THE ANDEAN PRE-HISTORICAL

URBAN PLANNING TRADITION

by

Lindsay Robert Hasluck, BA.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

Deakin University
August, 2005
Abstract
The Andean Pre-Historical Urban Planning Tradition.

This dissertation identifies the particular urban design features that have aided people
living in the varying environmental extremes of the Andes region of South America to
be able to maintain an urban co-existence in pre-Hispanic times. Beginning with the
newly discovered, and earliest American, urban site of Supe – Caral on the central
coast of Peru around 2600 BC it follows the evolution of urban planning throughout
the Andes region up to the conquest of the Spanish in 1532 AD. This period of over
4000 years of urban planning includes the pan-Andean civilizations of Chavín, Wari,
Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu (Inca), and also large polities such as the Moche, Chimú
and Pachacamac, as well as the diverse regional periods.

Specifically investigated is the question whether these features formed an Andean

urban planning tradition through continual use across these successive periods of
time, societies and civilizations, while covering an extensive and varied geography.
Further it places these urban design features within their particular Andean cultural
context; that is, a context that includes religious, political, economic and geographical
forces that shaped the independent creation of urbanism and its forms and that was an
adaptation to environmental, religious and socio-political needs of the Andean people.
The urban planning tradition reflects the inter-connection of Andean cultures both
geographically and culturally through time and space. The varied responses of the
Andean urban planning tradition, whose usefulness was proven both through
millenniums of time and extensive geographical space, can be clearly seen in the
urban characteristics and features created by Andean solutions to an urbanizing world.

Finally, the dissertation also demonstrates that some of these urban design features
mirrored or pre-dated similar ideas that occurred in other parts of the world,
particularly ideas brought to South America by Spanish colonialism.

© Copyright – Lindsay R. Hasluck, 2005

Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the help and advice of the people of South America without
which this research would have been more difficult. In particular I appreciated the kind advice
of several active archaeologists who were able to spare their time; Dr. Mario Montaño
Aragon; Director of Supe-Caral, Dr. Ruth Shady; Director of Cahuachi Excavations, Dr.
Giuseppe Orefici; Director of Pachacamac, Luisa Diaz Arriola; Miguel Fiestas Chunga
(Moche Excavations); Director of D.I.N.A.R., Bolivia Javier F. Escalante, Director of
Tiwanaku, Eduardo Pareja; Director of Machu Picchu, Fernando Astete Victoria;
Machupicchu archaeologist, Alfredo Mormontoy; Director of Victorian archaeology, Mark
Grist and Carlos Ponce Sanginés (who unfortunately died during the last part of this
research). Also thanks are given to the numerous Museums and Libraries in Bolivia, Peru,
Chile, Argentina, Australia and Britain that assisted me in dealing with my
particular enquiries; Finally I would like to acknowledge the help of those amateur
archaeologists and those who took an interest in my research and without whom important
connections and opportunities would not have come about; Roberto Sanchez, Victor Hugo
Bretel. Also thanks to my wife Jean Antezana de Hasluck and my parents Justice Nicholas
and Sally Anne Hasluck and to my believing grandmother Irene Bolton (who also died during
the course of this investigation). Thanks especially to my grandfather Sir Paul Hasluck who
many years ago sparked my interest in the possibility of working in archaeology,
anthropology and history outside of Australia. I would finally like to express my appreciation
to the people of Bolivia. Without their hospitality my years of research in the country
would have been so much harder to endure. I wish the people of Bolivia a safer and more
peaceful future than the bitter times they have suffered in the last three years.

2005
Lindsay R. Hasluck
Perth
Western Australia
Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter One– Methodology 4

Structure of Dissertation 14

Chapter Two – Geography and Economy 17

Chapter Three – Urbanism, Civilization and Tradition 29

3.1 - Urbanism 29
3.2 - Civilization 40
3.3 - Tradition 43

Chapter Four – Pre-Urban Cultures 47

4.1 - Chavín 47
4.2 - Cupisnique, Salinar, Gallinazo and Mochica 50

Chapter Five – Urban Cultures 59

5.1 - Supe Valley 59
5.2 - Casma Valley 64
5.3 - Tiwanaku and Wari Empire 71
5.4 - Pachacamac 80
5.5 - Mochica 83
5.6 - Chimú Empire 86
5.7 - Regional States Period 92
5.8 - Tawantinsuyu Empire 93

Chapter Six - Design Analysis 100

6.1 - Physical Design 100
6.2 - Location Choice 101
6.3 - Planning 110
6.4 - Religious Complexes 140
6.5 - Urban Division 152
6.6 - Thoroughfares, Roads and Stairways 171
6.7 - Plazas 200
6.8 - Dwellings 219

Chapter Seven- Economic Design 236

7.1 - Economic Forces 236
7.2 - Labour Force 238
7.3 - Economic Areas 242
Chapter Eight - Environmental Design 252
8.1 - Topographical Adaptation 252
8.2 - Natural Features 255
8.3 - Aesthetics 275

Chapter Nine - Social Design 281

9.1 - Length of Occupation 281
9.2 - Directional and Astronomical 284
9.3 - Symbolism 293

Chapter Ten – Non-Conforming Cases 325

10.1 - Moche 325
10.2 - Armatambo 331

Conclusion 337
Andean Urban Planning Tradition 337
International Comparison 340

Bibliography 353
INTRODUCTION
We must face the inevitable. The new civilization is certain to be urban; and
the problem of the twentieth [first] century will be the city.
Max Weber1

The central theme of this thesis is an exploration of the evolution of urban design in
the Andes of South America to ascertain if there existed in pre-Hispanic times a
shared Andean tradition of urban planning. Since in previous research Andean urban
planning has been treated as the product of individual sites or cultures, this thesis will
investigate the repeated use of design elements within Andean urban planning, in
order to isolate specific elements for individual functional analysis within the context
of a cultural tradition. The primary focus will be to demonstrate clearly the urban
design connection that forms a coherent Andean urban planning tradition shared
between the urban civilizations of the Andes from the inception of urbanism around
the beginning of the third millennium BC until the cultural disruption of the Spanish
conquest in the mid-sixteenth century AD.

Through the investigation and understanding of the evolving sophistication of the

cultures within the Andes cultural, political and geographical region, it will be shown
that certain ideas of urban design, from very early times, began to form a coherent
planning tradition that was shared by civilizations, cultures and settlements in close
and distant contact. Moreover, these ideas for architectural designs and layouts for
urban areas were not only shared geographically but also repeated through time.

The city in modern and ancient settings stands apart from what is nature, from
what is wild. The view that the urban world is civilized and therefore separate from
what is wild, exists as a testament to the underlying desire and appreciation of what
urban living can give in the variety, safety and comfort of life. It is important
to understand this notion, as the focus of this study is planned urban design and its
function and aesthetics as part of an elevated behavioural creed.

The Andes is an excellent area to investigate as it is an area of the world that,

until further proof comes to light, appears to have been the first to create the urban
principle and work through the related social and design problems in isolation from the
rest of the world. India, China and Egypt, by comparison, were part of a network through
which ideas and urban principles were diffused, even though they developed their
own regional variants. South America adopted the creed of urbanism as its own
response to particular pressures and solutions. It is perhaps one of the last places to
be thoroughly researched.

The principal reason for this investigation is that very little study has been done on
urban continuity and design and their link with cultural traditions in South America.
In international comparative studies of urbanism South America is usually missing, or
only a particular city, usually Cuzco, or cultural epoch, usually Inca [Tawantinsuyu], is
alluded to. The urban planning history of the Andes from its inception to the colonial
period has never been researched to see if there is a solid encompassing tradition to
which cities adhered. Always the Andean urban situation has been treated with
separation into sites, cultures or epochs with any unity between city designs alluded to
as inconsequential or an influence from varied sources. The influence of Wari

1
Weber, M. The City. Glencoe, Ill., Free Press. 1958: p. 18.

1
enclosures has had the most profound, yet limited treatment. However, to put into
operation the central theme of this investigation - the evolution of an Andean urban
planning tradition - the urban tradition itself must be brought under focused attention,
proven to exist, and dissected to expose its base operational parts.

For this reason this study works towards a two-fold conclusion. The main body of the
study seeks to identify, describe and analyse those urban design aspects that created
an Andean urban planning tradition, until now unrecognized. The intention is to
demonstrate that, through their persistent use over long periods of time and despite
political changes, these design aspects were of value in creating an urban atmosphere
and landscape in which people desired to dwell. They functioned as part of an
elevated behavioural creed that set urban civilization as something desirable above
and beyond enforced co-habitation by authorities for their own political ends. The
secondary conclusion is that some of the Andean urban forms and ideas mirrored or
pre-dated those also appearing in other parts of the world, in particular those that
Spanish colonialism brought and sought to introduce in the Andes.

A large part of understanding the pan-Andean urban tradition involves fully

comprehending the controlling factors that allowed an area of diverse geographic,
ecological and climatic conditions to develop a wide ranging and enduring
tradition. This provides reasons why certain techniques of urban design were first
used and then persisted with until the modern period, being due to a relationship of
geographical, political, and social causes. It is argued that the fact that these designs
were maintained and passed on to be used by other Andean cultures and civilizations
over a period of more than 4000 years attests to their effectiveness in maintaining
internal social and political cohesion, effectiveness in the resolution of geographical
and environmental difficulties, and a reflection of an aesthetic tradition with culturally
cohesive forces. This investigation will follow the rise of those planned urban designs
that were maintained through a long period beginning around 2600BC with the first
signs of urban planning and ending with the Spanish invasion in 1532 AD. Of
necessity also included are the fall of Andean cultures, and their design differences
and alterations due to changing political, social and environmental conditions.

It should not be presumed that all Andean cultures at all times subscribed to either
urbanism or the same aesthetic traditions, or that all those who lived under the
influence of the long-term traditions did so willingly or freely. There was in the
Andean region a complex myriad of cultures, chiefly inhabiting the valleys of the
coast, the highlands, and Puna2 mountain plateau areas. The direction of cultural
influence was much affected by the geography of the land and the unusual subsistence
patterns that Andeans were forced to adopt. Although the exchange of cultural
materials had a limited beginning, due to the self-sufficient valley ecologies, it will be
clearly seen that the exchange of ideas flowed in two directions, along the coast from
valley to valley, and in the valleys from the coast or Amazon to the highland
communities and vice versa. The epochs of pan-Andean civilizations - Chavín, Wari-
Tiwanaku, and Tawantinsuyu (Inca)3 - are the clearest examples of the extent to

2
Puna refers to the high elevation plateau grasslands – roughly 4000m to 4800 m of elevation above
sea level. Burger, R.L., Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization, London, Thames & Hudson,
1992: p. 19.
3
In this study the name Tawantinsuyu is used for the civilization popularly known as Inca. Inca
literally means King or Ruler and was misused by the Spanish in its application to the entire people.
The use of Tawantinsuyu, meaning the four parts, is also out of recognition of respect for the Andean
people who prefer to use the correct signification.

2
which a single culture could influence or control a massive area, ultimately
comparable with the size of the Roman Empire at its peak. Also, like the Romans, the
Tawantinsuyu applied urban planning techniques to a broad geographical and cultural
range of areas, as part of an agriculturally based empire while still maintaining an
urban focus.

There are both cultural and design aspects of the Andean urbanism that are generally
shared with other preindustrial cities throughout the world. By using general notions
of preindustrial urban society as it existed throughout the world, some basis for
comparison of the Andean urban situation with that existing internationally in
preindustrial cities can be drawn.

3
CHAPTER ONE – Methodology
‘You are yourselves the town, where ever you chose to settle . . . it is men that
make the city, not the walls and ships without them . . .’

Nicias’s speech of inspiration to the Athenian troops on the beach at

Syracuse.1

There are many difficulties posed by a study of this kind, not all of which are
theoretical. The revealing of a previously unrecognized urban planning tradition
through the sum of its key design forms requires the use of vast amounts of
comparative information, both between the different Andean cities and between the
cities of the Andes and the Old World. There are also comparisons to be made
between the sometimes differing theories and conclusions of numerous researchers
and authors.

This primary investigation into the existence of an Andean urban planning tradition
has been hampered not only by the lack of investigation of many sites, and their poor
condition, but also by the fact that the very process of South American urbanization
was late to be recognized and accepted for its primary development role. Such
seminal works on world wide urbanism such as Gideon Sjoberg’s The Preindustrial
City – Past and Present (1960)2, although recognizing Mesoamerican urbanization,
does not acknowledge the earlier Andean form from which it was developed. This is
largely because the South American and Mesoamerican cultures lacked writing
systems that might have enabled developments to be documented. Perhaps the lack of
investigation at that time also contributed to the formation of this large gap, a problem
that continues to effect Andean research. However for the continuance of world
analysis and comparison of urbanization, its designs and processes, this gap needs to
be filled. Andean urbanization needs to be recognized and analysed as a complete
tradition so as to be available for international comparisons.

Past investigations of urban design in the Andes have always suffered from a lack of
clear, published information. This investigation has also had to work around that
barrier. Past studies that still have useful aspects, such as Hardoy’s Pre-Columbian
Cities (1973) or Urban Planning in Pre-Columbian America (1968) 3, have
information which after more recent investigation needs to be updated, and so
therefore also for some of their underlying theories and conclusions. That the change
and growth in information, theories and conclusions for the Andean civilizations and
in particularly urban areas is moving at a radical pace is clearly visible in the need to
also update more recent studies. This includes Bawden’s numerous publications in the
1990s on the Moche, following the most recent archaeological discoveries which
show that urban planning probably existed before the political upheavals that he
ascribes as the cause of the creation of urban planning in the Moche valley. However
that is not to dismiss other valid areas of Bawden’s analysis. In yet other urban sites
no new archaeological investigations have been completed for decades and the
information must still be presumed to be correct.

1
Hobbes, T. (trans.), Thucydides, vol. 7, no. 63, (no year given): pp. 308-9.
2
Sjoberg, G., The Preindustrial City: Past and Present, New York, The Free Press, 1960.
3
Hardoy, J. E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973; Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning
in pre-Columbian America, London, Studio Vista, 1968.

4
Until the research leading to this dissertation no-one has sought to ascertain whether
urban planning in the Andes existed as a pan-Andean tradition in the sense that
key ideas of urban planning were consistently used by the majority of urban cultures
and settlements before culminating finally in its climax under the pan-Andean
empire of Tawantinsuyu.

Urban planning in the Andes is a subject that in the past has been treated on a separate
site by site or on a cultural epoch basis. Although the fact is that there were cultural
influences affecting across both sites and cultural epochs, this approach has led to a
situation in which urban planning is seen as a disjointed and separated process of
growth. Hardoy4 was able to place much of Andean urban planning into a perspective
that allowed for the diffusion of cultural influences between sites. More recently
Hyslop in Inka Settlement Planning (1990)5 has analysed the state of settlement
planning as it finally existed under the Tawantinsuyu (Inca) Empire. He also notes, as
Hardoy before, that these final design solutions were influenced by other cultures and
ideas, but does not go on to explore the theme.

Most recently Adriana von Hagen and Craig Morris in The Cities of the Ancient Andes
(1998)6 have sought to discuss the growth of Andean cities, but not only is their work
in the nature of a brief summary, some of their conclusions are questionable.
However, since so much information is not referenced but referred to as,
‘archaeologists think’, the source and relevance of their ideas is difficult to trace.

They dedicate much space to cultures and sites that are not urban when insufficient
information exists to continue on the original theme, cities. Although monumental
construction in pre-urban times played an important role in the formation of urban
planning ideas, von Hagen and Morris’ in depth descriptions of pre-urban ceremonial
sites uses as much textual space as the sections on cities to which their book is
supposedly dedicated. Since monumental structures have had more archaeological
analysis than urban areas, which has also been a difficulty for this dissertation, to a
certain degree their un-urban focus is understandable. Yet, the problem persists later
in the book with large amounts of text devoted to cultural descriptions of peoples that
never formed cities, a definition or criteria for which is not given. That the authors
chose to include many cultures and sites that are not urban may have been due to a
lack of information on city sites and cultures, but their small bibliography may
indicate a lack of source material.

In the introduction they touch upon some of the ideas that will be more fully explored
in this thesis, such as the diversity and sacredness of geography, the inclusion of
astronomical alignments and the lack of market economics in cities. But they do not
seek to evaluate their importance, nor do they note how particular design aspects were
shared, preferring to take a descriptive and in some places imaginative approach. For
example, the use of patio houses by the Wari are noted7 but their architectural link to
the use of patio houses in other parts of the Andes is not explored. Similarly, the
cultural borrowing of ideas such as a road network, the quipu, a system of state
installations and forced immigration, of the Tawantinsuyu from the Wari is
recognized8 but a search for specific urban design borrowing does not take place.

4
Hardoy (1968); (1973).
5
Hyslop, J., Inka settlement planning, Austin, Uni. of Texas Press, 1990.
6
von Hagan, A. & Morris, C., The Cities of the Ancient Andes, London, Thames and Hudson, 1998.
7
von Hagen & Morris (1998): p. 129
8
von Hagen & Morris (1998): pp. 137 -138.

5
Acknowledgement is made of the fact that in ‘urban organization and city-building – as
in agriculture, metallurgy, weaving, road-building and even administration [the
Tawantinsuyu civilization excelled] mainly because they took what already existed
and incorporated it into a vast new vision of political and economic expansion’.9
However the chain of urban design upon which the Tawantinsuyu were the last link is
not recognized, explored or demonstrated.

It is briefly noted that there were ceremonial similarities of urban character in access
to city space between Tawantinsuyu (Inca), Wari and Chimú cities, but this important
point is not further developed.10 Their analysis of Andean cities is based upon a
descriptive cultural outlook rather than a focused analysis of urban design. Although
they describe various Andean cities they do not reach the conclusion, as this thesis
does, that there existed an Andean urban planning tradition which links together the
majority of Andean cities and settlements into an ancient and geographically
dispersed continuity of urban organisation ideas that reflected the individuality of the
Andean urban and cultural experience. Finally, they do not come to any particular
conclusion as the text is descriptive rather analytical and asks no particular question
of the information. Once again the discussion of Andean cities fails to realise the
existence of an Andean urban planning tradition, which is something this dissertation
through isolating precise urban forms is able to clearly demonstrate.

That some of these aspects of urban design were also used in other parts of the world
could also have been noticed by others if they had thought to include South America,
as well as the later offspring in Mesoamerica. As shall be seen in Chapter Three, this
failure was caused by past definitions and notions of urbanism that did not include the
Andes – a failing about which Hardoy, Hyslop, von Hagen and Morris and this thesis
all express regret. Comparisons between Andean and Old World urban design
traditions are of great interest, but they are not part of the core subject of this
dissertation, although appropriate points for comparison will be noted in the
conclusion. It should also be noted that urban design aspects that were shared by both
the Spanish and the Andean people continued to be used during the Colonial and
Republic periods. This point, however, although not a part of this dissertation also
warrants further future investigation.

The aim of the investigation in this dissertation is, therefore, to demonstrate that an
Andean urban planning tradition existed – a tradition that began at the outset of
planned urbanization and reached its complex maturity under the administration of the
Tawantinsuyu who were, in fact, the heirs of over four thousand years of urban
tradition. The difficulties of amassing and analysing sufficient data to prove the point
has had a number of frustrating aspects. As stated previously the information relating
to Andean sites is being constantly updated by new discoveries or more in-depth
investigations. Much of the information has been published in Spanish and numerous
other languages, leading to the information being spread out around the world. Also
many of the past investigations conclusions were presented in small, and often short
lived, South American journals and conference papers making them difficult to track
down. Many of these lacked the depth of data and analysis that the scholarly devotion
leading to a book can provide. The theme of urban planning has also not proven as
popular as temples, tombs and other more romantic subjects.

9
von Hagen & Morris (1998): p. 165.
10
von Hagen & Morris (1998): p. 168.

6
This author has learnt Spanish and lived in the Andes for the three year period of this
investigation to be able to access as many resources as possible. This has also allowed
the clarification of some points and the discovery of past mistakes through personal
observation. Libraries in Australia, America, Europe and South America have been
accessed in the search. This includes private, public, university and institutional
libraries. However some have been closed or with limited access due to lack of
funding and politics. The internet also has been used to find resources, for both
materials and for contact with relevant investigators. As a result, it is unfortunate that
despite the best efforts, not all articles and books were able to be located. However
sufficient materials were encountered to provide a clear and concise analysis of
Andean urban planning, while personal conversations with other archaeologists
working in the field have provided clarification.

On a personal level, the experience of living in the Andes and coming to know
intimately not only the cultural and geographic diversity, but also the pace at which
Andean life proceeds, and the type of world view and logic employed by the
inhabitants, has given me a deeper understanding the role cities and ceremonial
complexes may have had in the growth of Andean urban society, and how the people
and culture reacted to and with these as cultural forces. So too, the chance to see and
handle the large range of sophisticated artifacts from adornments and sacred objects in
gold, silver and copper, to highly decorated and also mundane ceramics and textiles,
to walk down the now abandoned streets and through the deserted buildings and
plazas leaves one with the impression of a great and sophisticated urbanized
civilizations and societies, that at times formed massive cultural, political and
economic networks that leave quibbling over definitions of what exactly constitutes
an urban society as a merely theoretical decision. The question that struck me most
was how Andean urbanism could have been overlooked for so long. When confronted
with the barrenness of the Pacific coast or the difficulties of the mountain terrain the
achievements of Andean urbanism seem all the more remarkable.

It needs to be mentioned that this study seeks to put into action the idea of cross-
cultural as well as an interdisciplinary approach. Where a quotation has originally
been in Spanish or another language it is here placed in the text in its original form,
while a translation is provided in the footnotes. This is done firstly because sharing
ideas does not need to mean that everything is turned into the English language, and
that part of the international expansion and sharing of ideas must also be the effort to
understand other languages. Secondly, it is because anyone who wants to seriously
study, or understand South America, must at least understand Spanish and thus it is
represented in the text. For those who already know Spanish it is better to have the
possibility of making your own subtle differences in translation, as no two languages
are ever completely interchangeable. Hopefully for readers it will also provide a sense
of Latin American ambience.

Although this work relies heavily on archaeological information it is not a purely

archaeological investigation as it also investigates the planning process and design
ideas incorporating information from physical anthropology, ethnology, historical-
ethnology, history, biography and my own personal field notes and observations. My
previous education was in Anthropology, History and Archaeology which has led to
this cross-disciplinary approach. Also my research on social effects of urban planning

7
 for UNESCO11 culminated in the idea to search for urban design ideas in the pre-
historical past.

Many of the urban centres, and other religious or military centres, mentioned in this
book have been personally visited, photographed and field notes recorded. However,
where my personal observations merely validate those made previously by others,
both out of respect of precedence and because in the past the archaeological sites were
in better condition for observance, the earlier observations will be cited.

Sites visited in the course of this investigation are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Andean Archaeological sites visited for this investigation.

No. Archaeological Sites Province Site Type

1 Amarumarcawasi South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
2 Bacuatran Titicaca Area Settlement
3 Chacán South Highlands Settlement
4 Cahuachi South Coast Ceremonial Centre
5 Cantamarca Central Coast Agglutinated Settlement
6 Caral Central Coast Urban
7 Chachabamba South Highlands Settlement
8 Chan Chan North Coast Urban
9 Choquesuysuy South Highlands Settlement
10 Chorro Titicaca Area Settlement
11 Cerro Sechín North Coast Ceremonial
12 Chillata Titicaca Area Urban
13 Chinchero South Highlands Urban
14 Cuzco South Highlands Urban
15 El Chorro Trail Titicaca Area Road
16 Galindo North Coast Urban
17 Huaca de los Reyes North Coast Ceremonial Centre
18 Huaca Huallamarca Central Coast Ceremonial Centre
19 Huari Central Highlands Urban
20 Incahuasi Central Coast Urban
21 Inkiltambo South Highlands Settlement
22 Isla Amantani Titicaca Area Ceremonial Centre
23 Isla de la Luna Titicaca Area Ceremonial Centre
24 Isla del Sol Titicaca Area Ceremonial Centre
25 Kenko South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
26 Korikancha South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
27 Kusilluchayoq South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
28 La Centilnela South Coast Urban
29 Machu Picchu South Highlands Urban

11
Hasluck, L. & Malone, K., ‘Location, leisure and lifestyle: young people’s retreat to home
environments’, in Berado, F. (series ed.) & Shehan, C. (vol. ed.), Contemporary Perspectives on
Family Research – Through the Eyes of the Child: Revisioning Children As Active Agents of the
Family, vol. 1, Stamford, JAI Press, 1999, pp. 177- 156; Malone, K. & Hasluck, L., ‘Geographies of
Exclusion: Fear and Flow’, Family Matters Journal, Australian Institute of Family Studies, no. 49,
Autumn, 1998, pp. 20- 26; Malone, K. & Hasluck, L. ‘Aliens in the Neighbourhood’, in Chawla, L.
(ed.), Growing Up In An Urbanising World, London-Paris, Earthscan UNESCO – MOST, 2002, pp. 81
- 110

8
30 Manchan North Coast Urban
31 Moche North Coast Urban (Ceremonial Centre)
32 Moray South Highlands Agricultural
33 Nazca South Coast Ceremonial Centre
34 Ñustapacana South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
35 Ollantaytambo South Highlands Urban
36 Pachacamac Central Coast Urban
37 Pampas de las Llamas-Moxeke North Coast Urban
38 Paracas – Cerro Colorado South Coast Agglutinated Settlement
39 Paramonga Central Coast Fortress
40 Pisác South Highlands Urban
41 Puca Pucara South Highlands Fortress
42 Q’ente South Highlands Settlement
43 Sacsawaman South Highlands Ceremonial Centre (Fortress)
44 Sillustani Titicaca Area Ceremonial Centre
45 Tambo Colorado South Coast Settlement
46 Tambomachay South Highlands Ceremonial Centre
47 Tiwanaku Titicaca Area Urban
48 Torontoy South Highlands Settlement
49 Yucay South Highlands Palace

Practical archaeological methodology will not be employed, nor will dating

techniques such as stratigraphy or C14 dating be used. However the results from other
archaeological investigations and their published conclusions will be. The peer
reviewed published data will validate their process and will be accepted unless
otherwise stated. The other forms of data collection used includes; photography, aerial
photography, topographical maps, global satellite positioning, primary and secondary
historical sources, anthropological and ethnological documentation, biographical
sources, archaeological publications, reports and field investigation, re-creational
drawings and models, and museum exhibitions. Of course the accidents of
archaeological discovery will always shape the possible course of analysis, as Dr.
Shady’s recent discovery of Caral, setting back by thousands of years the dates of the
first planned Andean urbanization, clearly demonstrates12. Now is obviously an
important time for the revision of urban theory not only for South America, but for the
effect on American urban development theory of the vastly earlier urban dates in the
south, and therefore the Americas as a whole.

Large-site archaeological investigation13, such as this dissertation could be

considered, provides two major contributions. Bawden, who has had to resolve many
of the theoretical problems concerning large site archaeology in his studies of the
Moche, states that primarily
… it allows access to the direct expression of human social life – the villages
and towns that are planned and shaped by the beliefs and customs of their
makers. From these sources… [it is possible to have a good preliminary
knowledge of periods]… residential houses, their forms and contents, the way
in which they differed within the settlements and changed through time. This

12
Pringle, H., ‘The First Urban centre in the Americas’, Science, vol. 292, 2001, pp. 621-622.
13
Large site archaeological investigation is the examination of large archaeological sites in a core area,
that is the main area of a cultures influence. For example for the Tiwanaku, it would be Bolivia, Peru
and Chile, while for the Caral culture it would be limited to the Supe valley.

9
 in turn illuminates the domestic life of the occupants, their patterns of social
organization, and the role and development of class differences. In the domain
of government, recognition of an overall settlement plan and the nature of its
component religious, administrative, craft production, and storage
architecture, reflects the character of authority and provides a tangible way of
tracing its change through time14.

Secondly, Bawden continues, large-site archaeology provides

… information regarding specific organizational and formal dimensions of
human settlement. This in turn comprises the data base for accurate
comparison of settlements and facilitates the task of discovering meaningful
spatial and temporal variation and relation15.

Modern ethnographic research has shown that in the Andes there is a long continuity
of cultural beliefs and structures that allow for comparisons and assumptions between
sites and times16. Bawden makes an important point for Andean pre-historical
research, and one that is pertinent to this investigation, when he argues that
All such work assumes the existence of persistent cultural traditions and uses
both historically documented societies and their modern descendants to detail
the nature of shared conception and custom. In this view the social institutions
and ideological beliefs of modern indigenous groups represent a pan-Andean
pattern of shared physical, social, and ideational structure that transcends
immediate historical and spatial boundaries. It is thus valid to interpret cultural
traits of a chronologically or spatially remote Andean groups by reference to a
better-known counterpart. While modern studies are increasingly being used to
identify such pan-Andean cultural patterns, historically the Inkas
[Tawantinsuyu], as the best-documented contact period society, serve this
purpose.17

The condition of the archaeological sites also presents problems. On the whole,
archaeological sites in South America are in a poor-to-desperate condition. Only those
sites that may have a use for tourism are protected or investigated in depth. After a
site has been investigated, unless it will be reconstructed or conserved for tourism, it
is once more covered over or unmanaged. The cities on the coast were constructed of
adobe mud brick, and although the arid climate is generally favourable to their
protection, they decay quickly under the onslaught of the periodic intense El Niño
rains. The highland cities, although many parts were built in stone, much was also
adobe and deteriorates quickly in the wet conditions. If there is a present-day town
near to a site then commonly much of the stonework has been removed for new
construction purposes, often in the colonial period before documentation took place.
Usually animals are grazed and crops raised on any available surface, leading to
increased destruction and difficulty of investigation. Often large areas of a site were
cleared and leveled for agriculture, while the Pan-American Highway and other roads
have been responsible for the destruction of important parts of many large pre-
Columbian city sites. This is part of an ongoing lack of respect and/or understanding
of the importance of the sites by the both the government and the local populations.

14
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell Publisher, 1996: pp. 28- 29.
15
Bawden (1996): p. 29.
16
Bawden (1996): p. 33.
17
Bawden (1996): p. 33.

10
Treasure hunters abound in South America where the fever for buried gold continues
unabated since the Spanish conquest. Archaeological sites are regularly looted, with
the large-scale digging destroying the lay and visibility of the site, informative
artifacts being stolen, and any artifact that may seem common place or of little market
value being wantonly destroyed. This leads to a great loss of information, about
domestic pursuits in particular, and confuses the levels of stratification. Therefore
most of the archaeological sites are in such bad state of repair that it takes an
archaeologist armed with the knowledge and maps of previous investigations to make
on-site interpretations. My photographs, taken between 2001 and 2004 have been
included where they are able to clarify a point, but many of the ruins were in such a
bad state that photography is unable to reveal anything of value.

Figure 1. The colonial church at Tiwanaku, built entirely of stones salvaged from the Tiwanaku
temples and houses. Many other stones went into the construction of local houses and the centre of La
Paz. Note in particular the two Tiwanaku statues located at either sides of the gate (Source: L.Hasluck,
2002).

On the other hand, photographs from the twentieth century will be included,
sometimes in place of my own, as decades ago the ruins were in a much better and
clearer visible state. That is also true for the aerial photographs, where a photograph
from the 1940s is clearer than one from the 1960s. More recent aerial photographs
have generally not been available, in Peru and Bolivia, due to military restriction of
the information, while many of the aerial photographs when not taken specifically of
an archaeological site are from too great an altitude to allow the layout to be clearly
discerned. When photographs have not been available or sufficiently clear to support
the analysis, sketches from earlier periods have often proved useful. Reconstructive
drawings and models have been included to give a clearer representation of what the
cities may have been like in their operational periods; however many of these do not
present the lower class housing areas in as much detail as the monumental and palatial
areas. These latter areas are usually in the centres of the cities, where there is a greater
amount of information on which to base reconstructive interpretation.

11
One of the largest stumbling blocks for this investigation, which is not written purely
for archaeologists nor solely for urban planners but seeks to establish the general state
of pre-historic urban planning knowledge, is how to represent the enormous variety of
cultures that existed during the Andean pre-historical urban period of over 4000 years.
During that time the Andes was full of regional cultures that even under the influence
of pan-Andean empires maintained regional variations of the occupying culture. To
clarify the Andean pre-history, many of the cultures that existed over long periods of
time and which underwent cultural shifts have been represented in pre-historical
theory by further divisions into cultural sub epochs18. This situation of internal
cultural sub-division may cause confusion for the researcher.

Since not all areas and cultures of the Andes undertook or maintained urbanization at
the same time, or even at all, not all of the Andean cultures need be represented in this
investigation. However, even though some cultural pockets remained without
urbanization, all of them did play a role in urban society as part of the network of
Andean empires and kingdoms through their contribution of resources, products and
labour. Without many years of detailed study of the evolution of these adjacent
cultures and sub-cultures the field can seem rather confusing and chaotic. Even the
most in-depth studies are unable to explain the depth of this cultural diversity clearly
and concisely. Therefore in this investigation the information has been simplified in a
way that will not adversely affect either the analysis or the conclusions.

The first simplification responds to the problem of a system of naming the epochs,
those large cultural shifts in time that effect the majority of the cultures in the Andean
area. There have been many different systems for naming epochs, some of which for
our purposes are far to complicated and couched in archaeological rhetoric, while
others have been too simple and do not clearly show the large general cultural shifts
that classification into epochs is intended to demonstrate. Before continuing further it
is essential to make clear the temporal divisions that will be used for the discussion of
epochs within this work. There has been in the Andes a clear cultural continuum for
over 35,000 years and probably longer19. That is not to imply that there has been
uninterrupted political unity and progressive technological growth for the entirety of
this period. In fact there has been a remarkable array of different cultures and
civilizations, birthing and dying, separate and overlapping, regional and united
through polity and under dominion. Cultural exchanges between societies and
locations, and through time, have made the study of Andean pre-history even more
complex, just as the use of nucleated settlements has not followed a steadily
progressive history, and the role of high-density settlements has fluxed and waned
through different epochs and regions.

Archaeologists have forcefully debated the periodization of Andean prehistory. The

chronological markers for each period may be defined by means of an economic
situation due to ecological conditions that may also effect the cultural development
itself20. This process has been based mainly upon ceramic styles in relation to multi-
site stratigraphy, and has been readdressed numerous times. Each valley also has its

18
These sub-divisions are either named or represented by numbers such as I, II, III, IV, etc.
19
Petit, C. W., ‘Rediscovering America: the New World may be 20,000 years older than experts
thought’, U.S. News & World Report, Oct 12, vol. 125, no. 14,1998, pp. 56- 8.
20
Rivera, M. A., ‘Altiplano and tropical lowland contacts in northern Chile prehistory: Chinchorro and
Alto Ramírez revisited’, in N. Hammond (ed.), 44 International Congress of Americanists: Social and
Economic Organization in the Prehispanic Andes, 1982, Manchester, BAR International Series 194,
1984, pp. 143- 160: p. 145.

12
own internal cultural divisions based upon ceramic styles that can overly suggest
cultural division. This has been the case particularly for the north coast where the
naming of the different styles as different cultures hides the accepted fact that there
were one people undergoing cultural, political and religious shifts21.

For ease of understanding and applicability, the system of epochal division proposed
by Lumbreras22 has been adopted in this dissertation. Under this system, which is
very similar to that developed by Thompson23 and accepted by many authors, the
names of the epochs generally represent the dominant cultural level of the time. This
system also has the advantage of using the common names of the two pan-Andean
empires as Periods24.

Table 2: Cultural epochs and their approximate dates.

Period Approximate Dates

Lithic Period 21000 – 4000 BC

Archaic Period 5000 – 1300 BC

Formative Period 1800 BC – 100 AD

Lower Formative
Middle Formative
Upper Formative

Regional Development 100 BC – 700 AD

Wari-Tiwanaku Empire 700 AD – 1100 AD

Regional States 1100 AD – 1470 AD

Tawantinsuyu Empire 1430 AD – 1532 AD

It should nevertheless be borne in mind that these time periods are based on cultural
generalisations and serve as general indicator rather than the rule. Definitions of
periods should be thought of as a useful tool, abstract and quite arguable, but
contributing effectively to understanding the sequential development of the different

21
Bawden, G., ‘Domestic space and social structure in pre-Columbian northern Peru’, in S. Kent, (ed.),
Domestic architecture and the use of space - an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study, Norfolk,
Cambridge University Press, vol. 1, 1990, pp. 153-171.
22
Lumbreras, L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c.
23
Thompson, D., ‘Arquitectura y Patrones de Establecimiento en el Valle de Casma’, Revista de Museo
Nacional, vol. 40, 1974, pp. 9-29.
24
It has almost become a tradition in Andean studies for each author to create their own system of
named division and this has caused much confusion in the field. Some systems such as Rowe’s are
overly simplistic and Hardoy’s too shallow for our purposes, while others such as Bawden are too
complex. Few bear much relation to the others. Where authors use their own systems I have translated
these into Lumbreras’s designations. Sometimes individual cultural periods or areas may be broken
down further using the system stated by another author.

13
pre-Hispanic cultural events.25 Not all areas of the Andes have had continual
habitation stretching back to the Lithic Period; however many do. Although this
research encompasses the totality of the Andes geographical region, the primary focus
will be upon the areas now politically demarcated as Peru and Bolivia. It is in these
countries that the nucleus of cultures and civilizations appeared and spread their
influence over both small and extensive ranges of both space and time. The
investigations for this dissertation will begin in the middle Archaic Period around
3000 BC with a pre-ceramic culture in the Supe valley on the central coast.

Structure of Dissertation
This methodology chapter is followed in Chapter Two – Geography and Economy by
a description of the geographical pressures that effected the growth of Andean urban
civilization and determined the ways in which the growth of complex society was
steered by the peoples’ relationship with the surrounding varying and extreme
environment. Exchange of both resources and ideas was greatly influenced by
physical factors that made a system of vertical and horizontal inter-zone reciprocity
fundamental in the formation of settlements, states, nations, civilizations and pan-
Andean traditions. The flow of shared and adopted ideas is an indispensable part of
the Andean urban tradition that can be seen as a strong operating force in Andean pre-
History. For ease of understanding the relationship between the different geographical
areas, and to follow the rise of urbanism as switches between these, the Andes have
been sub-divided into appropriately designated geographical parts.

Chapter Three – Tradition and Urban Enlightenment further explores urbanization

and design through the role of tradition, and the possible causes for the emergence of
urbanization among the forces of Andean civilization, geographical, political and
cultural influence. A brief comparison with other areas of the world where
urbanization first came into existence is needed to understand the creative forces due
to the lack of concrete data concerning the Andean situation, which as will be seen is
to a degree outside the Western norms of urban definition. The culmination of the
discussion is a working definition of ‘urban areas’ that is appropriate for this study.

A summary of cultural histories will be recounted in Chapter Four – Pre-Urban

Cultures and Chapter Five – Urban Cultures for those cultures that were directly
involved with urban planning or that had sufficient influence upon the process.
For ease of understanding the pre-historical context of Andean urbanism, this study
seeks to simplify the cultural interlace by giving a general explanation of the Andean
move towards urbanization and its attendant cultural complexity that may be
considered a general form applicable to greater or lesser degree throughout the Andes.
That there is at present26 no firm data on the functioning of this cultural phase for the
Andes also supports the use of this methodology. There is no room in a study of this
size to repeat the process for every region.

In these summary histories only sufficient cultural detail will be included to enable
the reader to follow the growth of the cultures towards urbanization. However, due to
the complexity and disjointed growth towards urbanism in the Andes, these cultural
summaries will not be represented in a linear form but in the order they experienced
urbanization. That is, the summaries will cover first the relevant pre-urban

25
Rivera (1984): p 145.
26
Dr. Shady is due to publish her ideas based on Caral in a few months.

14
civilizations of Chavín, Cupisnique, Salinar, Gallinazo and Mochica, and this will be
followed by the earlier Supe and Casma valleys, the contemporary and post
Tiwanaku, and the later Wari-Tiwanaku, Regional Development, Moche, Regional
States and finally the Tawantinsuyu (Inca). By representing the cultures in the
chronological order in which they experienced urbanization, and not mixed in among
the pre-urban, the reader will find it easier to follow the first movements of
urbanization as the idea shifts between the coastal and highland, and north and south
regions.

The final simplification of the data -- and this has presented the most problems and is
the hardest decision to defend – is that the cities cited in this study have been limited
in number by the application of a set of criteria. From the time of the Wari-Tiwanaku
pan-Andean Empire the spread of urbanism became so vast that to use all the cities
for the next 1500 years is beyond both the scope of this thesis in terms of document
size and time for gathering data. It is also unnecessary for demonstrating adequately
the existence of the Andean urban planning tradition. Although many cities could be
mentioned by name and position, for most, in particular the smaller regional centres
from the Regional States Period, there is such a lack of data that their use would cloud
rather than clarify the history. The urban centres used in this study have been chosen
because they conform to the definition of urbanism as used for this study and
encountered in Chapter Three. They are also the best representation of the urban
culture of the period or place, or serve to clarify or ratify a particular point of the
analysis. Also, the sites mentioned are those for which there are sufficient available
data to be of valuable use in an analysis. If speculative data has been used to fill an
information gap it has been noted as such.

The existence of designs in the sites is of foremost importance, rather than the
quantity of each. Obviously, since urban construction does not necessarily imply
large amounts of people, or large cities, there will be a difference in urban design and
quantity of parts, related to the amount of physical labour that an urban population is
able to draw upon to complete public projects. However, as will be seen in the
ensuing chapters, in the areas of larger populations (and therefore larger workforces),
the designs aspects of the smaller urban centres were also included in those of the
greater urban centres. Urban centres not only created large monumental structures,
but also created many smaller and more individualised structures, similar to those
used in the smaller sites. Often the large urban centre had grown out of a smaller and
so both types of construction were present. However, it is true that urban sites which
were well planned in advance included monumental public works.

In Chapters Six – Design Analysis: Physical Design, Chapter Seven – Economic

Design, Chapter Eight – Environmental Design and Chapter Nine – Social Design,
the character and form of Andean urban planning that is the basis of a tradition will be
analysed. For ease of understanding the tradition has been broken into these four parts
that are then investigated under different sub-headings that represent those areas for
which repetitive design aspects are most common.

The use of these four divisions in the urban design represents the four different
aspects that have had the largest effect upon planning, procedure and the success of
the design. The sub-headings have been created to represent those factors of design
that were consistently planned into the Andean urban landscape and which therefore
represent the skeleton of the Andean urban planning tradition. The analysis of the use
of planning in each of these sub-sections demonstrates that tradition at work.

15
Chapter Ten – Non-Conforming Cases is the final chapter of analysis where two
example cities that seem not to conform to the tradition – Moche and Armatambo -
will be discussed as to why they also should be included within the Andean urban
planning tradition.

The conclusion will firstly reiterate the demonstration that a pan-Andean urban
planning tradition existed, the main features of which are clearly traceable through
repetition of design and through time. Secondly, it will be suggest that possible
similarities exist between the Andean urban planning tradition and those of the
invading Spanish, and other Western pre-industrial urban planning traditions, and that
some aspects are in tune with general international pre-industrial urban forms and
culture as outlined by Sjoberg in The Preindustrial City (1960).

16
CHAPTER TWO – Geography and Economy
In South America, it is impossible to speak of man without first considering
nature, for she holds sway – she always has done and always will. Nothing
here is on our scale. Rivers, mountains, forests – everything is a hindrance,
everything is hostile. Man does not seem to have been provided for in the plan
of creation of this continent, he is accidental.
Louis Baudin1

The modern political demarcations in South America bear little resemblance to the
cultural divisions of pre-Hispanic times. Instead, it is the geography of the west coast
of South America that forms the regional boundaries within which this research will
operate. Lumbreras2 aptly states that, in anthropological terms, a culture area is a
territory possessing a set of distinctive environmental conditions that have a tendency
to produce a cultural conformity. This area is consequently that portion of western
South America occupied by Andean culture. The term ‘Andean’ is not restricted to the
mountainous portion, because the Andean cultural area is larger, embracing both the
coastal lowlands and the margin of the vast Amazon jungle.

This geographical region is equal to the cultural area that was dominated by the
Tawantinsuyu Empire at its zenith (1530 – 1532), just prior to the Spanish conquest.
It stretched from present day Ecuador in the extreme north to far southern Chile and
parts of northern Argentina. The Tawantinsuyu Empire also made inroads into the
Amazon basin, but the extremities of this extension remain undetermined, although
considered small. However the main part of the Andes cultural area, wherein acted the
major players of the urban drama, is represented by the Andes mountain range,
including the Alti Plano3 of the Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and the coastal regions of
Peru. The physical area itself covers an amazing contrast of different climatic and
geological settings, and a range of environments vast and complex, from the high cold
mountains, Alti Plano plateau and dry barren coastal deserts, to the tropical jungles of
the Amazon. Yet there are good reasons to place all these diverse regions into a single
‘cultural area’ because of their cultural connection through shared resource zone use,
to be discussed in detail below.

Archaeologists, geologists and geographers have various ways of sub dividing the
complexity of the Andes region. This study will use the generally accepted
archaeological divisions, also based upon geography, as used by Lumbreras4 and
others such as Hardoy5 and Pulgar6. In this classification the Andes is formulated into
two broad sub-divisions, each of which is in turn sub-divided into further parts, as
follows:

1
Baudin, L., Daily Life of the Incas, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, Original Publication 1961,
Unabridged Dover Ed., 2003.
2
Lumbreras, L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: p. 3.
3
Alti plano – large Puna plateau of south Peru and Bolivia covering a system of salt and freshwater
lakes, the largest of which is lake Titicaca.
4
Lumbreras (1974c)
5
Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in Pre-Columbian America. London, Studio Vista, 1968.
6
Pulgar Vidal, J., Geografía del Perú: Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú, Lima, Editorial
Universo, 1981.

17
Figure 2. A map of South America (Source: Encarta, 2003).7

Figure 3. A present day map of the main cultural area of the Andes (Source: Encarta, 2003).

7
Encarta Encyclopedia, CDRom, Microsoft, 2003.

18
Highlands: North Highlands (approx. South 10 degrees to South 6 degrees)
Central Highlands (approx. South 15 degrees to South 10 degrees)
South Highlands (approx. South 12 degrees to South 15 degrees by
72 degrees West)
Titicaca Area (approx. South 15 degrees to South 20 degrees by 70
degrees West)
Coastal: Far North Coast (approx. South 6 degrees to the Equator).
North Coast (approx. South 10 degrees to South 6 degrees).
Central Coast (approx. South 13 degrees to South 10 degrees)
South Coast (approx. South 16 degrees to South 13 degrees)

Hardoy states that in each of these sub-areas, not only was a very high percentage of
the pre-Columbian population concentrated, but also each
…was an important centre of civilization during the centuries which witnessed
the development of pre-Columbian urban cultures. Not all of them reached
similar peaks, nor did they arrive at them simultaneously. During some stage
of their development, one or more of these sub-areas acted as a nuclear area
with respect to the rest, … as an area of concentrated economic and
demographic power in which a more advanced form of urbanism took place.8

The Andes region is a mosaic of different environmental zones making it one of the
most environmentally diverse regions in the world, where a journey of a few hours
may pass through 20 of the world’s 34 life zones9. This diversity is formed into
patterns of which two are of great importance. The primary pattern consists of a series
of horizontal environmental zones. In the coastal regions this is represented by fertile
river valleys abundant in resources that are separated from each other by stretches of
barren hills and desert and, on the west side of the Andes, repeating every 20 – 30 km.
This pattern is repeated in the highlands at varying elevations but the valleys are
separated by Puna grasslands and snow bound mountain peaks10. The coastal regions
are in marked contrast to the highlands. The coast is a barren desert interspersed by
valley entrances that carry rivers flowing down from the highlands. The highlands
themselves are composed of a range of diverse ecological niches from the river
valleys at different altitudes to the high mountain peaks and Puna plains.

The second pattern is vertically linear and consists of a series of non-repeating

environmental zones that change with the ascending graduations of the valleys. It also
is most apparent on the steep elevations on the west side of the Andes, although it too
exists on the east. At low elevations corn, cotton, and other crops requiring long
growing seasons are planted. Potatoes and other root crops are cultivated above 3000
meters, while the grazing lands occur at higher elevations where the number of frost-
free days is too small to permit farming11. In other parts of the highlands this same

8
Hardoy (1968): p. 15.
9
Albarracin Jordan, J., Tiwanaku - Arqueología Regional y Dinámica Segmentaría, Bolivia, Plural
Editors, 1996. p. 61; Brush, S. B., ‘El Lugar del Hombre en el ecosistema andino’, Revista de Museo
Nacional, vol. 40, 1974, pp. 277- 99; Burger, R. L., Chavín and the origins of Andean Civilization,
London, Thames & Hudson, 1992: pp. 12-26; Macneish, R. P., Patterson, T. C. & Browman, D. L., The
Central Peruvian Prehistoric Interaction Sphere, Andover, Mass., Phillips Academy, 1975. p. 4.
10
Burger (1992): p. 20; Macneish, et al. (1975); Pulgar (1981).
11
Burger (1992): p. 21; Brush (1974); Farrington, I. S., ‘The vertical economy of the Cusichaca Valley
(Cuzco, Peru) and its prehistoric implications’, 44 International Congress of Americanists: Social and
Economic Organization in the Prehispanic Andes, Manchester, BAR International Series no. 194,
1984; Macneish, et al. (1975): p. 6; Pulgar (1981).

