A Majestic Frontier Outpost Chose Cooperation Over War Empiresof the by Patrick Ryan Williams, ndesMichael E. Moseley, & Donna J. Nash The people huddled in their impregnable fortress atop the Ahigh mesa called Cerro Baúl, their last refuge as the mighty Inca legions swept through the valley far below. With its sheer walls and single, tortuous route to the top, the citadel defied attack by storm, so the Inca army laid siege to Cerro Baúl. For 54 days, the people held out. But with little food and no water, they found their redoubt The summit of Cerro Baúl, protected by steep, rugged slopes, provided a was not only a grand bastion virtually impregnable fortress for ancient civilizations of the Andes. but also a grand prison. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY 69 hen, in hopes of sav- The Moquegua Valley had been in the ing their starving Tiwanaku orbit until the Wari made their children, the defenders sent bold thrust into the region. To secure the youngsters down from their political outpost, the Wari intruders the beleaguered mountaintop. strategically settled the towering Cerro The Inca received the chil- Baúl and the adjacent pinnacle of Cerro dren with kindness, fed them, Mejia. Unraveling the nature of this and even let them take a few intruding colony and its relationship supplies to their parents with the surrounding Tiwanaku is a long- — along with a promise standing concern of the Asociación Con- of peace and friendship. tisuyo, a consortium of Peruvian and That was enough for the hungry American scholars investigating the and hopeless people of Cerro Baúl. They region. Recent mapping and excavation surrendered unconditionally to the new at Cerro Baúl and adjacent sites are imperial order about A.D. 1475. beginning to reveal pieces of this puzzle. The siege of Cerro Baúl was but the Where the two competing nations final chapter in the legendary history of met, their citizens apparently chose coop- what 500 years earlier had been the south- eration over conflict. Our excavations find ernmost outpost of the Wari, the first of no evidence of warfare during the cen- the great empires of the Andes. The Inca turies (from about A.D. 600 to 1020) in siege was described which the Wari and Archaeologists excavating the by Spanish chronicler the Tiwanaku shared summit of Cerro Baúl (the layout Garcilaso de la Vega, It was, for nearly the valley and its of the once-majestic city is shown and our two seasons scant water. Goods at right) discovered strong indica- of excavations at and ideas almost cer- tions of cooperation rather than five centuries, warfare in the frontier region Cerro Baúl lend cre- tainly were being - shared by citizens of the two dence to this histori- a majestic city exchanged; interac- empires. Among the evidence is cal lore. tion was inevitable, if this unusual kero (a drinking ves- that dominated sel used in important rituals) that The mesa today is for no other reason was found at the Wari-empire city a sacred mountain, than to discuss rights of Cerro Baúl. A hybrid design, it sanctuary of El Señor the frontier. to the most critical is decorated with elements of both Wari and Tiwanaku cultures, de Cerro Baúl, a spirit resource of the arid and depicts the Staff God, an that’s widely venerated throughout the desert. Water streaming from mountain important deity for both societies. region. But our investigations confirm rainstorms had to pass by a Wari canal Clearly, the Tiwanaku had some that it was, for nearly five centuries, a before it reached Tiwanaku fields. impact on the most important aspect of Wari life — religion. majestic city that dominated the frontier Furthermore, we recovered a between the Wari and the neighboring Tiwanaku-style kero (a drinking vessel ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF P.R. WILLIAMS Tiwanaku empire. used in ceremonies) among the Wari’s The story of Cerro Baúl begins in the most sacred ceremonial offerings yet time archaeologists call the Middle found at the site — a strong argument for The 25-hectare (62-acre) summit of the El Paso Divide between Cerro Baúl Horizon, when the two empires ruled ritual interaction between the two Cerro Baúl — some 600 meters (nearly and Cerro Mejia, where the water course South the central Andes. The Wari, secular and groups who shared the valley. America 2,000 feet) above the valley floor — was split to irrigate expansive terraces that militant, governed most of highland and clearly the political and social crown of stairstepped the flanks of both hills. coastal Peru from their upland capitol at PERU the Wari outpost. Yet most of the This high-country irrigation system Ayacucho. The Tiwanaku, a trade-based erro Baúl was a bustling city of empire’s citizens lived not on the top, but may be the key to the Wari’s successful state with a religious core, controlled one- and two-story houses on terraces cut into less lofty heights. expansion into the extremely arid parts of what is