, Puruuay, Cico, Chupaycho) is “Guanca Bilca” or Huancavilca (Sarmiento [1999]:171). The third depicts Inca Atahualpa at the city of Cajamarca as he sits on his usnu or throne listening to Fray Vicente (IBID: 386). At the right is their legua or interpreter, Felipe, with a raised hand pointing upward. The accompanying text describes him as yndio Guanca Vilca or Huancavilca native and this image confirms the same ethnic traits in the other drawings. More precisely, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (1988 [1941]: 116) in reference to Garcilaso de la Vega wrote that Felipe - aka Felipillo - was Pizarro’s famous interpreter from the isle of Puná (Gheerbrant 1961: 379). During his career Felipe’s amateur translations may have led to misunderstandings, but faulting him for conspiring against Atahualpa was the Spaniards’ scapegoating technique to assuage their horrific assassination of Atahualpa in the eyes of Emperor Charles V who was apparently appalled that lowly soldiers would kill a royal ruler (Gheerbrant 1961: 399; Hemming 1970: 82).

Based on archaeological evidence, Karen Bruhns (2011a: 14; 2011b: 20) dates the initial existence of the Huancavilca and Manteño cultures to ca. AD 800 within Ecuador’s Integration Period (AD 500-1500). Artifacts and ethnohistoric descriptions indicate that besides a loincloth or body-wrapped cloth, they usually went naked. Saville (1910:215-216) observed that most of his human figures were nude yet there was an enormous number of spindle whorls found so he suggested that their “textile art was considerably advanced”. This clothing practice was in sharp contrast to Peruvian costume even though there had to have been knowledge of each other’s dress (Bruhns 2011b: 22). Bruhns describes evidence of tattooing and that “…Along the coast, piercing of the ears, face and even nipples was practiced…” (IBID: 23). A mapping of the distribution of tattooing appears to be tied more directly to the Manteños than Huancavilcans, though the two cultures were closely tied by various traditions (Stothert 2001: 284-287, Figure 6.4.4). For the most part the Huancavilcas were ethnic cousins of the Manteños (Karen Bruhns, personal communication 2/2020). Though dated, the work of Emilio Estrada complies with the accepted opinion that the two cultures were closely akin. An example is an elegant jar with a modeled head from Salinas that Estrada assigned to the Manteño style though he suggests that it represents a Huancavilca chief (Estrada 1957: 32, 40, Figuras 14, 18). He mentions the nose as common on the coast. Significantly for this discussion, he describes the outer ear or pinna with multiple piercings; one for a button at the lobe and others along the helix as wire-like perforations. This ear modification differs from other Manteño modeled images of males with earspools and may be the reason Estrada recognized the image as not of a Manteño chief. An example of his distinction is a similarly shaped jar with a modeled face from Salango showing earspools that he recognized as “común el la zona norte manteña” (IBID: 76, center).

Estrada 1957

Other examples of this vessel type are illustrated by Saville (1910: Plate CXII, from Cape Santa Elena; Saville 1907: Plate LIII 6, 8) and G.H.S. Bushnell (1951: 104-106, Figs. 42e-i, from La Libertad) who stated that the faces were made from molds and more often found as jar fragments. Assuming contemporaneity, it is remarkable that Saville’s (1907: Plates L-LIV; 1910: Plates CV-CX) illustrations of human images show more details of facial modification and expression by artisans on these face-neck vessels than on the other ceramic images (e.g., whistles, figurines, etc.) where those artisans documented diversity by emphasizing clothing and headdress.

Saville 1910: Plate CXII Cape Santa Elena Bushnell 1951: Fig.42e-i La Libertad

The distinctive multiple-pierced ear modification is reflected somewhat in the punctated, curved ears on simple modeled, human heads with coffee bean eyes excavated at Pirincay approximately 250 km east in the highlands but associated with C-14 dates too early to afford an applicable reference for the Middle Horizon event of concern here (Hammond and Bruhns 1987: 53, Figure 3). This situation is also documented in the Esteros culture (Blasco and Ramos 1976: Lám. XIIa) that apparently dates before the Bahia culture dating to the first 600 – 800 AD (Bruhns 2011:30) of the Regional Development Period. Also, among the La Libertad collection of molded faces is an example of multiple ear piercings though poorly representative and with unknown cultural association (Bushnell 1951: Fig.42f). Thus, multiple ear piercing has some documentation of a tradition to the north of though no apparent concentration of evidence to any particular MH culture. The Estrada face neck jar is the only MH evidence that suggests a Huancavilca connection.