19
linear system exists but the variations are due to elevation, as well as other
environmental factors such as climate, soils and geological structure12.

Figure 4. Topography and major divisions in the Andes, which continue down to southern Chile and
northern Argentina. (Source: Lumbreras, 1974: figure 1).

12
Burger (1992); Macneish, et al (1975): p. 6; Pulgar (1981).

20
 Figure 5. Typical cross section of Andes showing the different resource zones. (Source: Burger,
1992; p. 21).

Figure 6. Six geographical cross-sections of the Peruvian Andes. Note the sudden and intense changes
in altitude (Source: Pulgar 1981, p. 16).

21
There are two areas that differ slightly but still fit into this dual idea of vertical and
horizontal linear repeating and non-repeating resource zones. The South Highlands
zone differs slightly in that its mountains are lower and nearer the Amazon basin into
which its valley rivers flow. Secondly the Lake Titicaca zone is a unique occurrence
as it is a high plateau surrounded by snow-capped Cordillera mountains and centred
around the highest navigable lake in the world, as such it subject to its own unique
conditions. However as part of a linear arrangement of resources it is very close to the
Amazon basin and coastal Chile and as such equals the Puna lands of the Macneish et
al model. 13

This vertical and horizontal linear form of the terrain’s ecological resources greatly
affected the growth and diffusion of civilization, technology and ideas within the
Andean area14. Furthermore Price concludes that ‘on the basis of present evidence, the
evolution of urbanism seems to be associated with environments that are ecologically
diverse’15. Price’s research clearly shows that it was not possible for a kin or cultural
group to survive utilizing only one ecological niche in the vertical or horizontal
patterns of Andean terrain. Ecological resources had to be shared. This process of
vertical and linear resource use continued up to and beyond the Spanish invasion, with
small changes in land ownership due to state controls imposed by the Tawantinsuyu
as well as the Spanish16. Price refers to this process by using Durkheim’s term
‘organic solidarity’ and following Wolf’s conception of a ‘symbiotic pattern [that] is
held together on a basis of essentially horizontal coalitions between specialized rural
groups in a basically non-hierarchical structure’.17

According to ethno-historical information these groups differed in size from a few

thousand people, in the smaller valleys, to entire kingdoms with populations of over
100,000 people. Since all the resources used by a group did not naturally occur or
could not be produced in a single environmental zone the members of the group
needed to exploit several different environmental zones that were not usually
contiguous. The most outstanding fact is that since early times the people completely
understood that all these environments located at different altitudes are
interconnected, as one geographical framework, and took advantage of all the
resources and ecological factors involved at the same time18.

13
Macneish, et al. (1975)
14
Albarracin J., Tiwanaku – Arqueología Regional y Dinámica Segmentaría, Bolivia, Plural
Editors, 1996: p. 61; Burger (1992); Macneish et al. (1975).
‘Es indudable que el escenario andino está constituido por un complejo mosaico de zonas ecológicas,
sin igual en el planeta. También es incuestionable que la sociedad andina prehispánica se desarrolló
dentro de este complejo mosaico, no como una condensación de factores determinantes ecológicos sino
como resultado del manejo de los múltiples recursos y de la acción recíproca entre unidades sociales’
(Albarracin) 1996: p. 61.
15
Price, B. J., ‘Cause, effect, and the anthropological study of urbanism’, in S. Tax (ed.), Urbanization
in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978. pp. 51-62: p. 57.
16
Farrington (1984); Thompson, D. E., ‘Investigaciones arqueológicas en los Andes Orientales del
Norte del Perú’, Revista de Museo Nacional Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, vol. 39, 1973, pp.
117-125; Thompson, D. E., ‘Ancient highland connections with Selva and Coast: evidence from
Uchucmarca, Peru’, 44 International Congress of Americanists: Social and Economic Organization in
the Prehispanic Andes, Manchester, Bar International Series, Bar International Series vol. 194, 1984.
17
Price (1978): p. 54.
18
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996: p. 78; Rivera,
M.A., ‘Altiplano and tropical lowland contacts in northern Chile prehistory: Chinchorro and Alto
Ramírez revisited’, in N. Hammond (ed.), 44 International Congress of Americanists: Social and
Economic Organization in the Prehispanic Andes, 1982, Manchester, BAR International Series 194,
1984, pp. 143- 160: p. 144.

22
Groups living in the upper parts of the valley used roughly the same subsistence
techniques as those in different environmental settings or other valleys, although
development of practices such as domestication of plants and animals, ceramics,
irrigation and other sedentary ways existed at different stages in different locations.19
Resources that were not available or could not be produced locally had to be sought
from amongst the vertical or horizontal arrangement of resource areas. Although
market exchange is one way in which this could be facilitated, the Andean people
used a distinctive way of coping with the environmental diversity of their region, the
‘ideal of community self sufficiency’20. Macneish et al. conclude that ‘…what the
people are actually trying to do: to have access to all of the resources they needed to
sustain themselves throughout the year...’.21

Geography necessitated that different members of a cultural group lived and worked
in different localities, often separated by a few days journey, with the result that their
landholding patterns resembled a chain of islands of varying sizes, each located in a
different environmental zone where certain resources were available but separated
from one another by lands belonging to other groups22. A socio-political and
economic system working this way must have been the result of a long
experimentation, based on a principle of complementarities23.

Relying on ethnographic and ethno-historical sources, Macneish et al.24 explain that

the Andean people, separated by these considerable distances but bound together by
kinship ties and membership in the same social unit or ethnic group, did not use a
marketplace economy but instead relied on reciprocity and redistribution as modes of
economic integration for most commodities, goods and services (further discussion in
chapter seven). The environment itself was a key factor in the creation of a system of
resource control that would lead to the easy diffusion of ideas and methods, between
different cultural groups, as they dwelled around each other in different ecological
resource zones. This process forced the diffusion of ideas both up the valleys to the
highlands as well as across the valleys on the coasts, Puna and Alti Plano

Shady, who specializes in the North Central area, makes a statement that is equally
applicable to the rest of the Andes
…donde se tendieron redes de conexión interregional, el área norcentral, que
facilitó el intercambio de experiencias adaptativas y dinamizó el proceso
cultural del conjunto que vivía en el área. Alcanzado la productividad se
rompió el aislamiento seguido en el Arcaico Temprano y Medio. Esta
conexión a larga distancia debió ser estimulada justamente por la existencia de

19
Shady, R., ‘La neolitizacíon en las Andes Centrales y los orígenes del sedentarismo la domesticación
y la distinción social’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la
civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003e, pp. 37- 50.
20
Bawden (1996): p. 78; Burger (1992): p. 21; Macneish et al. (1975).
21
Macneish et al. (1975): pp. 6-7.
22
Macneish, et al. (1975): pp. 6-7; Bawden (1996): p. 78; Katz, F., ‘A comparison of some aspects of
the evolution of Cuzco and Tenochtitlan’, in S. Tax (ed.), Urbanization in the Americas from its
Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 203-14; p. 208.
23
Rivera (1984): p. 144.
24
Macniesh et al. (1975).

23
 diversos procesos adaptativos, el interés de acceder a las diferentes
expresiones culturales y por la creciente diferenciación social25

Constant contact and exchange was facilitated by regular traffic, sometimes for
ceremonial gatherings, between kin-related aggregates or between different segments
of the population. This was also reinforced by the redistribution centres in which
goods were collected, stored and reapportioned among the various localized segments
of the group and augmented by long distance traffic in certain commodities that were
processed in specialist centres. Examples of such exchange were the spondylus shells
from Ecuador which were desired in Peru, or turquoise ornaments, produced from
imported raw materials in, and redistributed from Huari26.

Until the rise of hydraulic agriculture27, which led to a greater dispersion of cultures
from the coast upwards in the valleys, location and environment had played the
determining role in the placement of settlements. Through most of the Archaic Period
the settlements continued to rely upon hunting and collecting subsistence strategies so
that they were situated, through necessity, near the mouths of the valleys where the
rivers widened over the coastal desert plains and flowed toward the ocean. From these
vantage points they were able to make use of varied resources from the rivers, the
ocean and the valley interiors. Trade, from an early date existed on a small scale,
between the coastal areas, valleys and the regions in the highlands28. Ocean contact
between the valleys was maintained but there was little to trade horizontally because
each valley was self sustaining and had similar resources. This situation continued
until the trade in luxury and specialized items such as ceramics began in the
Formative Period29.

25
Shady (2003e): p. 47. The translations reads; …where they had networks of inter-regional
connections, in the area north central, this facilitated the exchange of adaptive experiences and
dynamic cultural processes of the people living in the area. They reached a level of productivity that
broke the isolation that had existed in the Early and Late Archaic Period. This long distance connection
was surely stimulated by the existence of diverse adaptive processes, the interest in having access to
different cultural expressions and for the growth of social stratification (translation L. Hasluck).
26
Baudin, L., Daily Life In Peru: Under the Last Incas, London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1961b:
p. 41; Baudin (2003): p. 41; Macniesh et al (1975). In 2004 I discovered the remains of a turquoise
work site beside a reservoir or pool in the centre of the Huari city, that previously had not been
recognised. Other worksites found included semi-precious stones and obsidian, also not mined nearby.
27
Wittfogel, K. A., ‘Developmental Aspects of Hydraulic Societies’, in Irrigation civilizations: a
comparative study: a symposium on method and result in cross-cultural regularities, Social Science
Monograph, no. 1, Westport, Connecticut, Department of Cultural Affairs, Pan American Union, Social
Science Section 1955, pp. 43-52. Karl Wittfogel, on page 44, suggests ‘that the term “hydraulic
agriculture” be applied to a system of farming which depends on large-scale and government-directed
water control. I suggest that the term “hydraulic society” be applied to agrarian societies in which agro-
hydraulic works and other large hydraulic and non-hydraulic constructions, that tend to develop with
them, are managed by an inordinately strong government.’
28
Cohen, M. N., ‘Population pressure and the origins of agriculture: an archaeological example from
the coast of Peru’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton
Publishers, 1978, pp. 91-132; Lumbreras, L. G., Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú, 6th Ed.,
Lima, Biblioteca Peruana del Siglo XX, Editorial Milla Batre, 1983: p. 58; Topic, T.L., ‘The Early
Intermediate Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City,
Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p. 273. Cohen’s chapter about plant use
in the Chillón valley clearly shows that most of the edible varieties were introduced from other areas
over the course of thousands of years. This pattern of settlement dispersion, here roughly summarised
is also found by Cohen in the Ancón-Chillón Region and is loosely applicable to the coastal regions of
the Andes.
29
Hardoy, J. E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. 300; Matos Mendieta, R.,
‘Cultural and ecological context of the Mantaro Valley’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean
Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 307-325. Matos on page 318 states that not all the

24
For a single society to maintain its dietary variation several vertical environmental
zones needed to be utilized, and the settlements spread up the valleys to manage all
environmental zones needed, internal exchange facilitated the process. With the
advent of hydraulic agriculture the geographical needs of the settlements changed and
the move further up the valleys facilitated easier control and maintenance of the
irrigation systems and river flow, while the coastal plains could be used for good
irrigated farming land. Small settlements no longer needed to be scattered around to
avoid depletion of natural resources, but could cluster together with greater
population densities permitted by the reliable food resources and needed for the
community effort required by hydraulic agriculture (and infrastructure creation and
maintenance), including flood-land farming. Trade with highland peoples continued
to introduce a different range of food resources that could be grown in different
environmental zones, although agricultural resources continued to be supplemented
by hunting, foraging, and trade with ocean peoples30.

Irrigation allowed the previously unworkable areas in the valleys to be utilized and to
accept denser population settlements in which skill specialization developed further
exchange between rural and urban peoples31. The domestication of the llama and use
of excess workers for carrying surplus for redistribution meant that finally centres of
population density, specialized skills, artistry and religious and civic control could be
formed and maintained when a settlements size was beyond that of being able to be
supported by the immediately surrounding agricultural area.

It is at this point of societal growth that the first glimmerings of urban planning are
encountered32. This process was happening simultaneously, and over long and
different time periods, in many of the larger valleys along the North and Central coast
where they were able to support greater population densities. This process was
repeated in the Supe and Moche valleys, the birth places of two of the most important
coastal urban cultures, Caral and Chimú. In the highlands the process was also taking
place in the single location of Tiwanaku on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

The environment in the Andes is on the whole not naturally favourable to the rise of
civilizations and high-density urbanization. Without the use of hydraulic technology,
its required system of centralized government and the attending social stratification
and the density of population for workforce, urban tradition in the Andes would never
have begun. However the Andean environment is prone to periods of rapid
environmental stress and this has been a force for change of incredible strength in the
Andes region33. Bawden puts it succinctly when he says that
…the Andean physical world is among the most active on earth. The great
Pacific ocean plates constantly press upon each other in their quest for
stability that comes with geological maturity, prompting responsive

valleys progressed at the same rate. For example the Montara valley was still in an Archaic mode until
Middle-Formative periods, that is the hunter and gatherer semi-nomadic pre-ceramic lifestyle suddenly
confronted the ceramic sedentary lifestyle, long after many of the other valleys had settlements.
30
Cohen (1978); Matos (1978). Cohen’s Chillón valley model is applicable. Matos’ review of the
settlement history for the Mantaro valley is slightly different in that its first sedentary agriculturalists
are immigrants from other valleys, yet the system of trade and plant introduction mirrors the other
valleys in the same period.
31
Price (1978).
32
Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú: el
área norcentral y el valle de Supe durante el arcadio tardío’, Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima,
Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 13 - 48.
33
Burger (1992): p. 25.

25
 movement along the continental ranges of the Andes. This endless process
enters the realm of human experience through the primordial media of the
earthquake, volcano, tidal wave, and flood. The transcendental forces
continually confront people with chaos threatening social life, inspiring rich
textures of Andean myth and ritual that orders and makes them
comprehensible. These forces enter Andean cultural conception, shaping
religious beliefs and the content of artistic imagery through which they are
manifest in daily life.34

Although social form and change should not be simplistically ascribed to

environmental agency, in the following chapter it will be clear how deliberate cultural
control over environmental agency has played a strong role in the development of an
urban lifestyle and tradition. As Burger concludes about the Andean environment, the
‘origins and development of ancient Peruvian civilization must be viewed within this
dynamic context’.35

There is a third repetitive environmental factor in South America which, although it is

a relatively new scientific discovery, has had a destabilizing effect on the growth of
the cultures in the Andes region. El Niño, the reversal of the Humboldt current in the
Pacific Ocean that recurs in a cyclical fashion after periods of many years, causes
drastic and sudden changes in the weather patterns that can last from one year to
many. It is an important consideration as the suddenly changing climate appears to
have led to the political and social collapse and drastic change of societal form of at
least one civilization on the north coast, the Moche, and in response the urban designs
used by those people36.

Aside from the obvious connections brought about by the three pan-Andean
civilizations, groups living in each of the seven areas maintained links with each other
from the early stages in their evolution, stimulating the adoption of similar techniques
and shared knowledge. The importance of these contacts is even greater when we
consider that, in spite of geographical semi-isolation, they led to the later stages of an
Andean cultural evolution37.

However the Andes region has also not remained completely isolated and in different
periods has had varying degrees of cultural contact and diffusion with the
neighbouring geographical and cultural region of Mesoamerica. There is sufficient
well documented evidence by numerous authors of the cultural diffusion from the
earlier developing South America northwards and somewhat less documentation of
this diffusion southwards. However a specialist on American interactions, Myers,38
thinks that these direct contacts were rare events.

34
Bawden (1996): p. 264.
35
Burger (1992): p. 25.
36
Bawden (1996); Burger (1992): p. 14.
37
Hardoy (1973): pp. 294-5, 404; Cavatrunci, C., ‘Cajamarquilla: un centre urbain de la Côte
centrale’, p. 229 in S. Purin (ed.), Inca-Peru, 3000 ans d'histoire, Bruxelles, 1990, pp. 224-234;
Thompson (1984); Rivera (1984).
38
Myers, T.P., ‘Formative-Period Interaction Spheres in the Intermediate Area: archaeology of Central
America and adjacent South America’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology,
Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 203- 234. Myers argues that the assertion of Meso-american and
South American contacts are one of the truisms of American archaeology, and maintains that despite
the cited evidence of the contacts between the cultures in the Middle and Late Formative Periods, and
less so in the Classic and Post-Classic Periods, these direct contacts were rare events.

26
Despite Myers doubts, there remains much evidence for cultural dispersion in the
southern to northern direction, including Posnansky’s39 claims of stylistic diffusion
from the Tiwanaku culture in the form of the ‘Staircase Sign’ motif that spread
throughout the Americas in the Wari-Tiwanaku period 40; Buck’s41 discovery of the
Tiwanaku calendar and inscriptions in Mayan culture; or the use of the same wet
mound agricultural technique in Tiwanaku and Teotihuacán in Mexico42. Perhaps also
the startling similarity between the Llamas-Moxeque temple and certain temples built
several centuries later by the Mayans, especially those at Piedras Negras and
Uaxactún, which also used superimposed platforms with rounded corners and in the
construction twin sanctuaries, sunken courtyards and stairways43.

Kubler, who specialized in the study of aesthetic styles and methods in American art,
claims that:
The Mexican, the Maya, and the Andean peoples probably maintained
intermittent contacts by land and sea, but these were certainly much less
frequent and much less productive than ancient commerce between Imperial
Rome and the Han Dynasty in China.44
This is supported by statements from Hardoy45 and Holstein46 indicating that there
were some basic cultural and physical features that were common to both the areas
north and south of the Isthmus of Panama47. These cultures had a parallel progression,

39
Posnansky, A., Tiahuanacu, The Cradle of American Man, New York, J.J.Augustin Inc., 1945.
40
In reference to the Staircase Sign, Posnansky (1945: pp. 103- 4) claims that ‘It can be stated with
certainty that this “American Line” and symbol had its origin in Tihuanacu and from there extended
over all the continent. We find it in the region of the Amazon, afterwards in the regions of Cuzco, on
the coast of the Pacific, in the periods of the cultures of Paracas, Nazca, Pachakama, Chimú, etc., in
Mexico on many of the monuments left by the Aztecs and earlier peoples (especially on the vases of
the Isla del Sacrificio), in Yucatan, in the ruins of Uxmal and Chichen-Itza, as also on almost all the
ancient monuments of Central America (Copan, etc.) and in the north as far as Arizona, in the stages of
pre-Columbian culture of the Moqui Indians… Finally, we note the presence of this sign on the
monuments of the Incas of the Islands of Lake Titicaca and on the ceramic works of a similar origin. It
is also seen in the south, on the terra cottas and other objects of the valleys of Calchaqui and
Humahuaka and it appears completely decadent on the ceramics of Maukallatja (Santiago del Estero,
Argentina) … The cause for the extraordinary diffusion of the “Staircase Sign” or “American Line” in
the arrangement and construction of monuments after the Third Period of Tiahuanacu in the north and
south of the American continent, especially on the coast, might perhaps be explained by supposing that
all those peoples had a common origin before dispersing. Possibly a great part of those of the Kholla
type lived, in very remote times, in the section of mountain ranges and on the inter-Andean upland,
then covered with luxuriant vegetation; they would have had Tiahuanacu as a place of worship or some
other place which might have been the primitive homeland of the inhabitants of the Third Period of the
Andean metropolis.’
41
Buck, F., El Calendario Maya en la Cultura Tiahuanacu, La Paz, Sociedad Geográfica, 1937.
42
Millon, R., ‘Teotihuacan’, Scientific American, vol. 216, no. 6, 1967, pp. 38-48; Hardoy (1973)
43
Hardoy (1973): p. 305.
44
Kubler, G. C., The Art And Architecture Of Ancient America: The Mexican/Maya/and Andean
Peoples, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, Penguin Books Ltd., Pelican History of Art, 1962: p. 2.
45
Hardoy (1973)
46
Holstein, O., in his paper ‘Chan-Chan: capital of the great Chimu’ (The Geographical Review, vol.
17, no. 1, 1927, pp. 36-61: p. 42) states ‘Anatomical and particularly cranial studies show that the
Peruvian coast for a space of about six hundred miles was peopled by a well marked physical type of
Indian. Holstein then cites from the work of Aleš Hrdlička (‘The People of the Main American
Cultures’, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. 65, 1926, pp.157-160: p. 159), to indicate that ‘[t]he coast
population…was, barring some intrusions from the mountains, of the Maya type and same derivation’.
47
Francis, X. & Grollig, S. J., ‘Cerro Sechín: medical anthropology's inauguration in Peru?’, in
D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 351-369:
pp. 360- 362; also in his 1973 unpublished manuscript Cerro Sechín monoliths: Casma, Peru, gives the
example of the Cerro Sechín monoliths carved in anatomical designs, that are ‘reminiscent of Mayan
carvings – but about 2,000 years older!’. See also (Kauffman, D., Arqueología peruana, Iberia, Lima,

27
but retained stylistic autonomy, which suggests that frequent contacts, and probably
the organized exchange of ideas and luxury goods existed between Mesoamerica and
South America in the early Formative Period, and maintained and intensified during
the later periods, as Hardoy48 suggests for the Tawantinsuyu epoch49. If we were to
take a longer view of the traditions of the Americas it may be possible to place all of
the Americas within a larger, yet looser, urban planning and design tradition50.

The possibility of contact and cultural diffusion from the Old World to the New must
also be considered and is a debate which continues. Hein-Geldern in Theoretical
Considerations Concerning the Problem of Pre-Columbian Contacts Between the Old
World and the New51, makes a clear case as to why from a purely theoretical point of
view some contact should be presumed to exist. There are many evidences of contact,
and certainly the navigation of the oceans was no great barrier in ancient times. The
arguments and evidences are too numerous to attempt a thorough consideration here,
but suffice to say that it should be presumed that in ancient times sporadic contact
between the two worlds is sure to have taken place. Baudin argues that
[i]f any influence whatever from the Old World made itself felt in the
Americas before their discovery by Columbus, it goes back to times so remote
that it can be considered as virtually insignificant. The great civilizations of
the Mediterranean all reacted upon one another, but the people of the Andes
did not receive the sacred torch from anyone: it was they themselves who had
to set it alight.52
He also describes the very real contact between Polynesia and South America, in both
directions, although does not see this as influencing the rise of civilization53.

Any influence from the Old World, of which there is mounting evidence, will have
been a part of the evolving traditions of South America, and only those design aspects
which proved a useful adaptation for the region will have been adopted, if any at all,
and therefore will not affect the outcome of this investigation. So too, cultural effects
from the north will have become absorbed into the local traditions or died away when
not proven useful54. Hein-Geldern agrees when he states, it is a ‘…fact that cultural
traits are never borrowed wholesale by one people from another’.55

1969, pp. 266) who points out the similarity between the Cerro Sechín dancing figures monoliths and
those of Monte Alban in Mexico.
48
Hardoy (1973): p. 404.
49
Hardoy (1973: p. 422) quotes from one of the men who accompanied Pizzaro when he captured the
last Inca Atahuallpa: ‘They trade by sea; these people are dedicated to trade. Their boats are made by
joining ten or twelve poles of a kind of corklike wood that grows in this land, securing them with ropes
and putting sails on them. And so they sail from coast to coast’. Hardoy cites from Ruiz de Arce, J.,
Advertencia a sus sucesores, Colección Austral, no. 1168, Espasa-Calpe, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, 1953.
50
Hardoy (1973) is constantly noticing similarities between South and Meso-america – Moxeque and
Akapana pyramid designs being just two examples.
51
Heine-Geldern, R., ‘Theoretical considerations concerning the problem of Pre-Columbian contacts
between the Old World and the New’, in A. Wallace (ed.), Men and Cultures - Selected Papers of the
Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, September
1-9, 1956, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960, pp. 277- 281.
52
Baudin, L., A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru, in Katherine Woods (trans.), A. Goddard (ed.),
Princeton, New Jersey, D. Van Nostrand Company Inc., 1961a.
53
Baudin (1961b): p. 21; (2003): p. 35. A documented expedition was made by Inca Tupac Yupanqui
who sent off 20,000 men on balsa rafts, who returned after a year with foreign artefacts and black men
which were stored in the archives in Cuzco and seen by the conquistadors.
54
Smith, G.E., The influence of ancient Egyptian civilization in the East and in America, Victoria,
London, Uni. of Manchester Press, 1916.
55
Hein-Geldern (1960): p. 278.

28
CHAPTER THREE – Urbanism, Civilization and Tradition
…it is not particularly profitable for a social scientist to attempt to discuss the
nature, the essential quality, of urbanism. That is a metaphorical question more
amenable to philosophical enquiry than to the empirical methods of the social
sciences.
P. Wheatley1

This chapter is a brief survey of the phenomenon of urbanism, civilization and tradition. In
the Andes these three aspects were linked by the diffusion of ideas and they existed in
overlapping forms and situations. Urbanism can not exist without some basic cultural,
political, economic and social forms. These forms are to be found within civilization,
although as will be shown civilization may exist without urbanism. Tradition, in this case
urban planning tradition, exists as the particular collection of accepted cultural practices
that gives a civilization, society and urban area its own individual formation. Tradition – in
this case urban planning tradition – exists as the particular collection of accepted cultural
practices that gives a civilization, society and urban area its own individual formation.

3.1 Urbanism
Urbanism and civilization had a fundamental interrelationship in the Andes. Although
attempts at urbanism take place in the periods before and between the pan-Andean Empires,
there are a number of political and social criteria that need to be met before an urban
society can begin to form, and before planned urban design can be used and maintained.

The definition of urbanism remains debatable, especially with the inclusion of the hitherto
ignored Andean realm, which is clearly urban without fitting all generally accepted criteria.
Respected authors such as Wheatley and Hammond continue to feel that the definition of
urban or city remains elusive. Hammond points out the fundamental difficulties in the
search for a decisive definition of the ‘city’, or ‘urban’:
No generally satisfactory or agreed-upon definition of the city seems to have been
presented in the many books on both the origins of the city and its modern forms.
Some hold that the essential characteristic of an emergent city was that it served as
a religio-cultural centre; some feel that it represented the transition from the
organization of the community along lines of kingship to one along lines of social
or economic classes; some find its functional differentiation in its development as
an economic centre for the gathering and distribution of goods; others as a focus of
political or military power. No single criterion or small group of criteria suffice to
define a city. Mere size and density of population do not alone distinguish a city
from a large village or town, even though generally these physical evidences do
correlate with such functional aspects of a city as handicrafts, trade, social classes,
or centralized control. Nor do unity of government or the existence of a defensive
wall in themselves indicate a city. Industrialization, the concentration of certain
crafts, has been a major feature of many modern cities and did appear on a simple

1
Wheatley, P., ‘The concept of urbanism’, in P.J. Ucko, R. Tringham & G. Dimbleby (eds.), Man,
Settlement and Urbanism: Research Seminar in Archaeology and related Subjects, Institute of Archaeology,
London University, Duckworth, 1972, pp. 601- 637: p. 601.

29
 scale in some very early ones, but never to the exclusion of similar concentrations
of crafts in villages or even on large estates.2
Hammond continues and arrives at a simplification when he conjectures that;
Thus the most that can be said in preliminary definition of the ancient city is that it
was a well populated and unified centre, many of whose inhabitants engaged in
non-rural occupations, and one which came to control a larger productive area, and
hence more wealth, than its subsistence required.3
This definition of the ancient city is applicable to the Andean situation, as it inclusive of
administrative centres that would come to form a key part of the urban networks of the
Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu empires.

Wheatley makes his own generalization to overcome definition problems of ‘urban’ by

arguing that
Faced with this diversity of phenomena that have at one time or another been
designated as ‘urban’, it is, in the present state of knowledge, impossible to do more
than characterize the concept of urbanism as compounded of a series of sets of
ideal-type social, political, economic and other institutions which have combined in
different ways in different cultures and at different times. It is not unlikely that the
only feature which such congeries of institutions will ultimately prove to have in
common is the fact of their aggregation.4
Wheatley, like Hammond, Piggott5 and others, also takes a general and inclusive view to
the possible diversity of the phenomenon ‘urban’ and his ideas on the character of ‘urban’
also fit the Andean realm, where settlements that are designated urban in this dissertation
indeed display an aggregation of different politico-economic-social institutions. However a
brief consideration of some the different ideas that have formed the debate about the nature
of urbanism in general, and more specifically for the Americas, will profit this
investigation.

Gideon Sjoberg’s6 seminal work on world wide pre-industrial urban culture includes many
aspects that are also found collectively in the Andes region such as a permanent settlement,
of greater size and density in comparison to the surrounding rural area, a range of non-
agricultural specialists, a well defined and rigid class structure, with a clear cut division of
labour by age, sex and occupation, a small privileged upper class whose members occupy
the key positions in political religious and educational structures and reflect the rather
autocratic rule within a heterogeneous society.7 Sjoberg, Mumford8, Morris9 and Childe10,

2
Hammond, M., The City in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni. Press, 1972: p. 6 -7.
3
Hammond (1972): p. 8.
4
Wheatley (1972): p. 623.
5
The archaeologist Piggott, S., (‘Conclusion’, in P.J. Ucko, R. Tringham & G.W. Dimbbleby (eds.), Man,
settlement and urbanism: research seminar in archaeology and related subjects, Institute of Archaeology,
London Uni., Duckworth, 1972, pp. 947- 953), sees multiple models having a place in urban theory. When he
states: … I believe we should not simply take one particular type of model, but should in fact appreciate that
there are alternative ways of attempting to understand the past, provided we can utilize these various
approaches within a supra-model, or whatever you like to call it, within which they function satisfactorily.
Above all, models must be servants and not masters.
6
Sjoberg, G., The Preindustrial City: Past and Present, New York, The Free Press, 1960.
7
Sjoberg (1960).

30
amongst others, are unable, however, to give the Andes’ settlements or civilizations the
title of city or urban due to the lack of literacy on the part of the Andean people. Sjoberg
finds literacy a fundamental technological achievement in that it creates a ‘literati’ class
that represents the class division, specialization of labour and existence of leisure time.
These demonstrate the extraction of surplus for the maintenance of powerful elite,
including a group of literati that represents the power and social class structures and
education for elite cultural maintenance that are the sign of the existence of an urban
society.11

However, although writing is not present in the Andes, similar skills to literacy that create a
literati class can be clearly seen in the sophisticated religious symbolism, monumental
architecture, imagery, hydraulic and infrastructure engineering, and astronomical and
astrological information controlled and taught by the Andean elite. In the Casma valley the
use of anatomical drawings at Cerro Sechín12 or the complex calendar system used at
Tiwanaku13, demonstrates the sophistication of knowledge which could only be reached by
a literati class of full time specialists. The ‘message beans’ used by the Chimú, or the quipu
‘knotted string’ mnemonic device may also be counted as a sophisticated symbolic system
which would need a literati and exclusive education system to use and maintain. Since the
Supe valley, like later Andean cultures, also possessed well defined social divisions, work
specializations, autocratic rule, rigid class structure, increased technology and manipulation
of the environment, by the other urban criteria of Sjoberg14 they were urban in nature.

As discussed in the methodological chapter, since Sjoberg wrote his comparative study of
the world’s pre-industrial urban cultures, there have been a number of works, including
Hardoy, Hyslop and von Hagen & Morris, which refer to urbanism in the Andes, although
their reasons for including Andean cities in an urban definition vary. Hyslop states that he
avoids using the interchangeable words ‘city’ and ‘urban’ if possible because ‘of the
diverse meanings that have accrued to them in specialized literature’ 15, and uses instead
‘settlements’. Von Hagen and Morris make no mention of urban criteria although they refer
to urbanism in the Andes. Hardoy, by contrast, samples various urban definitions from
anthropology, archaeology and sociology before finally concluding that all definitions are
relevant to the time and outlook of the reviewer16 and listing the ten urban criteria that he
argues are best suited to the American pre-historical situation. The list does not include
literacy. Hardoy’s criteria are not exclusive, however, in that certain city sites only fulfill
some of the requirements, and yet are considered urban.

8
Mumford, Lewis, The City in History: its origins, its transformations, and its prospects, New York,
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961: p. 30.
9
Morris, A.E.G., History of the Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution, 2nd Ed., New York, Halstead
press, 1979: p. 5.
10
Wheatley (1972): pp. 611 -612.
11
Sjoberg (1960).
12
Kauffman, Doig. F., Manual de Arqueología peruana, Iberia, Lima, 1969: p. 263.
13
Buck, F., El Calendario Maya en la Cultura Tiahuanacu, La Paz, Sociedad Geográfica, 1937.
14
Sjoberg (1960): p. 10.
15
Hyslop, J. Inka settlement planning, Uni. of Texas press, Austin, 1990: p. xii.
16
Hardoy, J. E., (Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. xvii) argues that ‘[t]he concept of
a city changes with time and place, conditioned by the environment, socioeconomic structure, and
technological level of the observer’s own society.’

31
The definitions presented by Sjoberg and Hardoy allow us to find a midway point that
represents a theoretical position suitable for South America. Sjoberg offers a definition that
is suited for both cross-cultural study and comparison with the industrial city from a
cultural view, even though we are unable to accept his ultimate reliance upon literacy as the
deciding factor that allows determination of which settlements belong in the category of
pre-industrial ‘Feudal’ urban society and which in the ‘Folk’ pre-urban society. However it
is clear in the following chapters of this dissertation that the Andes, despite not having true
literacy still, if Sjoberg’s criteria are also not treated as exclusive, attained the level of pre-
industrial urban society. Hardoy, on the other hand, presents us with a view and criteria
tailored for the study of the physical design aspects of urban areas in the Americas and as
such has much to offer to this investigation, which pushes the search for physical urban
planning attributes and their connection through time and cultural context in the Andes
further than Hardoy, in his period with the data available, could have ventured.

It is important to consider Hardoy’s American criteria for the existence of urban

settlements, quoted below, as until now he has completed the most extensive coverage of
general urban planning in the Americas, and specifically for South America. Unlike
Hammond and Wheatley he chooses an approach of listed criteria; an urban settlement
should be:
1. Large and highly populated for its time and place.
2. A permanent settlement.
3. Having a minimum density for its time and place.
4. Recognizable in terms of its urban structures and layout, including its urban
streets and spaces.
5. A place where people lived and worked.
6. A concentration of specifically urban functions, such as a market and/or a
political and administrative centre and/or a military centre and/or a religious
centre and/or a centre of intellectual activity with the corresponding institutions.
7. A hierarchical heterogeneity of society. Residence of the ruling classes.
8. A centre of urban economy for its time and place, having a population which
depended to some extent on the agricultural production of people who lived
partially or totally outside the city proper. Part of the labour force was involved
in processing raw materials for a market larger than the city itself.
9. A centre of services for neighbouring areas and the nucleus of a progressive
pattern of urbanization and diffusion of technical advances.
10. Reflect an urban way of life, as opposed to a rural or semi-rural life, for its time
and place.17

A different approach is taken by Mumford, who is much respected for his contribution to
the history and definition of cities, and who like Hammond and Wheatley, takes a broad
view of the definition of the city when he states that ‘[t]he city in its complete sense, then,
is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional process, a theatre of
social action and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity’.18 Like Sjoberg, he sees the

17
Hardoy (1973): pp. xxi –xxii.
18
Mumford, Lewis, 'What is a city?' The Architectural Record 1937, re-published in Malcolm Miles and Tim

32
cultural and social manifestations of the city as the most important. Mumford further
argues that ‘…social facts are primary, and the physical organization of the city, its
industries and its markets, its lines of communication and traffic must be subservient to its
social needs’.19 By contrast, others, such as Rugg, find economic forms and relations to be
of fundamental importance for defining urbanism. According to Rugg the term city ‘City
implies a lack of rural characteristics and the development of a diverse group of
interdependent specialists who are engaged in non-agricultural activities’.20

All these broad definitions are suited to the inclusion of Andean settlements used in this
dissertation under the categorization of urban. However John Rowe, like Hardoy for the
Americas, created a definition of the physical urban settlement specifically for his studies
of pre-Hispanic Peru, which reinforced the simple and general form to be used in this
dissertation:
…an urban settlement is an area of human habitation in which many dwellings are
grouped closely together. The dwellings must be close enough together to leave
insufficient space between them for subsistence farming, although space for gardens
may be present. In the case of a site where the foundations of the dwellings have not
been excavated, an extensive area of thick and continuous habitation refuse provides
a basis for supposing that the settlement was an urban one.21
Rowe explains the reason for the precision in his definition as;
The intent of this definition is to exclude clusters of dwellings so small that they
could be interpreted as belonging to the members of a single extended family.
Twenty dwellings is perhaps the minimum which would provide this exclusion.22

In this dissertation the definitions of urban presented by Hammond, Wheatley and

Mumford (above), with their broad interpretations that allow the inclusion of Andean
settlements as urban, are accepted as a guiding philosophy on the general nature of
urbanism. By these definitions the settlements discussed in this dissertation, can be
included amongst the general diverse urban forms. So, too, the non-exclusive criteria
developed for the Americas by Hardoy is still applicable in the Andean context. Sjoberg’s
criteria, if not held to be exclusive, also remain useful, as will be seen in the concluding
chapter, for international comparisons between the Andes and other pre-industrial urban
forms.

However, in agreement with Rowe and Reiss23, and specifically for the classification and
inclusion of physical urban areas, this research does not contain a list of variables with
which each settlement must be matched, as in the approach of Adams24, Hardoy25,

Hall (eds), The City Cultures Reader, Routledge, New York, 2nd edn 2004, pp. 28-32: p. 29.
19
Mumford (2004): p. 29.
20
Rugg, Dean., Spatial Foundations of Urbanism, Dubuque, WmC. Brown Company Pub., 1972: p. 10.
21
John Rowe in Wheatley (1972): p. 612.
22
John Rowe in Wheatley (1972): p. 613
23
Reiss, A. J., ‘An analysis of urban phenomenon’, in R.M. Fisher (ed.), The Metropolis in Modern Life,
Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Co., 1955, pp. 41-49.
24
Adams, R. M., ‘The origin of cities’ Scientific American, vol. 2002, no. 303-3, 1960, pp. 153-172.
25
Hardoy (1973).

33
Sjoberg26, Childe, and others. In place of urban areas, Agnew, Mercer and Sopher use the
expression ‘Urban Form’ and argue that it
can be narrowly conceived as the physical arrangement of structure and open
spaces, including streets and other pathways, within some defined area, such as the
space enclosed within a wall that is called a town or city. Urban form then becomes
synonymous with urban morphology.27
‘Urban Form’ may also have a broader interpretation, as the internal structure of a city,
wherein are the geographic patterning of activities and social groups.28 This broader
meaning serves the Andean ‘wall-less’ situation better.

In keeping with the focus of this research, which is to search for a physical planned urban
design tradition, the working definition used in this study, and in agreement with many
other urban definitions, is that an urban area will signify those areas in which a cultural
force has brought into existence, along with housing, the use of public space for transport,
recreation, religion, political and economic activities but not for agricultural purposes. The
existence of a socially stratified and politically organised society must be explicit in the
arrangement of structures.

This definition of physical urban space has intentionally been reduced to the basic
inclusiveness that can be seen in the broad and general definitions outlined above and is
suited to the inclusion of urban areas both within the Andes and internationally. As such
allows for the future comparison of the Andes urban forms with international examples.

This definition does not include the many ‘agglutinated settlements’29 and ceremonial
centres30 that existed in various epochs prior to the first pan-Andean Wari-Tiwanaku Period
and others during the later Regional States Period. However, for understanding the
complexity of Andean settlement culture they must also be mentioned, as the process of
public planning began before the advent of urbanism with the construction of ceremonial
centres. In fact this signifies that there existed a coherent planning process for making
decisions as a consequence of progressively expanding empirical knowledge that was
transmitted through the generations and that made it possible for the future generations to
accommodate and resolve particular problems of urban development and to forestall
others31.

26
Sjoberg (1960).
27
Agnew, John, A., Mercer, John & Sopher, David E., The City in Cultural Context, Boston, Allen & Unwin,
1984, pp. 1 -28: p. 12. The Andean city and town forms, that are not usually bounded by walls or other man
made devices are not completely served by this definition.
28
Agnew, Mercer & Sopher (1984): p. 12.
29
Thompson, D. (‘Postclassic innovations in architecture and settlement patterns in the Casma Valley, Peru’,
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology vol. 20, 1964, pp. 91-105: p. 96), referring to Willey’s (‘Prehistoric
settlement patterns in the Viru Valley, Peru’, Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin 155, 1953), definition
of ‘Agglutinated Village’ from the Virú valley describes it as clustered structures or haphazard contiguous
construction. This term is used in this study as it is applied in the majority of Andean investigations.
30
Ceremonial centres in this study indicate religious structures not attached to dwelling areas of the common
populace, however they did usually house the religious attendants.
31
Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in pre-Columbian America, London, Studio Vista, 1968: p. 10.

34
Satellite towns exist in a stratified system that was part of the urbanism of the society and
city under whose influence they emerged, and in whose structural form can be seen the
social divisions, hierarchies and specializations of the city proper. This network of urban
settlements is an important part of urbanization. Urbanization can be defined as a process32
which includes the diffusion of urban values, migration from the country to the city, and
adjustment to urban ways.33 Lewandowski argues that urbanization is a state aspiration, and
that ‘…the state consciously manipulates urban features to convey symbolic meaning, to
foster identity, and to enhance the political cultural change that is the institutionalization of
cultural aspirations’.34 That is, urbanization serves the state’s needs for political and social
control, and is therefore enhanced as a cultural aspiration of the society.

The independent invention of cities, as in Mesopotamia and South America, may suggest
that the emergence of the city is a natural stage in the evolution of any human society
existing under the proper conditions of environment, economy, and culture.35 The exact
causes and inspiration of urbanization and city formation remain contested, and new
discoveries in Peru and Mesopotamia challenge accepted theories.

Recent investigations indicate that throughout the world early urbanism grew in areas of
difficult but varied environment and resources36. They also suggest that this stimulated
trade and exchange of ideas over large areas creating an information network that allowed
for the consolidation of new adaptive behaviours and technologies in particular settlements.
The concentration and adoption of, such adaptive ideas brought about sufficient surplus to
allow the development of occupational specialization, social stratification, a settlement
hierarchy and centralized state government. Centralization enabled the control of and
organization for storage and/or redistribution of foods and goods, and creation of public
works such as temples, administrative structures or irrigation and other infrastructure. All
of the above aspects were needed for the development of urbanization, and were also all
present and active in the Andes at the inception of urbanism. This centralization of political
economic and skills power in the Andes was used to control the extraction of surplus from
the different vertical and horizontal resource zones. This could be likened to Wittfogel’s
idea of centralization of social and political organization for the common economic goals
achieved by the creation of large-scale irrigation, which only became a reality after the
creation of the first cities in Peru.

However, Wheatley expresses his doubts about the possibility of ever isolating the exact
causes for the emergence of the urban form but sees religion as a primary force:
It is doubtful if a single autonomous causative factor will ever be identified in the
nexus of social, economic, and political transformations which resulted in the
emergence of urban forms, but one activity does seem in a sense to command a sort
of priority …This does not mean that religion … was a primary causative factor, but

32
Harvey, D. ‘Contested Cities: social process and spatial form’, in Jewson, N. & Macgregor, S. (ed.),
Transforming Cities: contested governance and new spatial divisions, London, Routledge, 1997, pp. 19
-27: pp. 21.
33
Agnew, Mercer & Sopher (1984): p. 20.
34
Lewandowski in Agnew, Mercer & Sopher (1984): p. 24.
35
Hammond (1972): p. 9.
36
Leik, Gwendolyn, Mesopotamia: The invention of the City, London, Penguin Books, 2001.

35
 rather that it permeated all activities, all institutional change; and afforded a
consensual focus for social life’.37

While Tringham argues that the difficulty in trying to isolate the start of urban forms and
‘…in distinguishing non-urban from urban settlement particularly in the early stages of the
“process of urbanization”, is undoubtedly caused by the fact that there is no sharp dividing
line in the development from non-urban to urban settlements but rather a continuum’.38
However, the search for causes of the transformation should not stop here.

Reader39 takes the possibility of the creation of the first cities, for which it has traditionally
been accepted that an agricultural surplus allowed for the specialization of skills and the
creation of a stratified society, and presents an alternative possibility. He argues that
The first cities are said to have arisen from rural communities whose intensified
farming practices produced surpluses large enough to free craft workers and other
specialists from working on the land. But it could have been the other way around.
Compelling evidence suggests that the rise of cities actually preceded – and inspired
– the intensification of agriculture.40
That is, Reader maintains that cities came first and advances in farming technology came
only as a response to the demands of cities.41 This theory places Sjoberg’s notions of the
need for a new technological level for the rise of cities, with new farming techniques being
crucial, into doubt. 42 In accordance with this different interpretation, Reader, discussing
Çatal Hüyük settlement as representing a pre-urban evolution in the Neolithic social form,
finds that there was little change in technology from the egalitarian pre-urban Çatal
Hüyük43 experience in Anatolia to the later first cities of Sumer. Reader argues that it was a
cultural change and not a technological revolution, per se, that accomplished the
transformation into city life; ‘This implies that a shift in food acquisition practices (the

37
Wheatley in Agnew, Mercer & Sopher (1984): p. 11.
38
Tringham, R., ‘Introduction: settlement patterns and urbanization’, in P. Ucko, R. Tringham & G.
Dimbleby (eds.), Man, Settlement and Urbanism: Research Seminar in Archaeology and Related
Subjects, Institute of Archaeology, London University, Duckworth, 1972, pp. xix- xxviii: p. xxv.
39
Jane Jacobs (Economy of Cities: 1969) quoted in Morris (1979: p. 2) made the same assumption from the
Çatal Hüyük data when she stated ‘…the dogma of agricultural primacy is as quaint as the theory of
spontaneous generation’ and that in reality ‘agriculture and animal husbandry arose in cities …cities must
have proceeded agriculture’.
40
Reader, J., Cities, London, William Heinemann, 2004: p.10. On page 24 Reader summarizes his
conclusions; ‘The conclusion reached in this scenario is that the first cities did not grow directly from
agricultural communities which produced surpluses large enough to support craftworkers and other non-
productive individuals. Contrary to this widely held view, although have always been sustained by an
agricultural surplus from surrounding regions, they were not created by it. In fact, the impetus was reversed:
it was the establishment of the cities that stimulated the production of agricultural surpluses. It was not
farmers, but relatively egalitarian clans of craftworkers, merchants and managers who laid the foundations of
the city and urban life – in terms of both concept and its physical manifestation. Complex agrarian societies
and the intensive farming that regularly produces surpluses came later, a consequence rather than a cause of
cities’.
41
Reader (2004): p. 15.
42
Sjoberg (1960).
43
Çatal Hüyük was pre-urban living as a collection of tight knit free-standing housing, of farmers assisted by
hunting and gathering practices, in an egalitarian organization not under the leadership of an elite sect of the
society.

36
agricultural revolution) is likely to have been accomplished by a shift in belief systems,
symbolism and ritual (the cultural revolution).’44

Sjoberg, Mumford and also Childe, who earlier wrote of this transformation, reject
Reader’s theory, with Childe arguing that
…the possibility of producing the requisite surplus was inherent in the very nature
of the Neolithic economy; its realization, however, required additions to the stock
of applied science at the disposal of all barbarians, as well as modification in social
and economic relations.45
Mumford also gave primacy to the revolutionary force of the agricultural revolution,
arguing that
The rise of the city, obscures rather than clarifies what actually occurred. The rise
of the city, so far from wiping out earlier elements in the culture, actually brought
them together and increased their efficacy and scope. Even the fostering of non-
agricultural occupations heightened the demand for food and probably caused
villages to multiply, and still more land to be brought under cultivation. Within the
city, very little of the old order was at first excluded: agriculture itself in Sumer, for
example, continued to be practiced on a large scale by those who lived permanently
within the new walled towns.46
That is, although the cities brought about a ‘cultural revolution’ this was preceded by the
‘agricultural revolution’ in large-scale agricultural production.