now Bolivia, southern Corganized around plazas where people When the Wari arrived in the valley, Moquegua Sierra, especially during Peru, and northern Chile from a capitol raised guinea pigs (for food and fuel), Lima they introduced an agricultural technolo- severe droughts from A.D. 562 to 594 near Lake Titicaca. The Moquegua Val- prepared feasts, created obsidian projec- gy of terracing steep slopes and digging and from A.D. 650 to 750. ley, dominated by Cerro Baúl, is the only tile points, and made necklace beads of long, serpentine canals across the broken The summit of Cerro Baúl is divided Cerro Baúl place where the two civilizations are turquoise, lapis lazuli, onyx, and polished land. A 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) canal into two areas of very different architec- known to have come face-to-face. shell imported from the Pacific coast. wound from the Torata River through ture. A monumental core comprises 70 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2000 discoveringarchaeology.com one- and two-story masonry build- from the El Paso canal. For construction the sacred center of Wari culture, an area The most common architectural form hall was intentionally set, and the beauti- ings, while the eastern occupation, stone, Wari builders turned to the mesa of sacrifice and propitiation of the gods. at the capital and other Wari cities is an ful ceramic vessels, many of them proba- extending to the edge of the mesa itself, quarrying the western half of the At Cerro Baúl, we find at least one and enclosed plaza flanked by impressive bly brought more than 500 miles from the and overlooking the route of ascent, is summit so heavily that it resembles a possibly two of these temples. In our stone halls. These halls included resi- Wari capital, were deliberately smashed crowded with more modest, one-story cratered lunar landscape. investigations of one of them, several fine dences of governors and wealthy citi- and thrown into the smoldering flames. stone dwellings similar to those found Fine masonry construction was artifacts were found in a ritual offering. The fire and destruction clearly were on the terraces of the slopes. restricted to important buildings that These include entire polychrome ceram- ceremonial and not a general sacking of Building atop the mesa was a daunting adhered to the strict architectural canons ic vessels, an engraved gourd bowl, and a As part of the the site. As part of the final sacramental task. Earth for mortar and silt for plaster of the imperial capital at Ayacucho. D- silver-alloy foil camelid 2.5 centimeters drinking episode in this hall — perhaps came from the banks of the Rio Torata, shaped structures are among the rarest (about an inch) across. final sacramental as part of the abandonment of Cerro two hours away by foot. Water for mix- and most distinctive buildings at the Baúl itself — Wari priests ceremonially ing those materials was hauled uphill political nexus, where they likely were at drinking episode, Wari interred the building. The offering of nother potentially important bead necklaces was made after the fire religious complex at Cerro Baúl priests ceremonially had been extinguished. Ais the plaza of the sacred stone, an archi- interred the building. tectural compound built around a large boulder at the center of the summit. imilarities in their religious An Intoxicating Ritual Sacred stones were prominent features in zens, government offices, and beer hous- iconography are impressive and A Sacrament of Drunkenness Built Inca cosmology, and a similar structure es for state-held parties that rewarded the suggestS intimate contact between the Loyalty in the Andes has been uncovered near the Wari site of loyalty of important subjects. Wari and Tiwanaku. The Tiwanaku Pikillacta in the Cuzco region. These The most interesting of the long halls influence on hybrid Wari keros reflects stones were the centers of ritual and that have been excavated so far contained the incorporation of Tiwanaku ideas in n essential sacra- or condors, as do the Cerro Baúl examples. received offerings of special libations a burnt deposit of classic vessels and keros, the highest realms of Wari religion, and Ament of both the Wari typically portrayed the Staff God on ceramics, (such as maize beer or sacrificial blood) some of which were decorated in a hybrid the existence of a Tiwanaku–style kero Wari and Tiwanaku empires while Tiwanaku preferred stone. And some differences or of sacred items. Common Inca sacrifi- Wari-Tiwanaku style. Six fine necklaces in the most sacred of Wari ritual offerings — and of the fabled Inca who succeeded them — cen- between Wari and Tiwanaku portrayals are notable. cial offerings included llamas, coca were also recovered from this burnt offer- on the summit documents the inclusion tered around chicha, an alcoholic beverage that was Later Wari manifestations, for example, included leaves, gold or silver work, and in ing.