Other than the Manteño culture, there were numerous small tribal groups that comprised the Milagro-Quevedo culture to the north and Cañares in the hills to the east. With the former, their images are either similar with single ear piercing and a nose ring or, with the latter, “virtually no archaeological evidence concerning the prehistoric dress (Bruhns 2011:45). Lynn Hirschkind (2013: 45-46) correctly composes the ethnohistoric relationship that the Inca had with the Cañares as an extensive warfare (1463-1490 AD) with a sequence of advances, battles and conquest covering two Inca reigns. In fact, the Cañares continued a guerilla warfare strategy in the more distant selva regions. Her study provides insight into what the Wari may have faced in their attempt to intrude into these northern regions and thereby avoided warfare and settled for reciprocal trade relations.

To summarize, the Huancavilca ethnicity is characterized by nose rings and multiple ear piercings though the Guaman Poma depictions may indicate that multiple ear piercings of the helix were not common by conquest times. Tattooing is an expectable trait. They wore very little clothing if at all until conquest times. In the above descriptions, there is no evidence of labrets. However, Alana Cordy-Collins (2001) documents that labrets occur on female figurines playing drums in the Moche and Lambayeque cultures that represent foreigners who came from the Tallan culture in the Piura-Chira region where numerous labrets have been found. She supports this possible northern origin with reference to labret wearing by both men and women in the earlier, Ecuadorian La Tolita (600 BC - AD 400) and Jama-Coaque (350 BC - AD 400) cultures. In an exhaustive study of Peruvian figurines, Alexandra Morgan (2009: 113-114, Plate 32-33) published some of the same female figurines with labrets and agrees with a northern origin due to the labret and the hour-glass drum as uncommon in Moche art. She used Cordy-Collins’ systematic approach to iconographic analysis as useful in figurine study though she also adds that the data analysis invalidates two of Cordy-Collins (2001: 255) statements that most Moche women are shown with their hair in braids or rarely featured in Moche art before the eighth century (Morgan 2009: 20, 114).

Could MH interaction have occurred between Huancavilca and Wari agents?

In a brief though detailed history of archaeological endeavors in Ecuador, Bruhns (2008) emphasizes the need for financial and educational support to advance Ecuadorian archaeological research especially with regard to cultural relationships with pre-Inca Peruvians such as the MH Wari. She also points out that any evidence has been “perceived as Peru influencing Ecuador”. Looting in the late 1900’s produced a multi-lobed bottle found in a tomb at Chordeleg (more likely Viñaque sub-style of ‘geometric on light’ as in Menzel (1964: ftnt. 230)) and a now lost, plaque with inlays “showing a Huari style running angel” (Bruhns 2008: Figures 2 and 3; Saville 1924: Plate VIII, bottom right). Its structural layout leaves little doubt of the Wari origin such that it is a human form in profile with one arm grasping a staff, head turned upward with eye, nose, and mouth with a tongue ray ending in a serpent head, on head, a curved wing- like form at the back with ray appendages of bodiless heads and tripartite tuft, a body with a patterned belt and two legs and feet. This written description could apply to both this plaque and a Wari profile deity quite accurately, but image comparisons are starkly different in details. Perhaps the image was the result of linguistic transfer. Bruhns also mentions the famous, one-of- a-kind golden diadem of the Museo del Banco Central with Wari-like rayed head that was found about 120 km east of the Isle of Puná on the Hacienda Chunucari near the town of Sigsig (Bruhns 1998:184, Figura 2a). So, contact with the Wari is evident. However, when the Ecuadorian amateur archaeologist, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, invited Max Uhle to work in Ecuador, excavations produced very little ‘coastal Tiahuanaco’ or Wari evidence. If Agent 109 can be linked to the Huancavilcas then the direction of influence takes a more interesting turn.

Saville 2010: Plate VIII, Fig. 4

Sean Ray’s Wari ceramic collection at Hearst…100 km up Rio Pastaza from Marañon. ? Primera aproximación a las culturas precolombinas de la alta Cuenca del río Pastaza Geoffroy de Saulíeu y Carlos Duche Hidalgo

Why would the Huancavilcas participate in MH Wari events?

At the end of the Formative Period (ca.1200-300 BC), the dominated the coastal landscape from southern Columbia to northern Peru. From those earliest times to today, the labor of deep divers has been fostered to provision the unquenchable Andean demand for (S. princeps) with its thorny, red outer shell (Bruhns 2011: 15-16). This Ecuadorian trade spread south soon after gold and ceramic evidence of imports from Peru occurred during the Regional Period (BC 500 – 500 AD). Thus, spondylus divers were depicted in the art of Sicán (IBID: 42) during the Integration Period (AD 500 - 1500) when the trade had eventually come under control of the Huancavilcas and Manteño kingdoms who met the Spaniards 700 years later (IBID: 20). Stothert (2001: 260) notes that the Inca “solicitó la presencia de indios Huancavilcas para mullu camayoccuna – artesanos para elaborar la concha Spondylus – destinada al uso de su corte y religión” [what is her REFERENCE?]. Mullu or muyu is Quechua for this mollusk.