Sophisticated ceramics, which in Mesopotamia, were found to have existed prior to cities
and may have been invented in Çatal Hüyük47 is seen by Reader as a cause of accelerated
population growth.48 However it can not be claimed as a new technology that created
urbanism so much as a cause of cultural changes that aided the creation of urbanism.
Reader postulates a theory of itinerant craft specialists, and argues that it is likely that with
population increase skilled members of communities left their communities and formed
families and clans of skilled itinerant artisan workers traveling between communities
exchanging goods for food and habitation. Finally, the farmers freed from the need to
create their own wares could specialize in farming practices creating enough surplus to be
able to support artisans, merchants and managers on a full time basis, demonstrating that
skill specialization possibly preceded cities.49

As with Childe’s ‘Urban Revolution’, Mumford argues that many functions that had
previously been unorganized and scattered, when these community components were
brought together in a limited area these were maintained in a state of interaction and
dynamic tension.50 Although unlike Mesopotamia where cities were usually limited by a

44
Reader (2004): p. 19.
45
Childe, quoted in Morris (1979): p. 5.
46
Mumford (1961): pp. 31
47
Reader (2004): p. 15 -16.
48
Reader (2004): p. 14.
49
Reader (2004): pp. 22 – 24.
50
Mumford (1961): p. 31.

37
defensive wall51, walled towns in the Andes were rare. However the mixture and
heightening of the old village elements within the new urban setting was of equal relevance
to the Andean situation. Artisans may have been one of the older elements that benefited
from the new urban space and organization.

The primary urban conglomerations probably became desirable, at least in part, not for
protection in warfare but because of the possibility of increased access to the production of
wares. The settled artisan was also able to produce a greater range and number of
stockpiled goods at a better price than the itinerant artisan, and also increased trade of raw
material and finished produce, joining the urban areas into an economic network with
neighbouring cities.52 Reader argues that people with managerial skills would suggest new
ways of organization for the greater benefit of all and ‘[a]dd to this the ever-present
requirements of symbolism, belief and ritual, and the sprawling conglomeration of
workshops, houses, temples and public buildings would very soon become a city’.53 If the
Supe valley culture is also representative of this process then the next stage was to plan an
urban capital to serve the socio-politico needs of the society expanding in size and
complexity.

Since cities create an imbalance in societal structure that begins the stratified class systems,
so much a part of many urban definitions, urbanization does not benefit all.54 However,
those that do benefit from it the most are the managers, merchants and artisans, and so it
would be unsurprising if it were those occupation types that laid the foundations for cities
from which they were to be the major beneficiaries. However, from a different perspective
Wheatley expresses doubt as to the position of economic forces in the creation of the first
cities and sees the symbolic integrative functions of early cities as being of first
importance. He argues that:
Despite the emphasis which has been placed on trade as a primary motivating force
in the generation of urban forms, it has not yet been demonstrated clearly and
unequivocally first, that a generalized desire for exchange is capable of
concentrating political and social power to the extent attested by the archaeological
record, or second, that it can bring about the institutionalization of such power.55

There is possibly little that can be directly compared between the pre-urban settlement of
Çatal Hüyük and later urban settlements and cities. Çatal Hüyük represents the first social
evolution towards city life, as it is a ‘move away from the nomadic hunting and gathering
lifestyle which had sustained humanity for most of its existence towards the sedentary life
that was to be a formative characteristic of cities and civilization’.56 Caral, represents the

51
Mumford (1961: p. 66) makes the very important observation about city walls that ‘[t]he wall, then, served
as both a military device and an agent of effective command over the urban population’.
52
Reader (2004): p. 23.
53
Reader (2004): p. 24.
54
Rugg (1972: p. 28) realises this and parallels can be drawn to the Andean situation despite its more socialist
intentions. He states ‘[a] contradiction therefore existed in Mesopotamia in that urban material progress did
not necessarily lead to the diffusion of the good life for the collective group – a lesson we see repeated
throughout urban history’.
55
Wheatley in Agnew, Mercer & Sopher (1984): p. 10 -11.
56
Reader (2204): p. 17.

38
following evolutionary step, an example of a first city, and its formation at a time of pre-
ceramic culture also makes comparisons difficult with Çatal Hüyük. Although in Caral
other artisan forms such as textiles and personal adornment were well developed, and skills
such as architecture and construction, and knowledge of astronomy and calendar process,
means that some specialization was certainly practiced before the city was built.

It is useful to use information from Caral in Peru, where like Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia,
there have been discovered no signs of warfare, one of the conventional causes of human
densification of settlement and the emergence of cities.57 The later cities of the Casma
valley do show explicit sign of warfare in symbolism and weaponry, indicating that warfare
soon became a part of life with the introduction of cities. However, like Çatal Hüyük on the
one hand, Caral existed for over a millennium without warfare, but on the other hand
unlike Çatal Hüyük, as a city it had a stratified society rather than an egalitarian base. Yet,
it is a stratified system that marks cities out from other settlement forms. As Reader states:
The point is that for archaeologists and historians the most meaningful difference
between a village and a city has nothing to do with its size; it is instead a measure
of social and economic differentiation within communities.58
The Andes urban cultures clearly demonstrate this aspect in the first urban movement at
Supe, and specifically in the plan of Caral. Reader recognizes the spontaneous emergence
of civilization in Peru, and Caral as the sapling which probably provided the ancestral roots
of the Tawantinsuyu.59

The first urbanization in the Supe valley stands out from other areas of the world as it is
both pre-ceramics and pre-metallurgy and uses a basic system of flood plain irrigation
technology. It is, however, part of a large network of trade and diffusion of ideas and
clearly shows social hierarchy, job specialization, centralized state, sophisticated public
planning, able to command a large public workforce, endured through time and had a
political organization not solely based on family or clan relations. It also collected and used
resources from outside its own hinterland. In terms of the primary state in the Supe valley,
Shady says that it is evident that
Se hace evidente allí, durante la parte final del Arcaico Tardío, la primera
concentración de poder político. La construcción de obras arquitectónicas
monumentales, como las de Caral, requirió de una autoridad central para la
ingente movilización poblacional. Asimismo, aquélla habría sido necesaria
para garantizar el manejo del territorio compartido, el mantenimiento de la
economía excedentaria, el intenso intercambio de productos marinos y
agrícolas entre comunidades de litoral y del valle y, sobretodo, el acceso
diferencial a los beneficios del sistema productivo. Al parecer, la división
entre <<señores>> y <<plebeyos>> (elites sacerdotales – administrativas
versus agriculturas, pescadores) estaba ya instituida, era el orden
establecido.60
57
Reader (2004): pp.11 -12.
58
Readaer (2004): p. 16.
59
Reader (2204): pp. 10, 12.
60
Shady, R., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización y la formación del Estado en el Perú: las evidencias
arqueológicas de Caral-Supe’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de
la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de

39
Therefore in Supe can be seen the beginning not only of the first cities in the
Americas but also of the first clearly recognizable American civilization.

3.2 Civilization
…the word ‘civilization’ denotes a process of collective self-differentiation from a
world characterized, implicitly or explicitly, as ‘barbaric’ or ‘savage’ or
‘primitive’. By extension, societies judged to have achieved such self-differentiation
are called civilized. This usage is obviously unsatisfactory…
Felipe Fernández-Armesto61

Urbanism has been presumed to be one of the criteria for defining ‘civilization’.62 However
in the Andes there is clear proof that a large civilization can exist, for a substantial time,
without the formation of urbanism. Millon argues that
In the Old World the first civilizations were associated with the first cities, but both
in Middle America and Peru the rise of civilization does not seem to have occurred
in an urban setting.63
Both the Chavín and Moche civilizations were built of agglutinated settlements near
religious centres. In Price’s64 analysis this is an evolution of hamlet / minor ceremonial /
elite residence centre / major centre, as contrasted with the Old World village / town / city.
Burger65, in his research on Chavín, refers to civilization as meaning ‘… a society with a
high level of cultural achievement in the arts and sciences, as made visible in the form of
material objects’. However, the point in time in an investigation when early societies have
transformed into a civilization remains a subjective decision. Urbanization smoothes over,
and to some degree obscures a clear demarcation of that transforming event in time.66

Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003g, pp. 93- 100: pp. 94- 95. Translated as ‘There is
evidence that during the final part of the Late Archaic Period there was a primary concentration of political
power. The construction of monumental architectural works, such as those at Caral, required a central
authority to motivate the large population. Likewise, they also had the means necessary to manage the shared
territory, the maintenance of the surplus economy, the intense trade of marine and agricultural products
between the communities of the seashore and the valley, and above all the different access to the benefits of
the productive system. There appears a division between the << Lords>> and the <<peasants>> (elite priests
and administrators versus farmers and fisher folk) that was instituted and was the established order.’
(translation L.Hasluck).
61
Fernández-Armesto, F., Civilizations, London, Pan Books, 2001: p. 3.
62
Childe quoted in Rugg (1972: p. 10), states of urbanism and its creation of civilization that the ‘”[u]rban
revolution” in Mesopotamia involved the development of a group of people within the city, freed from
subsistence agricultural activity, who could interact and create the innovations in engineering, technology,
religion, and the arts which we call civilization. Accompanying these urban innovations was progress in the
organization of space from a city through a series of political, economic, and social relationships with external
areas’. However, Fernández-Armesto (2000: p. 23) in his overview of the definition of civilization makes the
point that ‘cities have frequently been thought of as essential to civilized life; but no one has ever established
a satisfactory way of distinguishing a city from other ways of organizing space to live in’.
63
Millon, R., ‘Teotihuacan’, Scientific American, vol. 216, no. 6, 1967, pp. 38-48: p. 38.
64
Price, B. J., ‘Cause, effect, and the anthropological study of urbanism’, in S. Tax (ed.), Urbanization in the
Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 51-62: p. 54.
65
Burger, R. L., Chavín and the origins of Andean civilization, London, Thames and Hudson, 1992: p. 9.
66
Burger (1992): p. 9; Mumford (1961): pp. 32- 33.

40
In the Andes there was much waxing and waning of the great civilizations – the Chavín,
Tiwanaku, Wari and Chimú – with periods in which they flourished followed by periods in
which they disintegrated into the ‘dark-ages’ of scattered regional societies before
eventually re-forming under the clearly recognizable civilization of Tawantinsuyu.67 To add
to the confusion and obscurity of these transformations is the fact that even in the times
between the great civilizations of Chavín, Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu periods, the
smaller regional political and cultural units continued to display, as part of the ongoing
civilized tradition, many of the classic hallmarks of civilization.

For the purposes of researching within these societies the notion of civilization can be
broken down into two main areas, political and environmental. The first is the political
aspect that includes labour organization, which in turn involves class and religion.
Although a political framework is seen to be necessary for the birth of a civilization, the
precise form of the framework is apparently not decisive.68 World history shows that
theocratic, democratic, despotic nor feudal political forms have a greater tendency to
inspire the birth of civilizations, and the political framework will affect all other
characteristics of the civilization in question, from construction, technology and aesthetics,
to agriculture, religion and migration.69 But the type of political framework will ultimately
not be important in the defining of civilization as a notion. In the Andes the political
framework for all the complex societies, from chieftaincy polities to empires, can be
classified as theocratic. That is the political leader (or leaders) was also the religious leader,
and usually held a position of direct communication and influence with the gods, in a
somewhat shamanic manner. However Brennan70 and Bawden71 both conclude that in the
north coast Salinar, Cupisnique and Moche cultures there was a movement towards greater
secularization and individualization.

It is not until the Tawantinsuyu Empire that a different system can clearly be recognized.
Although theocratic, with the Inca as leader holding a shamanic position, it had some
features in common with the modern socialist state, as all aspects of life, private property,
resources and productivity were controlled by the state. All social life and punishment for
transgressions, including adultery were harshly punished by state authority72. Baudin
concludes that
… both agrarian collectivism and state socialism existed in Peru; the one dating
back to a long time before the Incas, the other established when they conquered the
land; one the result of long evolution, the other the creation of the human mind.73

67
Morris (1979: p. 1), amongst others, recognizes the age and primary position of Andean civilization. His
chart shows the Inca civilization having its antecedents from about 2000 BC.
68
Fernández-Armesto (2001).
69
Fernández-Armesto (2001).
70
Brennan, C.T., ‘Cerro Arena: origins of the urban tradition on the Peruvian north coast’, Current
Anthropology, vol. 23, no. 3, 1982, pp. 247- 254: p. 252.
71
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996: pp. 302, 305.
72
Baudin, L., A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru, in Katherine Woods (trans.), Princeton, New Jersey, D.
Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961a: p. xviii.
73
Baudin (1961a): p. xix.

41
Figure 7. The Size of the Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu [Inca] Empire in comparison to the other largest
empires of world history (Source: Escalante, 2001, p. 215)74.

It is in the second general area that we will find some useful hints about the discovery of a
working definition of civilization, although it will not allow us to pinpoint accurately the
precise moment in a society’s or culture’s existence when the ultimate transformation takes
place. Nor will it show a certain linear cultural development towards this ultimate end.This
second area is the relationship of a society and its culture to its environment. This is a

74
Escalante Moscoso, J.F., ‘De la caverna a la metrópolis – 5000 años de arquitectura’, 2nd Edición, La
Paz, Producciones CIMA, 2001.

42
relationship that can never be escaped. All civilizations are involved in the conscious
transformation of their environments, whether that is for the purposes of sustenance,
dwelling, politics, religion, and communication, or purely for aesthetics. The final perhaps
is the greatest indication of the machinations of a sophisticated civilization at work.

Fernandez-Armesto in his book Civilizations makes a clear argument for a new criterion
for characterizing civilizations:
All the societies I call civilizations do indeed have something in common: their
programs for the systematic refashioning of nature. That does not mean that there
are any limits to their possible diversity.75
A civilization can be characterized by its society’s relationship with the natural
environment, and especially their ability, and desire, to transform that environment. His
statement allows the study of pre-historical Andes cultures under the title of ‘civilization’,
without the need to conform to a list of key cultural manifestations76.

All the key characteristics of civilizations involve the transformation of the environment to
limit the effects of environmental fluctuations. Therefore to be civilized is to be apart from
what is wild. An aspect of urbanism, like large-scale or hydraulic agriculture is to
civilization, is that it involves a political and cultural unity dedicated to the transformation
of the environment for human purposes. Whether it is the beginnings of civilization, the
heights, or the decline, it is the battle of environmental transformation that marks these
stages out for consideration.77

3.3 Tradition
From its origin onwards, indeed, the city may be described as a structure
specifically equipped to store and transmit the goods of civilization, sufficiently
condensed to afford the maximum amount of facilities in a minimum space, but
also capable of structural enlargement to enable it to find a place for the changing
needs and the more complex forms of a growing society and its cumulative social
heritage.
Lewis Mumford78

Wendell Clark Bennett, a noted early twentieth century archaeologist devoted to the
Andes,was one of the first to express the interconnectedness of Andean culture. Collier
paraphrases Bennett’s ideas when he states that:

75
Fernández-Armesto (2001): p. 18.
76
Civilization in South America does not display many of the ‘obvious’ characteristics associated with the
theories of Oswald Spengler, A.J. Toynbee, V. Gordon Childe, Lewis Mumford and Elsworth Huntington,
who maintain that there are some generally accepted key components of civilizations including monumental
architecture, developed literature and the formation of city states. Yet, in their later epochs, the Tiwanaku,
Chimú and Tawantinsuyu (Inca) Empires were undoubtedly formidable civilizations, with monumental
structures, colonization, centralized politics, record keeping, communication system, immigration, large
sphere of cultural influence, artistic traditions, imperialism, state religion, large scale agriculture and of
course urbanization.
77
Fernández-Armesto (2001).
78
Mumford (1961): p. 30

43
 [t]he various regions of the Central Andes79 have such inter-connected culture
histories that the processes of culture development in one region needs to be seen in
light of what happened in the others.80
This cultural interconnectedness is the basis of the development and evolution of an
Andean tradition of urban planning and design.

Bawden succinctly places the concept of tradition within the boundaries of time and in a
context of innovation:
… in the broad experience of any distinct human society, time represents an
historical continuum within which a culture emerges and develops. Time is thus
culturally transformed into tradition which embraces living members of a society
and their forebears in a temporal unity. Moreover, the concepts that define their
cultural tradition limit the possibilities for action and change open to the members
of society. While culture is constantly adjusting according to the dictates of history,
such change is not random but occurs within the structure of beliefs that are the
heritage of all members of a society, past and present. These core principles are, of
course, made explicit in the lifeways that comprise the vital living culture of
contemporary members of the tradition. Thus the past becomes accessible and
understandable in the context of persisting cultural belief. More importantly, the
people who created the tradition through the centuries are no longer lost in time but
become familiar as the ancestors of vital living cultures.81

The search for the physical roots of an Andean urban planning tradition will inevitably
become obscured in the pre-historical, un-recorded past. Tradition is not born fully fledged,
nor does it remain changeless through the course of time. The search for an urban tradition
is a search through the physical remains of the past, and only those remains that have
survived the tests of time, and furthermore those that have been recovered, recorded and
studied, and are available to reconstruct the face of a tradition assembled from the available
remaining evidence. Much of South American urban pre-history remains to be discovered,
researched and written up, while the earliest dates of urban settlement remain contested.82

It is for these reasons that the re-assemblage of a planned urban design tradition in South
America can never be as precise as, for instance, the isolation of a single aspect such as
temple architecture or tomb design. All tradition begins fragmented and becomes
consolidated through perseverance over time. Tradition being dynamic is also open to
change, revision and renewal. In the Andes, newer phases of a tradition frequently reach
back into the past and re-use aspects without stepping outside of the boundaries of

79
Bennett means by Central Andes the areas of Peru and North Bolivia. Collier refers to Wendell Bennett’s
article, ‘The Peruvian co-tradition’, American Antiquity, vol. 13, no. 4, part 2, 1948.
80
Collier, D., ‘Development of civilization on the coast of Peru’, in J.H. Stewart (ed.), Irrigation civilizations:
a comparative study, Social Science Monograph, No. 1, Washington, D.C., Pan American Union, Department
of Cultural Affairs, 1955, pp. 19-27: p. 19.
81
Bawden (1996): p. 13.
82
Reader (2004).

44
tradition83. New aspects may be accepted through force or influence, and through wide
acceptance find a place within an ongoing tradition.

Frederick Engel84, an American anthropologist who has spent decades studying the ancient
Andes region and its architecture, finds that tradition in the Andes has played the most
important part in the building of pre-Columbian edifices, far more so than the effect of
environment or types of available materials. In every field, the Andean people are marked
by their strong attachment to tradition and by their resistance to change. There is a strong
sub-stratum of traditional structural principles which embrace all Andean peoples and unite
them with their ancestors through the ages. Murdock points out that the diffusion of culture
is a partial transmission;
A people borrows from its neighbours only what its cultural base is prepared to
accept and, among such elements, only what its members have reason to feel will
satisfy their wants better than existing practices, and, among such, only the elements
which actually prove, after trial, more satisfying under the environing conditions. In
actual fact, the presence of other peoples with differing cultures in the vicinity is
reacted to as any other aspect of the environment, as a source to be selectively
drawn upon for innovations which may bring superior adaptation. 85
This process is clearly seen in action in the evolution of the pan-Andean urban planning
tradition.

Within the pan-Andean tradition of planned urban design are other sub traditions that form
part of the greater whole. For instance, the Andes have a longer tradition of pre-urban
monumental religious structure design, which later came to be a part of the greater urban
design. If this study were to investigate solely religious structures then the task would be
far simpler. Religious structures when erected remain preserved through time far better than
urban developments. This is for some obvious reasons: monumental structures are created
by a group workforce and therefore are much larger and more durable in construction and
materials; maintenance and renewal happens over a far longer period; and cultural taboos
often help to preserve the structures long after there use has discontinued. These factors are
generally not so for the dwellings surrounding religious structures or independent of them.
However occasionally they are pertinent when looking at urban development built within
pre-planned, defensive or administrative locations.

On a regional level there developed in the Formative and Regional Development Periods a
north coastal pre-urban tradition of state organization, with individual secular leanings, that
began in the northern coastal valleys with the Chavín, and continued with the Cupisnique,
Salinar, Gallinazo and then Moche cultures, until subsumed into, and transformed by, the
first pan-Andean empire of the Wari-Tiwanaku. The north coast region was the home of

83
Burger (1992): p. 229; Menzel, D., ‘Archaism and revival on the south coast of Peru’, Men and Cultures -
Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences,
Philadelphia, September 1-9, 1956, Philadelphia, Uni. of Pennsylvania Press, 1960, pp. 596-600.
84
Engel, F., ‘Toward a typology of architecture and urbanism in the Pre-Columbian Andes’, in D.L.
Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 411-441: p. 413.
85
Murdock, G. P., ‘Typology in the area of social organization’, Men and Cultures - Selected Papers of the
Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, September 1-9,
1956, Philadelphia, Uni. of Pennsylvania Press, 1960, pp. 183 – 188: p. 186.

45
people whose archaeological remains similarly suggest general cultural integrity and
overall stability of population through time, although there were certainly local differences.
Thus while fundamental character persisted through the generations, the material
expressions necessarily changed as a function of taste, technological modification,
economic contingency, religious or political edict, and so forth. The resulting interaction of
the north coast peoples, with their coastal and highland neighbours, through many centuries
greatly enriched the regional tradition through its incorporation of important features of
material and conceptual culture86.

The roots of the Andean planning tradition go back to before the first attempt at
urbanization. It will be shown in chapters four and five that the road to widespread
urbanization in the Andes was not smooth, as Hardoy87 believed, but interrupted by
scattered periods of non-urban settlement. Although the central and north coastal regions
developed at a relatively even pace in comparison with the highlands88, to understand the
pattern of planned urban development there must be a criteria by which the judgment on
where the tradition can be said to begin in earnest, and which of the myriad of settlement
sites, large and small, can safely be said to exist within it.

Understanding of the growth of urbanism in the Andes is not easily comprehended through
a linear time line. The use of urbanism arose, endured and disappeared at different times
and in different locations throughout the Andes. The idea traveled over vast regions taking
hold in new areas while former areas relapsed into a pre-urban state. Therefore the
following summary of the growth of urbanism, as a foreground to the analysis of what
made the Andean urban design tradition, begins with the histories of the major pre-urban
states that had influence upon the growth of urbanism. After understanding the construction
and role of the main pre-urban civilizations the strand of Andean urbanism will then be
clearly traced from its earliest planned inception and its movement throughout the Andes
without the confusion of constant explanation of the pre-urban state for each epoch.

86
Bawden (1996): p. 13; Topic, T.L., (‘The Early Intermediate Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day,
K. (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p.
281), goes so far as to state ‘[w]e may actually be witnessing an unbroken dynasty from Moche to Pampa
Grande to Chan Chan.’
87
Hardoy (1973). It should be remembered that Supe Caral, the earliest planned city, was not discovered until
two decades after the publication of Hardoy’s book.
88
Hardoy (1968): p.18.

46
CHAPTER FOUR - Pre-Urban Cultures
‘Urbanism’ is one of the most protean of terms. In one or other of its
inflections it is customarily used to denote sets of qualities possessed by
certain of the larger and more compact clusters of settlement features that at
any particular moment in time represent centroids of continuous population
movements. It is often held that these larger nodes in the settlement pattern
are theatres for the acting out of a distinctive manner of life characterized as
“urban”. It is known that nodes of this order of dominance first appeared in
the settlement hierarchy some five thousand years ago in the course of the
transformation of relatively egalitarian, ascriptive, kin-structured groups
into socially stratified, politically organized, territorially based societies,
since when they have progressively extended the scope and autonomy of
their institutional spheres so that today they mould the actions and
aspirations of vastly the larger proportion of mankind.
P. Wheatley1

This chapter provides a brief summary of the relevant pre-urban cultures, particularly
the Chavín and Moche. Although Chavín existed after the start of Andean urbanism it
needs to be discussed as it was such a strong connecting cultural force through its
religious beliefs which spread throughout the Andes. In comparison, other smaller
pre-urban societies continued to exist in some regions until finally absorbed into the
Tawantinsuyu Empire, but these do not need to be mentioned for this research.
Chavín as a territorial empire took over from the abortive attempts at urbanism that
existed on the coast prior to its domination and did not return until after its demise.

4.1 Chavín
Chavín was the most culturally influential of the early civilizations and the base for all
Andean culture thereafter2. However that is not to say that it was the first
sophisticated society or civilization, for urban society flourished in the Supe and
Casma valleys prior. Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casa, who are working on the
discovery of the earliest American civilization in the Supe valley of Peru, comments
on the earlier cultural interaction and fusion of the North/Central region;
‘Pero, si bien en las varias regiones del área norcentral habían culturas
peculiares, todas ellas compartían una misma [tradición], como resultado de la
interacción sostenida. Esta tradición, denominada [Kotosh] (Burger y Burger,
1980, 1985), está constituida por creencias, ritos y algunos símbolos, que
formaron parte de la ideología asumida por el estado de Supe’3.

1
Wheatley (1972): p. 601.
2
Burger, R. L., (Chavin and the origins of Andean Civilization, London, Thames & Hudson, 1992: pp.
11, 229), cites Tello’s argument that Chavín provided the cultural foundations out of which all later
Peruvian civilizations grew. Chavín is frequently presented as the South American counterpart to the
Shang civilization in China, the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia, and the Olmec civilization in
Mesoamerica.
3
Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L., ‘Los Orígenes de la Civilización en el Perú: el
Área Norcentral y el Valle de Supe durante el Arcadio Tardío’, in C.L. Arroyo (ed.), Arqueología y
Sociedad 13, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología - Universidad Nacional Mayor de San
Marcos, vol. 13, 2000, pp. 13-48: p. 16. ‘But, even though the various regions of the north central area
created characteristic cultures, all of these shared the same single tradition, which resulted in their

47
To understand why these urban experiments did not immediately commence
widespread cultural evolution towards urbanism, but instead floundered before the
rise of the Chavín pre-urban civilization, it is important to know a little of these pre-
urban cultures, that would in the future not only adopt urbanism, but give rise to some
of its greatest Andean expressions, join with, and influence the urban tradition that
began thousands of years before they were to feel its effect. Not all civilization is
suited to the adoption of urbanism.

Chavín civilization, whose precise origin is unknown4, seems to have arisen out of the
interplay between the societies of the coast, highlands, and eastern lowlands or
Amazon. At its apogee in the last millennium BC (Middle Formative Period), it linked
groups from most of the central, northern and southern coast and highland areas5.
Although Chavín culture built numerous large temples that served as gathering places
for religious rites and pilgrimage, their agglutinated villages, unattached but nearby,
lacked any sort of planned layout. The main religious centre, in the north central
highlands, was at Chavín de Huantar and probably served as a military capital.
Nearby are the remains of a village too large to be supported by the valley. The
temple constructions of the period followed a plan, both at Chavín de Huantar and the
various lesser centres6.

Like all sophisticated Andean societies it was theocratic in its power structure and
hydraulic in its agricultural technology. It was also pre-urban in its nature. However
the influence of Chavín culture played an important part in the rise of Andean
urbanization. It was with Chavín culture that the cultivation of maize spread and the
subsequent irrigation technology allowed a marked increase in the size of settlement
populations. The temple or community building acquired new importance, becoming
an attraction which drew new agricultural villages nearby. The spread of Chavín
culture was very rapid and probably the result of military expansion. Burger7 goes on
to state that the emergence of Chavín civilization represented a watershed in Andean
prehistory from which there was no return.

In the Alti Plano and highland cultures of Tiwanaku and Wari, many religious motifs
are clearly of Chavín origin, and some of these theological ideas continued after those
societies’ demise. Unfortunately Chavín civilization was lacking some of the basic
foundations for the formation of an urban society, and for these same reasons was
doomed to eventual collapse. Urbanization needs a strong centralized government,
and a large agricultural surplus to maintain the specialised and stratified society that is
an integral part of urbanization. In turn stratified societies require a strong centralized
state apparatus with coercive power to maintain long-term stability8.

sustained interaction. This tradition, denoted Kotosh, was constituted of beliefs, rituals and some
symbols that formed part of the ideology assumed by the Supe state’ (translation L.Hasluck).
4
Hardoy, J. E. (Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. 306), suspects that
iconographic imagery points to an Amazonian beginning.
5
Burger (1992): p. 12; Kaulicke, P., ‘Perspectives regionales del periodo formativo en el Perú: una
introducción’, in P. Kaulicke (ed.), Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, vol. 2, 1998, pp. 9-13: p. 10.
6
Hardoy (1973: p. 306), mentions other ceremonial centres including Ancón, Cerro Blanco, Punkurí
and Pallka, Moxeque and perhaps Cero Sechín in the Casma valley. Also Kuntar Wasi a few kilometres
from Cajamarca.
7
Burger (1992): p. 229.
8
Burger (1992): p. 229.

48
Wittfogel9 explains that a hydraulic culture, such as Chavín, needs a strong
centralized government to maintain irrigation, raise large workforces for public works
and redistribute food. Chavín power was ideological and economic, based around
shared use of religious centres to which surplus was drawn. Chavín compensation for
a lack of strong centralized government was the use of ideological and economic
devices which in the long term did not serve to hold a civilization together.10

In the fifth century BC the influence of the Chavín feline cult declined in all areas,
although it continued in pockets evolving towards regionalized styles11. Burger
describes the effect of this decline on the capital city, Chavín de Huantar,12 as the
breaking of an old cultural pattern:
Some time in third century BC, the Chavín sphere of interaction began to
disintegrate. A social upheaval occurred in many of the Middle Formative
centres throughout the central and northern Peru and, in many cases,
construction of public architecture was abruptly halted and never completed.
Some sites were completely abandoned while in others the ceremonial
architecture was leveled to make way for agglutinated villages. At Chavín de
Huantar, for example, a small village was built over the Circular Plaza, and
some of the stone carvings were incorporated in the house walls and sculptures
collapsed into the rubble of public architecture. Similar patterns have been
recorded at Kotosh, Huaricoto, Kuntur Wasi, Pacopampa, and other sites. In
all these cases, the traditional use of space was suddenly shifted from public
gatherings and religious rituals to mundane domestic activities. This
transformation broke a cultural pattern that had existed for centuries, and in
some cases millennia.13

The cultural pattern of a ceremonial centre with nearby agglutinated villages14, which
began before the Chavín, was to continue after the demise of the Chavín civilization
in both coastal and highland areas until the expansion of the Wari-Tiwanaku urban
civilization, bringing with it a new form of centralized government and urban
organization. There is a clear case of this social transformation with the north coastal
Mochica civilization.

9
Wittfogel, K.A., ‘Developmental Aspects of Hydraulic Societies’, in J.H. Steward (ed.), Irrigation
civilizations: a comparative study: a symposium on method and result in cross-cultural regularities,
Social Science Monograph, no.1, Westport, Connecticut, Department of Cultural affairs, Pan American
Union, Social Science Section, , 1955, pp. 43-52.
10
Burger (1992): p. 229.
11
Hardoy (1973): p. 304-7.
12
Rick, J., Rodríguez Kembel., S., Mendoza Rick, R. & Kembel, J. A., ‘La arquitectura del complejo
ceremonial de Chavín de Huantar: documentación tridimensional y sus implicancias’, in P. Kaulicke
(ed.), Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, vol. 2 (Perspectivas regionales del periodo formativo en el Perú),
1998, pp. 181-214.
13
Burger (1992): p. 228.
14
Lumbreras, L. G., (The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c, p. 100.) notes that most houses were more or less concentrated in the agglutinated
villages to facilitate communal activities and perhaps also for protection.

49
4.2 Cupisnique, Salinar, Gallinazo and Mochica
Lumbreras15 notes that in the Regional Development Period which followed the
demise of Chavín influence, there was a general increase in the number of population
centres. In this period, prior to the Wari-Tiwanaku influence, the regional north
coastal tradition would grow of its own accord into the Mochica federation, or polity,
with a power structure covering the neighbouring cultures of the valleys of the north
and central coast of Peru16. The Moche were the descendants of the people who first
began settlements in the area about 2000 BC and flourished in the area, after Chavín
demise, from around 100 AD to roughly 750 AD. They were not ethnically distinct
from their coastal predecessors and there is no evidence of them migrating from
elsewhere17.

The overall stability of the north coast Andean population through time is now
generally accepted18. The peoples of north coast Peru maintained, with regional
differences, a cultural integrity through time, but were also in close cultural contact
with coastal and highland neighbours, with the resulting interaction through many
centuries enriching the regional tradition through its incorporation of important
features of material and conceptual culture19.

The Mochica polity at its maximum expansion20 would have had Moche, in the
Moche valley, as its cultural centre and capital, and complete occupation of the
Chicama, Virú, and Santa valleys, as well as strategically located centres in the
Nepeña, Jaquetepeque, and Lambayeque valleys21; and possible outlying centres in
the Leche valley22. In the final days of its era, controlling the entire north coast, a
combination of pressures from Wari-Tiwanaku invasion of the south coast and
extreme environmentally induced stress caused political upheaval and collapse,
causing the Mochica to transform into an urban society of distinctive and planned
design23.

Although prior to 600 AD (with the exception of the vastly earlier experiments of the
Supe and Casma valleys) it is still generally believed that no true urban settlement
existed on the coast, and certainly no planned settlements, a brief account of the
glimmerings that paved the way for urban transformation will shed light on the coasts
individual tradition, one of the best researched, that would come to play a large role
within the greater pan-Andean tradition.

15
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 84.
16
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996: p. 8.
17
Bawden (1996): pp. 3- 4.
18
Bawden (1996): pp. 7- 8.
19
Bawden (1996): pp. 10,13.
20
Bawden (1996: p. 8.) concludes that the geographical area occupied by the Moche-affiliated society
is that portion of the North Central coast extending from between 5-10 degrees south of the Equator, or
the areas between the Piura valley in the north and the Huarmey valley in the south. This is the system
of fertile river valleys dividing the arid coastal desert previously described.
21
Schaedel, R. P., ‘The city and the origin of the state in America’, in R.P. Schaedel, J.E. Hardoy, N.S.
Kinzer (ed.), Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton
Publishers, 1978, pp. 31-49: p. 36. Schaedel finds no trace in the intervening valley of Zaña.
22
Schaedel (1978): p. 36.
23
Bawden (1996): p. 27; Holstein, O., ‘Chan-Chan: capital of the great Chimu’, The Geographical
Review, vol. 17, no. 1, 1927, pp. 36-61: p. 42.

50
After the demise of the Chavín civilization, their ideas were carried forward on the
north coast by the evolving cultures of the Cupisnique, Salinar, then Gallinazo and
later, also contemporary, the Mochica. This period is recognized by the steadily
increasing size and complexity of social units and the increasing political complexity
that was paralleled by growing economic sophistication. All of this laid the
organizational foundation of the following periods and, prior to the discovery of Caral
and the Supe valley civilization, it was proposed by some Andean scholars as the time
of the rise of the first Peruvian cities, artistic presence, population peak, expansion of
irrigation systems and the emergence of craft specialization and social stratification.24
Bawden25, in agreement with Weltfish’s26 ideas on the historical multiple layering of
ethnic groupings believes that there was no distinctive Mochica ‘culture’, but that the
elaborate art and architecture that comprise the Mochica archaeological record are
actually symbols of one particular successful system of power and its accompanying
ideology. The Cupisnique, Salinar, Gallinazo, Mochica and Chimú (collectively
500BC-1480AD) phases of the chronological table, can by dissociating these purely
stylistic constructions from their connotations of social change, be stripped of their
independent lives as ‘archaeological cultures’. They can then be recognised as the
arbitrary denominators of a single distinctive cultural tradition created by the
structural sub-stratum of Andean social conceptions and by a unique historical course.
They were actually specialized and brilliant products of the persistent cultural
tradition evolved by the people of the north coast of Peru. This vital tradition and the
people who created it both far antedated and outlived the various religious and
political systems devised by the Mochica and their counterparts27.

The first phase, Cupisnique, was without residential nucleation, hierarchy of

settlements or centralized valley wide political or economic organization, as well
represented by the earlier chiefdom society of agglutinated settlements with the
shared religious structures of Huaca de los Reyes (1200 BC) with its pre-Chavín and
Chavín stylistic attributes28.

24
Topic, T.L., ‘The Early Intermediate Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan
Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p. 255- 256.
25
Bawden, G., ‘Domestic space and social structure in pre-Columbian northern Peru’, in S. Kent (ed.),
Domestic architecture and the use of space - an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study, vol. 1, Norfolk,
Cambridge Uni. Press, 1990, pp. 153-171: p. 154; Bawden (1996): pp. 8, 36.
26
Weltfish, G. (‘The ethnic dimension of human history: pattern or patterns of change?’, in A. Wallace
(ed.), Men and Cultures - Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological
and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, September 1-9, 1956, Philadelphia, Uni. of Pennsylvania
Press, 1960, pp. 205- 218: p. 216), states that ‘…within the orbit of any dominant system of social
controls there are a number of surviving elements of previous ethnic entities which may maintain their
identity to a considerable degree. …There was no time in history when an ethnic group did not include
a number of ethnic patterns from previous ethnic groupings’.
27
Bawden (1996: p. 11), also remarks on an approach to Mochica culture that forbids universal cultural
comparisons of cultural evolution; ‘According to this approach, society of the Moche period was
organized and motivated by distinctive structural principles arising from its own long history. It shared
these principles only with related societies in the Andean realm rather than obeying the dictates of
universal laws and thus cannot be understood by simple comparison with cultures elsewhere in the
world’.
28
Pozorski, T., ‘The early horizon sight of Huaca de los Reyes: societal implications’, American
Antiquity, vol. 45, no. 1, 1980, pp. 100-110.

51
Figure 8. This chart is the specific cultural chronology of the North Coast of Peru. Note that the Early
Intermediate Period in this time line roughly equates with the Regional Development Period in the
Lumbreras system used in this study (Source: Bawden, 1996, p. 23, Figure 1-3).

Under the following Salinar phase came the movement towards urbanization in the
form of nucleated settlements, centralized inter-valley politics and a growing
individualized elite able to control the use of surplus wealth. They continued to dwell

52
in agglutinated settlements unattached to ceremonial centres, but there was an
increase in public buildings and space for administrative use. However no planning
seems to have been present29. This pattern continues in the following Gallinazo phase
but with inter-valley politics becoming more pronounced30. Brennan presents
evidence that the Salinar phase represented a step forward that spanned the cultural
distance between Cupisnique and Mochica cultures. His evidence from Cerro Arena
in the lower Moche valley supports indications that ‘the valley’s Salinar phase society
was already socially and functionally diverse, economically and politically
specialized, and highly centralized’.31

Cerro Arena’s location astride the valley’s neck pass not only allowed it control of
commerce but also had defensive advantages that were important for its growth in a
time of increasing warfare. There was a strong hierarchy of settlement size similar to
the Gallinazo in the Virú valley and the Moche phases elsewhere on the north coast.
Major settlements were located at points dominating the valley’s irrigation, commerce
and defense. The Salinar settlement pattern in the Moche and Virú valleys indicates
that a pattern of multi-valley integration had begun well before Mochican times32, but
that no true political unity existed33.

The remarkable quantity and diversity of architecture in design, function, construction

quality and fineness of finish indicates a corresponding diversity and specialization in
the Salinar economy and social organization, and a complex system of social
stratification and a multiplicity of integrated social statuses. These structures, from the
simplest crude one-room hut to elaborately finished houses with twenty or more
rooms, clustered together to form settlements of unprecedented size and nucleation.
Together with the sites predominantly residential character, they make Cerro Arena
by far the earliest large, at least partially nucleated34 residential site in the Moche
valley and probably on the entire north coast35. The new preponderance of large
structures devoted to elite residential and administrative functions instead of religious
structures is perhaps an indication of the widening of the authority of the elite and its
increasing ability to employ the society’s wealth at its own discretion. Some
settlement space is devoted to public plazas and buildings of administrative purpose36.

By the time the Mochica polity is at its apex most of the north and central coast are
under their influence and military activity is more pronounced, as witnessed by
growth for the first time of forts in strategic positions. Yet no real attempt was made
to dominate the highland areas37. The polity is made up of a group of chieftaincies,

29
Bawden (1990): pp. 155-6; Topic (1982): p. 257.
30
Brennan, C.T., ‘Cerro Arena: origins of the urban tradition on the Peruvian north coast’, Current
Anthropology, vol. 23, no. 3, 1982, pp. 247-254: pp. 248, 252.
31
Brennan (1982): p. 252.
32
Brennan (1982): p. 252.
33
Topic (1982): p. 258.
34
Brennan (1982: p. 251.) finds that ‘More than half the known Type I structures, including the largest
and most elaborate, occur in a tightly nucleated cluster along the crest of the ridge between the two
passes’.
35
Again with the exception of the far earlier Pampas de Llamas-Moxeque experiment in the Casma
valley.
36
Bawden (1990): pp. 156-7; Brennan (1982): pp. 248, 252.
37
Topic (1982): p. 281.

53
involved in trade, having regional differences38 but often in warfare over water and
land rights39. Later the Mochica established by force or coercion the polity, which
militarily invaded the Virú valley around 400 AD, conquering the neighbouring
Gallinazo society40.

The Mochica lived in the lower valley and coastal areas, with a presumed pre-urban
economy, largely based on irrigated farming41 in the plains and fishing. In the smaller
valleys with their limited productive potential, farming villages were located on the
edge of the irrigated zone of the desert so as to maintain the maximum area of
cultivation. In larger valleys like the Chicama and Lambayeque such conservation
was not necessary. However, the greater traveling distances between home and field
encouraged the location of villages within the field systems42.

It has been presumed that except for several types of ceremonial centres, the Mochica
settlements consisted of isolated buildings, large vacant compounds that may have
served as marshalling areas, and defensive constructions in the form of castillo or
buttressed hillside redoubts. The interconnecting threads or networks of
communication and transportation for the polity were at best cumbersome; however
the growing strategic importance of the valley necks is reflected in the location of the
secondary centres at or near those points43. There is no differentiation so far
detectable in the settlement pattern to indicate that non-agricultural specialists were
permanently concentrated in great numbers in any one centre except the capital
Moche. Bawden and Schaedel describe the capital Moche as an agglutinated
settlement between the central religious structures of Huaca del Sol and Huaca del
Luna pyramids44. However recent and ongoing excavations45 have revealed that not
only was Moche probably an urban site with the necessary social stratification and job
specialization, but that the city was planned along a grid formation. However aspects
of the city seem different to the later Galindo site, and to the Andean urban tradition,
so the Moche doubts and discrepancies will discussed in detail in Chapter Ten -
Dissensions, as the excavations are still of a limited nature and it may be too early to
draw firm conclusions.

38
Bawden (1996: pp. 29, 32.), mentions one of the few reliable accounts, of Bishop Bartolomé de las
Casas (1555) in which he describes the Mochica period as remembered in the oral history of the
Chimú, as a time when the North Coast was divided among a number of independent ‘chieftaincies’,
none of them totally dominant over the others, but with exchange and trade between them, while
competition over control of land and water often created warfare.
39
Moore, S. F., (Power and Property in Inca Peru, West Port, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1958: p.
39), states that water rights must have been closely associated with land rights and virtually as
important in those areas that were irrigated.
40
Bawden (1996): p.27; Hardoy (1973): p. 316; Topic (1982): pp. 260, 270.
41
Topic (1982: p.259) states that ‘[f]rom an early date, a large part of the Moche Valley population was
cooperating in the use of a single irrigation system.’
42
Bawden (1996): pp. 88,89.
43
Schaedel (1978): p. 37.
44
Bawden (1990): pp. 159,160; Schaedel (1978): p. 39. Bawden describes the residential area as
originally being extensive and spread across the plain between the huacas and the lowest slopes of
(mount) Cerro Blanco. It does appear that the residential occupation at Moche was internally planned
by status category to a greater extent than occurred in earlier settlements.
45
Chapdelaine, C., ‘La ciudad de Moche: urbanismo y estado’, in Uceda, s. & Mujica, E. (eds.), Moche
hacia el final del milenio, tomo 2, Uni. Nacional de Trujillo, 1999, pp. 247- 278; Uceda, S. &
Chapdelaine, C., ‘El centro urbano de las Huacas del Sol y la Luna’, Arkinka, no. 33, Agosto, Lima,
1998, pp.94- 103; Uceda, S. & Pareda, A., ‘Arquitectura y Función de la Huaca de La Luna’, MASA,
vol. 6, no. 7, 1994, pp. 42- 46.

54
Figure 9. A map showing the extent of the Mochica culture. Note the coastal position of Huaca del Sol
(Cerro Blanco) the early Moche capital, and the mid-valley positions of the later Galindo and Pampa
Grande the new capital. The Mochica occupation includes only the coastal plains and valley necks.
1) Pañamarca; 2) Pampa de los Incas; 3) Huancaco; 4) Cerro Blanco site [Moche capital]; 5) Galindo;
6) Huanchaco; 7) Huaca El Brujo Complex; 8) Cerro Mayal/ Mocollope; 9) La Mina; 10) Pacatnamú;
11) San José de Moro; 12) Sipán; 13) Pampa Grande; 14) Huaca Latrada; 15) Huaca Lucía, Batan
Grande; 16) Loma Negra; 17) Nima/ Valverde; 18) Vicús (Source: Bawden, 1996, p. 9, Figure 1-1).

55
Figure 10. Plan of Moche, ceremonial centre capital of the Early and Middle Moche Period. The
grouped dots indicate nearby agglutinated settlements. However recent investigations have shown that
a planned settlement lay between the two huacas (Source: Bawden 1990: p. 159).

Figure 11. A side view of a probable reconstruction of the Moche Huaca de la Luna, the religious
centre and palace of the ruler, from the Trujillo Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

56
Around 600 AD a severe El Niño effect lasting several decades degraded the irrigated
fields, causing loss of arable land to desert and floods, and undermining the
ideological system upon which the individualized theocratic politics of the state were
based. Like the Chavín, the Mochica political structure’s lack of complex
administrative and coercive infrastructure, and consequent reliance on the
ideologically constructed status of ruling individuals was badly prepared to maintain
such a large territorial hegemony in the face of extreme pressure46. The Mochica
people’s disillusionment with their leaders management of relations with the gods, led
to a rejection of the failed ideology and the political system that sustained it47.

The capital, Moche, was partly abandoned and the population centre moved and
reconstituted as a provincial capital, Galindo, further up the valley at a reliable water
source48. The large Huaca del Sol symbolized the Moche power at the time and the
primacy of the site, its abandonment suggests a hard fall49. In the city of Galindo, as
well as in the new capital of Pampas Grande in Lambayeque valley50, it is possible to
see the change in the structure of the Mochica society and politics in the planned
design of the hastily constructed cities, made to control the population’s access to the
community resources. However Pampas Grande shows in its design that still
incorporates public access to the centre, a greater degree of political stability51.

A combination of the environmental stress and Wari-Tiwanaku Empire political

pressure caused the southern part of the Mochica polity to breakaway. It had probably
become hostile to its former northern rulers, while refugee pressure and a lesser
amount of arable land in the middle valley increased the centralization of power,
social stratification and skill specialization, forcing the Mochica to become an urban
society. The disillusionment brought on by the ideological collapse brought about an
urban design that existed outside of traditional Andean community structures.52
Bawden concludes that
Urbanism in this context must be seen as a radical response to social crisis, not
as a result of smooth evolutionary change. The picture suggests that the
resulting society existed in a state of instability in which an embattled elite

46
Bawden (1996): p. 302.
47
Bawden (1996): p. 274. However Bawden (1996: p. 273) notes that there is very little evidence to
suggest that environmental disruption by itself has ever caused social collapse in the Andes. However
if political and social pressures occur simultaneously, the chances of a society surviving unscathed are
much lower. The challenge of combating foreign pressure at a time when economic and
communication infrastructure has been severely weakened is one that will tax the resources of even a
well-integrated society to the fullest extent and collapse will occur.
48
Bawden (1996): pp. 264-7; Holstein (1927): p. 61.
49
Topic (1982): p. 273.
50
Bawden (1996: pp. 296-300) concludes that due to the position of the site San José de Moro, the
religious and political capital of the Jaquetepeque valley was little affected by the changes in the
ecology and the politics. It remained a religious centre with little residential attachment, and the
scattered village settlement pattern of the Early Moche period continued. Unlike Galindo or Pampa
Grande they were not forced by the polity collapse to adopt a true urban lifestyle. However they did
adopt the iconography of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire, using the new pan-Andean religion to maintain
cultural order and connection after the collapse and reformation under new theology of the northern
part of the Moche polity.
51
Bawden (1996): pp. 294- 6.
52
Bawden (1996).

57
 ruled a highly differentiated population largely through coercion detached
from Andean structural sanction.53
This stray from Andean social structures would bring about new cities that also were
more rigid in their planning for social control than Andean tradition usually permits,
and begin the urban phase for the north coast54.

Thus the northern coastal urban tradition and planning began, which by 700 AD
would become influenced by the Wari-Tiwanaku tradition and the force of their
planning procedures and Andean-wide influence.

Before delving further into the planned designs of the North coast regional tradition,
an understanding must be gained of the first sparks of planned urbanism and city
design that precedes the Mochica transformation by millennia. This truly begins a
path of urbanism that will travel to the highlands and then return to the coast with an
organised influence in the form of imperialism. The coast will influence change and in
the future re-influence and merge with the highlands cultures that will create the
apogee of a truly pan-Andean tradition, a mixture of all its times and places under the
encompassing Tawantinsuyu Empire.

