Craft Specialization and Complementarity Systems During the Formative Period in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia
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Andean Past Volume 10 Article 6 4-15-2012 A Changing Society? Craft pS ecialization and Complementarity Systems during the Formative Period in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia Olga U. Gablemann Freie Universitat Berlin, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Gablemann, Olga U. (2012) "A Changing Society? Craft peS cialization and Complementarity Systems during the Formative Period in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia," Andean Past: Vol. 10 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past/vol10/iss1/6 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]. A CHANGING SOCIETY? CRAFT SPECIALIZATION AND COMPLEMENTARITY SYSTEMS DURING THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN THE COCHABAMBA VALLEY, BOLIVIA OLGA U. GABELMANN Freie Universität Berlin INTRODUCTION architecture. This vision is largely influenced by cultural evolutionists’ theories from the last half The Cochabamba Valley system consists of of the nineteenth century and the first half of five separate valleys (the Valle Central or Cen- the twentieth, and was maintained for decades tral Valley, the Valle Alto or High Valley, and by many scholars in Bolivia. However, detecting the Sacaba, Santivañez, and Capinota Valleys), social complexity may be ultimately a matter of all located at altitudes between 2400 and 2700 selecting the appropriate parameters, as current meters above mean sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the investigations show. This paper explicitly eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes (Figure 1). investigates socio-economic processes through The valleys have mild temperatures and fertile the evidence for early craft specialization and soils, and were densely populated throughout specific systems of social and economic interac- ancient times. Nevertheless, apart from the sites tion discovered at the archaeological site of of Incarracay (Inkaraqay) and Incallajta (Inka- Santa Lucía in the High Valley of Cochabamba. llacta)1 with their Inca architecture, no large Eventually, studies of socio-economic organiza- monumental sites exist in the greater area, and, tion during the Formative Period will be key to thus, many of the scholars and explorers of the understanding socio-political and economic late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries mechanisms in subsequent times, such as the neglected them. Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon. The regional Formative Period dates roughly from 1500 B.C. to A.D. 200, and is subdivided HISTORY OF FORMATIVE PERIOD RESEARCH into Early, Middle, and Late phases (Brocking- IN COCHABAMBA ton et al. 1985, 1987, 1995). Until the end of the twentieth century, the Cochabamba societ- In the 1930s, Wendell C. Bennett, during ies of the first two millennia B.C. were often excavation at the Colcapirhua mound in the depicted as homogeneous, non-stratified agricul- Central Valley (Figure 1), accidentally detected turalist groups, as deduced by their use of mono- the earliest Formative Period evidence as mani- chrome pottery and their lack of monumental fested in monochrome pottery and stone tools (Bennett 1936:381-386). Lacking the existence of a local sequence at that time, he regarded the 1 Incarracay is in the western hills of the Central Valley 30 Formative finds as belonging to a post-Tiwanaku kilometers from Cochabamba. Incallajta is approximately or Guarani Phase. Subsequent research in the 120 kilometers to the east of the Central Valley. For a early 1950s by Stig Rydén revealed a similar discussion of the site of Incallajta and a reconstruction on monochrome ceramic style (Rydén 1952, 1961) paper of its kallanka or great hall, see Lee (1998). ANDEAN PAST 10 (2012): 27-67. ANDEAN PAST 10 (2012) - 28 at Chullpapampa. This site is a few kilometers In view of the stone tools found, he ascribed up the valley from Colcapirhua, at the foot of the economic basis to agriculture. Because these the Cerro Tunari (Figure 1). Contrary to people inhabited mound-like settlements, he Bennett, Rydén was convinced that the mono- named them the Cultura de los túmulos (Mound chrome ceramic style must be older than Culture). In agreement with scholars including Tiwanaku, and may have influenced the later Carlos Ponce Sanginés and Max Portugal Ortiz, period (as in the case of the Grey Ware pottery he deduced a common tradition among the in Mizque, see Rydén 1961:50). contemporary groups of the southern altiplano, subsumed under the name “Wankarani”, whose In the 1950s and 1960s, Dick Edgar Ibarra settlements also consisted of stratified mounds Grasso, founder and first director of the and whose pottery was likewise