Who was or who were Agent 109? https://whowaswhowari.sdsu.edu/WWWAgents.html#109

My decision to assign artifacts to this category depended mainly on the following characteristics: multiple ear piercings, nose ring, simple headband (sometimes with a feather-like object at the forehead), black facial marks such as circles and that suggest tattooing and a labret. It is now apparent that a large loop that hung from the lobe is a Huancavilca trait by conquest times and it, too, occurs on some Agent 109 examples: Agents 109-2, 4 (there are two retratos), 9, 14, and 15. Agent 109-3 is the only example to show the detail of wire earrings in the multi-pierced helix of the ear that were obviously delicate and easily lost or removed. These physical characteristics contrast with the other agents in the MH database with regard to their head coverings - such as four-cornered hats - facial markings from tattooing or painting, clothing, ear spools and nose plugs. This contrast suggests a foreign origin beyond the borders of Wari hegemony.

Agent 109 is currently represented with 17 artifact examples, six of which provide excavated or stylistically determined proveniences from San José de Moro (with two retratos), Moche, Huarmey, Huacho, Ancón, Pachacamac, Nasca, Huari and Conchopata; thus, mostly distributed along the central and north Peruvian coasts and the Wari heartland. This distribution would support a northern affiliation such as Ecuador.

Concluding the Agent 109 identity as Huancavilca.

In sharp contrast to other MH agents’ dress, Agent 109 stands out. The example of Agent 109-1 is a modeled bottle that depicts a naked body with a and headband tied at the back. This lack of clothing supports a humid, tropical origin. However, from Wari’s neighbor to the north, is a Recuay style bottle of a naked effigy with a hat, earspools, face paint and necklace (Morgan 2012: Plate 64) (VA 48254 http://www.smb- digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=45111&view Type=detailView Accessed 2/2021). Thus, nakedness does not automatically equate to Ecuadorian origins. So other data has been presented as a process of elimination to focus on populations existing during the MH along that humid tropical coast to argue that Agent 109 was a Huancavilca participant in Wari hegemony.

Suggesting that Agent 109 probably represents a Huancavilca participant in the Wari hegemony is backed up by Agent 109-3 found on a Conchopata urn that confirms both its association and contemporaneity with several other MH agents in the Wari heartland. As mentioned, the artifact evidence covers an impressive distance among known artifact proveniences, but also chronicles a remarkable chronological participation from MH2 to MH 4 (Agent 109-16) and Chimu (Agent 109-15). This spatial and temporal longevity documents an historical agency such as authority and sustainability over crucial resources. It almost goes without saying that the Wari were major clients in the “thorny ” trade. Wari interests would most likely include barter or gifts of their material culture as found in southern Ecuador as they developed relationships with those who controlled the spondylus trade. Furthermore, Wari’s acquisition of spondylus during MH2 as the state expanded coincides with the development of the Huancavilca culture starting around 800 AD. Finally, at this time there are no other clear candidates for the origin of Agent 109 that fulfill the list of ethnic markers (multiple ear piercings, labret, tattoos, nose ring, nakedness, simple headband) or reasonably compete with the archaeological and ethnohistoric references. Given the above information, it is also obvious that future research is welcome to support or deny this probability.

Acknowledgements

During the Institute of Andean Studies meetings, I saw the Guaman Poma drawing of Atahualpa and Felipe. Felipe’s earrings and nose ring immediately caught my attention, but for the wrong reason that I was interpreting ‘Guanca Bilca’ as ‘Huancavelica’ and thought that it could add support of an origin for Agent 109 closer to the Wari heartland than Cajamarca. Ann Rowe was kind enough to correct my mistake and sent me on my way to Karen Bruhns. I owe Karen a great deal of thanks for mentoring this novice through the basics of Ecuadorian archaeology with references to her own incredible research and many others. She expertly guided me diplomatically away from several intriguing wrong paths through the literature and modern replicas of artifacts. Her help was crucial to the analysis. I hope this report opens the door to further discussion on the role of Agent 109 in Wari prehistory.

REFERENCES:

Blasco Bosqued, María Concepción y Luis J. Ramos 1976. Figuras de la Cultura Bahía (Ecuador) en el Museo de America de Madrid. Cuadernos de Prehistoría y Arqueología 3: 41-60, Madrid: Universidad Autónoma.