53
Bawden (1996): p. 305.
54
Bawden (1996): pp. 302- 307.

58
CHAPTER FIVE – Urban Cultures
…the role of the city in ancient history, although of primary significance, was
the role of the minority, perhaps as low as 10 per cent of the population. The
vast majority of people continued to live on the land as farmers and herdsmen.
Mason Hammond1

This chapter outlines the history and cultural influences of urban planning cultures in
pre-Hispanic Andes. Bawden2 has stated the terms for the inclusion of sites in his
study of north coast Peru which has been adapted for this Andean wide investigation;
The settlements to be investigated in this dissertation all share several important
features in that they were all relatively large and consisted of dense architectural
complexes. They were also cities that were fairly densely populated and, to a
significant degree, appear to have involved centralized planning. The sites chosen are
stated by relevant Andean experts as being important in their era and exercised what
can be generally accepted as the central integrating functions for their respective
hinterlands. The residential components associated with these settlements were large
relative to the overall size of the occupational area and, by definition in the urban
context, and contained the domestic occupation of various socially and functionally
differentiated groups.

However when studying these different cultural groups or civilizations it should be

borne in mind that even though the study of national characters has validity and
importance, it can be easily shown that the population in the nation in question does
not uniformly conform to the pattern of cultural expectations3. The national histories
below, which are brief due to space limitations and the need for clarity, reveal those
aspects that through repetition conform to a particular cultures tradition, and include
only those dissident aspects that show a cultural change within a tradition.

5.1 Supe Valley

The earliest urbanization and planned urban design in the Americas began in the Supe
valley on the central coast in the Middle Archaic Period around 2600 BC and lasted
until approximately 1900 BC, where it was the locus of the earliest population
concentrations and corporate architecture in the Americas4. Two millennia before the
renowned Chavín civilization influenced the Andes two other smaller, yet
sophisticated civilizations, had emerged and flourished in central and north coast
valleys. The Supe valley and to a lesser degree, and later, the Casma valley initiated

1
Hammond, M., The City in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni. Press, 1972: p. 7.
2
Bawden, G., ‘Domestic space and social structure in pre-Columbian northern Peru’, in S. Kent (ed.),
Domestic architecture and the use of space - an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study, vol. 1, Norfolk,
Cambridge Uni. Press, 1990, pp. 153-171: p. 155.
3
Goldschmidt, W., ‘Culture and human behaviour’, in A. Wallace (ed.), Men and Cultures - Selected
Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences,
Philadelphia, September 1-9, 1956, Philadelphia, Uni. of Pennsylvania Press, 1960, pp. 98-104: p. 102.
4
Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú: el área
norcentral y el Valle de Supe durante el arcadio tardío’, in C.L. Arroyo (ed.), Arqueología y Sociedad
13, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Nacional Mayor de san Marcos, vol. 13,
2000, pp. 13 – 48; Shady, R., La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral Supe y Los Orígenes de la Civilización
Andina, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Nacional Mayor De San Martín,
2001; Shady, R., Haas, J., Creamer, W., ‘Dating Caral, a preceramic site in the Supe Valley on the
central coast of Peru’, Science, vol. 292, 2001, pp. 723-726.

59
the planned urban design tradition in the Andes, and foreshadowed the kind of
societies that came into being elsewhere in post-Chavín times5. Caral is a recent
discovery and the research so far completed has been performed by Director of
Investigations, Ruth Shady with associates6. From their various publications the
following history of the culture can be out lined.

Caral city in the Supe valley was a 50 hectare, pre-planned city, whose mid-valley
location and layout in which religious, elite residence and administrative buildings
were centrally sited display the centralized, stratified and specialized state of the Supe
society. With the adoption of hydraulic agriculture, maize, and later ceramics, they
made the move away from coastal and plains settlements and moved the capital of
their state into the centre of the valley. With other settlements close by or in the valley
neck they could control water supply, communication, highland trade and vertical
zone dietary resources7.

Although Caral was not the most heavily populated city it contained more
monumental architecture and required greater labour to construct. Caral was created
from a preconceived plan, and maintained overtime to keep its construction in line
with the original idea and as such represents the needs of the then ruling elite.8 The
other greater and lesser urban settlements (eighteen in all) in the valley with
monumental construction, usually pyramid, platform and plaza, had not been
constructed from a pre-conceived plan, but grew organically based on social needs
and topography.

5
Burger, R. L., Chavin and the origins of Andean Civilization, London, Thames & Hudson, 1992:
p. 229.
6
Béarez, P., & Miranda Muroz, Luis., ‘Analisis arqueo-ictiológico del sector residencial del sitio
arqueológico de Caral-Supe, costa central del Perú’, Revista de Ciencias Sociales: Arqueología y
Sociedad, vol. 13, 2000, pp. 67- 78; Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas ( 2000); Shady, Haas, &
Creamer (2001); Shady, R. (2001); Shady, R., ‘Caral-Supe: la civilización mas Antigua de América’, in
Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la
formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto
Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003a, pp. 327- 334; Shady, R., ‘Caral-Supe: la civilización mas
Antigua del Perú y América’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los
orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto
Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003b, pp. 335- 340; Shady, R. &
Leyva, C. (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la
formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto
Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003; Shady, R., ‘Caral Supe Perú: La civilización más antigua de
América’, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, 2nd Ed.,
2004.
7
Pringle, H., ‘The first urban centre in the Americas.’ Science, vol. 292, 2001, pp. 621-622: p. 623;
Shady, R. ‘Del Arcaico al Formativo en los Andes centrales’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad
sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el
antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003d,
pp. 37- 50; Shady, R., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización y la formación del Estado en el Perú: las
evidencias arqueológicas de Caral-Supe’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral –
Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú,
Lima Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003g, pp. 93- 100.
8
Shady, R., ‘Caral-Supe y la costa norcentral del Perú’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada
de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo
Perú, Lima Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003c, pp. 139-
146: p.139.

60
Figure 12. A view of the ruins of Caral looking north from the hills towards the river. The pyramids all
surround the central plaza (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 13. A map of the archaeological sites of the Late Archaic period identified in the Supe valley.
Note the central valley position of Caral, that also places it central to the other satellite cities (Source:
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas, 2000, figure 1).
Key to settlements: 1).Áspero; 2). El Molino; 3). Limán; 4). Era de Pando; 5). Pando; 6). Pueblo
Nuevo; 7). Cerro Colorado; 8). Allpacoto; 9). Huacache; 10). Piedre Parada; 11). Lurihuasi;
12). Miraya; 13). Chupacigarro; 14). Caral; 15). Peñico; 16). Cerro Blanco; 17). Capilla;
18). Jaiva.

61
The centre of Caral city is a collection of religious buildings, and public and sacred
spaces. The pyramid tops represented the most sacred of space to which access was
tightly controlled by architectural design. In front of, and around, the pyramids were
public plazas, platforms and a circular semi-subterranean amphitheatre, to which
public thoroughfares gave open access. Attached and also nearby the pyramids were
administrative buildings and the housing for the elite, while in the lower parts of the
city were the workers’ housing.

Figure 14. A plan of city of Caral – Late Archaic Period. The central plaza lies between the main
religious structures the pyramids in sections C,D,E,G,H,I,L. (Source: Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos &
Casas, 2000, figure 19).

62
The political structure is likely to have still been a clan-based chieftaincy, but with
centralization of a new sophistication that was necessary to create urbanization and
maintain the social stratification, hydraulic economy and administration specialization
needed to command a large stable workforce. Clearly theocratic, the ruling elite
would also have been the religious leaders controlling the ideological foundation of
the society, which must also have included a belief in the benefits of urbanism.

Here in the Supe valley was the first urbanization and so by definition the first cities
in the Andes, and the first civilization able to maintain a city ethos over an extended
period of time. Cities had existed in the Supe valley before the creation of Caral;
however, although these satellites contained many of the urban design elements found
in Caral, they were not planned from the ground up but grew organically in
accordance with the changing needs of the society as it became more complex over
time, as for example at Era de Pando, the most populated of the Supe cities. These
organically grown cities are an important stage in the growth of urban planning that
was used in Caral, as those aspects of design that were deemed most useful in the
organic setting were surely included in the pre-planned design of Caral. It is the
experiment of systematic planning that makes Caral so important.

The reason for the collapse of the Supe society remains unknown, but perhaps it had a
somewhat similar fate to the fallen Mochica polity, in that the centralized government
became too individualized, relied too heavily upon an ideological foundation and
collapsed under the pressure of ecological change and/or external political pressure.
The site needs further examination to make firm conclusions.

Figure 15. A reconstruction of Caral in the Supe valley (Source: Escobar La Cruz, 2003, p. 58)9.
Key: 1). Joined residence; 2). Zones under investigation; 3). Major Pyramid; 4). Minor Pyramid;
5). Gallery Pyramid; 6). Quarry Pyramid; 7). Circular Altar Pyramid; 8). Banquet Temple; 9). Major
joined residence; 10). Amphitheatre; 11). Elites residence centre; 12). Huanca Pyramid. Note that the
river had a higher water level than exists presently.

9
Escobar La Cruz, R., ‘El pais del asombro.’ GEO Magazine, vol. 194, March, 2003, pp. 58-66. Caral
Recreation by Solé/ F. del Amo. Documentación: Proyecto Arqueológico Caral, GEO Magazine,
March, 2003: p. 58.

63
5.2 Casma Valley
The Supe valley’s primary experiment in urbanization and planning rather than being
lost continues on a smaller scale in the not too distant north coastal Casma valley,
where the city of Llamas-Moxeque10, although there were architectural differences,
was similar to Caral in many aspects of overall urban planning and design. Llamas-
Moxeque and the great religious centre of Sechín Alto, constituted the hub of a
system of politics, based on irrigated agriculture and satellite communities, that
controlled the valley in the Middle Archaic and Middle Formative Periods (≈2500–
1000 BC). Llamas-Moxeque is the earliest pre-planned settlement in the Casma
valley, constructed contemporary with half of the Sechín Alto ceremonial centre and
built around two stepped pyramids which faced each other across a central public
plaza. It was maintained in later eras according to the original rectangular plan and is
renowned for its enormous adobe friezes of anthropomorphic figures, which covered
its public buildings11. Nothing of these now remains to be seen.

Figure 16. Some of the enormous adobe friezes adorning the Moxeque pyramid, still visible in the early
part of the twentieth century (Source: Kauffman Doig, 1973, p. 259, fig. 346)12.

10
Also known as Pampas de las Llamas-Moxeque. A modern spelling has it as ‘Moxeke’. Shady’s
research has uncovered religious symbolism in the form of geoglyphs that culturally connect the Supe
and Casma valleys. Shady, R., Machacuay, M. & Aramburú, R., ‘Un geoglifo de estilo Sechín en el
valle de Supe’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la
civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003b, pp. 303- 314.
11
Pozorski, S., Pozorski T., ‘La dinámica del valle de Casma durante le periodo inicial’, Boletín de
Arqueología PUCP , vol. 2 (Perspectivas regionales del Periodo Formativo el Perú), 1998, pp. 83-100;
Pozorski, T., Pozorski, S., ‘El desarrollo de la sociedad compleja en el Valle de Casma’, Revista de
Ciencias Sociales: Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, 2000, pp. 79-98
12
Kauffmann Doig, F., Manual de Arqueología Peruana, 5th Edición, Lima, Ediciones Peisa, 1973.

64
Figure 17. A plan of the Moxeque temple made by the Peruvian archaeologist Tello in the early part of
the twentieth century when it was more visibly complete (Source: Kauffman Doig, 1973, p. 259, fig.
345).

Figure 18. A reconstruction of the Moxeque pyramid made by Pedro Rojas (Source: Kauffman Doig,
1973, p. 259, fig. 347).

Figure 19. An reconstructed internal view of the Moxeque pyramid showing the multitude of close
packed rooms, for ceremonial and or storage purposes (Cáceres, 2004, p.35).13

13
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004.

65
Figure 20. Map of the lower Casma valley in the Archaic Period. Note the comparative positions of
Sechín Alto in the flood plains and Pampas de Llamas-Moxeque above the flood plains. The red circles
mark the ancient cities of the Formative Period and the black square the present day town (Source:
Pozorski & Pozorski, 1998, p. 84).

Elite residence and administrative buildings were attached to, part of, or nearby, the
pyramids, with artisans and workers dwellings to the side. The Casma valley also had
other sites of agglutinated settlements and ceremonial centres, but the design of
Llamas-Moxeque, and later Taukachi-Konkán (residential area of Sechín Alto), shows
the existence of a hydraulic civilization that had the necessary centralized theocratic

66
government, social division, specialization and control of a large workforce for
planning and large-scale construction. These cities were also located in the mid-valley
where control of water, communications and multiple vertical zone resource use were
easily facilitated14.

Figure 21. The view across the central plaza of Llamas-Moxeque from the top of the main pyramid.
The pyramid at the other end of the central plaza can be seen right of centre in the photo. Part of the
original central plaza is now being used for irrigated farming (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 22. A side view of the main pyramid of Llamas-Moxeque, situated behind the modern house.
Note however that the house is built with the same method that would have been used at Llamas-
Moxeque in the past (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

14
Pozorski & Pozorski (1998); (2000).

67
Figure 23. A view across the small plaza atop the main pyramid at Llamas-Moxeque. Only a few pieces
of walls remain, the larger blocks in the foreground would have been part of these (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

Figure 24. Plan of the ruins of Pampa de Llamas–Moxeque. The shaded areas represent dwellings, with
the artisans and workers situated furthest from the huacas and central plaza (Source: Pozorski &
Pozorski, 2000, p. 82).

68
The Casma valley continued to harbour urban populations throughout most of its
history; however in the period after the demise of Llamas-Moxeque, and under
Chavín influence, it returned to agglutinated settlements and ceremonial centres until
dominated by the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire (≈ 600 AD). Widespread use of city
planning becomes apparent during and after the Wari-Tiwanaku domination, when it
was forced upon the population, creating the two largest regular and planned cities of
the Casma valley, El Purgatorio and Manchan. This was the period of greatest
technological innovation, building activity, renovation and probably of the largest
population. After the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire’s collapse these cities continued, with
regional variation, through the Casma’s most active urban phase the Regional States
Period. The trend started by the Wari-Tiwanaku Period continued with the large
towns occupied and expanded, but with most influence in the middle and upper
valley. The towns started in the Wari-Tiwanaku Period did not reach their occupation
peak until later under Chimú domination, although few new settlements were built.
Whether at this time urban growth was a case of increased population or urban
intensification remains unknown15. However it was a trend seen throughout the north
and central coast16.

The Tawantinsuyu’s low intensity occupation, of less than a hundred years, changed
little in the valley. The same cities remained in use but with Tawantinsuyu religious
and administrative centres built nearby and an improvement in the road system17.

Figure 25. Plan of Taukachi-Konkán, residential area attached to the Cerro Sechín ceremonial complex
in the Lower Formative Period. Shaded areas represent dwellings with the artisans and workers situated
furthest from the centre. Note the many circular plazas, also found in the earlier Caral (Source:
Pozorski & Pozorski, 2000, p. 88).

15
Thompson, D., (‘Postclassic innovations in architecture and settlement patterns in the Casma valley,
Peru’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 20, 1964, pp. 91-105: p. 97), notes that there was
probably a reduction in population but an intensifying of urban concentration in towns. The Chimú
period in the Casma valley began around 1375AD and lasted until Tawantinsuyu domination between
1463 – 1471 AD. This is also mentioned in Thompson, D., ‘Arquitectura y patrones de establecimiento
en el Valle de Casma.’ Revista de Museo Nacional, vol. 40, 1974, pp. 9-29.
16
Thompson (1964); (1974).
17
Lumbreras, L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: p. 166; Thompson (1964); (1974).

69
Figure 26. Plan of El Purgatorio city, composed of habitation structures it is connected to Llamas-
Moxeque by a straight road and is undoubtedly part of a single urban complex in the Wari-Tiwanaku
Period. It consists of a complex of pyramids and walled enclosures on three sides of a natural elevation.
The remaining side is occupied by a cemetery and in typical Wari design has few gates of access18
(Source: Thompson, 1974, p. 20).

Figure 27. Plan of Manchan city showing typical Wari design in its use of regular walled enclosures.
The dark line through the centre represents the path of the present day Pan-American highway. Very
little is now visible beneath the dunes of sand (Source: Thompson, 1974, p. 21).

18
Lumbreras (1974c): pp. 166, 183.

70
Figure 28. A map from the Cerro Sechín Site Museum showing some of the other sites around Pampa
de Llamas Moxeque. Note also its position beside the river but not using the river flats (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

5.3 Tiwanaku and Wari Empire

With the rise of Chavín influence urbanization and planning leaves the coastal area
and becomes apparent again in the construction of Tiwanaku19 on the shores of Lake
Titicaca, on the Alti plano of Bolivia. Tiwanaku begins around 1700 BC in the Early
Formative Period, or possibly earlier, as a culturally separate and nucleated
settlement20. It truly became urban during its Urban Phase (0-600 AD), the Regional
Development Period, when its temple structures, pyramids, palaces and plazas were
created. The Tiwanaku civilization, a highly centralized and theocratic society21
created the largest city for its time in all of the Americas, and in its central placement
of state and elite structures shows the influence of the earlier coastal tradition of the
Supe and Casma valleys. A brilliant hydraulic society allowed an increase in
population22 and the necessary social and political conditions for urbanization and
urban maintenance23. Urban planning is clearly used in the Urban Phase and possibly
earlier24. Astronomical, cardinal, calendarical and esoteric, much of its iconography is

19
Ibarra Grasso, D., De Mesa, J. & Gisbert, T., ‘Reconstruccion de Taypicala (Tiahuanaco)’,
Cuadernos Americanos, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 149-176: p. 174. They find many similarities between the
Cerro Sechín temple in the Casma Valley and Tiwanaku.
20
Lumbreras (1974): p. 60; Ponce Sangines, C., Panorama de la Arqueología Boliviana, La Paz,
Liberia y Editorial Juventud, 1985: p.30; Reinhard, J., ‘Tiwanaku: ensayo sobre su cosmovisión’,
Pumapunku, año 1, vol. 2, nuevo época, 1991, pp. 9-66: p.9.
21
Ponce (1985): pp. 30-38; Schaedel, R.P., ‘Andean world view: hierarchy or reciprocity, regulation or
control?’, Current Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 5, 1988, pp. 768-775: p. 771.
22
Kolata, A., ‘El papel de la agricultura intensiva en la economía política del estado de Tiwanaku’,
Dialogo Andina, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 11-38.
23
Ponce (1985): pp. 30-38.
24
Portugal Ortix, M. & Portugal Zamora, M., ‘Investigaciones arqueológicas en el Valle de Tiwanaku’,
Jornadas Peruano-Boliviano de Estudio Científico del Altiplano Boliviano y del Sur del Perú, vol. 2,
Arqueología en Bolivia y Perú, 1977, pp. 243-283: p. 258.

71
clearly related to Chavín religious notions, with the use of the puma, condor and
‘man-with-stick’25. Yet Tiwanaku civilization does not use the Chavín idea of the
ceremonial centre and agglutinated villages even for its satellite centres and colonial
mitmaequna26. An urban plan is always used as is represented in the mitmaequnas
near Lake Titicaca of Wankani, Lucurmata, Ojje and Paqchiri27.

Figure 29. A view of the Kalasasaya Temple from the top of the Akapana Pyramid, the religious centre
of the Tiwanaku city. The temple was built as enclosure within an enclosure (Source: L.Hasluck,2002).

In the period of its greatest influence, (≈ 500–1000 AD), the Tiwanaku civilization is
best understood as two distinct sociopolitical entities28. Around 600 AD the Tiwanaku
regional state enters its expansive Wari-Tiwanaku phase and becomes an empire with
a second capital in Huari in the central highlands of Peru29. Tiwanaku spreads in the
Lake Titicaca, Chile and southern Bolivian area forming a federation, via commercial

25
Reinhard, J., ‘Chavín y Tiahuanaco’, Boletín de Lima, vol. 50, 1987, pp. 29-51.
26
Mitmaequna are urban settlements or towns, created by colonists (mitmae) from the Tiwanaku and
Wari-Tiwanaku cultures as a matter of imperialist policy. The Tawantinsuyu would also later adopt this
policy.
27
Browman, D.L., ‘Toward the development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) State’, in D.L. Browman
(ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978b, pp. 327-349: p. 340;
Browman, D.L., ‘Cultural primacy of Tiwanaku in the development of later Peruvian states’, Dialogo
Andina, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 59-71: p. 66; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 63; Ponce Sangines, C., ‘Tiwanaku:
espacio, tiempo y cultura’, Pumapunku, vol. 4, 1972, pp. 7-24: pp. 11,12.
28
Albarracin Jordan, J., (Tiwanaku - Arqueología Regional y Dinámica Segmentaría, Bolivia, Plural
Editors, 1996, pp. 74-77), presents 4 different models of the socio-political construction for Tiwanaku
culture for the transformations between the three Tiwanaku epochs: Ancient, Urban/classical and
Imperial.
29
Browman (1978b): p. 331; Hardoy, J. E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973
: p. 319; Huidobro Bellido, J., Tiwanaku y los Orígenes del Cuzco, La Paz, Editorial Gramma
Impresión, 1993, p. 59; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 165; Schaedel (1988): p. 772; Spickard, L. E., ‘El
análisis de la arquitectura de los sitios de Huari y Tiwanaku’, Dialogo Andina, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 73-88:
p. 84.

72
missionary conversion,30 following on its long tradition of trade, importing resources
from the Amazon and the ocean, and exporting products such as textiles, ceramics and
hallucinogenic powders and paraphernalia that were a large part of their religious
life.31 Wari-Tiwanaku domination spreads through military force32 taking the
highlands and coastal areas into its centrally administrated multi regional polity33 of
organized trade and ecological exploitation, unseen before34. It brings with it new
ideas of centralized government and urban planning, and designs (also iconography,
metal, textile and ceramic work) to suit the needs of the Wari-Tiwanaku system of
governance35.

Figure 30. A reconstruction of the religious complex at the centre of Tiwanaku city. Note the use of the
quadrangular planning and enclosures, a sign of Tiwanaku design (Source: Escalante Guia [no details
given] )36.

30
Cook, A. G., (‘The politico-religious implications of the Huari offering tradition’, Dialogo Andino,
vol. 4, 1985, pp. 203-222: p.294), argues that there is no archaeological evidence for the diffusion of
Tiwanaku culture via either pilgrimages or itinerant medicine men, but proposes no other explanation.
31
Browman, D.L. (1985): p. 64; Ponce (1972): pp. 15,16; Rivera, M. A., ‘Alto Rimirez y Tiwanaku, un
caso de interpretación simbólica a través de datos arqueológicos en el área de los valles occidentales S.
del Perú y N. de Chile’, Dialogo Andina, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 39-58: p.40; Torres, C. M., ‘Estilo e
iconografía Tiwanaku en las tabletas para inhalar substancias psicoactivas’, Dialogo Andina, vol. 4,
1985, pp. 223-245.
32
Rapid militaristic expansions may have been, in part, the basis of the Peruvian extension of the
Tiwanaku trade network which introduced a new dynamic system of exploitation of various ecological
zones and interregional exchange system into the Huari area agree Browman (1978b): p. 331; Hardoy
(1973): p. 319.
33
Cook (1985): p. 203.
34
Browman, D. L. (1978b): p. 331; Browman (1985): pp. 64,65; Hardoy (1973): p. 319; Huidobro
(1993): p. 59; Schaedel (1988): p. 772. Huidobro (1993: p. 59) cites Ruth Shady’s (REVISTA
ANDINA, vol. 6, no. 1) support for the theory that the Wari was an Empire of regional independent
states that maintained strong interaction at an interregional level, gathering in one empire various
departments of the central Andes under the Wari epoch.
35
Albarracin (1996): pp. 74-77; Browman (1978b): p. 327; Hardoy (1973): p. 337.
36
Escalante Moscoso, J. F., ‘Guia arqueológica Bolivia’, La Paz, Producciones CIMA, (no year given).

73
Figure 31. Probable routes of Tiwanaku expansion. Note the connection with the different ecological
zones of Alti plano, coastal and Amazon (Source: Ponce, 1976, p.155)37.

Wari-Tiwanaku expansion in the highlands created Huari, a mitmaequna, one of the

most extensive central highlands urban areas, which shows several aspects of the
urban design tradition and religious architecture from Tiwanaku38. The capital Huari
is constructed in a position of natural defense, but upon difficult terrain and offering
little chance for rigid planning. The same central organization is prevalent, with
administrative and religious structures located within a large walled enclosure, which
is a typical design of Wari-Tiwanaku39. Spickard maintains that ‘La concepción es de
Tiwanaku, pero la forma es de Huari’40. This supports theory that that the Wari
37
Ponce Sanginés, C., Tiwanaku: Espacio, Tiempo y Cultura, 3rd edición, La Paz, Ediciones
Pumapunku, 1976.
38
Spickard (1985).
39
Hardoy (1973): p. 337; Thompson (1964): p. 101.
40
Spickard (1985): p. 84. ‘The conception is Tiwanaku, but the form is Huari’ (translation L.Hasluck).

74
Empire constitutes only one vital head of the expansion of Tiwanaku power.
Huidobro argues further that
‘Effectivamente, Tiwanaku y otros centros de poder, caso de Wari, centro de
poderoso e importante dentro de la administración del Imperio Tiwanaku, se
derrumbaron al finalizar el Horizonte Medio, es decir aproximadamente entre
1.100 y el 1200 D.C.’41.

Figure 32. A view across the Huari plateau and the centre of the city. Hard to tell its form due to its use
as a farm for prickly pear cactus. The main religious structure are in the centre of the photo (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

The urban characteristics of Huari, and Wari-Tiwanaku notions of pre-planning, were

seen as inspiring those of other large towns, coastal as well as highland, and the
concept of an expansionist polity developed with architectural and artistic traits
remaining as its most obvious material residue. It is in the easier, flatter terrain of the
coast, during the second expansion of the empire, that Wari-Tiwanaku urban planning
techniques; the walled enclosure, road networks, central religious complex, etc. are
introduced and put to considered use42. Greater organization efforts were made on the
coast, first at Cajarmarquilla, and then Pachacamac on the central coast, and then the

41
Huidobro (1993: p. 44). Huidobro presents an excellent summary of the evidence from various
authorities that clearly shows the cultural continuity of the Tiwanaku, Wari and Tawantinsuyu Empires.
That they are three epochs of the same civilization under changing political circumstances. The
transcription of this quotation reads as ‘Effectively, Tiwanaku and other centres of power, such as
Wari, a powerful centre and important within the administration of the Tiwanaku Empire, finally
collapses in the Middle Horizon, that is to say approximately between 1100 and 1200 AD’ (translation
L.Hasluck).
42
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996: pp. 269-71;
Browman (1978b); Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in pre-Columbian America. London, Studio Vista,
1968: p. 42; Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.),
Guide of Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004; Thompson (1964): pp. 101-2.

75
north coast including Pacatnamú in the Jaquetepeque valley, the most northern of the
Wari-Tiwanaku urban settlements and built on a prior Moche site43.

Figure 33. Map of the main Wari-Tiwanaku sites (Source: Escalante, 2001, p. 132)44.

43
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 166.
44
Escalante Moscoso, J.F., De la caverna a la metrópolis – 5000 años de arquitectura, 2nd Edición, La
Paz, Producciones CIMA, 2001.

76
Figure 34. A simple plan of Huari (Wari) that clearly shows its position and relationship to the
surrounding rivers below its steep cliffs (marked line surrounding city). The difficult topography of its
position gave it strong natural defenses, but made it difficult for ordered urban planning (Source:
Hardoy, 1973, p. 338).

77
Figure 35. One of the outer defensive walls on the north of the city. The size of the walls were repeated
internally throughout the central area of the city (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Wari use of mitmaequnas led to the creation of various new cities45, two of the most
important being the highland residential, religious and administrative cities of
Pikillacta and Viracochapampa46 which were designed and created for their particular
purpose and are so precise in their designs in a way never before witnessed in the
Andes, that they seem to be copies of each other. This type of mitmaequna created a
cultural centre with an exactness of urban design that would lay the groundwork for
Tawantinsuyu planning ideas in the future47.

The Wari-Tiwanaku influence stretched from northern Peru to northern Chile and
northern Argentina, the first pan-Andean Empire, and for the first time many smaller
regional cultures felt the effect of a strong centralized, non-clan-based government.
The Wari-Tiwanaku culture brought hydraulic agriculture, sophisticated methods of
irrigation, terrace and platform farming throughout their empire48. After the
unexpected collapse of the War-Tiwanaku Empire around 1100 AD, the legacy of its
culture continued, although varied by regional cultural interpretations49. However,
many of these regional cultures quickly reverted to their Kingdom and Chieftain
ways, as their societies appear not to have been ready to absorb and maintain the

45
Browman (1985)
46
McEwan, G. F., ‘Excavaciones en Pikillacta un sitio Wari’, Dialogo Andina, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 89-
136. Until McEwan’s detailed investigation of Pikillacta, both Pikillacta and the replicated
Viracochapampa were believed to be administrative and storage centres, and indeed parts of them were
used under the Tawantinsuyu domination for that purpose.
47
Hardoy (1973): p. 341; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168.
48
Huidobro Bellido, J., El Estado despótico De Tiwanaku, La Paz, Centro de Investigaciones
Etnoarqueologicas, 1994. Huidobro stresses this point for the Tiwanaku culture.
49
Bawden (1996): pp. 269-71; Hardoy (1973): p. 337; Ponce Sangínes, C., Nueva Perspectiva Para El
Estudio De La Expansión De La Cultura Tiwanaku, La Paz, Instituto Nacional de Arqueología, 1979:
pp. 13,14.

78
fundamental socio-political changes50. The same probable reason that urbanism did
not become widespread from the far earlier Supe and Casma valley urban
experiments.

From the Wari-Tiwanaku demise, that was due to extreme environmental changes
around 1000 AD51, plus inappropriate hydraulic and political response52, until the rise
of Tawantinsuyu around 1450 AD, many cities maintained regional variations of the
Wari-Tiwanaku designs and political ideas, as such a new age of urbanism flourished,
particularly in the central and north coast regions53. The greatest of these regional
variations became the north coastal Chimú of the Moche valley. However, experts
believe Tawantinsuyu could also be called a regional variation from its mother culture
of Wari-Tiwanaku (see Tawantinsuyu Empire, below).

Wari-Tiwanaku domination of the central coast created pressure that in turn aided the
demise, and reformation of the Mochica into an urban society. The Wari-Tiwanaku
influence in turn stimulated the conditions for the growth of the Chimú civilization

50
Hardoy (1973): p. 339.
51
Huidobro (1994: p. 10) maintains that the environment has played roles of destruction in the
civilizations of the Andes. Massive and rapid changes in the environment around 1000 A.D. led to the
final collapse of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire and the final destruction of the Moche and later the
Galindo culture. This led to the abandonment of many cities and the formation of the Regional States
Period that existed for a short period prior to the re-emergence of the Tiwanaku culture under the new
Empire of the Tawantinsuyu. In both the Wari-Tiwanaku and the Galindo cases the imposition of tough
laws, from powerful centralized hydraulic governments, in a time of water scarcity led to a fracturing
of the societies and ideology and the collapse of the elite control and the society itself. Huidobro (1994:
p. 10) continues; ‘Siglos atrás, a partes del 1.000 se sucedieron una serie de cambios climáticos que
afectaron muy seriamente el desarrollo normal de diferentes culturas, no sólo del área andina sino del
trópico y de otras, áreas, caso de mesoamérica. Este “caos” climático que indudablemente debió durar
decenas a adaptarse a cambios climáticos severos, produjo el principio de la caída. La civilización de
Tiwanaku poseía modos de vida demasiado rígidos (estáticos) como toda sociedad hidráulica,
gobernada por grupos cegados por sus propios intereses. La economía de dominio de Tiwanaku, se
basó en una producción agrícola de excedentes, destacando los camellones y las andenerías, las cuales
eran regadas con aguas del subsuelo y de ríos y riachos. Al cambiar el clima, disminuyó el agua del
subsuelo y los terrenos del altiplano se secaron (el clima se empezó a tornar seco en la altiplanicie a
partir del 1000 de nuestra era, tal cual lo demuestran las pruebas relazadas en el hielo del glaciar de
Quelkaya). En el 1.200 D.C. la jerarquía y las estructuras políticas se desintegraron y las ciudades
fueron paulatinamente abandonados. A esta agresión climática habría que agregar las profundas
contradicciones que se dan dentro de toda sociedad imperialista, lo que finalmente hizo posible el
derrumbe definitivo del poderoso Imperio de Tiwanaku’.
52
Bonavía, D., ‘Ecological factors affecting the urban transformation in the last centuries of the Pre-
Columbian era’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers,
1978a, pp. 393-410: p. 399; Bonavía, D., ‘Ecological Factors Affecting the Urban Transformation in
the Last Centuries of the Pre-Columbian Era’, in S. Tax (ed.), Urbanization in the Americas from its
Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publisher, 1978b, pp. 185-202: p. 191; Huidobro (1994): p.
10; Williams, P.R., ‘The evolution of settlement and agriculture at the Tiwanaku V Site of Chen Chen,
Moquegua, Peru’, The 61st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans,
1996. Bonavía (1978a: p. 399; 1978b:p. 191) cites Lanning, Edward P., (Peru before the Incas,
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1967: p. 140), when he suggests that one of the basic reasons for
the collapse of the first pan-Andean imperial organization of the Wari-Tiwanaku was the lack of
experience in organizing an area with such great ecological differences and one which was broken up
by natural barriers of formidable dimensions. There is no doubt that the Incas capitalized on this
experience of many centuries in their conquest of new territories. Also research by Williams (1996) at
Chen Chen in the Moquegua Valley in Peru, suggests a mixture of long-term drought and collapsing
state authority through incorrect hydraulic response and overburdened bureaucracy.
53
Browman (1985): p. 67; Hardoy (1968): p. 42.

79
out of the Mochica. Chimú was one of the most important urban societies in the
Andes, which would prove to have far reaching influence upon the Tawantinsuyu
Empire. The Wari-Tiwanaku Empire’s influence in the Moche valley, helped to create
Galindo from the collapsed Mochica society as a new provincial capital to give order
and direction to the inhabitants suffering both environmental stress and political
disillusionment. A whole new valley-wide settlement pattern emerged with
settlements abandoning the agglutinated village life and adopting the urban order of
the planned walled enclosure, centralization of services and religion, and the
construction of a good system of valley and inter-valley roads. This pattern was also
being repeated throughout the north and central coastal valleys, and to a lesser degree,
because of their smaller arable size, in the south coast valleys. Some of these new and
large urban centres, Cajamarquilla, El Purgatorio and Pachacamac, were to last
through the Chimú and Tawantinsuyu domination until the Spanish occupation. In
highland areas the creation of the new urban centres, such as Cajamarca, would also
continue until the Spanish colonialism and beyond

5.4 Pachacamac
In this Wari-Tiwanaku period Pachacamac came to be the most important religious
centre on the coast. From early, around 100 BC, it had been a large settlement, and
possibly capital of an independent state in the Lurín valley, central coast. However
under the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire a re-planning of the settlement took place,
displaying obvious ideas from the Wari-Tiwanaku tradition. The centre of the city
was reorganized to become a sacred precinct with pyramids, temples, plazas and
enclosures existing within a large walled enclosure with the workers’ housing on the
exterior54.

Pachacamac became prominent as a centre of religious, ritual, pilgrimage and political

power55 of more than 66 hectares. It had close associations with Tiwanaku, with
whom it shared similar religious beliefs56, and with whom it maintained contact even
after the demise of the Wari part of the empire57. During the Regional States Period
following the Wari-Tiwanaku collapse Pachacamac continued as an independent
regional culture and small polity, the Ichma58, exerting cultural and political influence
on the coast without military expansion59, especially through its role as an important

54
Baudin, L., Daily Life In Peru: Under the Last Incas, London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1961b:
p. 40; Bawden (1996): p. 270-1; Hardoy (1973): p. 350; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168; Thompson (1964):
p. 100.
55
Lumbreras (1974c: p. 165) concludes ‘The eminence of Pachacamac is indicated by glotto-
chronological studies, which suggest that it was one of the centres of dispersal of the Quechua language
during this time’. This would also show that the Tiwanaku were Quechuan speaking proving another
clear cultural continuation between the Tiwanaku, Wari and Tawantinsuyu civilizations.
56
Browman (1978b: pp. 331-2) mentions that the special independent relationships, noted by Menzel,
D.A., (‘Style and time in the Middle Horizon’, Ñawpa Pacha, vol. 2, 1964, pp. 1-106: p. 51), between
Tiwanaku and several of the Peruvian prestige centers such as Pachacamac and Atarco, may be best
understood as distinct economic interests shared by these respective centers with the highland religious
center. The validity of this hypothesis is supported by the continued economic interest of Tiwanaku in
the southern Peruvian and northern Chilean coastal areas following the cataclysmic collapse of the
Wari state; Lumbreras (1974c): pp. 168, 223.
57
Baudin (1961b): p. 35; Browman (1978b): pp. 331-2.
58
This is a case where the naming of a new people based on a cultural shift can cause some confusion.
59
Bawden (1996): pp. 270-1.

80
oracle. Most of the smaller religious buildings probably date to the Ichma phase,
using Wari-Tiwanaku planning ideas in localized variant.

Interestingly, recent investigations have unearthed evidence of a nearby sister city,

Armatambo, in the Rimac valley.60 Armatambo was within sight of Pachacamac, and
probably served as a food production, deposit and processing area for Pachacamac.
Created during the Ichma phase as one of the few new urban centres, it came to be of
increased importance under Tawantinsuyu domination. However, as some aspects of
its design seem to differ from the Andean urban planning tradition it will be discussed
at length in chapter ten – Non-Conforming Cases. Unfortunately its remains have
been largely built over by encroaching new suburbs of Lima, and firm conclusions
difficult to draw from the limited investigation.

Figure 36. A model of Pachacamac with the major constructions remodeled as they probably were
before the Spanish conquest, from the Pachacamac Site Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

After the Tawantinsuyu invasion its continued existence was permitted on a far more
independent basis than was usually acceptable. The Inca Tupac Yupanqui who found
that the Pachacamac religious ideology stemmed from the older Tiwanaku culture (as
did theirs), and realizing the importance and power of the religious city, out of respect
the Inca only enhanced the huaca and built some new temple complexes to the Sun
(Tawantinsuyu state religion), within the sacred centre. These are the only cut stone
buildings, as the rest of Pachacamac was built with adobe as is the general coastal
tradition. Pachacamac continued with its special role in Andean religious life61.

60
Diaz, L. & Vallejo, F., ‘Armatambo y el dominio Incaico en el valle de Lima’, Boletín de
Arqueología PUCP, no. 6, 2002, pp. 355- 374.
61
Baudin (1961b): p. 68; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168.

81
Figure 37. Aerial photograph of Pachacamac ruins. Note the central religious complexes us of walled
enclosures, constructed during the Wari-Tiwanaku Period and maintained by the Ichma and
Tawantinsuyu (Source: Ravines, pp.6, no year given)62.
Key: 1). Urpihuachac lagoon; 2). Mamacunas Palace (Acllahuasi); 3). Temple of Urpihuachac; 4).
Pilgrim’s square; 5). Temple of the Sun; 6). Temple of Pachacamac; 7). Old Temple of Pachacamac;
8). Pyramids with ramp; 9). Actual Road; 10).Exterior Wall; 11). Residential sector; 14). Beach.

62
Ravines, R., Pachacamac, Lima, Editorial Los Pinos E.I.R.L., pp.6 [no year given ]

82
Figure 38. The Old Sun Pyramid in the foreground from Wari period with the Tawantinsuyu Sun
Pyramid behind. The Sun Temple, expanded under the Tawantinsuyu domination, was the seat of the
wooden idol and held commanding views of the coast and its islands, and across the city (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).
.

In the smaller valleys of the south coast there were few changes, but the central and
north coast showed some of the most remarkable urban cities that continued to
flourish as regional centres after the demise of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire. Adopting
regional variations, Chan Chan, Cajamarquilla, Pachacamac, etc, all showed design
attributes that place them within a continuing tradition and influence. To understand
the position of Chan Chan, capital of the Chimú Empire, within the broader Andean
urban design and planning tradition, a step back is needed to the collapse of the
Mochica polity and their reformation under Wari-Tiwanaku influence as a strict urban
society. For it is these societal changes that start the process whereby the Chimú, and
in particular the city of Chan Chan, come to exist with their unique style which was
really a particular adaptation of the Andean planning tradition to meet their political
needs.

5.5 Mochica
At the collapse of the Mochica polity (≈ 700 AD), the capital Moche was abandoned63
and the cultural and political capital moved from in the Moche valley mouth further
north to Pampa Grande in the Lambayeque valley, where the city was designed
according to an urban plan that reflected the social and political changes caused by the
upheaval. Galindo in the Moche valley, which was further south and had suffered
greater environmental and political stress from El Niño effects and the southern

63
Topic, T.L., (‘The Early Intermediate Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan
Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284.: p.273), cites
evidence that Moche was abandoned by the end of Moche IV from burials within abandoned
architecture.

83
political collapse, reflected these changes with greater force in the extreme design for
social control and the social hierarchy of the new urban centre. Most of these aspects
were also represented in Pampa Grande but to a lesser degree as it retained greater
political stability64. This last phase of the Mochica was contemporary with the
significant changes further south caused by the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire65, and is seen
in the incorporation for the first time in the Moche valley of urban settlements with
stone-walled houses and regular compounds66. The Mochica at Galindo continued the
movement towards a more secular government that began in the Salinar phase, and
would later find further expression under the Chimú.

Figure 39. One of the ceremonial structures in the centre of Galindo, based on a platform design rather
than a pyramid, reflecting a move away from monumental public architecture, adobe huacas, that had
been a large part of north coast religious architectural tradition (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The design of Pampa Grande reflects the Mochica internal stresses; the division of the
city into central elite districts with religious buildings and elite artisans, while the
agriculturalists and lower artisans lived on the outskirts. The difference between
Pampa Grande and Galindo is that the ideological and political power in Pampas
Grande was still strong enough to be able to build the largest huaca pyramid in the
Andes. This was achieved quickly in order to represent the power of the new
government and to maintain much of the old social organization, while at Galindo
society underwent a large transformation.

64
Bawden, G., ‘Life in the pre-Columbian town of Galindo’, Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, vol. 49, no. 3, 1978, pp. 16-23: p. 16; Bawden, G., ‘Galindo: a study in cultural transition
during the Middle Horizon’, in M.E. Moseley & K.C. Day (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City,
Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 285-320; Bawden (1996): pp. 294-6.
65
Bawden (1982): p. 288.
66
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 166. Also Bawden (1990: p. 160) states that there are no clear signs of direct
conquest by the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire.

84
Figure 40. The ruins of Galindo are in bad condition. Here one of the ceremonial plazas in the centre is
clearly discerned. The city sits on the rough stony plain and hills above the fertile river flats. This view
is taken from the hill-side where the lower class dwellings were situated, looking over the elite housing
and religious complex centre of the city. A now dry river separates the two (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

There are strong indications that after settling in Pampa Grande, the Gallinazo culture
that had been also living in the valley was conquered, but joined the Pampa Grande
city where open access to the centre was maintained67. Pampa Grande strayed less
from the Mochica and coastal traditions than Galindo, while San José de Moro in the
extreme northern Jaquetepeque valley, little affected by the El Niño, remained a
virtually unchanged ceremonial centre with surrounding agglutinated settlements68.
City design and the political situation are so closely interwoven in this period that
they will be discussed at length in chapter six - Design Analysis.

New evidence shows that there is a clear cultural continuity69 between late Mochica
(Wari-Tiwanaku influence) and the Chimú Empire, the most important north coastal
empire70. After the demise of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire, the people of the Moche
valley abandoned Galindo, probably due to further political instability and moved
their centre back to the coastal plains where they formed the urban city of Chan Chan,
an extreme style in the Andean tradition that continues on from the changes started at

67
Bawden (1996): pp. 294-6.
68
Bawden (1996): p. 296.
69
Bawden (1996: pp. 288-9) finds that ‘One other major architectural innovation appeared at Galindo
as a manifestation of the Moche V transition. A complex that may have housed the paramount ruler of
Galindo contained not only a large domestic component but also a large burial platform. Both of these
units were enclosed within a high wall, pierced by a single elaborate but baffled gateway, whose
interior surface was adorned by a polychrome mural. This configuration differs from earlier practice at
Sipán, where the burial platform was associated solely with structures of high ceremonial rather than
residential status. This complex may be a prototype for the much more elaborate palace structures of
the later Chimú leaders. The Chimú capital at Chan Chan contains a number of such structures, each
primarily marking a generation of leadership’.
70
Bawden (1982): p. 296; (1996): p. 288.

85
Galindo, but representing further political changes in the area and a reformation under
the culture known as Chimú71.

5.6 Chimú Empire

For the short period of a hundred years between the 1370s and the 1470s AD the
Chimú Empire controlled the north coast and threatened to expand into the adjacent
central valleys. Chimú culture, which had direct antecedents with the Mochica state,72
was highly advanced in comparison with the highland peoples. Behind their
achievements was the organization of a large population, directed and controlled by
an aristocratic minority which had established the royal succession from among its
family members73. As a result of three stages of military conquests and alliances, the
kingdom extended across 700 km of coastline desert and irrigated valleys, from
Tumbes to the Rio Chillón valley, yet never entered the highlands. The Chimú capital
was Chan Chan, over twenty square kilometres it was the largest pre-Hispanic
Peruvian city74, located in the mouth of the Moche valley. However, nearly every
valley in the empire had at least one urban centre, sometimes rivalling the capital in
size75. A system of satellite towns of a lesser size supplemented each of these urban
centres76.

Perhaps for political, administrative and technical reasons the Chimú placed great
emphasis on cities77. They located their capital on the edge of an irrigated zone of the
Moche valley on a broad plain that descends gently towards the sea, now inside the
present-day city of Trujillo. Chan Chan may have been the most extensively planned
city of South America before the Spanish Conquest78. The construction of Chan Chan
began during the period of Wari-Tiwanaku influence at, or after, the time of the
political consolidation of the Moche valley, as indicated by ceramic finds, but its

71
Lumbreras (1974c: p. 181), also on the same page put the Chimú creation myth and history
succinctly when he says; ‘Archaeologically, the origin of the Chimú culture can be traced from the
dissolution of the Wari Empire and the resulting depopulation of the North coast, which permitted the
revival of earlier Moche elements. Although the legends concerning the historical origins of the
kingdom and its governing dynasties speak of the arrival of culture bearers from elsewhere, this is not
verifiable in the archaeological sequences. Rather, the evidence suggests a gradual amalgamation
between Wari and Moche ingredients, crystallizing ultimately in a distinctive style’.
72
Topic (1982): p. 248, 281, 283. On page 283, Topic states as evidence that ‘Moche society invented
the centralized expansionist state, experimented with hierarchical secular authority, and formalized the
labour tax. In these particulars, Moche was ancestral to Chimú and probably served as a model’.
73
Hardoy cites the research of Rowe, John H., ‘The Kingdom of Chimor’, Acta Americana, vol. 6, no.
1-2, Mexico, 1948, pp.26-59. Netherly (1990) finds that the citadel and huaca design represent that co-
rulers lived in Chan Chan.
74
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004: p. 108.
75
Hardoy (1973): p. 359; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 180. Hardoy (1973: p. 361) states that the Chimú
made the first experiment in South America in administrative and economic planning, despite that
most researchers would lay that laurel at the Inca’s (Tawantinsuyu) feet.
76
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 183.
77
Lumbreras (1974c: p. 166), notes that in the neighbouring Chicama valley to the north, the sites of
Chicamita and Chiquitoy also have the regular plan of other Wari-Tiwanaku constructions.
78
Hardoy (1973: pp. 361, 364, 380), also makes interesting and valid comparisons between the Chan
Chan design and Chinese provincial cities of the same epoch.

86
principal development occurred coincidently with Chimú expansion79 during the
Regional States Period80.

Figure 41. The three stages of Chimú expansion. Note the central location within the empire of capital
Chan Chan, also that the boundaries of the empire, like the preceding Mochica, included only the
coastal plains and valleys necks. The Chimú Empire southern border stops at the area of influence held
by Pachacamac (Source: Netherly, 1990, p. 466)81.

79
Bawden (1982: p. 288) believes that the emergence of the Chimú Empire should be seen as an
amalgam of regional traditions with strong Wari influence.
80
Hardoy (1973): pp. 364,365; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 166,183; Thompson (1964): p. 101.
81
Netherly, P. J., ‘Out of many, one: the organization of rule in the north coast polities’, in M.E.

87
Chan Chan is made up of a series of citadels, inside whose enclosed walls were
rigidly designed urban areas based on a series of design repetitions. Outside the
massive walls of the various citadels lay the rest of the city, without planning,
although containing some design elements. Here also existed a few small huacas to
serve the religious needs of the general populace and also to be used as elite burial
mounds82.