monochrome archaeological museum in Cochabamba (now (Ponce 1970; Portugal 1998:9-20; cf. Walter the Instituto de Investigaciones Anthropológias 1966). The find of a single large stone stela in y Museo Arqueológico Geraldine Byrne de Sierra Mokho in the Central Valley (Ibarra Caballero or INIAM), conducted investigations 1964) slightly resembling the Wankarani llama at numerous sites in the Cliza area, among them effigy heads (cf. Guerra 1994: figure 3-16; Portu- Santa Lucía and Chullpa Pata in the High gal 1998:11-20) supported his hypothesis. It Valley (Figure 1) where he found pottery similar even tempted Ibarra Grasso also to use the term to the Chullpapampa style (e.g. Ibarra 1955, Cultura megalítica. Nevertheless, Heinz Walter 1956, 1964, 1965:82; Ibarra and Querejazu (1966:118) opposed the idea of a common 1986:150). Even though his publications lack a culture shared by Cochabamba and Wankarani, description of his methodical approach, maps, based solely on the use of monochrome ceram- and other detailed site information, Ibarra ics. In fact, the pottery and artifacts of both Grasso was the first to present an overview of groups seemed quite different to him. the period of an emerging sedentary society using monochrome pottery. He was also the first to provide absolute radiocarbon dates from Cliza, establishing the end of this early period at around A.D. 280 (Ibarra 1962: Table 1:1). Location Sample Lab No. Radiocarbon Calibrated Calibrated Published Publication Age (1 F)* (2 F)* date 1 Chullpa Pata Wood charcoal M-510 1680±300 B.P. 1-700 A.D. 400 B.C.-1000 280 A.D. Ibarra Grasso 1962 A.D. 2 Chullpa Pata Mound II Charred Schinus molle Hv-116 1850±90 B.P. 60-260 A.D. 50-330 A.D. 110±90 A.D. Walter 1966 seeds 3 Sierra Mokho Level 32 Wood charcoal GX-12134 2850±245 B.P. 1400-800 B.C. 1700-400 B.C. 1125 B.C. Brockington et al. 1985, 1987 4 Conchupata Burial 5 ? GX-13883 2625±85 B.P. 820-540 B.C. 850-410 B.C. 802 B.C. Pereira et al. 1992 5 Conchupata Burial 15 ? GX-13885 2890±85 B.P. 1130-890 B.C. 1260-810 B.C. 1187-1080 Pereira et al. 1992 B.C. 6 Choroqollo Wood charcoal KN-5374 3108±55 B.P. 1400-1300 B.C. 1420-1250 B.C. 1327±56 B.C. Gabelmann 2001 7 Santa Lucia SL-C24 Wood charcoal Gd-15964 2670±85 B.P. 930-770 B.C. 1050-500 B.C. Gabelmann 2008a Gabelmann et al. 2009 8 Santa Lucia SL-C41 Wood charcoal Gds-378 2500±50 B.P. 770-540 B.C. 790-480 B.C. Gabelmann 2008a Gabelmann et al. 2009 9 Santa Lucia SL-C20 Wood charcoal Gds-370 2465±40 B.P. 760-510 B.C. 770-410 B.C. Gabelmann 2008a Gabelmann et al. 2009 10 Santa Lucia SL-C2 Wood charcoal Gd-15881 2060±100 B.P. 200 B.C.-60 370 B.C.-130 Gabelmann 2008a A.D. A.D. Gabelmann et al. 2009 Table 1: Radiocarbon dates mentioned in the text (* calibrated with OxCal 3.10). 29 - Gabelmann: Craft Specialization in Formative Cochabamba Heinz Walter formed part of the German for the valleys (Brockington et al. 1985, 1987, Mission, led by Hans Dietrich Disselhoff in 1995). Their Formative Period was somewhat 1958, who investigated four sites in Bolivia arbitrarily divided into Early, Middle, and Late (Wankarani, Chullpa Pata, Mizque, and Icla) Phases; their ceramic types showed hardly any (Walter 1966). With the participation of Ibarra changes throughout the period. Nevertheless, Grasso the team investigated the site of Chullpa the beginning of their Middle Phase around 500 Pata near Cliza in the High Valley (Figure 1). B.C. (Brockington et al.: 1995) was based on the On an alluvial terrace to the east of the village appearance of a new ceramic type in Sierra they noticed eight mounds. They chose the Mokho (tipo 7; Brockington et al. 1987:33). In smallest two for their excavations (ibid:122). the lower levels, which were dated to approxi- These produced the first evidence of domestic mately 1125 B.C. (Table 1) they found altiplano architecture (house floors) in an early settle- type pottery, probably of Wankarani origin, ment. Walter noted a resemblance between the indicating long-distance trade between the pottery from the Central Valley and the High valleys and the highlands. Valley and named this style Chullpapampa Monochrome (ibid:164). The upper layers of the Furthermore, the same team found a hint of mounds contained sherds of the polychrome the existence of public or ceremonial architec- Tupuraya style (cf. Rydén 1959) and were dated ture in Chullpa Pata, where they investigated a to the beginning of the second century A.D. third mound that had not been excavated by (Table 1). Combining the stratigraphic informa- the German Mission. According to Brocking- tion from Chullpa Pata with the excavations of ton’s team, a small trench revealed part of a Bennett and Rydén in Chullpapampa and four-step terraced construction consisting of Colcapirhua enabled Walter to establish a local stones and clay with a sherd paving (pozo 1; sequence that placed the Chullpapampa Mono- Brockington et al.