Bruhns, Karen Olsen 1998 Huaquería, procedencia y fantasía: los soles de oro del Ecuador. Boletín del Museo del Oro 44-45: 183-206. Bogotá. (bottle as Recuay)

2008 A Series of Unfortunate Events, or the Best Intentions thwarted: A Brief History of Archaeological Time in the Northern . Ñawpa Pacha 29:179-190. (bottle as Pachacamac) (2006 Congreso paper also has Pachacamac bottle, fig.3)

2011a An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ecuador. In Costume and History in Highland Ecuador, Rowe, Ann Pollard and Lynn A. Meisch, ed. By Ann Pollard Rowe, pp. 13-22. University of Press, Austin.

2011b Costume in Ecuador before the Incas. In Costume and History in Highland Ecuador, Rowe, Ann Pollard and Lynn A. Meisch, ed. By Ann Pollard Rowe, pp. 22-49. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Bushnell, G. H. S. 1951 The Archaeology of the Santa Elena Peninsula in South-West Ecuador. Occasional Publications of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology No.1, Cambridge, England.

Cordy-Collins, Alana 2001. Labretted Ladies: Foreign Women in Northern Moche and Lambayeque Art. Studies in the History of Art 63, Symposium Papers XL: Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru, pp. 246-257. National Gallery of Art.

Estrada, Jenny 1988 La Balsa en la historia de la navegación ecuatoriana: compilación de crónicas, estudios, gráficas y testimonios. Instituto de Historia Maritima. Ecuador. Pp.111-128.

Gheerbrant, Alain 1971 [1961]. The Incas: The Royal Commentaries of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Translated by Maria Jolas from the critical, annotated French edition, edited and introduced by Alain Gheerbrant. Discus Edition, Avon Books, New York.

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Gutiérrez Usillos, Andrés 1998. Título: Interrelación Hombre – Fauna en el Ecuador Prehispánico. Tesis Grado de Doctor. Departamento de Historia de América II (Antropología de América), Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Madrid. Accessed 2/2021: Part 1 http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044501.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22XYZ%22 },0,834,null] Part 2 http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044502.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22Fit%22}] Part 3 http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044503.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22Fit%22}] Figuras http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044504.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22XYZ%22 },0,841,null] http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044505.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22Fit%22}] http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044506.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22Fit%22}] http://webs.ucm.es/BUCM/tesis/19972000/H/0/H0044507.pdf#[1,{%22name%22:%22Fit%22}]

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Hirschkind, Lynn 2013 Historia de la Población Indígena del Cañar. Revista de Antropología 20: 24-64. Sección de Antropología Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Núcleo del Azuay, Cuenca- Ecuador.

Hirst, K. Kris 2019. Spondylus: The Pre-Columbian Use of the Thorny Oyster. ThoughtCo. Accessed 2/2021: https://www.thoughtco.com/precolumbian-use-of-the-thorny-oyster-170123

Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto 1941 El Ecuador Interandino y Occidental, tomo II, Cap. XVI pp.87- 103, Editorial Ecuatoriana, , Ecuador. Reprinted IN:

McEwan, Colin and Florencio Delgado-Espinosa 2008 Late Pre-Hispanic Polities of Coastal Ecuador. In: Handbook of South American Archaeology, ed by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, pp.505-525 Springer, New York.

Menzel, Dorothy 1964 Style and Time Atarco Gayton and Kroeber 1927: Pl.17D in Menzel 1964: ftnt. 293 Viñaque Flores 1959: foto 5. Wari Wilka Epoch 2B Menzel 1964: ftnt. 230 AND Fundación El Monte 2001.

Morgan, Alexandra 2012 The Pottery Figurines of Pre-Columbian Peru, v.3: The Figurines of the South Coast, the Highlands and the Selva. BAR International Series 2441.

Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro. History of the Inca. Translated and edited with notes and an introduction by Sir Clements Markham. 1999. Dover Publications: Mineola, New York.

Saville, Marshall H. 1907 The antiquities of Manabi, Ecuador: A Preliminary Report. Contributions to South America archaeology. George G. Heye Expedition, v.1. New York. Accessed 2/2021: https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/17606 1910 The antiquities of Manabi, Ecuador: final report. Contributions to South America archaeology. George G. Heye Expedition, v.2. New York. Accessed 2/2021: https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_81501 1924. The gold treasure of Sigsig, Ecuador. Leaflets of the Museum of the American Indian., Heye Foundation No. 3. New York. Accessed 2/2021: https://archive.org/details/goldtreasureofsi00savi/page/n5/mode/2up

Stothert, Karen 2001 Lanzas Silbadoras y otras contribuciones de Olaf Holm, compilación, investigación y edición Karen Stothert. Tomo 1. Museo Antropológico y de Arte Contemporaneo. Guayaquil, Ecuador. Olaf Holm 1986 -Cultura Manteña – Huancavilca pp.251-271 1953 -El Tatuaje entre los Aborigenes Prepizarrianos de la Costa Ecuatoriana pp.272-296