Inside the citadels lived the elite and their entourages. Each citadel possibly
represented a chieftain family or clan, necessary due to their system of split
inheritance83. All appear to have been built at roughly the same time and with the
same design repetition although with different percentages of types of area usage.
Hardoy84 calculates that the citadels used only small fraction, about one per cent of
the city’s estimated total area. He continues:
Much of the central area was occupied by housing units of essentially two
types: irregular multiple units and small enclosure units. The difference in
their quality and density of occupation reveals the different socio-economic
status of their inhabitants. The former housing units could have been inhabited
by the manual workers, the latter, by the lower members of Chan Chan’s
administrative group.85

The city of Chan Chan with its provincial elite centres and satellite towns in other
valleys clearly reflects a heightened differentiation between classes of society. It also
implicitly reflects the proliferation of specialized managerial and service
occupations86. The Chimú were notable for their metallurgy, particularly with gold in
which they reached the highest standards attained in Peru.87

Although somewhat unique, Chan Chan still shared many planning aspects with other
urban centres such Pikillacta, Viracochapampa and Cuzco in the highlands, and
Cajamarquilla and Pachacamac on the coast, especially in the use of walls to restrict
access and make private family dwelling complexes. After the Tawantinsuyu invaded
the Moche valley, and after defeating the Chimú’s considerable valley defenses88,
they left Chan Chan standing to continue as a provincial capital. The King was taken
to Cuzco for re-education and his son was made to manage in his place. This was just

Moseley, & A. Cordy-Collins (ed.), The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor,
Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, 1990, pp. 461-487.
82
Hardoy (1973): pp. 365- 366.
83
Topic (1982: p. 282), explains the effect of the system as; ‘When a king died, his principle heir
founded a new lineage and constructed his own ciudadela to be the seat of the new and his eventual
tomb. His predecessor’s ciudadela (and perhaps much of its contents) housed and supported the
descendants of the dead king’. A similar system was used by the Inca.
84
Hardoy (1973): pp. 379- 380.
85
Hardoy (1973: p. 380), is using information from Day, K. C., ‘Walk in wells and water management
at Chan Chan, Peru’, Paper presented at the 39th International Congress of Americanists, Lima, 1970;
and West, M., ‘Community settlement patterns at Chan Chan, Peru’, A.A.T.Q., vol. 35, no. 1, 1970, pp.
74- 86.
86
Schaedel, R. P., ‘The city and the origin of the state in America’, in S. Tax, J. Hardoy & N. Kinzer
(eds.), Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers,
1978, pp. 31-49: p. 42; Topic (1982): p. 284.
87
Cáceres (2004): p. 111.
88
Baudin (1961b): p. 61.

88
one political and administrative tactic of many the Tawantinsuyu appear to have
adopted from the Chimú and continued to use widely89.

Figure 42. Basic plan of the layout of Chan Chan with its citadels (Source: Bawden, 1990, p. 164).

89
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 221.

89
Figure 43. This is an amalgamation of four photographs taken from the now defunct tourist viewing
tower at the south corner of the Tschudi citadel at Chan Chan. However it does give a good indication
of the size and complexity of streets and plazas in just one citadel (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

90
Figure 44. A reconstruction of a typical daily scene of the inside of one of the citadels. Note the
separation of the areas into the formally organized inside the citadel and the more organic grass hutted
outside the citadel walls (Source: Moseley & Mackey, 1973, pp. 326 -27).90

90
Moseley, M.E. & Mackey, C.J., ‘Chan Chan, Peru’s ancient city of Kings’, in National Geographic,

91
5.7 Regional States Period
In the Regional States Period (1100 – 1470 AD), between the collapse of the Wari-
Tiwanaku Empire and the rise of the Tawantinsuyu Empire, in coastal valleys and
highland areas the legacy of Wari-Tiwanaku influence continued, but with an
accelerated adoption of regional variations. Many of the cultures reverted to chiefdom
states but most maintained the urban settlements left behind after the empire91. With
the rise of the Chimú polity’s influence urban planning had begun comprehensively in
the northern coastal valleys, such as the Virú that previously had done no more than
make dense agglutinated settlements within an enclosure. The Chimú Empire, as the
largest regional civilization, ruled the north and central coast and coastal valleys
during the later part of the Regional States Period until replaced by the advent of the
Tawantinsuyu expansion.

This period was one of technological advances that probably led to an advanced
quality of life represented by the mass production of ceramics rather than outstanding
artistic expression, the introduction of copper and bronze work, and the flowering of
such techniques as stone architecture and sculpture. Social differences became
emphasized, with people either seeking protection in cities or forced to dwell in them.
Societies were well organized and constructed rapidly for durability infrastructure
such as cities, roads, bridges and fortifications. 92

Hardoy93 maintains that this epoch was the time of great planned cities, the majority
of which were built by confederations, kingdoms or empires. The first true cities
appeared along with the general adoption of urbanism in South America, represented
by the widespread appearance of cities with temples and religious constructions of an
importance unknown before. Hardoy concludes that
From an urban point of view, the most significant aspects emerging in those
centuries were the progressive regularity in the layout of new cities and a
decrease in their general density, although urban population was growing and
the urban centres were increasing in size.94

Although there was a wide diffusion and acceptance of urbanization that made the
essential characteristic of those cultures in the eight sub-areas of the Andes, the
largest and best planned were built on the coast. The coastal valleys have always been
the most hospitable to human habitation and in this period they were home to a dense
concentration of population that was centred mainly in the middle and lower valleys95.
These collective efforts in the north and central coast and valleys that constructed
great urban centres and community works was not repeated in the south coast which
never undertook ambitious building programs96 and for whom there were no
important changes in settlement pattern97. Hardoy argues that although the south coast

vol. 143, no. 3, march, 1973, pp. 318 – 345. W. Nicholson was the staff artist.
91
Schaedel (1978): p. 44; (1988): p. 773.
92
Hardoy (1973): pp. 339, 352- 353.
93
Hardoy (1973): pp. 352- 353.
94
Hardoy (1973): pp. 339- 340.
95
Hardoy (1973): p. 352.
96
Hardoy (1973: p. 390), notes that even the adobe architecture of the southern valleys did not reach
the monumental character of the north and central valleys.
97
Hardoy (1973: pp. 390-1) notes that in the south, the valleys of Cañete, Chincha, Pisco, Ica, Nazca,
Acari and Yauca rivers constituted a predominantly rural zone with different artistic styles, that never
contained a large population and political and social organization probably changed from valley to

92
reached an urban level, their smaller valleys supported a proportionally lower
population. Further, political instability forced them to minimize construction of cities
in favour of small defensive forts in strategic places. The use of hill top fortifications
was generally for the defense of empires, or created by small states in an uncertain
stage of growth98.

5.8 Tawantinsuyu Empire

Tawantinsuyu culture, and in particular its place in the pan-Andean tradition, cannot
be understood unless it is recognised as the third and final part of the Tiwanaku and
later Wari-Tiwanaku civilization, and therefore as the holder of their traditions.
Although the move to Cuzco and growth of the Tawantinsuyu Empire is a different
political expression, as was Wari, Tawantinsuyu direct lineage from the two previous
forms is clearly recognised by many authorities on these cultures including Espinoza,
Hardoy, Huidobro, Ibarra, Lumbreras, Ponce and Zapata99. These authorities also
agree, on the basis of evidence such as ceramics, architectural and symbolic styles and
methods, language and historical accounts, in all probability an aristocratic segment
of the Tiwanaku society emigrated and began a new settlement at the site of Cuzco,
the Killke, where they maintained much of their culture and politics while also
absorbing aspects from the local culture. The Inca are known to have re-written their
national history to suit their political needs and construct their creation myth100.
Huidobro in his book Tiwanaku y los Origenes del Cuzco concludes that:
Podemos en esta parte del trabajo manifestar de manera segura que existen
suficientes pruebas etnoarqueológicas y etnohistóricas para demostrar qui
miembros de la sociedad prehistórica de Tiwanaku, se trasladaron al Cuzco
(Antigua Acamama) y conjuncionándose con las sociedades primigenias
conformaron el embrión del posterior Imperio Inka (Tawantinsuyo)101.

Cuzco and the Tawantinsuyu are recognized by scholars as beginning around 1200
AD, but remained an agglutinated agricultural settlement for the greater part of their
history. It was not until the ninth Inca Pachacuti that, after defeating nearby enemies,

valley. Tambo de Mora was the most important urban centre representative of the Regional States
Period, and was characteristic of the principle south coastal centres. Even though it never enjoyed the
importance of the northern centres it was built like them in a dense complex of pyramids, platforms,
housing groups, and free spaces delimited by adobe walls; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168.
98
Hardoy (1973): p. 390; Matos Mendieta, R., ‘Cultural and ecological context in the Mantaro Valley’,
in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean archaeology’, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 307-
325.
99
Espinoza , H., ‘Evidencia cultural del Horizonte Medio (Wari), Acamoqo, Cusco’, Arqueología
andina, Asociación de arqueología andina, 1983, pp. 16- 22; Hardoy (1973): p. 432; Huidobro (1993);
Ibarra Grasso, D., Tiahuanaco, Cochabamba, Bolivia, Editorial Atlantic, 1956, p. 13; Lumbreras
(1974c); Lumbreras, L. G., Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú, Biblioteca Peruana del Siglo XX,
Editorial Milla Batre, 6th Ed., Lima, 1983; Ponce Sangines, C., Tiwanaku: descripción sumaria del
templete semisubterraneo, La Paz, Los Amigos del Libro, 1969, p. 67; Zapata, J., ‘Los cerros sagrados:
panorama del Periodo Formativo en la cuenca del Vilcanota, Cuzco’, Boletín de Arqueología PUCP,
vol. 2, (Perspectivas Regionales del Periodo Formativo en el Perú), 1998, pp. 307-336.
100
Baudin (1961b: p. 28), and others, recognise that all the legends relating to the origin of the Incas
were devised so as to create a starting point for the official public history, although the aristocracy
remained aware of the truth.
101
Huidobro (1993): p. 57. - ‘We can in this part of the work manifest the sure manner that exist
sufficient ethno-archaeological and ethno-historical proofs to demonstrate that members of the pre-
historical Tiwanaku transferred to Cuzco (Old Acamama) and fused with the original societies that had
formed their before the Imperial Inca (Tawantinsuyu)’ (Translation L.Hasluck).

93
they gained control of their water supply, allowing an intensification of agriculture
and surplus, after which began their imperialistic ideology and the conquest of the
entire Andean region in the 100 years between 1430 and 1524 AD102.

The apogee of the Empire came under the twelfth Inca Huayna Capac a few decades
before the Spanish arrival, when the borders of the Empire had been set and
expansion ceased103. There were a number of political, strategic and economic reasons
for the setting of the borders, including the fact that further north, south and east lay
only tribes and cultures that had had no urban or civilized aspects and their absorption
into the empire would have been taxing to the administration. These new areas also
did not include any new resources or products that could not already be gained
elsewhere with ease. Consideration of the already vast size of the Empire, Ecuador to
Argentina (≈ 5400km), obviously played a large part in the decision104. This is
attested to by the fact that Huayna Capac had wanted to divide the Empire into two
parts between his two sons, with a second capital at Quito and another important
provincial capital at Tomebamba105. It was this decision that led to the bloody civil
war that massively depopulated the Empire106, leaving it vulnerable to the Spanish
who arrived at the time of Athahualpa’s victory over his brother Huascar. Then, using
disgruntled segments of the Tawantinsuyu Empire in alliances, the Spanish managed
to take control. The murder of Athahualpa left the Incan succession without a named
heir, and the resulting confusion allowed a few men to take possession of millions.

In exchange for the domination it exercised and the labour and lands it took, the
Tawantinsuyu Empire offered some compensation: the protection of subjugated
peoples (Pax Incaica), redistribution of goods from other ecological regions, famine
assistance, construction of new and large public works throughout the empire and
participation in victorious military campaigns. The empires wealth was not only
located in Cuzco but was spread throughout the empire in public works and
supplies107. Conditions that made some peoples voluntarily join the empire.108

102
Hardoy (1968): p. 45; (1973): p. 397; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 217; Niles, S.A., The shape of Inca
history - narrative and architecture in an Andean Empire, Iowa City, Uni. of Iowa Press, 1999: p. 267.
103
Hardoy (1973): p. 402.
104
Hardoy (1973): p. 499.
105
In present day Ecuador. Baudin (1961b): p. 63; Niles, S. A., The Shape of Inca History - Narrative
and Architecture in an Andean Empire, Iowa City, Uni. of Iowa Press, 1999: p. 263.
106
Baudin (1961b): p. 27; Thompson (1964): p. 103. On the same page Thompson puts forward other
possibilities that may have led to the situation of depopulation; ‘The archaeological record suggests
that population decline set in prior to conquest. This evidence may represent a true decline brought
about by reduced birth rate or by increased mortality through warfare, disease, or the like. It may,
however, be a false picture merely indicating more concentration of the population into urban units. Or
finally, the picture may represent migration out of the valleys to the large coastal centers, such as Chan
Chan, or to the highlands. Such migration could have been caused by deliberate population relocation,
warfare, or reduced productivity of the land because of exhaustion, excessive accumulation of salt, or
reduced water supply’.
107
Katz, F., ‘A comparison of some aspects of the evolution of Cuzco and Tenochtitlan’, in S. Tax
(ed.), Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978,
pp. 203-214: p. 212.
108
Baudin (Daily Life of the Incas, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, Original Publication 1961c,
unabridged Dover Ed. 2003: pp. 52-57) cites the examples of the Andahuaylas and Callao, and that the
victory over the Inca’s old and powerful enemy the Chancas persuaded many Andean cities to submit
of their own free will, for which they received lenient treatment.

94
Cuzco the capital of the Empire, administrative centre, religious heart and Incan
throne was re-forged with a plan designed by Inca Pachacuti when the imperial
expansion began109, becoming the grand stone city that the conquistadors later
encountered. The palaces of the elite, religious structures and massive plaza were
located in the most central position. The inner city was constructed of high, perfectly
cut stonewalls, small streets and housing complexes arranged around their own patios.
The impressive fortress of Sacsawaman lay on the hill above. However, Cuzco does
not represent the height of Tawantinsuyu urban planning and its design is not seen
repeated elsewhere in the Empire110.

The Tawantinsuyu were not great urban builders, perhaps due in part to the short time
frame of their Empire, but also due to the amount of effort they put into infrastructure
and increased productivity, and expansion of territory, in the form of roads, terracing,
irrigation, canalization, warfare, and fortifications. Where possible they preferred to
use existing cities and settlements, either altering them to their needs by re-modeling
with the addition of administrative and religious buildings and public plazas, or by
building administrative and religious centres nearby that would represent and manage
the affairs of state111. In some areas very few changes can be seen in the
archaeological record. However Hyslop emphatically states that ‘[t]he imperial
activities of the Inkas were short-lived, but during their brief dominion they created
planned settlements in a greater region than had any other native American
civilization.’112

The great cities of the Tawantinsuyu Empire were Cuzco, the capital; Quito, in the far
north of the empire; Chan Chan, the ancient Chimú capital of the north coast;
Túmbez, also on the north coast; Pachacamac, the shrine city of the central coast;
Cajamarca, the north highland administrative centre from which Atahuallpa directed
military campaigns against his brother Huascar; Tumebamba in Ecuador; Huánuco
Viejo; Bonbon, Jauja and Vilcashuaman, in the central highlands; Pucará and Potosí,
south of Cuzco; and Písac near Cuzco. Many of these cities were founded, built and
inhabited by civilizations that had profoundly influenced the Tawantinsuyu culture
and were later absorbed into the empire113.

The Tawantinsuyu, like the Tiwanaku and Wari, used a system of mitmaes (colonists)
and mitmaequna (colony urban settlements) throughout the empire to spread
civilization, urbanization and raise productivity, moving people from urbanized
productive areas to un-urbanized low productivity areas, and vice versa. With the help
of this system many of the urban centres of the Sacred Valley were constructed. The
Sacred (Urubamba) Valley, near Cuzco and connecting to the Amazon Basin via the
Urubamba river, was the most heavily populated and urbanized part of the Empire,

109
Arinibar, C., Pachacutec, Lima, Biblioteca hombres Del Perú, 1964; Hardoy (1973).
110
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 219; Hardoy (1973).
111
Hardoy (1973: p. 428) raises the point that ‘[t]he capitals of the Inca Empire were centers of intense
political and economic activity, and held the populations of their respective territories. Urbanistically,
however, they do not mirror the technological level reached by these people. Perhaps none of the great
cities of this Empire provides a satisfactory urban example since, due to the rapid expansion of the state
and the need to concentrate the greater part of their resources in political and economic consolidation
of conquered territories, existing urban centres were pressed into service as provincial capitals. These
were generally a far cry from the type of city the Inca would have built from the ground up’.
112
Hyslop, J. Inka settlement planning, Uni. of Texas press, Austin, 1990: p. 3.
113
Hardoy (1973): pp. 428-9; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 221.

95
housing Písac city almost an equal of Cuzco. The valley holds some of the best
examples of Tawantinsuyu urban planning, adapted to the extreme mountainous
terrain. Písac, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu are excellent localized examples114.

Figure 45. The main plaza Armas of Cuzco. The part existing to day was once part of the
Tawantinsuyu main plaza (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 46. One of the main streets of Cuzco, showing some of the original building foundations,
(background), and Spanish use of Tawantinsuyu stonemasons, (foreground) (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

114
Baudin (1961b): p. 52; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 219.

96
Figure 47. Machu Picchu built between two peaks (centre) atop a steep and cliff sided peninsular of
land in the lower Urubamba river. An easily defended position from threats of Amazonian tribal
invasions (Source: Bingham, 1979)115.

115
Bingham, H., Machu Picchu - a citadel of the Incas - report of the explorations and excavations
made in 1911, 1912 and 1915 under the auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic
Society, (1930), New Haven, Hacker Art Books, Inc., New York, re-issued 1979.

97
Figure 48. Above plan of the eastern side of Machu Picchu, showing the Kings section of elite housing.
Below, the western side, they join in the middle, showing the long wall and staircase running beside the
city (Source: Bingham, 1979, Fig. 219).

98
Figure 49. A view over Machu Picchu, with plaza in the centre. The Sun Temple is on the centre left. A
city adapted to difficult topographical terrain (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

The sites mentioned in this chapter which are representative of Andean urban culture
and which are also those that will be analysed for their specific urban design features
in the following chapters six to nine. This chapter has given the reader a general view
of the growth of the Andean urban tradition and its cultural interconnectedness, and
serves as a basic understanding of the Andean cultural context before the analysis of
the urban planning tradition’s characteristics begins. The importance of understanding
the cultural context for Andean cities to aid this dissertation’s analysis of the urban
planning tradition is expressed by Agnew, Mercer & Sopher;
To put the city in cultural context is to view it as a product of both hegemonic
and subordinate cultures and, at the same time, as the site of their production.
Placing cities in the context of their societies, we are able to see how the
cultural motifs of a society are embedded in the form of its cities and the lives
of its urban population.116

116
Agnew, John, A., Mercer, John & Sopher, David E., The City in Cultural Context, Boston, Allen &
Unwin,, 1984, pp. 1 -28: pp. 7 -8.

99
CHAPTER SIX - Design Analysis
Does not all this indicate a fusion of secular and sacred power, and was it not
this fusion process that, as in a nuclear reaction, produced the otherwise
unaccountable explosion of human energy? The evidence seems to point that
way. … Out of this union, I suggest, came the forces that brought together all
the inchoate parts of the city and gave them a fresh form, visibly greater and
more awe-inspiring than any other work of man.
Lewis Mumford1

There was clearly a tradition of pre-Hispanic planned urban design in the Andes that
grew to become a pan-Andean identity. Chapters six – Physical Design; seven –
Economic Design; eight – Environmental Design; and nine – Social Design, will
demonstrate its particular components; that is those design elements of the tradition
that most commonly manifest themselves in urban planning as a sign of the tradition
at work. The tradition will be observed, and dissected, through these four major
divisions and their sub-divisions. This chapter will investigate the physical design
elements of that tradition and its sub-areas.

Through the analysis of the existence of a planning tradition discerned in the cultural
interaction and diffusion in the preceding chapters, and through the discussion in the
following chapters, it will be demonstrated that certain ideas of urban design were
repeatedly used in planning. This repeated use demonstrates manifestations of a deeper
sub-structure of Andean beliefs, which helped maintain the status quo that upheld
urbanization, urban life-style and the power structures that relied upon a stable society
for existence.

6.1 Physical Design

Although in some way all aspects of urban design may be said to relate to the
physical, as all are part of the material construction of a city, this section will analyse
those physical aspects of the city that create the main material form. These are broken
into the sub-sections of; Location Choice, Planning, Religious Complexes, Urban
Division, Thoroughfares, Roads and Stairways, Plazas and finally Dwellings. It is
from the elements of these sub-sections that the form of the city is created.
Nevertheless, there is of course overlap between the chapters which will be referred to
rather than information repeated.

Although the material used in construction is part of the Andean tradition it has not
been included in its own section. Apart from the prestige of working in cut stone for
which Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu civilizations are famous, materials were generally
decided upon by the availability of resources at each particular city site. In brief, the
coast had a tradition of building the huacas and administrative buildings in adobe
while the houses were usually built of cane covered in mud. The dry climate required
little else. However, stone work was occasionally used, as in the pyramids of Caral, or
the Tawantinsuyu House of the Mamacuna at Pachacamac. In the highland areas,
adobe was also used, but usually above a base of stone. Many different methods of

1
Mumford, Lewis, The City in History: its origins, its transformations, and its prospects, New York,
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961: p. 38.

100
stone work were used, most of it uncut stone. However Tiwanaku, like the
Tawantinsuyu after them (who copied Tiwanaku work), excellent quality cut stone
was used for buildings deemed of sufficient value. The extensive use of adobe and
cane plastered with mud is one of the reasons that so little of the urban areas remain to
be seen with the naked eye. The exception of course is Chan Chan, but even there it is
the colossal citadel walls that remain to be seen.

6.2 Location Choice

Location consists of two fundamental elements; a sites inherent characteristics and its
proximity to other locations. The geographical location of Caral in the Supe valley,
the earliest pre-planned city in the Americas, was specifically chosen for several
characteristics. These characteristics or combinations of characteristics had continued
use throughout the following ages of Andean planned urbanization. Caral’s position
beside an easily useable permanent water source provided the inhabitants with
constant nourishment and the possibility of agricultural growth through the further
harnessing of the waters by irrigation2. This early reliance upon a permanent supply of
water is clearly seen in the example of the northern coastal valleys, Virú, Moche,
Lambayeque, Chicama, Leche and Chaclayo which were larger, with perennial water
and more favourable to human habitation than the central and south coast valleys. The
more regular system of waters explains why most of the very earliest settlements are
on the north coast, since water constitutes the principal source of life and is, therefore,
the vital factor in human densification3. The economic importance of water and arable
land, and rights to access of them, is clear in Bishop Bartolmé de Las Casas recording
that the strife between various Mochica polities was mainly due to the competition for
this scarce but vital resource4. Netherly5 also notes that in Andean spatial organization
rivers acted as a medial line in land division and confirms the higher ranking of
upstream sites relative to those downstream.

With the commencement of hydraulic agriculture the effective use of all the coastal
valley river systems became possible. The pre-planned Llamas-Moxeque city in the
Casma valley, and cities of the later Wari-Tiwanaku epoch, were also situated beside
a river and its wet lands.6 However unlike its fore-runner ceremonial centre Sechín
Alto, Llamas-Moxeque was not located within the cultivable land and so did not cover
precious agricultural land with urban development. This river plain frontage with un-
intrusive positioning was repeated in most of the large pre-planned settlements, such

2
Shady, R., ‘Sustento socioeconómico en la sociedad de la Caral-Supe en los orígenes de la
civilización en el Perú’, Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, 2000, pp. 49-66; Shady, R., La ciudad
sagrada de Caral Supe y los orígenes de la civilización Andina, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y
Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor De San Martin, 2001.
3
Hardoy, J.E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: pp. 296, 311.
4
Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell Pub., 1996: pp. 32, 64.
5
Netherly, P. J., ‘Out of many, one: the organization of rule in the north coast polities’, in
M.E.Moseley, & A. Cordy-Collins (ed.), The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor,
Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, 1990, pp. 461-487: p. 469.
6
Thompson, D., ‘Postclassic innovations in architecture and settlement patterns in the Casma valley,
Peru’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 20, 1964, pp. 91-105: p. 97; Thompson, D.,
‘Arquitectura y patrones de establecimiento en el valle de Casma’, Revista de Museo Nacional, vol. 40,
Lima, 1974, pp. 9-29: p. 15.

101
as Caral, Galindo, Pampas Grande, Tambo Colorado, Ollantaytambo7, Pikillacta,
Viracochapampa, Písac and many others.

Figure 50. Galindo located on the dry stony land above the cultivable river flats (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

Figure 51. Tambo Colorado also situated on the dry stony land above the river flats (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

7
Ollantaytambo is actually situated at the junction where a small permanent river joins the larger
Urumbamba river. Although popularly considered to be Inca, its earliest architecture may be Tiwanaku.

102
Figure 52. Model of Tambo Colorado. This town was built following the form of a peninsular of land
over looking the river, leaving arable land vacant. The central plaza is a rough trapezoidal shape
(Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 470).

Figures 53. Písac located on the mountain top, leaving the sides and the valley free for agriculture
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

103
Figure 54. The sides of the lower mountain at Písac were left free of city constructions for agricultural
terracing (Source: L. Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 55. Tiwanaku located in the valley beside Lake Titicaca (Lago Wiñaymarkã) and a river, in a
central position in its valley and to its smaller surrounding towns (Source: Portugal & Portugal 1975,
p. 197).8

8
Portugal Zamora, M. & Portugal Ortiz, M., ‘Qallamarka, nuevo yacimiento arqueológico descubierto

104
The availability of water for irrigation played a large role in the location of Andean
cities. Tiwanaku was located on the shores of Lake Titicaca9 and beside a small river
from which the waters for hydraulic agriculture played a fundamental part in its urban
growth. When the Mochica transferred and re-formed their provincial capital at
Galindo after political collapse, due in great part to environmental stress and lack of
water, they chose a location in a mid-valley position beside the main trunk canal that
would allow them to harness the increased perennial water supply and river plain
lands for irrigated agriculture without occupying arable land, while controlling the
narrow neck of the valley and its vital flow of waters. The exceptions to this were
cities located with the primary focus of defense, such as Huari, Machu Picchu, and
Písac so that domestic water supplies had to be channeled from springs.

In the highlands, positions beside water and at cross roads for communication routes
became important for access to multiple resources. Huari, the Wari capital at the
intersection of two rivers is good example. Tiwanaku, from its seemingly remote
position10 is able to maintain contact and trade with highland, coastal and Amazon
regions, which proved to be an important aspect in the rise of their civilization11. The
same is true of Cuzco. In the coastal areas contact was maintained with highland,
ocean-side and neighbouring valleys, and in northern coastal Peru with Amazon
regions as well12.

Location of cities was also chosen to take the best advantage of multiple resource
zones, control access to water and to paths for communication and transportation13.
The first urban culture of Supe located Caral in the mid-valley position that allowed it
control of water resources, communication routes, access to multiple-resource zones,
especially the ocean, and paths to neighbouring valleys and the highlands. It also
placed it in the centre of its other cities and settlements14.

cerca a Tiwanaku’, Arte y Arqueología: Revista del Instituto de Estudios Bolivianos, vol. 3 & 4,
Sección Arte, 1975, pp. 195-216: p. 197.
9
The level of the lake may have been higher at the time, and so Tiwanaku could have been located
nearer to the shoreline than it is at present.
10
Ponce Sanginés, C., (‘Tiwanaku: espacio, tiempo y cultura’, Pumapunku, vol. 4, 1972, pp. 7-24: p.
7.), explains that Tiwanaku city was also situated within a larger plan in that it was located within a
triangle of Tiwanaku sites that encompasses a region of some 500km inclusive of the Alti plano and
Lake Titicaca.
11
Browman, D.L., ‘Toward the development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) state’, in D.L. Browman
(ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978b, pp. 327-349; Hardoy (1973):
p. 328.
12
Thompson, D.E., ‘Investigaciones arqueológicas en los Andes orientales del norte del Perú’, in
Revista de Museo Nacional, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, vol. 39, 1973, pp. 117-125;
Thompson, D.E., ‘Ancient highland connections with selva and coast: evidence from Uchucmarca,
Peru’, in N. Hammond (ed.), 44 International Congress of Americanists: Social and Economic
Organization in the Prehispanic Andes, 1982, Manchester, Bar International Series 194, 1984, pp. 73-
78.
13
Brennan, C. T., ‘Cerro Arena: origins of the urban tradition on the Peruvian north coast’, Current
Anthropology, vol. 23, no. 3, 1982, pp. 247-254: p. 251; Hardoy (1973): p. 301. Cerro Arena, Salinar
Phase in the Moche valley is an interesting exception to the rule. Although it is only a semi-nucleated
settlement it was specifically located to control passage and commerce through its pass, rather than
locating on the easier land sites nearer water.
14
Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú: el
área norcentral y el valle de Supe durante el Arcadio Tardío’, in Arqueología y Sociedad, Vol. 13,
Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 13– 48:
p. 32; Shady, R., Haas, J. & Creamer, W., ‘Dating Caral, a preceramic site in the Supe valley on the
central coast of Peru’, Science, vol. 292, 2001, pp. 723-726: p. 725.

105
For these reasons low land cultures located their early cities in the middle part of the
valleys. With the start of valley-wide polities control of the necks of the valleys
became important, such as at Caral and Llamas-Moxeque, in order to control the trade
between inland agricultural products and coastal marine15 for access to multiple
resource zones. This was also the case for the Late Mochica during the Wari-
Tiwanaku Period16.

This is in marked contrast to the earlier periods of agglutinated settlement that grew
spontaneously from the needs of small populations increasing over time, as seen in the
general Archaic and Formative Periods. These settlements were located in areas that
served their primary village needs, close to water and/or subsistence resources, or
nearby religious centres, with no plan for longer term economic or political
necessities. It is during the Upper Formative or Regional Development Period that
widespread changes from agglutinated settlements began to occur, first with the
Salinar/Gallinazo cultures and in earnest in the Late Mochica and Wari-Tiwanaku
phase. The position of Galindo in the middle valley, and not in the mouth, shows that
it was a provincial centre and not involved in inter-valley political control17.

The ocean front location of Pachacamac and Chan Chan displays a different choice in
city location from other contemporaneous urban centres. Pachacamac’s location was
guided by three aspects: firstly the geography of the valley made it the best location
for a large settlement supported by irrigated lands, as the Lurin valley plains do not
extend far inland. This also meant that it had to rely to a greater extent on the ocean as
a resource zone; secondly the site has a great religious significance which is
intimately associated with the two small islands just off-shore; and thirdly, the coastal
location placed it in direct connection, via the coastal roads, with other neighbouring
cities, and so able to control a section of the coastal road trade. In comparison Chan
Chan displays a location choice that reflects its political designs. Like the Mochica
cultural capital of Moche before it, the position on the coastal front was chosen to
control the large plains for irrigation, permit the size of settlement needed and to
control the inter-valley road system, crucial to maintaining a coastal empire. The
Chimú use of the highlands was only for limited trade, and in fact the road to the
highlands was heavily guarded and fortified18.

By the time of the Tawantinsuyu Empire the engineers and planners of new
settlements had a long tradition of site location with which to adhere. Tawantinsuyu
engineers were clearly aware of these needs, and when creating new settlements and
cities always located them close to a water source, and used the un-arable land so as
15
Béarez, P., & Miranda Muroz, L., ‘Analisis arqueo-ictiológico del sector residencial del sitio
arqueológico de Caral-Supe, costa central del Perú’, Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima, Museo de
Arqueología Y Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor De San Marcos, 2000, pp. 67- 78; Pozorski, S., &
Pozorski, T., ‘La dinámica del valle de Casma durante le periodo inicial’, in Boletín de Arqueología
PUCP, vol. 2 (Perspectivas regionales del Periodo Formativo el Perú), 1998, pp. 83-100: p. 93.
16
Bawden (1996).
17
Bawden, G., ‘Domestic space and social structure in pre-Columbian northern Peru’, in S. Kent (ed.),
Domestic architecture and the use of space - an interdisciplinary cross-cultural study, vol. 1, Norfolk,
Cambridge Uni. Press, 1990, pp. 153- 171: p. 160.
18
Bawden, G., ‘Galindo: a study in cultural transition during the Middle Horizon’, in M.E. Moseley &
K.C. Day (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp.
285-320: p. 319; Bawden (1996).

106
to maximize agricultural production, fitting their designs to the sometimes difficult
topography of the land, as seen with Tambo Colorado19, Písac, Machu Picchu,
Ollantaytambo, etc. All the major cities were located on roads of communications and
resource transference and in positions to help maintain political control20.

Figure 56. This sketch of a reconstruction of Pachacamac by Luis Ccosi Salas shows Pachacamac’s
position in relation to the ocean, the river and the sacred islands. The workers housing would have been
on the sand dunes in the foreground outside the enclosed religious complex (Source: Koiffman Doig,
1973, p. 369, fig. 606)21.

Figure 57. The view from the Sun Temple at Pachacamac, where the city was located to take advantage
of multiple resource zones, non-intrusion of river flats, coastal traffic and the religious connection of
the small islands offshore (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

19
Baudin, L. (Daily Life In Peru: Under the Last Incas, London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1961b: p.
41), states that Tambo Colorado’s location was also useful to the military who used it as a base for
acclimatizing highland troops to the tropical climate for work in the lowland coastal areas.
20
Hardoy (1973): p. 408.
21
Kauffmann Doig, F., Manual de Arqueología Peruana, 5th Edición, Lima, Ediciones Peisa, 1973.

107
Figure 58. Map showing location of Chan Chan and Moche on the coastal plains and Galindo situated
in the valley neck. Note that the position of the urban centres of Galindo and Chan Chan do not use
precious arable land, however the pre-urban ceremonial capital of Moche is situated on the arable
plains. Note also the Moro irrigation canal that permitted irrigated farming on the plains around Chan
Chan (Source: Bawden, 1990, p. 154).

Figure 59. Ollantaytambo built upon the slopes of the valley and positioned at the intersection of two
rivers. Great use was made of terrace farming. Grid width is 1 km. (Source: Bingham, 1979, figure
1.2).22

22
Bingham, H., Machu Picchu - a citadel of the Incas - report of the explorations and excavations made
in 1911, 1912 and 1915 under the auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society,
(1930), New Haven, Hacker Art Books, Inc., New York, re-issued 1979. The map is based on the 1:
25000 map of the Oficina General de Catastrato Rural, 1975; aerial photos nos. 8485- 1023, and 8485-
1024 of June 25, 1956, of the Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional; and field surveys carried out by

108
Figure 60. Machu Picchu located, like Písac, on the mountain top so as to leave the sides of the
mountain available for terraced agriculture (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 61. Machu Picchu was also located from a defensive point of view, note the watch tower peak
of Huayna Picchu behind the city. Machu Picchu was also located on three major Inca roads that
entered the city from one side and left by the other, connecting it with Cuzco23 and a network of other
cities (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Bingham from 1982 to 1989.

23
Kendall, A., ‘Middle stages of the Cusichaca Archaeological Project’, in Institute of Archaeology
Bulletin, no. 20, University of London, 1984, pp. 43- 71.

109
Figure 62. Huari, centre of the Wari Empire, was located on a high plateau for defensive purposes, as
still can be seen in the large outer walls (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

6.3 Planning
The phrase ‘urban design’ does not necessarily mean any settlement with an orderly
layout. Hardoy24 explains that urban orderliness can be an accident of social
organization such as land management and distribution25 or ‘conform to some
indefinable natural pattern’.26 A planned urban area must show the intent of the power
structure which controlled the decision and which made the plan to guide or correct
the physical development of an urban centre27. In the present the planned process, and
the power structure that created it, can be observed from the relationship of the
individual parts of the city to the whole and the form in which they were arranged.
The layout of the city reveals the social structure and needs of the society or societies
that formed it.

In the Andes tradition there are two types of planned urban design. Firstly, and of
greater rarity, is the city that is built from a preconceived plan. That is, an elite ruling
group has sufficient power, means and skill to design a new city and, starting with the
location, follow a plan to build a new urban centre that suits their political and cultural
needs. There have been few examples of these in the Andes and none became

24
Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in pre-Columbian America, London, Studio Vista, 1968: p. 9.
25
Hardoy (1968: p. 9), explains that ‘…in early cultures whose economy was based, for example, on
very elementary irrigation, the regular layouts developed naturally as a derivation of the system of land
subdivision. Likewise the spontaneous settlement of new territory may have produced population
clusters exhibiting a regular layout to meet the need for obtaining an equitable distribution of urban as
well as rural lands’.
26
Morris, A.E.G., History of the Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution, 2nd Ed., Halstead press,
New York, 1979: p. 9.
27
Hardoy (1968): p. 8; Haverfield, F., Ancient town-planning, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1913: p. 11;
Morris (1979): p. 14.

110
powerful or renowned centres. The greatest examples are Caral, Llamas-Moxeque,
Galindo, Pampas Grande, Huari, Pikillacta, Viracochapampa, Ollantaytambo and
Huánuco Pampa, built in different Andean periods, geographies and civilizations. All
these cities show a clear plan representing a design decided for the contemporary
needs of the existing power structure. Morris, an expert on the administrative centre
of Huánuco Pampa, finds that it was built ‘in accordance to an elaborately pre-
conceived plan’.28 Reader states with admiration about the six pyramids around a
plaza at Caral, the first American city, ‘[a]ll six mounds appeared to have been built
in only one or two phases, which indicates an exceptional capacity for complex
planning, centralised decision-making and the mobilisation of sizeable labour
forces’.29

The second type of planning, widely used throughout the Andes, particularly by the
Tawantinsuyu, is that of post-planning or re-modelling. In these cases the city, like
most Andean cities, had emerged spontaneously and at a later stage, either due to
expansion or foreign domination, an urban plan was introduced to try to bring some
order to the agglomeration of buildings, or to organize the urban area with pre-
determined land uses, visual sequences and perspectives in accordance with concepts
peculiar to each area and in line with the stage of evolution of the occupying culture.
This normally was the introduction of a set of buildings with specific administrative
or religious functions around a central plaza, to represent the dominant power
structure. Such a decision was a demonstration of the planning sense of the elite30.

There are numerous examples of this, as re-modelling due to expansion created some
of the most powerful cities in the Andes including Tiwanaku and Cuzco31. Of those
that were re-modelled due to foreign domination the list includes most of the
Tawantinsuyu provincial capitals, and most large urban centres from the Upper
Formative and Wari-Tiwanaku Period, such as Pachacamac, Cajamarquilla and
Cajamarca which were remodelled by both the Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu
Empires32. The Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu also extended and remodelled
existing temples and administrative structures33.

In a process no different to that which affected parts of Europe, Asia, the Middle East
and other areas of the world where there were successive waves of invaders, these re-
modellings in various locations, cultures and periods of the Andes can also be seen to
be an aspect of an ongoing planning tradition, and represent the needs of the dominant
power structure as expressed through architecture. It would appear that the urban
planning of the later periods was either influenced or copied from the original primary
examples. The only real changes occurred in form and these were a consequence of
the socio-political evolution, which characterized those periods. The fundamental step

28
Morris quoted in Hyslop, J. Inka settlement planning, Austin, Uni. of Texas press, 1990: p. 27.
29
Reader, J., Cities, London, William Heinemann, 2004: p. 12.
30
Hardoy (1968): p. 11; (1973): pp. 462-3.
31
Recent discoveries have confirmed that a prior city existed on the Cuzco site. That Cuzco was
annexed under Tiwanaku is presented by Menzel, D., ‘The Inca occupation of the south coast of Peru’,
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, 1959, pp. 125-142.
32
Lumbreras, L.G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: pp. 165, 168, 223.
33
Niles, S.A., The shape of Inca history - narrative and architecture in an Andean Empire, Iowa City,
Uni. of Iowa Press, 1999: p. 263; Ponce (1972): p. 17; Thompson (1964).

111
towards general urbanization taken during the Regional States Period was first taken
in the earlier Wari-Tiwanaku Period34.

There are some examples which remain obscure as to their place in the first or second
of these categories, yet their planned designs remain within the extremities of the
Andean tradition: The two best known examples of this are Chan Chan and Machu
Picchu, for it is not clear whether they were built preconceived or re-modelled to suit
changing needs at later stages in their history. The Chan Chan citadels were clearly
built at the same time, to plan, which includes some later expansion. However it is not
certain whether the agglutinated city between the citadels existed prior, and was re-
modelled with the introduction of the citadels or whether the citadels were created
first and the agglutinated settlement grew up between and around them35. Machu
Picchu may have been a settlement to begin with and then with expansion was re-
modelled to snugly fit the extreme mountain topography and to include the usual
Tawantinsuyu state buildings and spaces, or if it was built to fit the topography from a
pre-conceived plan. There are clearly different types of wall construction representing
different periods of building activity36.

Part of the reason that this Andean tradition exists is that from early times the leaders
of different cultures realised the usefulness of using tried and known solutions to
urban problems, even when these came from outside their culture or ecological area.
Hardoy37 states that it is evident that pre-Columbian rulers understood the importance
of adopting approved common practices and standards responsive to the practical
necessities faced by repeating situations and in the solution of similar urban problems.
Such as the large walled enclosures introduced by the Wari-Tiwanaku expansion,
particularly on the north coast, where may be observed the adoption of a series of
interconnected elements, originating in the highlands, which were systematically used
in the construction of different settlements.

The repetition of uniform criteria reveals a functional sense and the importance
attached to the utilization of well-tried solutions. General architectural elements
introduced include, large planned settlements composed of houses, plazas, and streets
surrounded by very high walls with few entries and no windows38. This is well
expressed in such coastal cities as Pachacamac, Cajarmarquilla and Galindo from the
Wari-Tiwanaku Period and Chan Chan from the Regional States Period. The highland
examples include Viracochapampa, Pikillacta and Huari from the Wari-Tiwanaku
epoch and Ollantaytambo and Cuzco, amongst many from the Tawantinsuyu Period.

34
Bonavía, D., ‘Ecological factors affecting the urban transformation in the last centuries of the pre-
Columbian era’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Pub., 1978a,
pp. 393-410: p. 407; Bonavía, D., ‘Ecological factors affecting the urban transformation in the last
centuries of the pre-Columbian era’, in S. Tax (ed.), Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings
to the Present, Paris, Mouton Pub., 1978b, pp. 185- 202: p. 200; Ponce (1972): p. 17.
35
Netherly (1990).
36
Bingham (1979).
37
Hardoy (1968): pp. 11- 12.
38
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 165.

112
Figure 63. A plan of Tiwanaku city centre. Note the east-west orientation of the buildings and
symmetry of the planned layout. The centre was remodelled in the Urban Phase (Source: Ibarra, 1982,
p. 340)39.

39
Ibarra Grasso, D. E., Ciencia en Tihuanaku y el Incaico, La Paz, Los Amigos Del Libro, 1982.

113
Figure 64. An aerial photograph of the ruins of Cajarmarquilla on the central Peruvian coast showing
the use of the repetition of walled enclosures. The outer suburbs of Lima are now starting to cover the
ruins (Source: Hardoy, 1968, Figure 52).

114
Figure 65. Detail of city centre from above aerial photograph (Fig. 62) of Cajamarquilla, clearly
showing the planning and repetition. A large plaza is located at the centre of the photograph (Source:
Hardoy, 1968, Figure 52).

The adoption of the walled enclosure brought a new measure of planning and
organization to cities and settlements that allowed the central authority greater control
over the resident population. One of the major effects of the Tiwanaku-Wari
expansion was to bring to many regions for the first time the idea of a planned and
organised city, with a layout built to serve the needs of an Empire40. This idea would
40
Ponce (1972): p. 17; Schaedel, R. P. (‘The city and the origin of the state in America’, in S. Tax, J.
Hardoy & N. Kinzer (eds.), Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris,
Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 31-49: p. 33), remarks that the nature of the Wari expansion remains to
be elucidated in detail for much of the Central Andes, but that from the presently available evidence
none of the Wari-Tiwanacoid coastal or highland sites reflect a different settlement pattern. Like that of
the Mochica, the Wari conquest appears to have been directed at the ‘capitals’ of the theocratic polities,
aiming at their defeat and re-orientation. Yet he thinks that sometime during this phase of conquest the
Wari expansion must have confronted the inefficiency of the expansion as to the problems of territorial
control, and as a result developed a bold solution for restructuring the principal settlements in order to
encompass the functions, not only of militarily and religious control, but also of economic or resource

115
be one of the persevering effects of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire41. The idea of
systematic construction and reconstruction based on a plan serving economic,
political, social and religious needs would continue and become the formulating and
expansive idea for the Tawantinsuyu Empire in a later period42. Ponce lists some of
the numerous ideas they imported:
Entre los elementos arquitectónicos significativos enumeró la preferencia por
las fachadas revestidas con material lítico, la traza de los edificios con patio en
cuyo derredor se reparten las habitaciones, cuartos con tangible amplitud, el
empleo de sillares como ornamento, el remodelamiento de construcciones
anteriores, la colocación de espigas, la reorientación de las estructuras, etc. En
los asentamientos urbanos se combinaba el segmento habitacional con la
porción ceremonial y administrativa, conexas por sistemas de comunicación o
por abastecimiento de agua. En fin, recalcar que la modalidad Tiwanaku-Wari,
equipolente con la nominación tiwanacoide, de típico mestizaje cultural entre
invasores y vencidos, en lo político derivó a la conformación de una urbe
virreinal.43

These solutions were largely instrumental in breaking away from the traditional socio-
political trend, reflected in the ceremonial centre pattern (serviced by unattached
agglutinated villages), to provide a truly urban environment concept for the capital of
regional cultures. In the coastal valleys, this involved the integration of the various
types of buildings already accumulating at the valley necks into a single large religio-
military, hydraulic settlement. The fusing of these functions as reflected in their
juxtaposition within a single settlement only became a reality during the Wari-
Tiwanaku Period44.

These developments began the widespread use of urbanization that paralleled the
centralisation of a high level of political integration represented by the theocratical
state, but also that the permanent consolidation of the state was dependant upon the
preconditioned forms of the town and city45. Although urban planning was not
utilized until well-entrenched elite authority exercised a complete or coercive measure
of control over the political, economic, religious and social situation, such as with the

control.
41
Browman (1978b); Hardoy (1968): p. 42.
42
Browman (1978b).
43
Ponce (1972: pp. 17- 18), states that ‘between these architectonic elements is the signification of the
enumeration of the preference for walls constructed in lithic material, the style of the buildings with
patio, around which were distributed the habitations, rooms with tangible size, that used benches like
ornaments, remodelling of the previous constructions, the placement of gables, the orientation of the
structures, etc. In the urban situation they combined the living segment with the ceremonial and
administrative portion, connected by systems of communication or for supplies of water. Finally, to
emphasize the style of Tiwanaku-Wari, equipped with the nomination Tiwanacoid, of a mixed type of
culture between invaders and conquered, in the derived politics of the formation of a representative
royal capital’ (translation L.Hasluck).
44
Schaedel (1978): pp. 32- 33. Schaedel (1978: p. 40) continues, that in the Peruvian case, the evidence
points so far to the pre-existence of a non-mercantile, fairly mobile, predatory inchoate state (or
interregional chiefdom) with a massive ceremonial centre at Huari, related to another at Tiwanaku,
which imposed itself on similar but more stationary polities. Only after the fusion or conquest did the
secular trend toward cities emerge, presumably as a consequence of occupation and control techniques
called into being by conquest.
45
Schaedel (1978): p. 31.

116
Wari-Tiwanaku domination46. However in some north coastal valleys, such as the
Virú, urban planning did not make an appearance until the later Chimú phase in the
Regional States Period47.

State buildings such as temples and administration were planned to be centrally

located around a plaza for public ceremonies. Access to different parts of the city was
controlled by the design and positioning of walled enclosures creating streets that
would restrict or allow passage as the elites deemed necessary. Pachacamac, Galindo,
Chan Chan, Pikillacta, Viracochapampa and Cuzco are all fine examples from
different epochs and geographies that successfully used these known solutions. The
Tawantinsuyu planned these measures into their administrative centres where strict
control of space was a guiding principle.

Figure 66. So many similarities exist between Pikillacta (above) and Viracochapampa (below, Fig. 65)
that not only were the built in the same epoch, but may have been built from the same plan (Source:
Hardoy, 1973, p. 342).

46
Hardoy (1968): p. 10.
47
Hardoy (1973): p. 316.

117
Figure 67. The same ideas of urban design through repetition are used here Viracochapampa as in
Pikillacta (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 347).

