Society for American Archaeology New Chronometric Dates for the Puquios of Nasca, Peru Author(s): Persis B. Clarkson and Ronald I. Dorn Source: Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 56-69 Published by: Society for American Archaeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/971600 Accessed: 15/12/2010 12:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sam. 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Acceleratormass spectrometry radiocarbon analyses at the Isotrace Laboratoryrevealed ages of cal A.D. 560(620)650 and cal A.D. 600(640)660 (I sigma). Thesecalibrated measurements are consideredto be appropriatein the contextof the archaeologicalsettlement pattern datafor the region.As well, the writtendocuments of the colonial period neitherconf rm nor deny the presenceof the puquEos.Three assumptions are inherentin the acceptanceof these dates:(I) AMS 14C dating and its application to rock varnishyield reliableresults, (2) sample contaminationcan be recognized,and (3) determinationof the age of the puquiosrests upon testableavailable information; ex silentio argumentsabout the presenceor absenceof the puquiosin the Nasca regionbefore the Spanish conquestare inadequatefor the resolutionof the question. Se ha determinadola edad cronologicaen los dintelesde dos puquEosde la regionde Nasca, costa sur del Peru, en base a materialorgan ico encapsuladoen barniz de roca;los fechados indican que los puquEosson prehispanicos. Los estudiosradiocarbonicos de espectrometriapor aceleracionde masa ('4CACM)realizados en los laboratoriosIsotrace han proporcionadodos fechas radiocarbonicascalibradas 560(620)650 D.C. y 600(640)660 D.C. (I sigma) respec- tivamente.Estas fechas calibradasse consideranapropriadas dentro del contexto de los patronesde asentamiento prehistoricode la region de Nasca, entendiendoademas que los documentoscoloniales no conf rman ni niegan la existenciade puquiosen la zona. Trespremisas son inherentesa la aceptacionde estosfechados: (I) elfechamiento de 14C medianteACM proporcionaresultados fRables e aceptablespara el estudio del barniz de roca, (2) cualquier contaminacionde las muestraspuede ser detectada,y (3) la determinacionde la edad de los puquEosse basa en tecnicas reproduciblesy datos verifcables. El uso de argumentosex silentio no es adecuadopara demostrarsi los acueductosexistieron o no en tiemposprehispanicos. Researchers working in the Nasca region nean channels and clear out the debris ac- of southern Peru are no doubt familiar cumulatedover the last year (Urton 1981:4). with an intriguingcultural feature known as While a variety of hydraulic systems were puquios. Puquios, also referred to as aque- used and adaptedthroughout the New World ducts or filtrationgalleries, are artificialchan- before and after the Spanish arrival in the nels constructedas tunnels or trenchesto gain sixteenthcentury, the puquios discussedhere access to the water table. Between approxi- include the threedrainages of the Rio Grande mately Januaryand April each year, during de Nasca: the Nasca (Aja and Tierras Blan- the rainy season in the Andes, the rivers flow cas), Taruga,and Las Trancas (Figure 1). and the water table rises, thereby providing Precipitationin the Nasca region itself is sufficientwater for the fields surroundingthe insufficientto supportcurrent human and ag- puquios. The necessary cleaning of the sub- riculturalneeds: the averagerainfall recorded terraneanchannels is timed to coincide with between 1957 and 1965 at the Majoro sta- the lowest water level at the warmest time of tion, situated about 3 km from the town of the year,usually between October and Decem- Nasca, was 5.03 mm, with a range between ber, when people crawl throughthe subterra- 23 mm (in 1963) and 0 mm (in 1958, 1960, Persis B. Clarkson* Departmentof Anthropology,University of Winnipeg,515 PortageAvenue, Winnipeg,Man- itoba R3B 2E9, Canada RonaldI. Dorn * Departmentof Geography,Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0104 Latin AmericanAntiquity, 6(1), 1995, pp. 56-69. Copyright@ 1995 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology 56 Clarkson and Dom] CHRONOMETRICDATES FOR THE PUQUIOS, NASCA, PERU 57 Figure 1. Map of the Nasca re- gion. and 1965 with January through September ogists and ethnohistorians.In a preliminary only recorded for the latter year; ONERN archaeologicalstudy of the prehistoricsettle- 1971 II:15). The puquios help to offset the ments of the Nasca region, Schreiber and insignificant amount of precipitation in the Lancho(1988) note that therewas an increase Nasca region by acting as a buffer against of settlements in previously uninhabited ar- drought.Although the waters in some of the eas in the Nasca Valley during Nasca 5, or puquios may fail to rise during times of approximatelyA.D.500. These areasare suf- drought in the Andes, placing some stress ficiently dry that the kind of settlement ex- many never dry up. A upon the system, pansionwitnessed during Nasca 5 would have drought during 1990 and 1991 ended in been impossible without a permanentwater March 1991 when heavy rains arrivedin the Schreiberand Lancho posit that the Andes, causing severe flooding in the rivers system. into and damage to the retardedcrops in the sur- suddenexpansion of Nasca 5 settlements roundingfields that were not wateredby pu- these zones was due to the construction of quios; in fieldswhere puquio waterwas avail- the puquios. The settlement patternstudy of able, many ofthe cropshad grownsufficiently the Nasca Valley is still ongoing,and the final that they were able to withstand the effects results have not yet been published (Schrei- of the flooding. ber and Lancho 1995). Silverman (1986:20) has also suggestedthat the location of Nasca The Age of the Nasca Puquios Valley sites, such as the Middle Horizon Pa- Evidence for the age of the Nasca puquio checo (Menzel 1964; Paulsen 1983) and the system has been brought forth by archaeol- Late Horizon Paredones, might have been 58 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 6, No. 1, 1995 chosen to take advantage of the already ex- of puquios. Barnes and Fleming (1991) sug- isting water system. gest that the lack of an eyewitness account The origin of the puquios has been studied regardingthe puquios dating back to early by a variety of researchers.An Inka origin colonial times indicatesthat the puquioswere was posited by the historianClements Mark- a post-Conquestconstruction by the Spanish. ham based on his examinationofthe puquios Barnesand Fleming believe that the puquios in 1853 (in Joyce 1912:119-120), as well as sharemuch in common with Moorishqanats, by other researchers (see Auza A. 1948, which were built throughoutthe Iberianpen- Conkling 1939, Gonzalez G. 1934). The Pe- insula, and that the techniques of construct- ruvian priest and amateur archaeologist A. ing these hydraulicsystems came to the New Rossel Castro stated that the Inka had never World with the Spaniards.However, as Ko- built subterranean irrigation systems any- sok points out, there are few references to wherein their domain, other than Nasca, and ancient irrigationworks by the early Spanish suggestedthat they were pre-Inkain age (Ros- chroniclers, perhaps because "(m)ost of the sel Castro 1942). Rossel described "Classic writers ... record the luxury, wealth and Naska" remains recoveredfrom the puquios abundance of fruits and vegetables in the (Rossel Castro 1977:175-176). There are no coastal valleys without inquiring into the illustrationsof the artifacts recovered in the method of their production.... They were puquios by Rossel, nor is there any infor- thereforenot primarilyinterested in the eco- mation about the puquios in question nor the nomic life of the coast insofar as the people specifics of the location of the artifacts;Ros- there could be used as human pack animals sel's conclusions are considered unsubstan- and mine laborers"(Kosok 1940:172-173). tiated here. Based upon Rossel's 1977 pub- Trimbornhad two wooden lintels from the lication, Petersen (1980) stated that the pu- Cantalloqand Majoro puquios in the Nasca quios were built between middle and late Valley radiocarbondated (see Scharpenseel Nasca times,