A further aspect of the tradition that was a known solution for urban planning was the
use of repetition in design. This idea of repetition was used in two ways. The first and
earliest use was the repeated application of the various parts or elements of the city.
For example in Caral it is possible to see represented, design parts of all the other
contemporaneous cities in the Supe valley. The plan of Caral uses the types of
pyramids, plazas and platforms that are to be found singularly or together in the other
cities and settlements in the valley. Shady et al. state that
In view of the abundance of such sunken circular plazas in the Supe Valley, it
seems likely that this ancient Andean pattern originated here, [and that] Caral
appears to mark the initiation of an architectural complex that combines the
platform mound and associated sunken circular plaza. This ceremonial
complex is common in the archaeological record of Peru for several thousand
years.48

48
Shady, Haas & Creamer (2001): p. 726.

118
The citadels of Chan Chan also repeat aspects of each others designs, and this practice
is common throughout Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu planning, such as Pachacamac,
Cajarmarquilla, Pikillacta, Viracochapampa, Huari, and others.

Secondly, repetition also takes the form of internal replication in which particular
design aspects are repeated within a planned urban area to create a certain regularity
or homogeneity for the area. This is a very old part of the urban tradition and was first
practiced in the design of ceremonial centres, so that the ceremonial centres acted as a
model in solving urban design problems and had provided practice of the decision and
planning process49. In the ceremonial centres of Kotosh and Huaca de los Reyes the
repetition of ascending platform plazas of different dimensions were to restrict public
access to inner sanctums, this idea was used again in cities throughout the Andes.

Figure 68. Above, Huaca de los Reyes taken looking down from the temple over the three ascending
plazas (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 69. Photo taken from the boundary of the first plaza looking up towards the temple mound. A
Peruvian archaeologist standing on top gives an indication of the size (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

49
Hardoy (1968): p. 10.

119
In the most basic form of internal repetition Caral displays the repeated use of
pyramids, plazas and platforms although not in a rigid layout. The elite housing also
shows a certain repetition, which is recognisable in the common inclusion of patios in
front of the dwellings. There was a similar level of repetition at play in Llamas-
Moxeque where twin pyramids were separated by a plaza which was the centre of the
city. In Tiwanaku, Urban Phase, there was the construction of pyramids with sunken
plazas, Akapana and Pumapunku, and the repeated use of the enclosure, including
semi-subterranean. Internally religious edifices displayed much repetition in design;
stepped, ramped, rows of edifices of the same design, and iconography used in
repetitive patterns.

Tiwanaku was developed with a system of planning50. Hardoy51 states that the spatial
relation between the Tiwanaku temples is one of the ‘great examples of urban
planning of Indian America’ and that it was the ‘first large planned complex in South
America’52. He notes that, all the elements that enhance the urban design of any
complex appear in Tiwanaku, although in a less evolved form than later periods53.
With the expansion of the Wari-Tiwanaku civilization the idea of repetitive elements
in urban design came to be the norm in Andean urban planning.

The new Wari-Tiwanaku urban form of the walled enclosure represented a system of
planning that could be used under different geographical and cultural settings,
creating order by the multiplication of the idea. This was the town inside a walled
enclosure with a regular ground plan that could be adapted to different urban scales54.
The walled enclosure represents a completely different stage from previous ones and
was, Hardoy55 thinks, in some ways unexpected in the evolution of human groupings
of South American urban cultures. The regular walled enclosure represented an
element of order and limitation in the disorderly general layout of the coastal villages
by imposing a system of pathways and rectilinear spaces, along which a series of
similar contiguous chambers were arranged. Ruins of such walled enclosures have
been found, in the Virú valley56 at least, on the coastal plain and in places easily
accessible from all parts of the valley. Perhaps the choice of locale was the result of
new administrative requirements for the government of the new and different ruling
group57.

Although the highland areas also used the walled enclosure design, the difficulties of
the uneven terrain limited the regularity of the plan. This regularity was far more
obvious in the coastal valleys where the terrain is flatter, such as Pachacamac,

50
Portugal Ortix, M. & Portugal Zamora, M., ‘Investigaciones Arqueológicas en el Valle de
Tiwanaku’, Jornadas Peruano-Boliviano de Estudio Científico del Altiplano Boliviano y del Sur del
Perú, no. 2- Arqueología en Bolivia y Perú, 1977, pp. 243-283: p. 258.
51
Hardoy (1973): p. 330.
52
Remembering of course that at the time he wrote this Supe Caral was yet to be discovered.
53
Hardoy (1973): p. 332.
54
Hardoy (1968): pp. 38-42; (1973): pp. 325- 356; Bawden (1996): p. 29.
55
Hardoy (1973): p. 340.
56
Hardoy (1973: p. 340) remarks that in the North coast valleys the stages of evolution have been
traced from ocean-side semi-subterranean villages, to unplanned inland settlements, followed by
villages linked to a fortified hill that gave refuge and sanctuary, then came the period of the great
constructions, that may have been palaces which served as sanctuary and housing, until finally the
period of walled enclosures.
57
Hardoy (1973): pp. 340-1.

120
Cajamarquilla and the citadels of Chan Chan, although numerous examples not just of
cities but of settlements also exist. The highland examples of Viracochapampa and
Pikillacta with widely dispersed plans, or the spacious Tiwanaku, are in sharp contrast
to the complex, space intensive patterning of the multi-functional architecture of
topographically difficult Huari, yet all show that where possible the repetitive
enclosure design was applied58.

This basic planning idea is maintained through the Regional States Period and persists
with the Tawantinsuyu as seen in the urban design of walled enclosures that form the
royal kancha dwellings of the Incan royal families in Cuzco. It is likely that housing
surrounding a central patio, with limited access from the outside and no street
windows, is an extension of the walled enclosure idea as a design adaptation to
greater urban housing density and the need for privacy. This is so particularly since
this housing design (discussed below in part eight - Dwellings), seen in great
repetition within numerous cities, did not make an appearance until the Wari-
Tiwanaku introduction of the walled enclosure. Thereafter it became the dominant
form of urban housing design throughout the Andes and into Colonial times.

McEwan’s59 planning analysis of Pikillacta’s design repetition, and therefore relevant

for its associate Viracochapampa, reveals a city that despite undulating topography
was created as perfect rectangles, divided into squares. The ingenious design is a
simple repetition of three basic design aspects used in different combinations to create
five different structures that are repeated throughout Pikillacta’s extensive housing
sector (larger than Cuzco). These repetitions of buildings are then arranged in lines
and squares so that it is difficult tell one area from another. This simple idea of
repetition would have made rapid construction and the use of local labour,
unaccustomed to using Wari-Tiwanaku building practices, far easier60. In Huari the
use of the trapezoidal building form is an adaptation to topography, but the same
system of basic designs in different combinations is used61.

Another fine example of the application of internal repetition in planning is the

citadels of Chan Chan. These citadels show repetition individually, internally, and
also amongst themselves. However as an urban design the citadels appear to have no
common pre-determined layout as the amount of space given to a particular form
changes with each citadel62. As there are no significant construction variations
between the citadels this then would indicate they were all built and occupied
simultaneously.63
58
Schaedel R. P., ‘Andean world-view: hierarchy or reciprocity, regulation or control?’, Current
Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 5, 1988, pp. 768-775: p. 773. It is probably for this space intensive and
compound design repetition use that Lumbreras (1974: p. 168) finds Pikillacta an ‘elaborate copy of
Huari.’
59
McEwan, G.F., ‘Excavaciones en Pikillacta un sitio Wari’, Dialogo Andina, no. 4, 1985, pp. 89-136.
60
McEwan (1985).
61
Spickard, L.E., ‘El análisis de la arquitectura de los sitios de Huari y Tiwanaku’, Dialogo Andina, no.
4, 1985, pp. 73-88.
62
Hardoy (1968): pp. 43, 45; (1973): pp. 365, 376, 368; Holstein, O., ‘Chan-Chan: capital of the great
Chimú’, The Geographical Review, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 36-61, 1927: p. 51. In all five citadels the ground
uses are repeated in varying degrees of intensity. Inside the streets met at right angles, but none were
more important than the others and there was no attempt to fit a grid pattern or to create vistas. Chan
Chan’s greatness was created by its scale and certain of its construction features, such as the repetitive
designs of streets, plazas, dwellings and immense walls.
63
Hardoy (1973): p. 376.

121
Figure 70. A ‘barrio’ or suburb of Pikillacta showing the even layout despite topographical difficulties
and its use of ingenious repetition in design (Source: McEwan, 1985, p. 99).

122
Figure 71. Diagram of the parts used in urban design repetition by the Wari-Tiwanaku at Pikillacta, as
seen in Fig. 68 above (Source: McEwan, 1985, p. 96).

The standardization of elements themselves and the interrelationships, as well as the

similar dimensions of the squares and chambers, provide further proof that Chan Chan
was not an urban innovation but a more mature and finished example of centuries of
empirical experimentation that grew out of the north coast tradition 64. The rectilinear
plan of the citadels was simple and utilitarian, following a layout common to all in its
repetition of the same features. This plan of repetition had an organizing element that
arranged rooms of equal size in single or parallel rows of up to eleven units, often
surrounding a small plaza65, the division of the sacred precincts from housing and the
use of reservoirs and open areas.

Many of the urban and architectural aspects seen in Chan Chan are incorporated into
the design of the principle cities of the north coast. Beside the capital Chan Chan,
there were four Chimú cities which were the largest on the north coast that have been
described as urban centres of the elite in consideration of the role they played in the
empire. North in the Jequetepeque valley was the cities of Pacatnamú and Farfán, in
the Leche valley was Purgatorio, and Apurlé in the small valley of Motupe. All

64
Hardoy (1968): p. 43.
65
Hardoy (1973): p. 379.

123
belong to the Chimú period, having been built between the thirteenth and the fifteenth
centuries AD66.

Figure 72. Plan of Chan Chan’s Rivero citadel, note the internal use of repetition in design and the
rows of rooms surrounding small plazas. Although streets meet at right-angles no grid system is
apparent. The third internal wall creates the division between the sacred part of the citadels and the
common dwellings (Source: Hardoy, 1968, Figure 46).

66
Hardoy (1973): pp. 386-7.

124
Figure 73. Plan of centre of Chan Chan – principle axis is 19° east of north in line with the summer
equinox. Citadels – 2). Gran Chimú; 3). Bandalier; 4). Uhle; 6). Tschudi; 8). Labyrinth.
Number 21). is the Huaca (pyramid) de Obispo. Note the similar rectilinear layout of the citadels. The
modern road can be seen running through the northern end of the ruins (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 367).

125
Figure 74. Plan of the Chan Chan citadel of Tschudi. It has used two rectangles in its construction. The
smaller divided from the larger is the sacred precinct where the ruling family resided and were also
buried (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 371)

Figure 75. Plan of Chan Chan citadel of Uhle – possibly built at different period than the others due to
its different alignment and layout (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 373).

126
Figure 76. Plan of Chan Chan citadel of Bandalier, which had a larger area designated for open space
(Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 373).

Figure 77. An old aerial photograph of ruins of Chan Chan citadel of Labyrinth, they are no longer in
such fine condition (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 374).

127
Tawantinsuyu use of repetition in planning is revealed by Hardoy when he argues that
Incahausi, Tambo Colorado, Ollantaytambo, and Huánuco Viejo are all
examples of the use of Inca urban concepts. In these cities, the repetition of
certain principles of architectural composition probably guided the overall
urban organization. Inca engineers leaned toward centralized groupings and
massive architecture of stone, or stone and mud if built in the highlands. We
see an obvious geometric arrangement of the structural groups and especially
of individual edifices. Buildings generally surrounded a small patio or plaza
and each of them was formed by a series of chambers or multiples of elements
which determined the proportions of the structural group. Multiple elements in
Inca construction were more regular and better proportioned than in Chan
Chan and other coastal cities. As these elements only appear in Inca urban
planning after the Empire’s first contacts with the coastal peoples, their origin
may be found in the Chimú influence rather than in the highlands.67

Figure 78. Plan of Incahausi in the Cañete Valley. Note the use of centralization of main buildings,
multiple chambers surrounding plazas and geometric arrangement despite difficult topography (Source:
Hardoy, 1973, p. 466).

67
Hardoy (1973): p. 480.

128
However these same regular multiple elements were earlier represented in Pikillacta
and Viracochapampa. In Pachacamac the repetition of plazas, walled enclosures and
pyramids creates architecture of spatial control, limiting the pilgrims’ approach to the
temples by making them pass through a series of plazas, in each of which they were
made to wait for a given fasting time of anything up to a year. Cajarmarquilla is a
dense collection of repetitious enclosures around its central religious structures,
creating alleyways of blind walls that repeatedly terminate in small plazas68.

Even those cities with no urban pre-planning, like Cajamarca prior to the
Tawantinsuyu domination, have repetition in housing design, plazas and often in
religious and administrative structures, such as platforms. Niles69 remarks on the
Tawantinsuyu highly developed use of symmetry and use of successive groups of
paired structures. While symmetry and balance characterize standard Tawantinsuyu
architecture to a degree, the style used in Huayna Capac’s reign expresses it more
than earlier periods.

The Wari-Tiwanaku Empire also initiated a type of repetition infrequently used. That
is the repetition of entire settlement’s design. The clearest example of this is the
administrative centres of Viracochapampa and Pikillacta, once thought to be
Tawantinsuyu but now known to be Wari-Tiwanaku70. These two settlements show
not only remarkable internal repetition of architectural elements forming a fantastic
organized cohesion displaying many aspects of the Andean tradition (central
placement of religious, administrative and elite structures and elite housing, internal
division by roads, plazas, patio houses, enclosures, etc.), but the entire design layout
is nearly identical. They are so similar that it appears that they are not only from
similar origins but either one has been copied from the other, or the same design plan
was used in both instances71. Chan Chan’s citadels may also be considered as part of
this type of large repetition, as the differences between them are much less than the
similarities.

The Tawantinsuyu Empire covering an enormous geographical range did not use a
systematic plan such as seen in Viracochapampa and Pikillacta, but needing to adapt
to different types of terrain, used instead a planning system in which the major
elements, temples, plazas, platforms and administration buildings were repeatedly
present and in a central position usually around a plaza, although their exact location
would change with the needs of the landscape72. In a similar fashion to Huari
difference of form from Tiwanaku due to topography, urban planning was used on

68
Hardoy (1973): p. 350.
69
Niles (1999): p. 291.
70
This is accepted by Rowe, Menzel, Lanning, Valcárcel and Hardoy. McEwan’s (1985) research
demonstrates that Pikillacta was unquestionably Wari-Tiwanaku and was definitely intensively
occupied for a considerable duration. It was also later occupied by the Tawantinsuyu as a military and
storage depot.
71
Hardoy (1973): p. 348.
72
Bonavía (1978ª): p. 407; (1978b): p. 200; Browman (1978b): p. 305; Niles (1999): p. 268.
Underlying some of the apparent dissimilarities of the architecture of Tawantinsuyu sites, are the
differences due to exploitation of different eco-zones and the concomitant adaptations to them. Not
only could they not maintain the basic features, but they were obliged to make substantial adaptations
in form to the point of creating new urban plans. These were completely unlike those of the rest of their
organization. In fact, they were so dissimilar that at first they were regarded as a phenomenon apart,
having nothing to do with Tawantinsuyu development.

129
several occasions toward the end of the Empire in a series of towns built by order of
the Inca for economic, administrative and political purposes. These examples include
Tambo Colorado, Ollantaytambo, Incahausi, Tombebamba, Huánuco Pampa and
others73.

Figure 79. Kings Group of elite housing at Machu Picchu. The topography did not allow room for the
use of patio-housing, but design repetition is clearly visible in the terrace groups (Source: Bingham,
1979, Figure 219).

Figure 80. Plan of Machu Picchu houses East of Ingenuity Group, clearly showing repetition of design
over terraced topography (Source: Bingham, 1979, p. 7).

73
Hardoy (1973): p. 464; Niles (1999): p. 264.

130
Figure 81. Kings group of housing, the regular layout is clearly visible in the reconstructed but roofless
ruins. This photograph is the central part of the above (Fig. 79) drawing (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Bonavía74 presents three reasons why the architects used elements representing basic
features of Tawantinsuyu social and political organization:
1. the short duration of the Inca period of expansion did not allow the exercise of
true planning in the field, but instead forced them to improvise.
2. many other problems that needed to be resolved during the conquest of the
Andean area required preferential attention; and
3. technical limitations and the topography in which they moved played an
important role.
However there was no guiding plan or specific location for these elements within the
cities.75

Many urban elements traditionally considered as Tawantinsuyu are in fact not so but
rather, have their antecedents in the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire, the Chimú Empire and
other diverse sources. Hardoy76 states that many of the Tawantinsuyu urban centres
have their roots in earlier periods, but that it is also true that many of them are
typically Tawantinsuyu and built under the Cuzco reign. For instance, the trapezoidal
shape of Tawantinsuyu town planning (which apparently does not exist in Wari-
Tiwanaku Period but which predominated over the square or rectangular under the
Tawantinsuyu) undoubtedly had its antecedents in the walled retreats of the north

74
Bonavía (1978a): p. 394.
75
Hyslop (1990: p. 191), also suggests that ‘[t]he lack of a general pattern throughout Tawantinsuyu
suggests that Inka concepts of settlement design concepts were more varied and complex than the one
used by the Spanish in the Americas who founded hundreds of towns laid out with one design principle
– the grid’.
76
Hardoy (1968): p. 46;

131
coast of the earlier Regional States Period and was probably copied by the
Tawantinsuyu77.

Bonavía78 explains that, contrary to accepted opinion the Tawantinsuyu were not in
fact great builders of cities. Where possible they would always use an existing city
from the groups they annexed, re-modelling the centre with a plan to suit their
political, economic, social and religious needs, but leaving the rest as it was. Most of
the capitals of the Regional States Period became, after alteration, the provincial
capitals of the Tawantinsuyu Empire. Where they did not use existing cities they
either built administration and religious settlements nearby or in strategic positions.
They only built cities, or settlements, when obliged to do so. Particularly to obtain
some form of control in strategic locations. These new centres were built by the
government under the guidance of imperial architects79.

Archaeologists working on the coast have noticed a lack of typically Tawantinsuyu

sites80. Tawantinsuyu settlements in the Virú and Casma valleys do not display any
change or construction of new buildings with respect to earlier periods, people
continued to live in the same places. This is explained by the fruition of their wise
policy of exercising control through traditional centres of prestige. Thus they
camouflaged the fact that Cuzco had also been annexed81.

Bonavía82, Hardoy83 and Harth-Terré84 note the close similarity from a town planning
point of view between Pikillacta, Viracochapampa and Huari in the Ayacucho central
sierra, Marca Huamachuco in the northern sierra, Cajamarquilla on the central coast,
and Llamas-Moxeque in the Casma valley, and argue that this proves that the
Tawantinsuyu had a formal copy of this older planimetry, which they employed with
very slight variations. One of these may have been the introduction of the trapezoidal
or triangular shape on the design of plazas (though as previously noted this does not
seem to be an original design of the Cuzceñans either). This is in contrast to the
precise quadrangular Wari-Tiwanaku designs of the Pikillacta and Viracochapampa,
which McCown85 agrees was copied one from the other, in part or completely.
Belaunde in Bonavía86 defines Viracochapampa as an example of ‘a rationalist
architecture of a planned city.’ However, Tombebamba is also noted for
Tawantinsuyu precision in rationalist planning and use of right angles87.

77
Bonavía (1978a): p. 398; (1978b): p. 190.
78
Bonavía (1978a): p. 393.
79
Bonavía (1978a: p. 393) cites Rowe, John H., ‘Inca culture at the time of the Spanish Conquest’, in
Julian H. Steward (ed.), Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 2, Smithsonian Institution Bulletin,
no. 143, Washington D.C., 1946, pp. 183- 330: p. 228.
80
Bonavía (1978a): p. 395.
81
Menzel (1959).
82
Bonavía (1978a): p. 396.
83
Hardoy, Jorge E., Ciudades precolombinas, Buenos Aires, Infinito, 1964.
84
Harth-Terré, Emilio, ‘Piki-Llacta. Ciudad de positos y bastimentos del Imperio Incaico’, Offprint of
the Revista del Museo e Instituto Arqueológico, Uni. del Cuzco, 1959.
85
McCowan, Theodore, ‘Pre-Incaic Huamachuco; survey and excavations in the northern sierra of
Peru’, Publications in American Archaeology, vol. 39, no. 4, Berkley & Los Angeles, Uni. of
California Press, 1945.
86
Bonavía (1978a): p. 396.
87
Niles (1999): p. 290.

132
Although Cuzco is often thought to be the ideal model of Tawantinsuyu urban
planning88, and it certainly shows a number of sophisticated planning aspects not used
elsewhere in the empire, such as the 12 districts and the four quarters of the Empire,
the Puma city design89 and the rigid access to the central and only truly urban part, it
was not a typical Tawantinsuyu city90. Bonavía91 notes that the Tawantinsuyu
probably did not think it the greatest of designs as nowhere else in the empire is its
design repeated. For instance, it is not used in Incahuasi, one of the few cities built
from plan, nor in the second Cuzco built to dominate the Guarco lands. Further to the
point, despite the use of the same place names for the new Cuzco and surrounding
hills as the original Cuzco, a superficial examination reveals nothing in common
between the two. However when they are reduced to their most fundamental elements,
that is to the types of buildings and features present, the two are identical with the
exception of their layout. However the central placement of the state, religious and
elite structures was also present in the second Cuzco92.

That the Tawantinsuyu used a system of elements rather than layout should not be
mistaken for their not being serious about planning. Indeed their seriousness may be
seen in their use of clay models to guide engineers in construction. These models
were used to show layout, structure types, design styles, and relative measurements
and provided a precise synthesis of the basic elements needed to direct construction,
such as overall size, placement of apertures, fences and walls and the shape of
towers.93 These models indicate the weight that Tawantinsuyu technicians gave to
planimetric and volumetric studies before undertaking a project.

Repetition of rectilinear principles and the inclusion of such standard urban features
as plazas and regular-shaped blocks of buildings are further proof that physical
planning existed among the Tawantinsuyu94. Cuzco in the time of Inca Pachacuti was
rebuilt from a master plan.95 Clay and stone models were used for the construction of
cities, settlements and fortresses alike96. Although clay representations of houses were
found in Tiwanaku and Mochica ceramics these were not used as planning models97.
The exception is a possible stone model of a temple made in Kantatayita, Tiwanaku
that represents the design of the Pumapunku temple98.

88
Bonavía (1978a): p. 396; Hardoy (1968).
89
Hyslop (1990: p. 51) remarks that the idea of the boundaries of Cuzco have been the subject of
individual interpretation, so that the Puma attachment to Cuzco may have been in a metaphorical sense,
and that this is still a point of discussion. However, this author in conversation with present day
Cuzceñans has noted that for them the Puma city design remains a solid truth.
90
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 219.
91
Bonavía (1978a): p. 397.
92
Bonavía (1978b): p. 189.
93
Hardoy (1973): pp. 437,456.
94
Hardoy (1973): p. 465.
95
Hyslop (1990): p. 27.
96
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 219; Niles (1999: p. 267), cites Betanzos as noting the first case of using a
clay model when Pachacutec dreamed the new design of Cuzco, and first modelled it in clay before
laying it out on the ground with string.
97
Hardoy (1973): p. 329. ‘A ceramic whistle described by Ponce Sangines (1961) has the form of a
house with a steeply gabled roof and a decorated façade’, from (Lumbreras 1974: p. 84).
98
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 63.

133
In early Colonial times Garcilaso de Vega, the mestizo Incan prince, records seeing a
model of Cuzco and its surrounds that was probably representative of the modelling
and scaling skills used under the Tawantinsuyu. He describes the occasion as follows:
I saw the model of Cuzco and part of the surrounding areas in clay. Pebbles
and sticks. It was done to scale with the squares, large and small; the streets
broad and narrow; the districts and houses, even the most obscure; and the
streams that flow through the city, marvellously executed. The countryside
with high hills and low, flats and ravines, rivers and streams with their twists
and turns were all wonderfully rendered, and the best cosmographer in the
world could not have done it better.99
Garcilaso also claims that the Tawantinsuyu were capable of modelling entire
geographical regions.100

Figure 82. Tawantinsuyu stone model of gate and tower (Source: Niles, 1999, Figure 9-13)

Figure 83. Tawantinsuyu stone model of house (Source: Niles, 1999, Figure 9-18).

99
Garcilaso (BK 2, chapter 26, 1987, p. 124) translated and quoted in Hyslop (1990): p. 27.
100
Hyslop (1990): p. 27.

134
Figure 84 Mochica ceramic representation of an elite dwelling or palace (Source: Davies, 1997, p.
134)101.

Figure 85. 90mm models of houses – Tiwanaku Archaic Phase (Source: Ponce, 1976, p. 205)102.

101
Davies, N., ‘The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru’, London, Penguin, 1997.
102
Ponce Sanginés, C., Tiwanaku: Espacio, Tiempo y Cultura, 3rd edición, La Paz, Ediciones
Pumapunku, 1976.

135
Figure 86. Ceramic Tawantinsuyu model of Kancha housing complex (Source: Readers Digest, 1994,
p. 60)103.

Figure 87. Stone carved Tiwanaku model of Pumapunku pyramid, found in Kantatayita at Tiwanaku
(Source: Photo by L. Hasluck, 2003).

Figure 88. Model of Chan Chan ceremony in one of the citadel plazas, on display in the Trujillo
Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

103
Readers Digest, Life Among the Incas, London, The Reader Digest Association Ltd., 1994.

136
Figure 89. A ceramic pot modelled on a Chan Chan house, from Chan Chan Site Museum display
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 90. Chan Chan ceramic depicting dwelling, from Chan Chan Site Museum (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

137
Figure 91. Wari ceramic depicting housing, from Huari Site Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 92. Architectonic structure with platforms, stairs and buildings. Note the painted decoration on
the front ‘wall’ (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p. 75).104

104
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004.

138
Figure 93. A Paracas Cavernas ceramic pot representing a fortified village from the Formative Period
(Source: Cáceres, 2004, p. 56).

Figure 94. Modern day use of a geographical model to depict community boundaries, a yearly event in
the Alti Plano, Bolivia (Source L.Hasluck, 2003).

139
6.4 Religious Complexes
The religious complexes that make up an important and central part of urban design in
the Andean urban planning tradition begin their own design tradition with the
individual ceremonial centres used to serve the religious and political needs of the
agglutinated populations before the widespread growth of urbanism. Once urbanism
increased, ceremonial centres lost much of their importance. The centre of religious
activity was then relocated into urban areas, making cities the complete focus of
religious and political power. It should be noted that Pachacamac, and probably
Tiwanaku, continued to fulfill the role of a ceremonial centre for pilgrimages on an
Andean wide basis.

Although the design tradition for ceremonial centres, accompanied by agglutinated

villages, begins before urbanism becomes extensive, the analysis in this investigation
starts with the beginning of urbanism and its central religious complexes. Ceremonial
centres will only be referred to of necessity where they have obviously played a part
in influencing the design of an urban religious complex.

The first religious complexes, surrounded by urban habitation, appeared in the Supe
valley coastal plain. Caral is the first planned instance of a religious complex being
constructed as part of a pre-conceived idea to service an attached pre-planned urban
conglomeration. In Caral there was represented all those urban designs, and some
new, that were to be found in the other contemporary settlements of the Supe
valley,105 such as the religious complex composed of monumental architecture of
single and attached structures that will remain the basis of religious complex design
until the demise of the Tawantinsuyu.

On visiting Caral it became apparent that the religious complex, constructed of eight
stone pyramids surrounding, or in relation with, the central plaza shows one of the
finest uses of formal spatial relations of public buildings and area in South America,
even though it was the first planned. The frontage of each pyramid, both near and at
some distance, is designed so as to make the central plaza the main focus and to
always be directly facing at least one other pyramid. The inwardly central focus of the
design must have given the plaza and the complex superb physical recognition of the
importance of the central state authority.

There were in Caral, and other centres of the Supe valley, stepped pyramids,
platforms, plazas, semi-subterranean circular plazas and amphitheatres. In Llamas-
Moxeque, although the designs of the two monumental temples differ from those of
Caral, these were also stepped pyramids attached to a central plaza across which they
faced each other. Iconography in friezes and paintings occurs in both places. The
religious complex of Tiwanaku, arguably the most important and influential in the
pre-history of the Americas, also has these basic elements in common with its coastal
forebears. Although its iconography is heavily influenced by the Chavín religion, the
design of its religious architecture is clearly associated with the earlier ideas of the
Supe and Casma valleys, as well as Chavín de Huantar and Kotosh in that it too uses
stepped pyramids, sunken and public plazas, but also a new idea of enclosures.

105
Shady, Doloriers, Montesinos & Casas (2000): p. 21.

140
On the coast in the post-Chavín period, huacas, or adobe stepped pyramids, came to
be the predominant monumental religious structure in ceremonial centres. Even with
the growth in urbanism during the Wari-Tiwanaku domination, the huaca continued
its importance as a coastal religious form finding itself located in the centre of the
new urban setting. Galindo is an exception to this generalization due to the very small
size of its huacas, or platforms, and in not repeating their public ceremonial role106.
The huaca plays an important role as a religious complex in conjunction with plazas
and enclosures as seen in two leading urban centres, Pachacamac and Pampas Grande.
On the south coast monumental architecture was never developed, possibly due to a
lack of population for assembling a large public workforce (although the impressive
Nazca lines or the ceremonial centre of Cahuachi107 could perhaps be considered an
expression of monumental architecture).

Figure 95. Modern model of Pachacamac’s huaca Temple of the Sun after Tawantinsuyu
remodelisation (Source: Ravines, no year given, p. 90)108.

106
Bawden (1978): p. 21.
107
Cahuachi near Nazca is the largest adobe ceremonial centre in the world. However the huacas were
made from a natural base of the hills, then covered with adobe. Orefici, G. & Drusini, A., Nasca:
Hipótesis y evidencias de su desarrollo cultural, vol. 2 Documentos y Investigaciónes, Lima, Centro
Italiano Studi E Ricerche Archeologiche Precolombiane, 2003.
108
Ravines, R., Pachacamac, Lima, Editorial Los Pinos E.I.R.L., (no year given).

141
Figure 96. Pachacamac’s huaca Temple of the Sun as it appears today (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Fifure 97. A Luis Ccosi Salas sketch of the reconstruction of the Sun Temple at Pachacamac (Source:
Koiffman Doig, 1973, p. 446, fig. 728).

142
Figure 98. A ramped adobe huaca pyramid at Pachacamac (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 99. The plan of the above ramped pyramid with its sacred plaza in front, drawn by Harth-terré
(Source: Koiffman Doig, 1973, p. 447, fig. 734).

Figure 100. The Huaca de la Luna, at Moche, north coast Peru, with grand ramp entrance (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

143
With the advent of the Tawantinsuyu Empire the tradition of religious complexes
continues, although Cuzco displays no monumental architecture109, nor the stepped
pyramids as they were used elsewhere in the Empire (as noted above Cuzco is not the
prime example of Tawantinsuyu urban planning). Perhaps Cuzco shows no
monumental architecture because on the hilltop above lay the megalithic fortress of
Sacsawaman which, although not a pyramid, used a stepped or terraced design and
was massive and remarkable in its singular monumental design, towering over Cuzco.
To attempt to equal it in Cuzco’s centre would have meant to build in its shadow. In
Pachacamac they reconstructed the huaca Temple of the Sun to grander proportions,
and also erected the cut stone Temple of the Mamacuna. In other provincial capitals
Pyramids of the Sun were imposed upon the urban centres.

Figure 101. The grand stepped temple of Sacsawaman sits above Cuzco behind (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

Figure 102. Sacsawaman is still used a place of religious gathering today, as can be seen in this picture
of the Intiraymi ceremony held in the central plaza of the complex (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

109
Hardoy (1973): p. 450.

144
Figure 103. Plan of Huaca de los Reyes an early ceremonial centre, with its consecutive diminishing
plazas of I, II, III. Note also its East/ West orientation. The river bank edge is marked in the bottom of
the plan (Source: Pozorski, 1980, p. 102).

Figure 104. A reconstruction model of Huaca de los Reyes, orientated to match the above plan (Figure
103). The three different levels of plaza, ending in the restricted access platform mound can easily be
seen (Source: Trujillo Museum, photo. L.Hasluck, 2004).

145
The construction of the major temples, and therefore loci of governmental and
religious control in the centre of the cities was the first part of the deliberate
manipulation of population through controlling physical access to the religious
complex. This was meant to maintain elite control of the human relations with the
supernatural, a control essential for the dominant power structure110. This idea of
control can first be seen in the design of ceremonial centres prior to widespread
urbanism, such as Huaca de los Reyes, in the Moche valley (≈1200 BC), which uses a
system of three consecutive plazas, decreasing in size, but increasing in sanctity to
control public access to inner areas of greater sacredness111.

The plan for Caral made the central sector of the city the location of the major
religious edifices and therefore the central point of its theocratic power. Before this, in
the first phases of monumental construction, and again during the Chavín epoch in
Middle Formative Period, these structures were located at a distance from the
settlements and each religious centre was shared by a region of settlements, as was the
labour for their construction and maintenance. By locating the monuments at the heart
of the urban development Caral assured that in the future the base of its political and
religious power would be urban-focused rather than rural, and inclusive of urban
society, outlook and needs. In that way the urban world would become the focus of
attention and expression of the culture, point of economic exchange, and control over
the regional population. The urban focus of the society would maintain social
differentiation and specialization, which in turn would maintain the basic social
structures needed for urbanism and centralized politics and administration.

Llamas-Moxeque repeated this idea, establishing a city in which the religious

complex resided at the centre as the societal focus. This included the attachment of
the administrative functions of the government. Later during the Wari-Tiwanaku
Period, Pachacamac, although already settled adopted a plan that placed religious
buildings and plazas as the central focal point of its sacred city centre. This is repeated
by the late reformed Mochica, in Galindo and Pampas Grande and in a less formal
way by the Chimú culture at Chan Chan and Purgatorio. As previously noted,
Mochica religious centres did not take on a truly urban form until placed under the
socio-political stresses of environmental and social collapse that caused a change in
their traditions, and the adoption of Wari-Tiwanaku design ideas. The planning of the
Mochica’s southern frontier provincial city Galindo, although placing the religious
structure and spaces in a central position, a new walled enclosure design for religious
areas rather than the traditional huacas reflected the new political order and its need to
tightly control its population, while the new capital of Pampas Grande continued to
display its traditional aspects of control112.

Chan Chan, planned in separate citadels, never developed the type of monumental
planning that was such a strong part of Andean tradition, and yet its huacas remained
in a central but scattered position. At the same time, religious areas and buildings also
held a central position within the citadels113. The Regional States Period generally

110
Browman (1978b): pp. 328, 344.
111
Pozorski, T., ‘The early horizon sight of Huaca de los Reyes: societal implications’, American
Antiquity, vol. 45, no. 1, 1980, pp. 100-110.
112
Bawden (1982; 1996).
113
Hardoy (1973): pp. 364-5. Hardoy (1973: p. 364) states that Chan Chan’s physical characteristics
were different from other earlier pre-Columbian cities. Instead of the centre of the city being marked by

146
saw the maintenance of urban design and construction begun during the Wari-
Tiwanaku Period, with a growth in the size of the urban populations.

This aspect of tradition is clearly demonstrated in Tiwanaku with the central location
of Akapana and Pumapunku pyramids. The central placement of a temple complex
became a characteristic feature of the Tiwanaku mitmaequna, which were part of their
project of cultural domination, and can be seen in such satellite towns as Pukuro-uyu,
Mocachi, Chiripa, Simillake, Wankini, Santiago de Machaca, and others.114 The elite
residential and ceremonial centre of Pikillacata, arranged around the central
administrative and religious structures, is described by McEwan as
…el sitio Pikillacta representa un producto muy complejo de una sociedad
bien orginazada. Fue construido probablemente como residencia de elites
políticas y religiosas, quienes administraban una parte de imperio Wari
asentada en la sierra sur, y para concentrar en un lugar las funciones políticas
y económicas con una población residente para centralizar esta administración
provincial.115
This arrangement was also present in El Purgatorio, Manchan, Pachacamac,
Cajamarquilla, and Cajamarca, to name a few.

Cuzco not only had in its centre the Koricancha Temple of the Sun, but was also
considered the sacred centre of the Empire. In the Tawantinsuyu provincial capitals,
which were usually pre-existing cities, despite the fact that other structures had to be
removed, the Temples of the Sun were built in their centres, marking the dominance
of the Tawantinsuyu Empire. Such was the force of the Andean tradition that the
central location of the religious structures signified the dominating power of the
government and of the gods. For thousands of years the central position of religion
dominated the urban culture, both in layout and power structure.

a building or a group of buildings, the size and location of which indicated the degree of dominion of
that particular religion or minority group held over the population, Chan Chan’s central features are the
massive walls of the various citadels, the only features larger are the huaca pyramids (for burial and
ceremonial uses) and they are distributed in different locations over the central area but they do not
mark the city centre, nor impose their authority over the surrounding area.
114
Browman (1978b): pp. 328, 337, 344; Ponce (1972): pp. 11, 12.
115
McEwan (1985): p. 134. …the site of Pikillacta represented the product of a very complex and well
organised society. It was probably constructed for the residences of political and religious elites, who
administered one part of the Wari Empire seated in the southern mountains, and to concentrate in one
place the political and economic functions with a resident population to centralize the provincial
administration (translation by L.Hasluck).

147
Figures 105. Above and Below (Fig. 106), these photos demonstrate the central position of the Machu
Picchu Temple of the Sun which was attached to the central plaza and near the elite housing. Access
was restrained by the small staircase entrance to the peak which overlooked the city and surrounds. It
was visible from most areas of the city (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 106. The centrally located Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu, attached to the plaza and elite
housing (Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

148
Fugure 107. These three photos of the temple pyramids at La Centilnela demonstrate the central
position that they held. The Catholic church recognised the importance of culturally controlling such
religious sites as can be seen by the maintenance of a cross upon the largest of the pyramids which is
still used for certain indigenous ceremonies (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

149
Figure 108. Above and Below, the Temple of the Sun at Písac not only held the central position in the
city, but also the highest vantage point, mixing the symbolic position of central and highest even more
effectively than Andean pyramids (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 109. The small peak in the background was used for gold smelting, keeping a main economic
area of ideological production close to the ruling elite. The valley winds helped to raise the temperature
of the furnace. The temple also acted as an astronomical observatory (Source: L. Hasluck, 2001)

150
Figure 110. Two of the main temples, Kalassasaya and the Semi-subterranean temples located in the
centre of Tiwanaku (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003

Figure 111. The massive Temple of the Sun at Pachacamac held an obviously dominating position in
the city centre, as did the previous Old Temple of the Sun situated in the foreground (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

151
6.5 Urban Division
The agglutinated settlements were a haphazard collection of dwellings that had grown
spontaneously over time and as such were not clearly demarcated. However Andean
urbanism did not come into existence until there was a strong centralized theocratical
government, social stratification, work specialization and a sense of planning. In the
urban society, and in urban planning and design, social division was strongly
physically represented.

In Caral the societal divisions of this early urbanism were clearly present in the city
plan. The building of Caral as a capital showed a clear intention of hierarchical
division of the urbanising society, so that contemporaneous cities were visibly divided
into the most to least important by the amount effort put into the construction of
public structures, both religious and administrative. The next most important cities
were also located closest to the new capital; Pueblo Nuevo, Miraya, Era de Pando and
Lurihausi116. Llamas-Moxeque is also the capital of a system of satellite towns clearly
in a hierarchical order, with nearby Taukachi-Konkan of a similar but lesser design117.

In the Salinar to the late Mochica phase (Middle to Upper Formative Period) in the
Moche and Virú valleys this hierarchy of settlements represented a step towards the
social stratification needed for urbanism118, while in the earlier Supe and Casma
valleys phase (Late Archaic – Early Formative Periods) the already existing urbanism,
social stratification and settlement hierarchy gave rise to the first expression of a
capital city, and the strong governmental and cultural centralization that it
represented119. However the creation of a capital city as the apex of settlement
hierarchy and the supreme expression of social stratification and the importance and
control of the theocratic state also contained these societal divisions represented in the
pre-planned design. This is exactly the case in the earliest pre-planned capitals of
Caral and Llamas-Moxeque. The importance of the location of the cities and of the
religious complex within them has been discussed previously. However other
buildings such as administrative and dwellings also express by their location and
relationship to the central religious complex the societal divisions, power
relationships and the control of the elite ruling class120.

Caral begins a planning idea that is continued in Llamas-Moxeque121, and

foreshadowed the societies to come in later post-Chavín times122. The elite housing
and administrative buildings are always located as close as possible to the central
religious complex and plaza, which divided the city into upper elite and lower

116
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000): fig.1. The criteria of most important are based on the
‘inversion of force of work’ as explained in Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000): p. 20.
117
Pozorski & Pozorski (1998): pp. 87, 93; Pozorski, T., Pozorski, S., ‘El desarrollo de la sociedad
compleja en el valle de Casma’, Revista de Ciencias Sociales: Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima,
Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 79-98: p. 87.
118
Pozorski (1980).
119
Pozorski & Pozorski (1998); (2000); Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000): pp. 31- 2;
Shady, Haas & Creamer (2001): p. 10.
120
Pozorski & Pozorski (2000); Shady (2000).
121
Llamas-Moxeque being the capital of a culture that also used the same planning design for its
satellite centres such as Taukachi-Konkan.
122
Burger, R.L., Chavin and the origins of Andean civilization, London, Thames and Hudson, 1992: p.
229.

152
workers housing areas123. These same ideas were used in Tiwanaku and spread by the
Wari-Tiwanaku Empire124, adopted in extreme measure by the late Mochica and
Chimú, and became the base directive of the Tawantinsuyu pre-planning and re-
modelling of cities125.

A striking aspect when walking in Caral is that the unlike later cities that used internal
walls to enforce social division, Caral is divided socially by the physical terrain into
upper elite and lower workers. Interestingly this division is enhanced by a wide dry
stream bed or corridor which lies as a separator between the two halves of the city, the
upper wall of which is formed by the edge of plaza of the religious complex,

This close relationship between the administrative buildings and elite housing
represented their social and political relationship to the ideological power of the state
and control of access. This idea of control, as previously noted, began with control of
access to sanctified areas of ceremonial centres126 and continued in the same form
with access to sanctified areas of the urban religious complexes, and extended further
to the control of access to the central elite housing and administrative district in
cities127.

Elite housing in Caral was built beside the main pyramid and contained private
passages and stairways that led directly to the sacred and restricted heart of the
pyramid allowing secrete passage to and from the sacred hearth and the houses of the
elite. The elite’s housing is identified not only by its proximity, but by its design with
a frontal patio, better construction and materials, and by the greater use of all food
resources as identified in household remains. The position of the houses is also on the
better terrain128.

The proximity of the elite housing to the administration buildings shows the elite’s
concern to maintain close control and surveillance over both the religious and
economic functions and resources of the state. It also shows that the elite was
responsible for the acquisition, storage, and distribution of valued commodities, as
Bawden129 has shown the extreme intent of this planned relationship at Galindo,
where storage structures were built on a protective hillside to which access could only
be gained from the religious complex and elite housing. The centre of Caral was then
primarily the domain of the ruling families. However in front of the pyramid was a
public plaza with large public avenues providing access for the general public for
religious and/or state occasions130. It was important for the cohesion of the society

123
Pozorski & Pozorski (2000): pp. 84 -5; Shady (2001); Shady, R., ‘Caral-Supe y la costa norcentral
del Perú’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización
andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura,
Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003c, pp. 139- 146: p. 140.
124
Huidobro Bellido, J., Tiwanaku y los Orígenes del Cuzco, La Paz, Editorial Gramma Impresión,
1993: p. 39; Huidobro Bellido, J., El Estado despótico de Tiwanaku, La Paz, Centro de Investigaciones
Etnoarqueologicas, 1994: p. 9.
125
Huidobro (1993): p. 39.
126
Pozorski (1980)
127
Bawden, G., ‘Life in the pre-Columbian town of Galindo’, Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, vol. 49, no. 3, 1978, pp. 16-23: p. 17.
128
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000): p. 25; Shady, Haas & Creamer (2001): p. 27.
129
Bawden (1978): p. 17; (1996): p. 85.
130
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000); Shady (2001).

153
that the general population also retained a feeling of connection to the religious,
political and ideological centre of the state and society. The short lifespan of Galindo
was later to show the importance of maintaining this connection131.

Figure 112. Elite housing at Supe Caral built beside one of the main pyramids in the central plaza
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

In Caral the housing of the artisan and agricultural classes was located below the
central elite district, using the terrain of rougher and lesser quality. Both the design of
the elite and worker housing underwent changes over time, usually with the addition
of internal divisions132, representing a growth in population density and concerns for
individual privacy, which is a common trait with increasing urbanism. The housing of
the workers was located so as to give ease of access to the terrain where they worked,
and artisans to their periphery workshops, while district streets formed by the array of
housing were connected to the centre by large pre-planned avenues, possibly also
used for public ceremonies.

This form of societal control through the division of urban areas was continued in
Llamas-Moxeque with a different design. Here the central plaza in a walled enclosure
was faced by the two pyramids. Elite housing was not only built in the area closest
and higher on the hills slope, but also directly upon the pyramids, along with
administrative and storage buildings133. This replicates the manner in which the
workers’ housing in Caral stands below the central elite district. However there
appears not to be the large avenues for public access, and the public access may have
been restricted to ceremonial and state gatherings only. The relatively large size of the
plaza does, however, indicate use for public assembly. This plan is similarly repeated
in nearby Taukachi-Konkan.

131
Bawden (1996): p. 288.
132
Shady, Doloerier, Montesinos & Casas (2000); Shady (2001),
133
Pozorski & Pozorski (1998): pp. 88 - 89.

154
Figure 113. On the left side of this road was lower Caral, the area where worker housing was
predominant, on the right the religious complex, plaza and elite housing. The steam bed on which this
tourist road was built also formed a natural division between the upper and lower parts of the city
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Few remains of housing exist in Tiwanaku, but there are remains of stone dwellings
located both close to and directly upon the pyramids134. The two stone palaces of
Kheri-kala and Putuni135 are also located nearby by the temples and pyramids, and
built around a central patio. There also existed large avenues for easy public access to
the religious complex136. The fact that Wari-Tiwanaku houses its elite and
administration in the position of central control means that in all probability the rest of
the Tiwanaku elite housing was also located centrally137.

Like its coastal predecessors in the Supe and Casma valleys, the Tiwanaku culture
used and formalised a dualist or moity system, known as mitad, meaning a division
into two sectors. This was also used by the Tawantinsuyu where this system divided
the city and its residents, by duality and hierarchy, into an upper and lower city,
creating separate areas of social hierarchy. The upper city was reserved for the elite
while the lower city was for the workers and foreigners138. Ponce in Huidobro is cited
as stating
En Tiwanaku estaba vigente la organización social dualista, con la division de
dos mitades, por el seccionamiento del ámbito urbano, con las siguientes

134
Alconini Mujica, S., Rito, símbolo e historia en la pirámide de Akapana, Tiwanaku: un análisis de
cerámica ceremonial prehispánica, La Paz, Editorial Acción, 1995.
135
Huidobro (1994): p. 9.
136
Hardoy (1973): p. 336; Ponce (1972).
137
Hardoy (1973): pp. 338, 343, 348; Ibarra Grasso, D., De Mesa, J. & Gisbert, T., ‘Reconstruccion de
Taypicala (Tiahuanaco)’, Cuadernos Americanos, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 149-176: p. 160; Spickard (1985).
This is demonstrated in the plans of Viracochapampa, Pikillacta and Huari.
138
Huidoboro (1993): p. 39; Albarracin Jordan, J., Tiwanaku - arqueologia regional y dinamica
segmentaria, Bolivia, Plural Editors, 1996: p. 83.

155
 parcialidades y de modo similar a lo que aconteció en el ulterior Cuzco
inkaico. Se deduce por la impugnable existencia de una correlación
direccional SO-NE dentro del área citadina, emergente de un eje de 45º con
respecto al norte geográfico entre los templos terraplenados de Kalasasaya y
Pumapunku, de suerte que el uno y otro habrían pertenecido a cada mitad
elucidada.139

Further, the Tiwanaku society made a differentiation between the people who dealt
with the relations between gods and men, and those who were consumers and
organizers of the production and economy utilized for the religious elite, which also
helped to maintain the hierarchy of repression. The exporters of the religious ideology
used the iconographic symbols of the terrain and of the power of their gods in a
despotic manner140. Baudin states that in Tawantinsuyu ‘[t]his dualism extended to all
fields without exception, material as well as spiritual’.141

Figure 114. The walls at Huari clearly show the idea of internal division of the city into separate areas
and control of access. The size of the wall for internal division are extremely large since they do not
serve a military function (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

139
Huidobro (1993): p. 39. In Tiwanaku there was a valid socially dual organization, with the division
into two mitades, for the sectioning of the urban landscape, with these following biases and the manner
similar to the occurrence in the subsequent Inca Cuzco. It is possible to deduce the incontestable
existence of a directional correlation SW-NE within the city area, appearing as an axis of 45 degrees
with respect to the northern geography between the raised temples of Kalasasaya and Pumapunku, by
destiny the one and other are made to belong to each mitad mentioned (translation L.Hasluck).
140
Huidobro (1994): p. 10.
141
Baudin, L., Daily Life of the Incas, New York, Dover Publishing Inc., Original Publication 1961c,
unabridged Dover Ed. 2003: p. 50.

156
Figure 115. The upper dividing wall of Huari city that separated the elite area on the front hillside from
the worker and artisan area behind (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 116. Internal wall dividing the elite Huari residences from other parts of the city (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

157
Figure 117. Internal wall divisions in the Huari city centre, forming streets and plazas and private and
public buildings, some of up to three storeys high (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 118. This wall divided the main Huari religious sector from the rest of the city. The main part of
the city lies on the hill slope behind (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

158
The use of large avenues to create a further divisive effect probably began in
Tiwanaku and was again used by the Wari-Tiwanaku in cities such as Pachacamac
and in Pikillacta and Viracochapampa142. Lumbreras143 describes how Pikillacta was
divided into sectors or ‘barrios’ surrounded by walls up to 10m high, and how the
residential areas contained, straight, long and narrow streets and several large plazas
surrounded by elite houses and administration. Access and internal movement was so
strictly controlled that there are few entrances and movement within the city must
have been difficult, with direction-finding made even harder by the monotonous
repetition of design. 144

Pachacamac and Tiwanaku were the two leading religious cities and the avenues
appear not to divide the housing suburbs, as would later be the case in Cuzco. The
avenues divided only the central elite district into quarters in which different temples
and pyramids stood. In Pachacamac the sacred city was constructed of seven major
parts which included stepped pyramids, ramped pyramids, courtyards and plazas,
lagoon, residential sector, cemetery and the stone Temple of Mamacuna.

Figure 119. The centre of Pachacamac was a maze of divisions based around the cross roads of the
north-south and east-west thoroughfares. In the centre of this photo can be seen the wall that divided
the centre of the city with the elite and religious housing and structures from the workers barrios, which
were located below the present day village and to the left of it in the sandy desert (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

142
Hardoy (1973): p. 348; Kauffmann (1973): Figure 732; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168.
143
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 168.
144
McEwan (1985); Spickard (1985): p. 79.

159
Figure 120. This model of the centre of Pachacamac displaying the probable reconstruction of the
major buildings, avenues and plazas in the pre-colonial period clearly demonstrates the way the area
was divided by avenues and plazas and controlled access to various areas. The plaza ‘Pilgrims Square’
(no. 6 in Fig. 123) with the two gazebo rows in its centre – upper left (Fig. 121as present) is where
pilgrims were waited fasting from months to a year as they waited to visit the Sun Temple above. The
use of high internal walls managed the pedestrian flow, from Pachacamac Site Museum. The street in
the centre joined the religious complex with the outside workers housing (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

160
Figure 121. The main plaza for pilgrims at Pachacamac that was divided from the rest of the city
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 122. The centre of Pachacamac, on the right can be seen one of the internal dividing walls of the
religious centre (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

161
Figure 123. Plan of the city of Pachacamac 1). Sun Temple; 2). Temple of the Moon (Mamacona); 3).
Pachamama Temple; 4). Urpihuachac Temple; 5). Mamaconas (convent) of the Pachacamac Temple;
6). Pilgrim’s square; 7). Urpihuachac Lagoon; 8). Pyramid with ramp; 9). Site Museum 10). Palace
Tauri Chumbi; 11). House of the Quipu; 12). The First Temple (adobe); 13). Elite Resedencial Section;
Also note the central area divided by the major avenues. The general housing section of which nothing
remains to be seen is the blank area at the bottom of the map, outside of the city centre walls (Source:
Kauffman, 1973, p. 447).

162
Figure 124. A possible reconstruction of Tiwanaku – divided into quarters housing the three different
temple complexes; 1). Akapana pyramid; 2). Kalasasaya temple; 3). Semi-subterranean temple 4).
Palace; 5). Pumapunku pyramid; 6). Puerta de la Luna temple platform. Common housing was located
in the area without a number. Lake Titicaca lies further in the background. (Source: Ibarra, Mesa &
Gisbert, 1955, p. 165)145.

Pachacamac’s central elite district, after the Wari-Tiwanaku, and later increased by
the Ichma and Tawantinsuyu146, was enclosed by a large wall with a walkway147
which served to restrict general access to the city centre. Its internal enclosures of
temples and plazas formed a complex system of controlled access. The internal design
of the walled city was such that access to the seven different parts of the city and
temple complexes was under the strictest control and designed in a series of
courtyards, plazas and thoroughfares to supervise all movement. This same design
also controlled access to water within the city, which used a complex system of
reservoirs and canals fed from the Lurin river. The workers housing district was
located outside of the walls to the north, with little direct access to water, except the
ocean for fishing. However nothing of it remains today148.

Bawden comments on the generally rigid residential access maintained by the late
Moche:
In the Mochican urban centres the residential access was strictly controlled
and limited mainly to administrators and the artisans who created the brilliant
inventory of elite items now regarded as Moche art, for this they can be
regarded as specialized symbolic centres of ceremony and power. These were

145
Ibarra Grasso, D., De Mesa, J. & Gisbert, T, ‘Reconstruccion de Taypicala (Tiahuanaco)’,
Cuadernos Americanos, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 149-176.
146
Hyslop (1990): p. 153.
147
There is no evidence to suggest that the wall served a military defensive role.
148
Gisbert, T., ‘Pachacamac y los dioses del Callao’, Reunión Anual de Etnología 1990, La Paz,
MUSEF: Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, 1990, pp. 13- 30: p. 20.

163
 occupied by large variegated populations clustered around the most prominent
structures.149

By contrast Galindo was built as a city in two parts and incorporates several quite
distinct topographical areas, each naturally segregated from the others. The lower
plains district was divided from the upper hillside district by a massive wall and
parallel moat allowing limited access from the one to the other. The elite lived in the
lower plains (Fig. 121, Plain A1, A2, B) while the labourers lived on the difficult
slopes (Hillside A). 150 The city was further divided internally into walled compounds
while the religious structures, now platforms rather than true huacas151, were in a
separate walled compound in the elite plains district on the low slopes (Plain A1, B)
where they were visible from the residential area, as were the areas for communal
storage, administration and elite artisans.

In a complete break from Moche and coastal tradition, the huacas, where ceremonies
could be publicly viewed, were replaced by ceremonial plazas (cercaduras), protected
by high walls with limited access where the ceremonies were made in privacy for the
elite, whose houses were either attached or nearby for private access.152 All this serves
to represent on the ground the social differentiation and internal tension of a
politically unstable state, with a weak centralized government, the rising importance
of secular authority over sacred and weak ideological control over the population.
They were probably unable to force or coerce a large workforce for monumental
constructions153.

In all Mochica sites the most elaborate residential structures, the homes of the rulers,
were located on or adjacent to the great platforms and compounds that symbolized
supreme state authority. Some of these elite houses were associated with facilities
used for bulk storage and corrals where llamas were kept, signifying that the
occupants controlled a portion of the communities economic resources and were
responsible for the acquisition, storage and distribution of valued commodities154. In
contrast the working classes were permitted access only to the plains workshops for
the purposes of labouring.155

149
Bawden (1996): pp. 80, 81.
150
Bawden (1978: p. 21) sees close similarities between the district of poor housing in Galindo, where
all water and food must be carried up the steep slope to crude housing, and the modern shanty towns of
South America.
151
Bawden (1982: p. 295) states that the body of the huaca, so massive at Huaca del Sol in Moche, has,
in the Galindo structure, shrunk to a bare minimum necessary to achieve the shape required by this
architectural form, and largely reconstitutes the re-modelling of the natural topography into a raised
platform.
152
Bawden (1990); (1982).
153
Bawden (1978): pp. 17, 18, 21; (1982): p. 300; (1996): pp. 85, 86, 288.
154
Bawden (1978): pp. 18, 21; (1982): pp. 299- 300, 314; (1996): pp. 85- 86).
155
Bawden (1982).

164
Figure 125. The wall at Galindo that internally divided the city between the elite on the lower flats and
the workers on the hillside above (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 126. Here the flats where the elite of Galindo lived can be seen divided from the hillside
(hillside A on the map, figure 127) above where the workers lived by the Outwash Channel (and moat)
and the wall above it (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

165
Figure 127. Site map of Galindo. Note the walled division of the city with common housing on
Hillside A separated from the elite, administrative and storage areas. Careful use has been made of the
natural features to reinforce societal divisions. Storage areas are approachable on their protective
hillsides only from the elite area (Source: Bawden, 1982, p. 291).

166
Figure 128. Cercadura or religious compound with low platform built in place of huacas at Galindo.
The enclosure is the wari-Tiwanaku design influence (Source: Bawden, 1982, p. 298).

The new and unstable state with its ideological and increasingly secular basis that was
different in some ways from the older Andean traditions, made a complete separation
of the elite from the working classes. This was manifest in the physical design of the
city and ideologically by the restriction of public access to the religious foundation,
the cercaduras, enclosed ceremonial platforms and plazas. This situation of severity
was not repeated elsewhere and Galindo did not survive for long - only two centuries.
In Pampas Grande, formed at the same time as Galindo, the usual use of a central
monumental religious complex and attached elite and administrative buildings is seen.
There was no break from the tradition of public access to the religious complex as
witnessed by the enormous Huaca Grande a testament to their ability to raise a large
workforce and maintain control over the population156.

156
Bawden (1978): pp. 17- 8; (1996): p. 294- 6. Bawden (1996: pp. 291- 3) states further that,
‘[a]lthough at first glance the magnitude of change in the northern valley of Lambayeque appears to
have matched the Moche Valley, deeper examination reveals a substantial degree of continuity. The
city of Pampa Grande, like Galindo, was a large urban settlement established over a short period of
time at the neck of its valley without any significant local antecedent. Pampa Grande far exceeds
Galindo, or any other late Moche settlements, in the density of its residential zones, the size of its
monumental architecture, and the formal planning that pervades its huge corporate centre. In fact, it is
because of these urban qualities that Pampa Grande has often been regarded as the capital of a
reconstituted late Moche state, following the decline of Cerro Blanco [Moche] site and the loss of the
southern valleys. The core government at Pampa Grande is a vast corporate precinct which contains

167
Another similar example was Chan Chan that had a cultural continuity with Galindo.
In Chan Chan an extreme approach was taken in which only access to the citadels was
controlled, and the public continued to use the huacas. Chan Chan was highly
differentiated by social group, related architectural context and urban plan157.
Bonavía158 sees this as a similarity with contemporaneous Cuzco, in that they use the
same concept of control of access inside the city.

There are, however, also important similarities between the design of Cajamarquilla
and Chan Chan, as noted by Cavatrunci:
La division de la ville en quartiers – pourtant moins claire que dans le cas des
unités (compounds) de Chan Chan – chacun avec sa place et sa huaca, et les
différents types d’édifices marquent le rythme des espaces sociaux avec des
modalités d’accès différenciés entre dés groupes, soit qu’ils auraient été
structurés sur base de rapports de descendance (divisions claniques), sur la
spécialisation des métiers (corporations) ou sur des classes sociales bien
stratifiées.159
For Bawden it is important to note that the pattern of functionally compartmentalized
homes and socially segregated population groups was not always present. The
prevalent Gallinazo and later Chimú residential pattern, with the exception of the
highest social strata, does not exhibit the rigid differentiation of the later Mochica
phases such as created at Galindo. Further Bawden states that
This more generalized pattern spatially conforms more closely to the pattern of Andean holistic society where principles of
kinship rather than class are the basis for social order. The late Moche pattern, as seen most vividly at Galindo, indicates a
progressive trend toward social differentiation…this trend was ensured by an extreme form of physical coercion imposed by
the rulers. Such separation strongly suggests social tension.160

At the time of the Spanish conquest it is clear that the north coast had a political and
social moiety system of duality and hierarchy that was part of its long tradition.161

There were few changes during the Regional States Period, the form of the existing
urban centres was maintained and only small settlements were created due to the lack

several units of elaborate architecture that were the loci of community administration and religious
integration. The functional and formal compartmentalization of these architectural units suggests the
presence of a highly differentiated and well-integrated managerial structure. Enclosed within the
perimeter walls of the central precinct were a number of specialized craft workshops which produced
the metal and ceramic symbols of high status. These workshops were of standardized architectural plan
and careful construction as befitted the locations of activities important to broader social integration.
Given the central role of their products to Moche society it is not surprising that access to these
workshops was indirect and guarded.’
157
Bawden (1990): p. 165.
158
Bonavía (1978a): p. 397.
159
Cavatrunci, C., ‘Cajamarquilla: un centre urbain de la Cote Centrale’, in S. Purin (ed.), Inca-Peru,
3000 ans d'histoire, Bruxelles, 1990, pp. 224-234: p. 229. The division of the city in quarters – clearly
shown in the case of the units (compounds) of Chan Chan – each with his place and his huaca, and the
different types of buildings show the rhythm of the social spaces and the different designs between the
groups, they were structured on the basis of descendant relations (clan divisions) or on the
specialisation of jobs (corporations) or on the basis of social class stratification. (Translation
L.Hasluck).
160
Bawden (1996): p. 86.
161
Dillehay, T. D., ‘La organización dual en los Andes: el problema y la metodología de investigación
en el caso de San Luis, Zana’, Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, vol. 2, 1998, pp. 37-60; Lumbreras
(1974): p. 202; Netherly, P.J., ‘The management of late Andean irrigation systems on the north coast of
Peru’, American Antiquity, vol. 49, no. 2, 1984, pp. 227- 254; Netherly (1990): p. 463.

168
of a strong centralized government for the planning and construction of large
works.162 The exception to this, of course, is the Chimú city of Chan Chan with its
several planned citadels surrounded by semi-designed settlement, and its use of
satellite cities connecting the other valleys under the Chimú Empire. Bonavía notes
similarities between the access control of the Chimú and Tawantinsuyu capitals:
…the citadel was designed in such a manner that access to it was strictly controlled. In most cases this had to be single file,
because of the narrowness of the passage ways. This control was exercised from special sentry boxes, probably occupied by
expert trusted staff. If we add to this what we already know about Chanchán, and read the descriptions of pre-Columbian
Cuzco, we seem in fact to be face to face with the same phenomenon – the same concept. Valcárcel (1924:21)163 tells us that
‘each family or lineage occupied an enclosure apart’ in the Inca capital. ‘These large separate enclosures had an original
arrangement: a single door gave access to the inside; the latter was a labyrinth of narrow passages (killas) and rooms which
opened upon large or small areas, similar to Spanish patios. Each of the royalty’s enclosures had orchards, gardens, baths,
large sitting rooms, water-closets, halls, courtyards, etc.164
This extreme form of access control had clearly risen in the Andean tradition by the Regional States and Tawantinsuyu Periods.
Katz165 believes that the strictly guarded access to the centre of Cuzco was one of the reasons there were no struggles between the
plebian layer of society and the aristocracy, but there were however struggles within the aristocracy for succession.

Figure 129. Upper ‘elite’ barrio at Machu Picchu, situated beside the main plaza and temple (Source:
photo L. Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 130. Above and Below (Fig. 131), the outer wall of the Chan Chan citadel of Bandelier,
demonstrating the rigid control of access and the internal divisions of the city between the elite citadel
dwellers and the surrounding workers and artisans. The size of the walls built for non-military reasons
is remarkable (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

162
Schaedel (1978): p. 44.
163
Valcárcel, Luis. E., ‘El Cuzco pre-colombino’, Revista Universitaria, vol. 13, no. 44- 45, 1924,
pp. 16- 29.
164
Bonavía (1978a): p. 397.
165
Katz, F., ‘A comparison of some aspects of the evolution of Cuzco and Tenochtitlan’, in S. Tax
(ed.),Urbanization in the Americas from its Beginnings to the Present, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978,
pp. 203-214: p. 211.

169
Figure 131. Despite the erosion of the adobe the outer wall of the Bandalier citadel remains standing
(Source: L. Hasluck, 2004).

With the expansion of the Tawantinsuyu Empire and the revival of large urban
planning projects, whether new or re-modelled, the division and control of the urban
area again came into general planning use. Cuzco may not be the best example of
Tawantinsuyu urban planning but it does show the most complex use of the tradition
of urban division, the symbolic significance of which will be discussed later.
Netherly166 notes that quadripartite division within settlements as expressed in both
site organization and architectural planning have been found to have a time depth
extending back to the pre-ceramic Archaic Period on both the north and central coasts.
In Cuzco this is clearly manifested in the main avenues that divided the city into four
quarters, representing the four districts of the empire.167

The central plaza created by Inca Pachacuti moved the centre of the city north a few
hundred metres around which the succeeding Incas arranged their palaces. Under the
new design the city was divided into twelve parts like a clock face.168 The Incas
Kancha, ayllu palaces or housing complexes were in the most central and raised
position. Access to the elite central district was strictly controlled,169 although the
large plaza was also used for public, military and religious occasions. Cuzco, like
Tiwanaku, was also divided into an upper and lower city: Hanan Cuzco (north), the
upper and higher elite district with the central palaces for the royal ayllus and visiting
dignitary; and Hurin Cuzco (south), the lower area for artisans and foreigners.170
166
Netherly (1990): p. 470.
167
Hardoy (1968): p. 47; Nertherly (1990): p. 481.
168
Hardoy (1973): pp. 434-436.
169
Bonavía (1978): p. 397.
170
Baudin (1961b): p. 30; Hardoy (1973): p. 440. It is interesting to note Garcilaso de Vega’s (1617)
explanation of the way in which the Inca converted the essentially reciprocal notion of duality into one
of superiority, quoted in Schaedel (1988: p. 770), ‘In this way began to be populated our imperial city,
divided into two parts called Hanan Cozco, which as you know means upper Cozco, and Hurin Cozco,
which is lower Cozco. Those whom the king brought he wanted to settle in Hanan Cozco, and therefore

170
However this division was not demonstrated in the architecture of the streetscape.171
In fact Hyslop argues that
The two halves correspond to a dual or moiety division in Inka society and are
fundamental for understanding Cuzco’s design and the planning of other Inka
settlements’.172

In Machu Picchu, Huánaco Veijo, Tambo Colorado and all other Tawantinsuyu cities,
the two central districts were divided into a western upper part and an eastern lower
part.173 This division thereafter came to be enforced in all towns large or small
throughout the Empire.174 This type of division continued into modern times. Baudin
mentions the example of the isolated village of Collana near La Paz in Bolivia, that in
1941 still maintained their traditional dualist and ayllu divisions of the village plaza.
On festival days all the villagers knew in which part of the plaza to stand, depending
on their social position and ayllu membership.175

6.6 Thoroughfares, Roads and Stairways

The streets of a city played a very important role in controlling the population’s
movement and access to the various parts of the city. Apart from the large
thoroughfares often used to orientate the city design or to divide the urban area into
districts, it is very difficult to prove that the smaller streets and alleyways were ever
part of a preconceived plan, and were not formed by the association of domestic or
administrative architecture. The exceptions to this are when an obviously rigid
planning design has been used, as in the trapezoidal grid layout of Ollantaytambo or
the system of right-angled streets as in Chan Chan’s citadels or Viracochapampa and
Pikillacta.

Hardoy’s176 analysis of Pikillacta’s street system revealed that it was more efficient
than Viracochapampa’s and seems to have been directly related to the specific uses
attributed to each district. In both cases the streets were little more than corridors
between blind stone walls, functionally adequate for the circulation of the
townspeople as well as cargo transported by llamas and porters. Old Spanish maps of
Cuzco show a grid system but these have been proven to be misrepresentations. In
fact in the centre of the city the streets outlined a pattern of trapezoidal and elongated
blocks177, occupied by the royal palaces, religious and administrative buildings. These

it was called ‘upper’; and those whom the queen gathered he wanted to settle in Hurin Cozco, and
therefore it was called ‘lower’. This division of the city was not so that those of one half might have an
advantage over those of the other half in privileges; rather, all were equal as brothers, sons of one
father and one mother ‘. Yet as Hyslop (1990: p. 47) affirms, the hierarchy between the two halves
clearly existed.
171
Hyslop (1990): p. 62.
172
Hyslop (1990): p. 47. On page 144, Hyslop explains about the regions outside of Cuzco, that the
‘Hanan division was representative of peoples directly related to Cuzco, such as the Inkas themselves
or loyal mitmaq [mitmae], where as the Hurin division was associated with non-Inka peoples who were
native or original inhabitants’.
173
Hardoy (1973): p. 463.
174
Schaedel (1988): p. 770.
175
Baudin (2003): p. 44.
176
Hardoy (1973): p. 348.
177
Hyslop (1990: p. 59) describes the city blocks as an orthogonal system.

171
were typically urban characteristics of Tawantinsuyu cities, found only in the
Empire’s principle centres or in especially planned settlements.178

Figure 132. 17th century plan of Cuzco. Note the unrealistic grid layout (Source: Hardoy, 1968: Fig.
54).

A form of alleyway that can be understood to have been part of a preconceived plan
can be seen in those passages that gave private access to the religious or
administrative buildings for the ruling elite. The first case of this is in Caral where
private passages were designed into the pyramids to connect them to the nearby elite
housing giving secret entrance and exit. The private staircase ascended directly to the
most guarded and sacred area atop the pyramid179. The Llamas-Moxeque and
Tiwanaku pyramids had dwelling areas built upon them for a minority sacerdotal class
elite that guaranteed them private access. Cuzco had a system of subterranean
passages that led from the central district with its religious buildings to the temple and
fortress of Sacsawaman180. These private passages undoubtedly played a role in the
control of access and esoteric knowledge. The access to the urban elite centre of
Cuzco was so strictly controlled that these central streets might also be classified as
private passages. The elite district of Galindo also comes into this type of
classification.

178
Hardoy (1973): p. 447.
179
Shady (2000); (2001).
180
Childress, D. H., ‘Subterranean tunnels & the hollow earth’, World Explorer, vol. 2, no. 3, (no year
given); Garcilaso (no year given): p. 50; Lima, E., ‘Hallan túnel subterráneo bajo la ciudad de Cusco’,
El Diario, La Paz, 10.03.2003.

172
Figure 133. The entrance to the Sun Temple at Pachacamac to which access was strictly controlled.
This street leading to the first level would have only been used by the religious elite or those with their
permission (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

A second type of private street or passage comes with the use of family or clan
enclosures as may be witnessed with the numerous palaces of Cuzco or the citadels of
Chan Chan. In these cases the enclosures, palaces and citadels form whole private
districts complete with plazas, houses surrounding patios, gardens, storage and a
connection of small streets. These types of private housing enclosures, or family
districts, have only a single entrance to the outside and access was strictly regulated.
These mini-districts and self contained streets are entirely private and represent the
height of Andean urban social division.

173
Figure 134. A perimeter street in one of the citadels of Chan Chan (Source: Holstein, 1927, p. 44).

Figures 135. Above (Fig. 135) this outer perimeter street of several meters width varies greatly from
the narrower central streets. The yellow ruler is a meter long. Below (Figures 136 – 139), internal street
scenes from Chan Chan’s Tschudi citadel, after restoration. (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

174
Figure 136.

Figure 137.

Figure 138.

175
Figure 139.

Figure 140. An internal street inside the elite living area of Tambo Colorado, the narrowness helps to
restrict access, and shows that area did not receive llama deliveries but was reserved for human traffic
only (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

176
Figure 141. Terrace street in elite housing section of Machu Picchu (Source: photo. by L. Hasluck,
2002).

As stated earlier the design of public thoroughfares is more difficult to determine,

except for major public avenues leading to ceremonial areas for ease of access on
public ceremonial occasions. Bawden181 finds for the planned urban areas in the late
Mochica that there were both large thoroughfares for the movement of people and
animals, and smaller alleyways in residential areas linking houses to the main
thoroughfares that tied suburbs to the central plazas, temples and administration
buildings -- the centres of ideology and state powers.

The main thoroughfares in Tiwanaku were to aid public access and also to create a
monumental vista and so enhance awe of the theocratic state authority. They also
helped to orientate the city plan with two cross-roads running to the cardinal points182.
In Pachacamac we find this design repeated with the two major thoroughfares running
roughly towards the cardinal points, while also aiding in the vista of the monumental
constructions183. Cuzco also used the cross-roads of two major avenues to divide the
city into four quarters representing the four districts of the Empire, pointing to the
cardinal points,184 and along which military stores were kept185. The roads developed
181
Bawden (1996).
182
Browman (1978b): p. 330; Hardoy (1973): p. 332.
183
Kauffman (1973): Figure 732.
184
Hardoy (1968): p. 47.

177
into a radial pattern as they extended out through the districts.186 Viracochapampa was
divided into two sections by a thoroughfare that ran from north to south187.

Figure 142. Hypothetical reconstruction of the main North-South street in Pachacamac (Source:
Ravines, p. 30, no year given).

Figure 143. A Luis Ccolis Sala reconstructive sketch of a Pachacamac street with gateway (Source:
Koiffman Doig, 1973, p. 447, fig. 733).

185
Hardoy (1973): p. 444.
186
Hyslop (1990): p. 59.
187
Hardoy (1973): p. 348.

178
Figure 144. Photograph of the remains of main North-South street in Pachacamac (Source: Ravines,
p. 30, no year given).

Figure 145. This is the same view as the black and white photo of Figure 144 (Above) but looking from
the opposite direction, towards the north. Partial reconstruction of the walls has been completed
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

179
Figure 146. The main thoroughfare of Pachacamac, looking westwards, descending towards the ocean
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 147. A view eastwards up the thoroughfare, note the use of short stairs to manage the changing
topography (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

180
Figure 148. This photo is an amalgamation of two photos to show the intersection of the north-south
and east-west main streets in the centre of Pachacamac (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

181
Figure 149. A modern street scene in Cuzco. No one is sure exactly how the street pattern has changed
after conquest but some of the old avenues still follow the routes marked out by the original
foundations of the buildings, such as this corner with the Plaza Armas, where Quechuan women lean
against an original palace wall selling herbal medicines (Source: L.Hasluck,2001).

182
Figure 150. Above and Below (Fig. 151), internal main streets of Huari, with high walls and wide
avenues in the centre of the city. Both of these lead towards the main temple (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

Figure 151.

183
Figure 152. An internal street at Incahuasi in the Cañete valley (Central Coast) leading down towards
the terraced fields and river flats, but also connecting directly with the centre of the settlement. The one
meter yellow rod indicates width of the street (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

184
Figure 153. Above and Below (Fig. 154), internal streets of La Centilnela (Central Coast), a city which
used to have a system of intercity roads radiating out from it. Not the use of the high internal walls,
common throughout the Andes (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 154.

185
Figure 155. View of the main street leading into Machu Picchu from Cuzco and running above one of
the elite housing districts, it joins the plaza directly with the intercity road (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 156. A view over the elite districts of Machu Picchu and the plaza, showing the layout of the
streets built to conform to the terraced topography (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

186
Figure 157. Above and Below (Figures 158, 159, 160), different streets from the centre of Písac, all
built to conform with the terraced topography of the city built on a steep mountain slope (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 158.

187
Figure 159.

Figure 160.

188
Figure 161. A modern day street scene in the ancient town of Ollantaytambo, which has had continuous
habitation at least from the Tawantinsuyu period (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

The Wari-Tiwanaku and later Tawantinsuyu Empires also used a different type of
thoroughfare, one which connected the city plaza to the external intercity road
network. This avenue was wide and public, chiefly for military and economic reasons
such as troop movement and the traffic of large llama caravans upon which the pan-
Andean Empires relied. Hardoy188 notes that Pikillacta’s streets fed into the main
plaza and centre of commerce, and the only access to the city was by the main road
that crossed it from east to west, and continued externally on either side. For the
Tawantinsuyu these city to city roads formed a network upon which all the capitals
were located: Quito, Huancapampa, Cajamarca Huánuco, Jauja, Vilcas, Cuzco and
Ayavire were joined by the highland road, while Túmbez, Chan Chan and
Pachacamac were connected by the coastal road189.

The road network was begun by previous civilizations such as Tiwanaku and Wari-
Tiwanaku in the highlands190, using pan-Andean trade routes, while on the north coast
the Mochica, in the Moche, Casma and Virú valleys under the Wari-Tiwanaku
Empire191 and later the Chimú both used excellent road systems connecting valleys
and internal valley systems192. In the Chincha valley (south coast) the largest city, La

188
Hardoy (1973): p. 343.
189
Hardoy (1973): p. 408.
190
Hardoy (1973): p. 329; Stockman, K.S., Pre-Colonial highways of Bolivia: part 1: the La Paz -
Yungas route via Palca, La Paz, Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia, 1967.
191
Hardoy (1973: p. 341) notes that the Wari-Tiwanaku period in the Virú Valley is characterized by
an efficient canal system, walled enclosures, and a broad straight road about ten meters wide, partially
bounded by walls of stone or adobe, that crossed the lower Virú Valley in a southeast-northwest
direction completing the existing network of local roads, connecting the Virú with the neighbouring
valleys.
192
; Bawden (1996); Hardoy (1973): pp. 312, 317, 341, 422); Rivera Sundt, O., ‘El camino prehispanico
de Takesi’, Jornadas Peruano-Boliviano de Estudio Científico del Altiplano Boliviano y del Sur del
Peru, vol. 2 - Arqueología en Bolivia y Perú, 1977, pp. 333- 337; Thompson (1964): p. 99.

189
Centilnela, mainly built by the Chincha before the Tawantinsuyu, was the hub of a
system of straight roads radiating across the valley193. All these and more were
incorporated and enhanced under the Tawantinsuyu Empire194. With skill and success
the Tawantinsuyu linked together the entire Andean region, 5400 kilometres long.195
This system of roads allowed a rapid and vast communication using especially trained
runners, to cover a distance of approximately 240 kilometers a day196.

Figure 162. The Tawantinsuyu major road system linking together the urban centres into a network.
There were a vast amount of smaller roads, mainly still unrecorded, that linked together small and
outlying settlements, forts and mines (Source: Von Hagen, 1957, pp. 144 - 145)197.

193
Menzel (1959): p. 127.
194
Hardoy (1973: p. 410) states that stairways, tunnels, stone and swinging grass rope bridges and
Tambos (rest houses) were an important part of the road system that lay between cities. The distance of
a Topo (7500m), the measuring unit used by the Tawantinsuyu, were usually marked by upright stones.
195
Hardoy (1973: p. 410) cites from Paul Kosok, (‘Transport in Peru’. The Royal Anthropological
Institute, 1952) when describing Andean road construction: ‘Roads were laid out as straight as
topography allowed. On the coast, roads consisted generally of a levelled surface and were bordered by
two stone or adobe walls one meter high. Highways were usually eight but never less than four or five
meters wide. The highway to Chan Chan, in the Moche Valley, however, measure twenty-four meters
wide.’
196
Hardoy (1973): p. 411. Lumbreras (1974c: p. 230) comments that the legend of the Tawantinsuyu
roads has given popularity to the factual story that the Inca ate fresh fish brought directly from the
coast to Cuzco.
197
Von Hagen, V. W., Realm of the Incas, New York, Mentor Books - The New American Library of
World Literature, Inc., 1957.

190
Figure 163. On the upper right of the photo the intercity road that ran through the religious complex of
Ollantaytambo can be clearly seen. Note also the long stairway that joins it to what was the cities main
plaza below, middle left (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 164. Bottom to Middle of the photo is the Tawantinsuyu road going down the Cañete valley.
This was an earlier road upon which they improved to strengthen the connection between the highlands
and the coast (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

191
Figure 165. A Tawantinsuyu road, probably improved from Tiwanaku times, running through the
terraced fields at Amareti, in the cordillera of north Bolivia. The road linked together the important
towns of its time but is still used by pedestrians today (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 166. The intercity road in the Písco valley, Peru, as it enters the settlement of Tambo Colorado,
crosses the plaza and then continues up the valley on the otherside, linking the highland and coastal
areas. This particular route was of great military importance to the Tawantinsuyu Empire (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

192
The linkage of roads was probably part of a larger urban design. The Tawantinsuyu
comprehended their empire through their system of roads rather than through
provinces.198 The large intercity roads in the time of the Tawantinsuyu passed through
the main plaza of the cities, not only for the ease of loading and unloading goods, but
also to make sure that each city centre was directly linked to its neighbours, forming
an urban network. This helped ensure that, although the Empire was primarily
agricultural in nature, it retained its urban focus and that administrative control over
the territories remained under urban domination199. Hardoy states that:
Since the Inca Empire was economically self-sufficient with an agricultural basis and regional distribution that did not justify
trade, we can only assume that these roads were built for reasons other than commerce.200

In this way the control over the land and population created by the centralization of
government services in urban areas could be easily maintained over rural areas as
well. No-one could travel the Empire taking advantage of the road system without
passing through the urban centres and therefore state administration. The roads linked
all the major administrative centres and smaller settlements stretched out along these
roads at intervals where the terrain permitted agriculture201.

Due to the Andean topography, staircases of course played a large design role in
urban planning. No city existed in the Andes that did not use staircases either as a
large part of their streets or in a ceremonial capacity attached to pyramids and other
religious structures. Machu Picchu has one hundred staircases in its small area, a
feature that Bingham202 considers to be its most outstanding. However the staircase
also played a large iconographic role in Andean beliefs and its general use, as
opposed to ramps, is probably related to the staircase being a sacred symbol.
Tiwanaku culture was a large influence in the spread of the staircase motif203 and
made great use of them as part of their religious structures204. Ramps did have a small
place in the tradition and are generally part of religious complexes, of platforms and
pyramids such as at Pachacamac, Moche and other coastal sites.

198
Hyslop (1990: p. 58) cites this fact from Cieza de Leon.
199
Bawden (1996): p. 85; Hardoy (1973): p. 408; (1968): p. 48.
200
Hardoy (1973): p. 408.
201
Hardoy (1973): p. 431; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 229.
202
Bingham (1979): p. 46.
203
Posnansky, A., Tiahuanacu, the cradle of American man, New York, J.J.Augustin Inc., 1945: pp.
103- 4.
204
Spickard (1985): p. 80.

193
Figure 167. A long street of stairs at Machu Picchu, its most outstanding feature (Source: Photo. by L.
Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 168. Stone staircase at Machu Picchu, hewn out of the bedrock (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

194
Figure 169. A stairway runs beside the outer wall of Machu Picchu, leading up to the main entrance of
the intercity road (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 170. A long staircase is one of the major streets that leads up to the city centre from the lower
housing and terraced fields at Machu Picchu (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

195
Figure 171. The yellow rope in this photograph indicates where a stairway zigg-zagged its way up the
mountainside settlement at Lago Chillata, dating to Tawantinsuyu and probably Tiwanaku times.
Cordillera, Bolivia (Source: L.Hasluck, ongoing excavations, 2003).

Figure 172. A stairway at Ollantaytambo leads up from the domestic part of the town and main plaza to
the religious complex and intercity road above. It also served as access to the terraced fields to the left
and right. Beside the stairs runs an aqueduct drain to bring the water for irrigation (Source: L.Hasluck,
2002).

196
Figure 173. Písac also demonstrates the use of stairways with aqueduct, that while ascending to the
centre of the city and the religious complex also gives access to the terraced fields (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

Figure 174. A staircase at Písac that leads from domestic areas into the religious complex on the
mountain peak (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

197
Figure 175. One of the main stairway entry gates into the city of Písac, the stair-street beginning at an
intercity road below, passing through the terraced fields, domestic areas and continuing up to the
religious complex and plaza at the peak (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 176. Another part of the complex system of staircase streets, and tunnels, at Písac (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

198
Figure 177. One of the main stairway gates that served as entrance to the inner zigg-zagging streets of
Sacsawaman, which served as religious complex and military storehouse (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

Figure 178. A stairway with side drainage leading from the terraced fields to the central plaza and
religious complex at Chinchero, near Cuzco. A town still inhabited from Tawantinsuyu times (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

199
6.7 Plazas
Plazas have been a core part of Andean urban planning since its inception, and all
planned cities had plazas. In the Supe valley, plazas were already in use in Era de
Pando and other cities when designed into the plan of Caral. In Caral, as is the case in
all the planned Andean cities, the massive ceremonial plaza is located in a central
position and is attached to the religious structures and administration buildings. In the
Supe valley, especially in Caral where all these designs were represented, plazas were
square, round, sunken or in amphitheatre form205. The circular plaza design was so
numerous that it may have begun in the Supe valley, but is also common in the Casma
valley settlements and well represented in ceremonial centres previous to and
including Chavín designs206. However although used throughout the Andes the
circular plaza had greater popularity in the coastal regions.

Figure 179. A large circular plaza and amphitheatre at Supe Caral, the second largest area for public
gathering after the central plaza (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 180. The central plaza at Supe Caral as seen from the top of the main pyramid, note the small
circular plaza associated with this pyramid and situated in the bottom right of the photo (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

205
Shady (2000); Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000).
206
Pozorski & Pozorski (2000); Shady, Haas & Creamer (2001): p. 726; Shady, R., Machacuay, M. &
Aramburú, R., ‘La plaza circular del Templo Mayor de Caral: su presencia en Supe y en el área
norcentral del Perú’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral- Supe: los orígenes de la
civilización andina y la formación del estado pristine en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003a, pp. 147- 168: p. 158.

200
Figure 181. A large Tawantinsuyu circular plaza at Sacsawaman probably used as an amphitheatre as
well (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 182. Circular plaza at religious complex of Kenqo beside Cuzco. Note the seating arrangement
around the stone perimeter. The large central stone was highly sacred (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

201
Figure 183. A circular plaza in the central religious complex, Vegachayoq Moqo, of Huari the Wari-
Tiwanaku highland capital. See also Figure 294 - map (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The central plaza played the role of a meeting place for public ceremonial gatherings
and was usually associated with a platform or a pyramid for religious rites or political
and administrative orations and duties. Its situation in front of, or between, the
religious structures allowed their monumental architecture to have full psychological
effect on the gathered population who could witness ceremonies atop the pyramids.

Like Caral with its plaza surrounded by pyramids, Lamas-Moxeque made good use of
the monumental effect by placing its central walled plaza between its two
pyramids207. Tiwanaku uses plazas but places them within a high walled enclosure,
generally quadrangular in design and in front of the religious structures. Like Caral it
had a sunken plaza, but not circular in design and probably not for public use. Galindo
had ceremonial plazas, cercaduras, in place of a large huaca, but with its strict
societal division, access control and stray from accepted Andean ethos, that served
only the elite208, unlike Pampas Grande where the central plaza is attached to the great
huaca and was used for public religious rites209.

The general change during the Wari-Tiwanaku Period from agglutinated settlements
and ceremonial centres to urban places put the religious complexes at the centre of the
new cities. It also necessitated an area where the public could gather, rites could be
performed, military troops assemble and, to a limited extent, economic exchange take
place. However South America never developed the sophisticated market square of
Mesoamerica210.

207
Pozorski & Pozorski (2000).
208
Bawden (1978): p. 17.
209
Bawden (1982).
210
Hardoy (1973).

202
Figure 184. The semi-subterranean or sunken plaza at Tiwanaku, beside it can be seen the pyramid of
Akapana, with which it is in clear association (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

In Viracochapampa and Pikillacta there are two distinctly different types of plaza. In
the centre is a small plaza, with the surrounding religious buildings and houses of the
elite nearby, which was used for ceremonial purposes. However on the south-west
side of the settlement where the intercity roads entered and departed was an enormous
plaza for the unloading of goods for storage and was also perhaps used by the military
or for limited commerce. This plaza was connected by streets to the residential,
religious and administrative areas but was not involved in ceremonial pursuits211.

The plazas of Chan Chan’s citadels were square or rectangular platforms usually
located in the housing districts and surrounded by a wall. Their main access was by
means of a ramp from a higher viewing platform located to one side from which the
important people probably witnessed the civic and ceremonial public events. In all of
the citadels (with exception of Uhle, whose plaza was orientated like the citadel east-
west and had only one plaza) the access ramps to the plazas followed a north-south
axis in accordance with the overall orientation of the city. The citadels each had two
plazas, the larger square plazas being positioned near the northern rampart, while the
smaller rectangular second plazas were always found towards the centre of the citadel.
The plaza at the Bandalier citadel was the largest, measuring 70 meters each side, and
it also had a third plaza attached to a religious complex, delineated by a wide internal
wall212.

211
Hardoy (1973): pp. 343- 4; McEwan (1985); Pardo, L., Historia y Arqueologia del Cuzco, vol. 1,
Cuzco, 1957a: p. 377.
212
Hardoy (1973): p. 378.

203
Figures 185. Above, the central plaza of the Tschudi citadel at Chan Chan, with raised platform in the
middle. Below, (Figures 186 – 189), various types of plazas spread throughout the Tschudi citadel
complex (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 186. Small ceremonial and public plaza attached to weaving centre.

204
Figure 187. The second large public plaza, not yet under reconstruction, but in relatively viewable
condition in comparison to the other citadels

Figure 188. The ceremonial and private plaza attached to central huaca used for royal burials.

205
Figure 189. Walled enclosure plaza at entrance to huaca used for royal burials. The entry is very small
limiting access.

Figure 190. The central plaza at Uhle (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The central position of the plaza in the provincial capitals had been maintained during
the Regional States Period although not always clearly demarcated with walls. The
Tawantinsuyu preferred walled plazas of large dimensions and regular shape,
although none is identical with another. The spaces varied from square, trapezoidal
and rectangular or fashioned geometrically to fit topographical limitations. Under the
Tawantinsuyu this clear demarcation of the plaza was imposed upon the provincial

206
capitals when the centres were re-modeled. This accounts for the great range of plaza
shapes in the Tawantinsuyu Period.

The Great Plaza of Cuzco213 was the result of two trapezoids united at their smaller
bases. Ollantaytambo had two plazas, one slightly trapezoidal, for the urban city, and
another square-shaped ceremonial in nature. Tambo Colorado’s plaza was an irregular
trapezoid, while at Pumpu trapezoidal with the west side open. Huánaco Viejo’s plaza
was an imperfect rectangle, with its main entrances at the corners and a construction
in the centre. The plazas were triangular in Cajamarca, pentagonal in Vilcas-Huamán
and irregular in Bonbon214 and Machu Picchu, where spatially the plaza was
approximately an immense rectangle bordered by walls, its form adapted to the
promontory on which the city was constructed215.

That of plaza at Vilcas-Huamán is described by an early Spanish chronicler as ‘large

and has a quarter of a league’.216 The plazas in Cuzco, Huánuco Veijos, and
Cajamarca were enormous; Pizarro217 said of Jauja’s plaza that it was ‘large and
measures a quarter of a league’; Ruiz de Arce described the plaza at Túmbez as ‘of
good size’; Hardoy makes a rough estimate of the plaza at Vilcas-Huamán as an area
of slightly less than three hectares; the plaza of Tambo Colorado and Machu Picchu
were also sizeable218.

These plazas must have had a variety of functions and were intimately linked with the
major state structures, such as the Great Halls used for criminal judgment219, and were
nearly always traversed by the intercity roads220. The Tawantinsuyu planners used the
existing plaza spaces but forced them to adjust to a form of geometrical design with
much depending on the topography and original layout of the city ( eg. Cajamarquilla
and Cajamarca). Pachacamac already had a great array of walled ceremonial plazas
from the Wari-Tiwanaku Period and the Tawantinsuyu did not need to greatly alter
these. It is hard to ascertain, however, whether or not the plazas of some the Empire’s

213
Hardoy (1973: p. 443) describes Huacapata Plaza as ‘much larger than present day Plaza de Armas.
Running northeast-southwest, it measure 550 m by 250m, with an open area that included over 10
hectares. The Huatanay River cut across the plaza, forming trapezoidal halves which correspond to the
division into an upper and lower city. Each of these two sections had there own distinct functions.
North of the Huatanay lay the smaller trapezoid with shape and approximate area of today’s Plaza de
Armas. It was called Aukaipata, and was used for those ceremonies witnessed by the Inca from a
special stage. These generally important community events such as saluting the rising sun, collective
marriages, military or religious parades, and the symbolic distribution of bread and chichi, the
fermented maze drink. This area also served as a market place. On the southwest side of the river was
the larger of the two trapezoids, called Cusipata or Platform of Joy, where popular dances and
festivities took place. This section of the plaza also had a cultivated beds of maize.’
214
Hardoy (1973): pp. 462- 3.
215
Hardoy (1968): p. 48.
216
Hardoy (1973): p.462.
217
Hardoy (1973: p. 462) states that plazas were mentioned in almost all of the Spaniard’s descriptions.
Pizarro as quoted in Hardoy (1973: p. 464) describes the use of the Jauja plaza: ‘Some of the people
who had been in the plaza came the next morning. They were simple Indians, and truly there were over
a hundred thousand souls’ Another conquistador quoted by Hardoy; ‘each day a hundred thousand
persons came together in the Great Plaza’ (Jauja). Perhaps these were gathered for some special event.’
218
Hardoy (1973): pp. 462- 3.
219
Niles (1999): p. 274.
220
Hardoy (1968): p. 48.

207
principal cities were of pre-Tawantinsuyu origin, since the cities were later re-
modeled in Tawantinsuyu form221.

Figure 191. Plan of Huánaco Viejo with large plaza, entrances at corners, and administrative platform
in centre (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 478).

Figure 192. A view of the central plaza of Tambo Colorado, taken from the western road entrance to
the town (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

221
Hardoy (1973): pp. 462- 3; Niles (1999): p. 294.

208
Figure 193. An amalgamation of three photos showing the extent of Tambo Colorado, built around its
central plaza, through which ran the intercity road. It was also used as military gathering and resting
place. This photo is taken looking down from the much looted cemetery. Two plazas can be seen (C &
M in Fig. 194) in the foreground and background in the elite housing and religious complex
respectively (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

209
Figure 194. Plan of Tambo Colorado showing large trapezoidal plaza and surrounding town made with
this form to fit the point of land over looking the river on which it is situated. The main connecting
road passes from east to west through the plaza (Source: Hardoy, 1973, p. 470). The preceding photo
(Fig. 193) was taken from mid left hand side of this plan. C & M correspond to the two lesser plazas
and the altar the official platform in the central plaza. The modern road has destroyed much of G, M &
A.

210
Figure 195. The platform at the western end of the main plaza at Tambo Colorado, looking down the
valley (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The central plazas with a ceremonial basis to their purpose were not the only form of
plaza. Each large city generally had an array of different plazas, and many were only
small localized neighbourhood plazas, like the numerous in Cajamarquilla or in
Tawantinsuyu highland villages which were little more than enlarged spaces at the
termination or junction of streets222. These probably played a neighbourhood role as
social public space.

Figure 196. A sketch by Luis Ccosi Salas of the reconstruction of Pachacamac showing the complex
system of plazas. The largest plaza with the pillared structure in the centre is that of the remains in
Figure 121 (Source: Koiffman Doig, 1973, p. 446, fig. 727).

222
Hardoy (1973): p. 431.

211
Figure 197. Central plaza at Machu Picchu, surrounded by elite barrios and Temple of the Sun in upper
left. The central plaza is only roughly rectangular in shape and in different levels as it follows the
contours of the mountain top. Note also the long stair-case street in the foreground, one of many. The
terrace streets of the elite barrio (centre foreground) connect directly to the plaza, unlike the common
barrio below it out of sight (Source: Photo. by L. Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 198. The central public plaza system at Machu Picchu. Note how the plaza is broken up into
terraces to allow for the topography of the mountain top. The intercity road divided the plaza in two
(Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

212
Figure 199. The official platform in the centre of the main terraced plaza at Machu Picchu, located
attached to the base of the Sun Temple. Note the use of a natural rock formation in the centre of the
platform (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 200. The central ceremonial plaza at Machu Picchu, attached to and the base of the Temple of
the Sun, behind, and above the public plaza. My Quechuan wife Jean gives an indication of the size
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

213
Figure 201. Drawing of Cajarmarquilla layout by Squier 1863. Note the repetitive design and high
blind walls, similar to the centre of Cuzco. Presently the ruins are in terrible condition and surrounded
by and encroached into by slums of Lima (Source: Cavatrunci, 1990, p. 228).

Figure 202. Tawantinsuyu plaza centrally located and attached to the main religious buildings, over
which the Catholic church has been built, at the town of Chenko near Cuzco. A case of Spanish
remodeling as urban planning (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

214
Figure 203. The modern central plaza of Cuzco, which is half of the Tawantinsuyu plaza that used to
continue off to the right of the photo. A river continues to flow beneath the plaza (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

Figure 204. The central plaza at Cuzco continues to play a ceremonial role, as can be seen in the yearly
festival of the Intiraymi, for the winter equinox return of the sun. Here can be seen a symbolic Inca
being carried through the streets of Cuzco to Sacsawaman above the city (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

215
Figure 205. The central plaza at Cuzco also plays an economic role during the modern ceremonial
event of Navidad or Christmas, when a large market gathers to sell gifts and ornaments (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

216
Figures 206. Above and Below (Fig. 207), some of the walled plazas of Huari, the Wari capital, near
present day Ayacucho. Note the common use of high enclosure walls. The ruins have become a prickly
pear farm (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 207.

217
Figure 208. The central plaza of the palace at Incahuasi, the Tawantinsuyu settlement in the Cañete
valley, Peru. It holds a view out over the valley and terraced fields (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 209. The central public plaza of the Incahuasi settlement, attached to the storehouses. Note the
ceremonial platform in the centre of the photo (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

218
Figure 210. The central plaza at one of the Centilnela citadels. The draftsman in the centre gives an
indication of its size. The photo is taken from the side of the main huaca to which the plaza is attached
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

6.8 Dwellings
The individual design of houses varies greatly in the Andean region. The placement of
cooking fires - internal or external, centred or in the corner, one-room or more – as
well as the internal subdivision, use of windows or not, gable, etc., are all open to
cultural, geographical, social class, materials used and personal variation. The coastal
cultures generally built in adobe or woven cane covered with mud. Since there is very
little rain, the roofs were usually flat and insubstantial and more concerned with
protection from the sun, so that habitations were often left open walled. Highland
dwellings were frequently built in rough or worked stone, while those that were built
of adobe were based on stone foundations as protection from the damp, although
poorer dwellings were also built purely in adobe, such as in Tiwanaku and Cuzco223.
The gabled roofs generally had a steep angle to protect against heavy rain and, in
some cases, snowfall. Windows were sparsely used, except in tropical highland
regions (such as at Machu Picchu and Písac). Although housing design throughout the
Andes is extremely diverse, regional traditions tended to form a certain uniformity of
design within cities or cultural areas224.

Engel in his typology of Andean urban architecture claims that ‘Experience shows
that when a site has been settled by a single group of people, we will hardly ever find

223
Hardoy (1973): p. 438; Huidobro (1994): p. 9; Hyslop (1990): pp. 12,24; Ponce Sanginés, C., Nueva
perspectiva para el estudio de la expansión de la cultura Tiwanaku, La Paz, Instituto Nacional de
Arqueología, 1979: p. 7.
224
For instance until 800 AD the Gallinazo culture entered their houses through the roof as lateral
doorways did not appear until after the effect of the Wari-Tiwanaku influence and their urbanisation by
absorption into Pampas Grande (Hardoy 1973: p. 329).

219
any sequence of evolutionary characteristics’.225 However there are some solid
aspects of an Andean urban housing tradition. In particular houses are a unit for
individual families and not community dwellings such as long-houses, and were built
close together forming a streetscape. Also belonging to the tradition is the use of
suburbs to divide classes and the relationship of these suburbs to public spaces and
buildings, as previously discussed.

Figure 211. Different types of housing used at Tiwanaku within enclosures (Source: Escalante, 1997,
p.283).

Figure 212. Tawantinsuyu buildings beside the Pumapunku Temple at Tiwanaku. The base of the
buildings were built in stone and the upper parts in adobe. Author is standing in front to demonstrate
size (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

225
Engel, F., ‘Toward a typology of architecture and urbanism in the pre-Columbian Andes’, in
D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 411- 441:
p. 413.

220
Figure 213. A typical coastal Peru wattle and daub or cane and mud house. This one from the Cañete
valley in central coast Peru. An ancient method still very much in use in the present day throughout the
coast of Peru (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 214. Close up of wattle and daub or cane and mud house construction. The walls are first
constructed of the cane and then covered in mud that dries hard as a protective layer. This one from
north coastal Peru at Pampas de Llamas Moxeque (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

221
Figure 215. Above and Below (Fig. 216), the remains of wattle and daub or cane and mud housing in
the elite housing section of Caral in the Supe valley. The dry weather and covering sands have
protected these wall bases for over 4000 years. Some stone foundations also found amongst the elite
housing (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 216.

222
Figure 217. Stone housing at Machu Picchu from the elite housing area, Kings. These have been
partially reconstructed (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 218. Elite housing above the plaza, after reconstruction. Note the steep gables and window in
the second storey (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

223
Figure 219. The adobe construction method used at Pachacamac’s Temple of the Sun. Note also that as
it was re-built by the Tawantinsuyu from a highland construction tradition they have included a base of
stone work (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 220. One of the few remaining pure adobe structures at highland Písac, where wind, water and
temperature changes erosion is a strong destructive force (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

224
Figure 221. Also at Písac, the more usual highland construction method of a stone base, topped by
adobe. This helped with the problem of rising damp. The grass hats on top of the walls are a
conservation devise. Behind is a construction of pure stone, indicating the relative importance of the
building. Both are connected to a small plaza (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 222. Písac also demonstrating the Tawantinsuyu use of pure stone for agricultural terraces and
buildings of importance (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

225
Figure 223. The Tawantinsuyu or possible Tiwanaku use of monumental stone construction, at the Sun
Temple in Machu Picchu (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 224. Tawantinsuyu or possible Tiwanaku use of monumental stone construction at Sacsawaman.
The group of tourists stand before the largest single stone at the site (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

226
For example in Caral three basic designs of houses existed, although they vary later
with the remodeling of interior space through further subdivision. The houses were
generally built of mud covered cane (wattle and daub) and those of the elite with
patios in front where cooking fires were located226.

The design of houses or housing complexes affected the structure of the streetscape
substantially, ranging from straight and grid, to haphazard. There is no need to discuss
the great variety of housing individually, used by both elite and commoners to
different degrees. There is but a single design that can be considered as part of a pan-
Andean tradition, that is the house complex that surrounds an internal patio or
courtyard – the patio-house.

Although frontal patios were used early in the Supe valley227, the patio house comes
into common usage with the spread of the Wari-Tiwanaku enclosures and planning
ideas228. Where as the Wari-Tiwanaku were using enclosures inside each of which
stood a single dwelling (with the exception of the two palaces), or surrounded by
passage like dwellings such as at Pikillacta and Viracochapampa these were different
in nature from later designs229. However the standard patio-house design was used
extensively at Huari230.

Figure 225. Plan of patio house from Huánuco Pampa. Note that in this house there are three other
small patio areas for communal use. (Source: Morris, 1974, p. 120).

226
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000); Shady (2001); Shady, Haas & Creamer (2001).
227
Shady (2000; 2001).
228
Ponce (1972): p. 17.
229
Hardoy (1973): pp. 348, 350; McEwan (1985).
230
Spickard (1985).

227
Figure 226. Reconstruction of some types of Wari-Tiwanaku enclosure housing at Pikillacta (Source:
McEwan, 1985, p. 125).

Figure 227. A reconstruction drawing of a niched hall and patio complex from Viracochapampa, very
similar in style to those at Pikillacta (Source: Von Hagen, 1998, p. 133, fig. 89)231.

231
Von Hagan, A. & Morris, C., The Cities of the Ancient Andes, London, Thames and Hudson, 1998.

228
Figure 228. A plan of a Lords house from Galindo in typical patio style (Source: Escalante, 2001, p.
130).

The courtyard, or central patio, was first used on the coast in the 0-800 AD period and
became an important element in spatial organization when the great cities came to be
built232. Some of the first examples are seen in the nucleated pre-urban Salinar
settlement of Cerro Arena. The largest elite examples have the residential areas
arranged with several large specialized rooms, serving as kitchens and lower status
residences, in a distinctive rectangular pattern around a large open plaza. A small
complex of finely finished administrative rooms is attached233. Although this tradition
seems to have generally begun on the coast, and can be seen at the first Mochica
capital234, Moche, it readily mixed with Wari-Tiwanaku idea of enclosures and
became widely adopted throughout urban Andes. When the enclosure idea reached the
north coast it became adapted so that the outside walls of the houses around a family
communal courtyard formed the enclosure walls and singular entrance.

Figure 229. Cerro Arena, Salinar elite housing, informally arranged around a patio (Source: Bawden,
1990, p. 156).

232
Hardoy (1973): p. 317; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 166.
233
Brennan (1982): p. 249.
234
Uceda, S. & Chapdelaine, C., ‘El centro urbano de las Huacas del Sol y la Luna’, Arkinka, no. 33,
Agosto, Lima, 1998, pp.94- 103: pp. 97- 99.

229
The reasons for this type of adoptive design adaptation are speculative, but some of
the social effects can be seen in the archaeological record. Perhaps it came from the
previous use of family groupings or to accommodate an increased density of
population within a given area, especially due to the rigid building controls and
shortage of arable land in the late Mochica period. It may also have been formed from
an increased need for privacy in increasingly built-up urban conditions or for air flow
in hot conditions, were used in early Sumerian cities235. It is archaeologically well
demonstrated in the Mochica culture that the central patio provided a family area
where communal activities took place. The women weaved, the men fixed tools,
foods were processed, and informal social activities, such as children’s play and
gathering at the end of the days labour took place. It also supplied a private family
space in the increasingly impersonal relations of growing urbanity236. This may be
used as basis for a comparison with other locations and periods such as Bolivia’s
Iskanwaya237, and the height of patio popularity under the Tawantinsuyu Empire,
particularly in Cuzco. However the design is used throughout the Tawantinsuyu
Empire wherever topography permitted.238 Since the kancha, patio-house, design was
in use in Cuzco prior to contact with the north coast there is little to suggest that its
origins are exclusively north coastal.239

Figure 230. An excavated patio house at Moche. The patios were used as domestic areas as well as
places of production. Bodies were often found interred beneath the patio or the benches that surrounded
them. The yellow rod is 1m long (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

235
Morris, A.E.G., (History of the Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution, 2nd Ed.,
New York, Halstead press, 1979: p. 8) finds that in the Middle East ‘[t]he development of courtyard
housing in a response to an assumed need for domestic privacy in densely built-up urban conditions,
where the narrow streets would have been noisy, dirty and potentially dangerous, has a present day
parallel in the adoption of inward-looking ‘patio’ house types. These combine privacy with conditions
of high density in a way that could not be achieved with the conventional outward-looking house types.
In addition to the above reason, courtyard housing in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus valley, and
subsequently in Greece and the warmer parts of the Roman Empire, would have encouraged natural air
convection giving cooler internal environmental conditions’.
236
Bawden (1978): p. 20; (1982): pp. 310- 13; (1996): pp. 81-2.
237
Ponce Sanginés, C., ‘La ciudadela precolombina de Iskanwaya’, Arte y Arqueología: Revista del
Instituto de Estudios Bolivianos, vol. 3 & 4, Sección Arte, 1975, pp. 251-257: p. 252; Portugal &
Portugal (1975)
238
Bingham (1979): p. 76; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 221; Niles (1999).
239
Hyslop (1990): p. 20.

230
Figure 231. Tawantinsuyu common patio house or kancha. The large building in the centre forms a
division and shares its central wall between the kanchas, forming a large architectural block (Source:
Niles, 1999, Figure 2-14).

Figure 232. Reconstructive drawing of Tawantinsuyu common patio house or kancha – from preceding
plan. The windows were used for airing corn and other agricultural products stored in the lofts (Source:
Niles, 1999, Figure 2-15).

Figure 233. A Tawantinsuyu patio or kancha still in use at Ollantaytambo (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

231
Figure 234. Above and Below (Fig. 235), two views of a patio house at Tschudi citadel in Chan Chan.
The patio was also used as a weaving area (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 235.

The popularity of the central patio design was probably initiated in palace design, but
was used also by the artisan and working classes. It appears in the design of the
palaces at Tiwanaku, in the Urban Phase well before the spread of Wari-Tiwanaku
culture to the coast. The Kheri-kala palace at Tiwanaku begins a basic design of
palace patio complexes240 that is used in the Wari-Tiwanaku Period on the coast and
in the highlands and reaches a peak in design complexity under the Tawantinsuyu.
Niles241 argues that it is likely that the royal architecture of Cuzco retained much of
the conservatism appropriate to the capital, but in the country palaces architectural
innovation could be freely expressed. Yucay, the last Incan palace to be built,
although a country retreat is noticeable for its size and maintenance of many palace
design traditions, while incorporating many aesthetic effects popular at the time, such
as large plazas, gardens, reflective pools and vistas242.
240
Hardoy (1973): p. 336.
241
Niles (1999).
242
Niles (1999).

232
Figure 236. The remains of a palace complex at Pachacamac, visited by Pizarro’s men (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 237. A reconstruction of an Incan reflective pool in a patio, for inclusion of views of the sky and
mountains – Cocho Sontar at Yucay, Urubamba valley (Source: Niles, 1999, p. 186).

233
The urban centre of Cuzco, could be said to be constructed of internally self-sufficient
palaces243 with the central patio, kancha, design. Hyslop, an expert on Tawantinsuyu
architecture, describes the construction of kanchas in Cuzco.
In Cuzco, the ideal kancha was a rectangular enclosure with three or more
rectangular structures placed symmetrically around the side of the compound
with a patio in the centre. In practice, the size of the kancha could vary
tremendously, from part of large city block in Cuzco to a much smaller
enclosure. The number of buildings within a kancha varied considerably also –
upto eight or more structures. Kancha were often set side by side within larger
architectural units. Often kancha have only one entrance in their enclosure
wall.244

Hardoy245 describes one type of palace as a quarter or barrio due to its vast size and
complex ground plan, consisting of a number of small structural groups, cut through
and outlined by narrow alleys that connected the various courtyards surrounded by
chambers. Beside the chambers, interior patios and passageways, each palace had its
own gardens, baths and storehouses. The whole compound was enclosed by a high
wall, a true sign of exclusion, authority and defence246, justifying Bonavía’s
comments on their similarities with Chan Chan’s citadels. 247 By comparison the
outer districts of Cuzco were modest and constructed of adobe248.

A further type of housing, not urban in nature, yet usually part of the urban landscape,
was religious housing. These were always a part of, or directly attached to, the central
religious complexes or huacas. They may have housed a few of the religious elite
such as at Tiwanaku, or a chosen sect, such as the Mamacuna (House of the Chosen
Women) of Pachacamac and in the other provincial capitals249. There are examples
from all sites, especially prominent at Tiwanaku’s Akapana, but those largest and best
designed formed complexes to themselves under the Tawantinsuyu epoch, such as
Pachacamac, Cuzco and perhaps Machu Picchu. These were places to which only the
religious elite could gain admittance. Under the Tawantinsuyu the role between
religious housing and temple became blurred to such an extent that it is difficult to tell
the difference between them.

The ritual internment of the bodies and/or mummies of family members below
housing complexes played an enduring and widespread role within Andean burial
traditions and can be seen to be generally used from the time of Caral to that of the

243
Hardoy (1973: pp. 436- 7) states that the term palaces may be inaccurate, but they were undoubtedly
public works of large stone buildings with no openings other than doorways. The rooms were grouped
around interior courtyards, and the light filled climate of the highland rendered windows unnecessary.
Their richness may be seen in the fine stonework, precisely cut and fitted, and in the restrained interior
decoration of tapestries and gold and silver objects. Walls were generally left unplastered, and the
smooth stone surface was broken only by trapezoidal niches.
244
Hyslop (1990): p. 17.
245
Hardoy (1973): p. 440.
246
Hardoy (1973): p. 440.
247
Bonavía (1978a): p. 397.
248
Hardoy (1973): p. 438.
249
Moore, S.F., Power and Property in Inca Peru, West Port, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1957:
p. 26.

234
Tawantinsuyu.250 This practice was also used for sacred buildings, such as temples,
platforms and pyramids, and shows the close connection between ritual and daily-life.

Figure 238. A model of the reconstruction of the Mamacuna, the house of virgins at Pachacamac.
Although it was a religious edifice it also played the role of a dwelling for a great number of women.
From the Pachacamac Site Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The close connection between sacred life in the form of religious observances and
secular power in the form of economic forces can be seen writ throughout the city in
its designs and decorations. The union of the economic and religious forces are the
base of the theocratic political power throughout the Andes urban civilization. The
power of the city, both religiously, politically and economically extended and re-
created itself, through urbanization and the linking of cities into a urban network. The
economic functions of the city, closely tied to religious and political power tended to
form repetitions of those urban designs that proved most useful. Some of those have
been discussed in this chapter, such as city location, centralized planning, urban
division, use of intercity roads and restriction of access to religious complexes. The
next chapter will analyse what specific areas and designs proved useful for the
economic structures of Andean urban habitation.

250
Noel, A., ‘Evidencias de un enterramiento ritual en un sector residencial de la parte alta de Caral,
valle Supe’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la
civilización andina y la formación del Estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, 2003, pp. 208- 228; Shady, R. & López, S.,
‘Ritual de enterramiento de un recinto en el Sector Residencial A en Caral-Supe’, in Shady & Leyva
(eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del
estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial
Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003, pp. 187- 205.

235
CHAPTER SEVEN - Economic Design
…the city is a community which extends at least its influence and preferably
its control over an area wider than that necessary simply to maintain its self
sufficiency. Modern students of the early city tend to see this control in
economic terms, either as created by a sufficient surplus of goods from its own
territory so that it can extend its influence or control by trade, or as the
collection, by the forceful imposition of its control on other areas, of goods or
revenues to build up its own good life. However, in the ancient world the
extension of influence or control was often political rather than economic.
Mason Hammond1

There are a number of politico-economic aspects that have affected Andean urban
planning. Some of these are discussed in the other chapters, such as the position of a
city to control water, trade routes, food and other material resources; the ability of
cities reputation to attract artisans and surplus, and to become a centre of local and
long distance exchange; and the economic role of a city that is part of an extensive
intercity road system through which all travelers must pass. There remain, however,
other aspects such as the control of labour and the layout of specific areas for
economic activity that were also planned into the physical design of a city. These will
be explored in this chapter.

7.1 Economic Forces

Urban centres only managed to exist in as much as their political economy2 could
control production, distribution and consumption of the surplus extracted from their
area of influence to continue to supply the needs of the city and the state. The bigger a
city became the larger needed to be its area of influence. In the early civilizations such
as Supe this meant extracting surplus from, and trading with, all the different zones of
the valley from the coast to the highlands. In later epochs, as under the Wari-
Tiwanaku, Chimú and particularly the Tawantinsuyu, this meant extracting surplus
through an urban network linked by a system of intercity roads. Surplus and trade
could then be done over vast distances, from the coast to the Amazon, and collected
from various different ecological regions. Cuzco’s sphere of influence, as an extreme
example, included the entire Andean empire. The system of intercity roads can be
thought of as an extension of urban areas since it was created to serve urbanization
and to link cities and towns together into a large urban network or empire. It also
represented the urban and centralized control of the state, especially in an economic
sense. As has been discussed in chapter six the roads served to maintain cities control
of the countryside and the transportation of goods.

1
Hammond, M., The City in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni. Press, 1972: p. 10.
2
Earle, T., (Bronze Age Economics, U.S.A., Westview Press, 2002: p. 9), states that ‘… political
economies are built on subsistence economies, and together they organize all production, distribution,
and consumption… The political economy…involves the ways that surpluses are mobilized and
allocated to support political activities, lifestyles, and operations of social institutions and their leaders.
The political economy is inherently competitive; since more is better (more resources = more power),
the political economy is inherently growth orientated. Many are involved in ruling relationships, and
the institutions of complex societies depend on finance to maintain their operations. The mobilization
of a surplus requires a productive economy and its practical control. That control derives from
command over quite specific activities involving production, distribution, and even consumption’.

236
The transportation of goods required roads, tambos or rest houses, and places for
corrals within or on the perimeters of cities and towns. The storage and redistribution
of products and food needed storage areas which could be controlled by the elite or
their administration. This control, in turn, necessitated a military presence to protect
the elite interests and maintain the extraction of surplus. This, of course, meant that
military areas need to exist both within cities as well as to defend the intercity roads.
Walled defenses for cities were uncommon in the Andes but the use of strategically
placed fortified positions had a long history reaching back to the Regional
Development Period. Walled divisions within cities, to protect the elite and storage
areas were common, and also to curb inter-factional rivalry between the elite kin-
groups.

The wealth of the Andean elite was based upon the creation of objects of rarity which
were used as a type of currency to support a system of wealth finance3. This system
created the beautiful structures of the urban centres, including elite housing, and
increased surplus allowed for large and awesome monumental structures for religious
and state purposes. The presence of the elite, especially the ‘King’ for example, in a
city increased its reputation and attracted artisans, trade (products and raw materials),
religious offerings, pilgrimages and increased surplus. The increase in the cities
economy allowed the majesty of the urban space to grow, and the sphere of its
influence, both political economic and cultural, to increase accordingly. Earle, a
Bronze Age economic specialist, states that ‘[s]ocial institutions appear to be built by
an emergent political economy involving complex interactions of intensification,
surplus mobilization, and controlled distribution’.4 In this way economics played a
part in the production of all urban space and brought about the functional and stylistic
repetition of certain physical features, designs, and locations of buildings and spaces,
in accordance with the politico-religious and social needs of the urban centres. Cordy
argues that ‘[a]rchitecture is built by social groups…it can be expected to reflect the
number, type, and interconnection between such groups as well as their wealth’.5

The city as an entity also created entirely new urban spaces through the need for
increased surplus or wealth. New cities and towns are formed in the expanding
empires and kingdoms, and new intercity roads link them into the urban network.
Urbanization spread with increased need not only for the established cities, but also
for the new satellite cities and towns, where status objects and feasts served as
reciprocal gifts that helped control the local elites and their attached populace.6 That
is, explains Earle, wealth, which

3
Earle (2002: p. 193) explains his idea of ‘Wealth Finance’ as involving ‘…the manufacture and
procurement of special products (valuables, primitive money, and currency) that are used as a means of
payment. These wealth items often have established values with respect to other goods of a similar
nature but vary in their convertibility into staples. They may be amassed as direct payment from
subservient populations, or they may be produced by craft specialists attached to the central authorities.
In the latter case, raw materials given as tribute are often used in the manufacture of these goods, and
the craftsmen may be provided as part of a labour obligation from local communities. Wealth held by
the state is used to pay political officials and other personnel who work for the state’.
4
Earle (2002): p. ix.
5
Cordy, R., (A Study of Prehistoric Change: the development of complex societies in the Hawaiian
Islands, New York, Academic Press, 1981) is quoted in Earle (2002: p. 57).
6
Earle (2002: p. 195) believes that intent of the Tawantinsuyu state was to ‘…phrase economic
relations with the local populace in terms of the relations the local elite had maintained with the
commoners prior to the Inka conquests’.

237
 circulated in a separate sphere of exchange… acted as a highly visible symbol
of status, meant not as abstract prestige but as a marker of status, the holder of
which had explicit rights to income in the staple finance system. Without
written contracts, the physical demonstration of status may define one’s rights
of subsistence support. These objects, produced by attached specialists, would
have been inalienable; they would be given by high-ranking to lower-ranked
chiefs to materialize political duties and rights’.7

This system of wealth, status and symbolism controlled through access to elite
products is also clearly seen in the Tiwanaku weaving and ceramic industry, the
Chimú precious metals industry, and perhaps, at the beginning of urbanism, in Caral
and their use of personal adornment.

7.2 Labour Force

To bring planned urban areas into existence, it was not sufficient for the centralized
government to create a design; they also had to implement the decision. For this they
had to have sufficient control and power of coercion over the population to either
force or persuade them to band together and form an organized workforce8. Wittfogel9
observes that hydraulic societies cannot exist without a community workforce large
enough for irrigation construction and maintenance. The efficiency of the
mobilization of human energy was the reason for the success of the Andean states. So
it was with the first planned city of Caral, an early hydraulic society, that a large
urban plan could be created and constructed by a community workforce, already
practiced in organised effort from irrigation practices and the earlier monumental
construction of religious complexes.

Unless the population, or part of, were directly forced as a form of slavery, as was the
case with the conquered Gallinazo people in the Lambayeque valley who built the
huge huaca of Pampas Grande under the late Moche regime10, different systems of
labour organization were used in the Andes. Most of these were based around a
system of mitae or service tax,11 in which members of the families would for a short
period of months work in organized labour groups on public projects determined by
the ruling elite. This public service was usually timed to fit with low periods of the
agricultural cycle so as not to effect production. Under the Tawantinsuyu system
rights and shares of land depended on doing mitae in the state fields of the Inca and

7
Earle (2002): p. 149.
8
Niles, S. A., (The Shape of Inca History - Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire, Iowa
City, Uni. of Iowa Press, 1999: p. 271) cites Cieza about an interesting situation in which Athahualpa
failed to convince the mitmaes of Tomebamba that he had sufficient authority to command them to
build him lodgings.
9
Wittfogel, K.A., ‘Developmental aspects of hydraulic societies’, in J. H. Steward (ed.) Irrigation
civilizations: a comparative study: a symposium on method and result in cross-cultural regularities,
Social Science Monograph, no.1, Westport, Connecticut, Department of Cultural affairs, Pan American
Union, Social Science Section, 1955, pp. 43-52.
10
Topic, T.L., (‘The Early Intermediate Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan
Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p. 272), also
refers to the use of the labour tax for the construction of the earlier huacas at Moche, identified by
distinct workers ‘marks’ on the adobe bricks.
11
Earle (2002) refers to this generally as ‘corveé’ labour.

238
the Sun sect, wars for the empire, production of utensil items, as well as construction
projects when needed12.

For the earlier ceremonial centres such as Huaca de los Reyes, a relatively minor
project built in a single generation, some permanent workers may have been
supported by the community13. Growing job specialisation in terms of planning and
decorative work was probably also supported by the whole community. Later under
the large empires these construction specialists would have been moved from one
construction location to the next, maintaining their specialized position and usefulness
to the state, especially in the repetition of designs of ideological and political
importance, such as the Pyramids of the Sun for the Inca.

Figure 239. This diagram is of the North coastal dual moiety system that supported the Kingship
structure. The leaders at the top levels of power (from top) could call directly on the work-force of
members even from the lowest levels. The colours represent different mitae service divisions of the
population. (Source: Netherly, 1990, p. 464)14.

Excellent investigation of labour size and intensity has been done by Shady, Dolorier
and Casa15 for Caral city and the whole contemporaneous Supe valley. Unfortunately
this is not the case for the rest of the Andes sites. The vast labour force needed to
build Caral was taken from the surrounding cities and territories of coast, valley and

12
Moore, S. F., Power and Property in Inca Peru, West Port, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1958:
p. 23.
13
Pozorski, T., ‘The early horizon sight of Huaca de los Reyes: societal implications’, American
Antiquity, vol. 45, no. 1, 1980, pp. 100-110: p. 109.
14
Netherly, P. J., ‘Out of many, one: the organization of rule in the north coast polities’, in M.E.
Moseley, & A. Cordy-Collins (ed.), The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor,
Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, 1990, pp. 461-487.
15
Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L., ‘Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú: el
área norcentral y el valle de Supe durante el arcadio tardío’, Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima,
Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni. Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 13 – 48.

239
highlands, under a system of mitae.16 Although Era de Pando’s population was larger
than Caral’s, Shady et al. has shown that a greater intensity of labour was used in the
construction and urban maintenance of Caral.17 This confirms the view that the pre-
planned city of Caral was built with more monumental public structures to serve as
the cultural and political capital of the Supe valley. This also showed a pattern of
labour use that continued until the Spanish invasion; that is, the capital urban centres
were those in which the greatest amount of labour was invested, as in Caral,
Tiwanaku, Huari, Pachacamac, Llamas-Moxeque, Chan Chan, Cajamarca,
Cajarmarquilla and Cuzco, to name a few. In the Supe valley, smaller settlements with
small populations and therefore smaller labour forces show a corresponding lack of
monumental public structures, preferring the plaza and attached platform for public
ceremonial centres18. There is no reason to suppose the Supe cultures coercion was by
military force,19 so ideological cohesion of community desires can be presumed to
have motivated the public to carry out the massive construction projects.

The basic model of mitae labour service and ideological coercion was the system used
with greater or lesser success throughout the Andes region. In Galindo where
ideological power was weak after political collapse, and the Moche valley reduced to
harbouring only a provincial capital, there was a noticeable lack of monumental
public construction. The centralized and ideological control over and cohesion of the
Galindo population was weak, leading to the divisive and elite protective urban design
as discussed previously in chapters five and six. Galindo city, absorbing refugees
from the south and populated by the people of the Moche valley who had cast down
the old order did not have either the faith in their elite and the ideology or the internal
cohesion to form the large and motivated workforce needed for monumental
construction. The environmental stress on the agricultural production, due to the El
Niño and as witnessed by the elite’s strict control over storage of surplus, may also
have meant that there was less free time in the agricultural cycle to devote to
monumental public projects. Keeping the irrigation channels free of the wind blown
sand may have used up the mitae service available.

In comparison in the same Moche epoch, but suffering less from political and
ideological collapse and environmental stress from the flood and drought conditions,
was Pampas Grande in the Lambayeque valley. Here massive monumental
construction, in the form of the Huaca Grande, continued. Although after capturing
the Gallinazo people living higher in the valley and forcing them to construct the
Huaca Grande in a very short space of time, to represent the new state power of the
late Moche period, the Gallinazo people were given an urban district of Pampas
Grande in which to reside as a community. After their service was rendered they were

16
Shady, R., ‘Las investigaciones en Caral: alegrías y penas’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad
sagrada de Caral – Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el
antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003f,
pp. 9- 12: p. 10.
17
Earle (2002: p. 55) makes the important points that ‘…labour invested in monumental construction at
the centres is used as a measure of the group size that is organized centrally; it measures the surplus
mobilized’ – however this can be disputed as small groups can build large monuments over long time
frames. This makes it important to know the number of building phases when estimating the size of the
labour crews used.
18
Shady, Dolorier, Montesinos & Casas (2000): p. 19.
19
Reader, J., Cities, London, William Heinemann, 2004.

240
permitted to join in as citizens of the new ideology. New sections were later added to
the Huaca Grande representing the centralized states continuing ideological hold over
the population and ability to still command mitae service.

Wari-Tiwanaku domination probably carried out by military, ideological and

economic force created new urban centres. There is no information about Wari use
and control of labour force, but it seems likely that the conquered peoples, submitting
to the new ideological and political regime, were also used as a labour force under the
mitae service tax, and so escaped slavery and maintained many of their independent
cultural traits that were to effect the following Regional States Period. The mitae
system had previously been in use in Tiwanaku and in all probability was also used
under the imperial expansion. Mitmaes settling in new areas would also have supplied
an experienced mitae work force.

The Tiwanaku system of mitmaes or colonies was later used under the Tawantinsuyu
Empire to a far greater extent, taking colonists from one part of the empire and
transferring them to underdeveloped parts of the empire, in keeping with the Incas’
metaphorical duty to convert under populated and under-used lands into economically
important properties20. Then, using the mitae service tax and the mitmaes’ civilizing
skills, the colonists helped to quickly form new urban areas and spread their
urbanizing influence. This system is documented as being in use around Lake Titicaca
by the Tiwanacoans and was probably used by the Wari-Tiwanaku in the coastal and
central highland areas, helping to account for the very quick spread of Wari-Tiwanaku
styles and ideas. This process of cultural diffusion was faster and deeper in influence
than mere military occupation could force.

After the collapse of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire the Regional States Period is known
for the lessening of centralized power, although there continued to be hydraulic
societies. In this period the urban centres were maintained and perhaps grew through
increased urban densification, but very few new urban centres were created. Those
that were maintained, as for example Chan Chan under the Chimú, had retained
strong central governance and imperial ideas. Pachacamac also rose to become a
strong independent regional force. However, generally in the cities there were few
monumental public structures created and those that were, were smaller in design, and
public areas such as plazas and avenues played less of a role. The elite were unable to
use ideologically and politically centralized control as in the past to raise large
workforces of mitae and many cultures returned to a chieftaincy system of politics, as
their cultures had not previously had the sophistication to maintain centralized state
politics and administration after the Wari-Tiwanaku collapse. Organized centralized
planning, design and decision making were also to generally suffer on account of this
failing.

The Tawantinsuyu Empire used the system of mitae and mitmae to full effect creating
a large labour force for urban creation, re-modeling, infrastructure and maintenance
throughout the Empire.21 Each settlement or city was responsible for the construction

20
Niles (1999): p. 296.
21
Hyslop, J. (Inka settlement planning, Austin, Uni. of Texas press, 1990: p. 149) believes that ‘[I]t is
possible that the Inka resettlement of people equalled or exceeded that of the later Spanish vice-regal
administration…’

241
and upkeep of their area, including roads and bridges, and the supply of tambos22. The
first example of the Tawantinsuyu use of this system was when Inca Pachacuti gave
all the land surrounding Cuzco to the Cuzceñeans, making them all aristocracy and
sent the unfortunate neighbours away as mitmae to other parts of the expanding
empire. Mitmae from the coastal areas were then brought into the area to construct the
re-modeled Cuzco, and later to construct the various cities and settlements and
palaces of the Urubamba valley, the most populated part of the Empire23.

The wide use of this system created in the Tawantinsuyu Empire a cultural melting
pot of ideas and skills that made a pan-Andean tradition of urban design a firm reality.
The introduction of the wide use of this system forced ancient settlement patterns to
suffer significant transformation24. As noted before, the use of existing cities and
settlements, with re-modeling, limited the Tawantinsuyu creation of new urban
centres. The mitae labour force was mainly used for the creation of infrastructure for
communication, transport, war efforts and increased agricultural and tool production
and storage necessary for a quickly expanding massive empire dedicated to complete
social and economic control. A further important aim was the raising of the general
living standards to help maintain political stability over the many different dominated
cultures in a wide variety of geography. Yet the Tawantinsuyu allowed a relative
cultural independence to those that willingly submitted to their imperial will.

One effect was that a diverse range of people from different cultures learnt to work
with design ideas and traditions for urban construction to which they may not have
been accustomed. These ideas were the apex of the pan-Andean urban design tradition
that had become collected under the Tawantinsuyu Empire and were used throughout
the region. The re-introduction of the regional areas to centralized political control
and ideological coercion re-started the use of the mitae service for the good of an
empire. The monumental building was now mainly in the form of imperial
infrastructure, and a few public monuments such as the numerous Pyramids of the
Sun and altered plazas in provincial capitals. The limited success of this coercion is to
be noted in the rapid exchange of alliances to help the conquistador Spanish invaders
by many of the Tawantinsuyu’s conquered nations.

7.3 Economic Areas

The design of cities around a central religious and administrative complex for political
and ideological reasons has previously been thoroughly discussed (chapter six);
however there were also economic justifications. The earliest planned design of Caral
was created during a period when, although there was a hydraulic political economy,
some of the older subsistence strategies such as hunting and gathering were still in use
as economic support, and in many places they continued to play this role throughout
Andean pre-history25. It was, and remained, sensible to have the agricultural class and
those involved in other subsistence strategies of staple goods production live on the
outskirts of the urban area to maintain easy access to the fields and terrain where their
productive activities took place. Although the Tawantinsuyu had a rapid expansion of
its empire that brought with it regional peace, these factors were not linked to

22
Tawantinsuyu rest-houses placed at intervals along the road system.
23
Hyslop (1990): p. 62; Niles (1999): p. 263.
24
Hardoy, J. E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. 431.
25
Lumbreras, L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: p. 230.

242
expanding specialization or exchange.26 Staple goods were produced and consumed in
their relative areas, while some of the surplus was used for the creation of wealth
goods that could serve the political economy by being redistributed within circles of
elite power and moved to centralized storage areas or used for ritual display.27

The administration of the society’s surplus took place in the central area under the
control of the elite, part of whose function was to keep track of storage and
distribution of agricultural products and community utensils, ceramics, course textiles
and elite products of metals and fine ceramics and textiles. In the central
administrative buildings were kept the quipus or, knotted strings that kept tally in
Chimú and Tawantinsuyu times. The central site of the administration buildings also
symbolically represented the central importance of the state economy, not only for the
elite but for the society as a whole28, both urban and rural. Through urban design the
central political economic control was clearly associated with the stability of the
religious, ideological and political orders.

Earle finds the central control of the states surplus as fundamental to expansionist
policy, such as the Tawantinsuyu, Chimú or Wari-Tiwanaku;
For an imperial state such as the Inka [Tawantinsuyu], the decentralized
political economy must have been extraordinarily difficult to control. In the
Inka case, for example, each region had its own administrative centre and
maintained its own separate stores to support local state activities. Local
storage, however, also increases the opportunities for local revolt. Rebels
could seize the stores and use them to fund action against the central
government. In order to solve the problem of decentralization, most complex
societies use some form of wealth finance in which specialists play a central
role … because wealth is easier than bulky staples to transport, wealth finance
permits an expansion in the regional scale of the polity while retaining
centralized control over the currency of finance. Wealth collected from
conquered populations can be moved into the states centre, where it is held
until used as payment.29

Space within cities for economic activities was essential, and shared some common
features due to the similarity of the economic system or network strategy30 of wealth
finance in the Andes. One of the important roles of the city was to act as a centre for

26
Earle (2002): pp. 133, 137.
27
Earle (2002): p. 63, 144, 148, 149.
28
Moore (1958: pp. 24- 25) explains that under the Tawantinsuyu system ‘What was gathered was put
into local storehouses, in part for sacrifices and in part for the support of the huaca attendants. Some of
what was not used locally was taken to the provincial capital and some to Cuzco, the centre of the most
important deities. Acosta says that the largest part went to Cuzco. Recalling that the Inca conquerors
transported the most important local idols to Cuzco, and that persons from these localities served in
Cuzco as attendants of their gods, one may infer that some of the local produce going to Cuzco went
for the support of these persons and shrines, as well as for the national sanctuaries.’
29
Earle (2002): pp. 148 -49
30
Earle’s (2002: p. 17) idea of Network Strategy is that it defines ‘…relationships of people to people
through kinship, trade partnerships and alliances. In complex societies network strategies create broad
systems of ideological and material exchanges binding leaders together in networks of mutual support
and competition. These relationships are intensely personal and highly fluid, but they become
materialized by the gifting of wealth objects. The form of networks is given physical reality and
visibility with objects, and the control over manufacture and distribution of these politically significant
objects is critical to understanding the nature of the networks in societies without written contracts’.

243
production, storage, distribution and economic exchange. Due to the Andean self-
sufficient system of multi-ecological resource zone use a market economy did not
develop, but continued to be a community based distribution of resources controlled
by the state. Although exchange or trade, particularly in luxury goods or via wealth
finance, took place under state control on behalf of the elite.31 As noted previously the
Andean plazas did not particularly develop a role as public market places, although
there is clear proof of the variety of forms of exchange between highland and coastal
cultures.32 However other clearly urban economic areas did exist.

Figure 240. Quipu, a mnemonic device of knotted and coloured string for recording statistical
information (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p.142).33

31
Moore (1958: p. 132) describes the reasons for this under the Tawantinsuyu but it is applicable to
other periods and places within the Andes; ‘…the limited and local nature of trade may have been a
result more of the locally-centred community and economic structure, than of any restrictive policies of
the Inca government. There was relatively little mercantile development – nothing comparable to Aztec
Mexico.’
32
Baudin, L., Daily Life of the Incas, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, Original Publication 1961c,
unabridged Dover Ed. 2003: p. 41.
33
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004.

244
The Inca decreed that craftsmen and technicians from all over the Empire should
come to live in Cuzco, and craftsmen were also removed from their own communities
to work under supervision in Tawantinsuyu administration centres.34 With a large
group of lower ranking administrators who already lived and worked in Cuzco city,
they constituted an important percentage of economic specialists in the total number
of city dwellers35. In general in Andean cities, in the central elite districts could be
found the workshops for elite products such as high quality ceramics and metals. The
elite artisans, attracted to the wealth of the large cities, were kept closely under the
supervision of the ruling class as they were the important producers of the ideological
symbols and wealth objects that supported the power structure36. Earle makes the
statement that
A further and perhaps surer means of control of wealth involves the support
and management of its manufacture. Specialist craftsmen, attached directly to
elite patrons, can be involved in the manufacture of wealth used in social
exchanges and political payments.37

Elite products formed the wealth objects used for the maintenance of the political
economy. Staple goods were used by the elite to support specialists who produced
high quality inalienable goods for exchange within a limited political sphere.38
To maximize central control, wealth objects must be scarce and difficult to
fake. They must be rare (either because of the material used or the skill in
labour involved) and their allocation must be controlled… the control of
wealth production increases as the scale of political institutions expand.39
The Tawantinsuyu state took control of production in key wealth objects, especially
the metal and cloth, and created large-scale systems of manufacture, storage, and long
distance transportation.40

Centrally located weaving centres were used by the Mochica and Tawantinsuyu41,
while high status fine ceramic workshops have been found in the central precincts of
the Late Mochica sites of Galindo and Pampa Grande42 and Cerro Mayal, or similarly

34
Earle (2002): p. 159.
35
Hardoy (1973: p. 447), states that they constituted the ‘middle class’, below which were the workers
and soldiers.
36
Bawden, G., ‘Life in the pre-Columbian town of Galindo’, Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, vol. 49, no. 3, 1978, pp. 16-23: pp. 22- 23; Bawden, G., ‘Galindo: a study in cultural transition
during the Middle Horizon’, in M.E. Moseley & K.C. Day (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City,
Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 285-320; Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996: p. 79; Hardoy (1973): p. 418. Bawden makes this point in
regard to the Mochica, but it is able to be applied across the centralized political cultures of the Andes
as part of the basic economic practice and control of symbols of ideology.
37
Earle (2002): p. 63.
38
Earle (2002): pp. 209, 218.
39
Earle (2002): p. 149.
40
Earle (2002): p. 159
41
Earle (2002: p. 155) mentions the situation of an entire village, Millera on the northern shore of Lake
Titicaca, that was used as a specialist production site of 1000 weavers producing cloth for the military.
He also cites the example of the weaver’s compound at Huánuco Pampa and nearby Pumpu which he
describes as semi-industrial large scale production.
42
Bawden (1996: p. 291) finds that ‘Enclosed within the perimeter walls of the central precinct were a
number of specialized craft workshops which produced the metal and ceramic symbols of high status.
These workshops were of standardized architectural plan and careful construction as befitted the
locations of activities important to broader social integration.’

245
placed were the shell jewelry workshops from the Turquis Plaza in Huari43. Access to
and control of such wealth items illustrates the connection between craft
specialization, inalienable objects, and symbolic representation.44 Of the Moche,
Bawden states that:
Significantly, both of the excavated [metal] workshops were located in
exclusive parts of their towns near administrative architecture and in settings
where access was restricted.45
Earle remarks about the Tawantinsuyu that
In the Inka [Tawantinsuyu] empire, the role of wealth produced by attached
specialists is most apparent in cloth and metals. These wealth objects served to
define visually the status divisions within society.46

Similarly, chicha, or corn beer brewing, an important part of all festivities and rituals
was in the cities restricted to a particular enclave, sometimes shared with the weavers.
Chicha played an economic as well as religious role, the Tawantinsuyu using large
festivals keep the peace with conquered people as part of reciprocity. At the time of
these festivals the cities would fill with people from the countryside, villages, towns
and other cities making the large central public plazas important spaces of economic
reciprocal and ideological activities. The economic ability of a city to hold these
festivals in which much food and chichi were freely consumed for periods of days,
did much not only for the reputation of the city but also maintained and perhaps
increased it sphere of influence.

Figure 241. A Moche plate depicting a women’s weaving factory. The women are using backstrap
looms (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p.. 73)

Produce from distant places was brought to the cities, objects created for foreign trade
and articles assembled from raw material from distant locations, all were part of the
economic activity of the cities and as such were given space in which to operate.
Tiwanaku was known to be an importer of raw materials and exporter of
manufactured products, including ceramics, metals, textiles, coca and hallucinogenic

43
Bawden (1978): pp. 22- 23; (1982); (1996): p. 96- 97, 100, 291-3; Hardoy (1973).
44
Earle (2002): p. 150.
45
Bawden (1996: p. 97) also interestingly points out ‘Such concern with supervision and control
clearly indicates the great value placed on metalworking by Moche rulers and underscores the
importance of items of precious metal as symbols of authority.’
46
Earle (2002): p. 154.

246
powders and paraphernalia47, while Chan Chan on the north coast and Huari and other
highland centers were also known for the trade and production of specialized elite
goods48 and included production areas for these precious products. Huari had a special
area for the working of turquoise and there may have been another for the working of
obsidian49, both were materials brought in from considerable distance.

In comparison, the workshops for utensil items such as cooking and storage ceramics
were found in locations remote from centres of government and on the outskirts of the
residential areas. In smaller towns, such as in the Mantaro valley, production also
continued on a household basis.50 These did not require the close supervision and
control of the elite. These city workshops and smelters also used greater quantities of
raw materials as they were involved in mass production. Consequently, they were
located conveniently close to the intercity roads and cargo areas (for instance, in
Galindo and Pampas Grande), where their position would have facilitated access to
llama caravans bringing raw materials and exporting finished products, confirming
the integration of transportation and production at the site51.

The need to accommodate the constant transportation of goods by large llama trains
also maintained fundamental similarities between sites52, as the llama trains with their
cargo were not permitted access to the central district, even though the main
administrative buildings were located there. Loading and unloading took place in
designated corrals on the outskirts or beside storage and distributive buildings.53
However, from these cargo areas, or corrals, internal roads linked them to the
administration buildings and especially the storage areas for wealth objects. Generally
the distribution of Tawantinsuyu state storage complexes was not associated with the
distribution of regional local communities, but was linked to the location of the state
administrative centres and capitals.54

The development of central storage facilities in an agrarian state is a key element in

the centralization of power and direction within society.55 Public storage buildings56
were usually located in an easily naturally defensive position, where the elite could
maintain control over their protection and therefore control over the economy,57 use
of the products and therefore the re-distribution, as, for instance, in Galindo, Písac,
Ollantaytambo and Cuzco. They were also located, as for example at Huánuco

47
Browman, D.L. (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, World Anthropology Series, Paris, Mouton
Publishers, 1978a: p. 328; Browman, D.L., ‘Toward the development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku)
state’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978b, pp.
327-349: p. 333.
48
Browman (1978b): p. 333.
49
In my investigations at Huari I uncovered an area beside a system of reservoirs which had been used
for the exclusive production of obsidian tools. Beside a different reservoir in the central elite area I
uncovered an area for working turquoise, other than that used in the Turquois compound commonly
known about. Field notes, Lindsay Hasluck, 2004.
50
Earle (2002): p. 136 -37.
51
Bawden (1978): pp. 22- 23; (1996): pp. 98- 99.
52
Browman (1978a): p. 305.
53
Bawden (1978): p. 23; (1982): p. 310; Hardoy (1973): p. 431.
54
Earle (2002): p. 207.
55
Earle (2002): p. 204.
56
Bawden (1996: p. 82) finds that houses in the Andes generally had a private storage area as part of
their design.
57
Earle (2002): p. 204.

247
Pampa, Písac, Ollantaytambo and Galindo, on hillsides to take advantage of the
prevalent winds for the maintaining of food stuffs in prime condition. The
Tawantinsuyu state used these massive stores as a means of payment, especially for
local regional leaders and for the ritual display and status of the empire in such events
as the regular state/ religious feasts.58

The storage of military items and supplies was also of great importance and were
usually strategically placed in areas under the elite control. In Cuzco the two prime
areas for military storage were along the avenues of the central elite area and in the
fortress-temple of Sacsawaman on the hilltop above Cuzco. It is difficult to demarcate
areas of storage of elite items such as gold and silver objects as these were usually
part of the decorations of the temples59 and elite houses as part of a strategy of status
display. Much legend has been handed down about the storage of Inca gold in the
subterranean tunnels below Cuzco, but none has so far come to light in the recent
investigations. However eyewitness accounts of the storage of fine textiles and other
products in the Tawantinsuyu Empire attest to the importance of control over this
wealth.60

There was also the need for the storage of religious offerings which would have been
a large part of the economies of the cities with greater reputations, such as Cuzco,
Tiwanaku and Pachacamac. These cities also filled religious roles and were often
visited by pilgrims from all over the Andes. In the case of Pachacamac, where an
important Andean oracle was housed, the volume of religious offerings in the time of
the Ichma, Regional States Period, was so great that they created a sister city,
Armatambo (chapter ten) nearby where these could be stored and handled. From there
they could be brought to Pachacamac for use or display. The Inca recognized the
important wealth and political economic role of the Pachacamac oracle, and the
storage and processing power of attached Armatambo, so did little to alter the city.

By comparison, during the Regional States Period the towns, as for example in the
Mantaro valley, not only moved to the peaks of hills to build their defensive
settlements but, reflecting the cultural shift away from an imperial network of
intercity roads maintained for the large system of llama caravan trade, erected their
new cities with no internal access for llamas. Any llama caravans that may have
visited were corralled outside the city walls.61 This also meant that internal streets
were smaller and more organic in growth and construction.

58
Earle (2002): pp. 156, 201.
59
Earle (2002): p. 157.
60
A conquestidor account is quoted in Earle (2002: p. 156) from Murra (‘The function of cloth in the
Inka state’ in American Anthropologist, no. 64, 1962, pp. 710 -728: p. 717) – ‘Among the eyewitnesses
of the invasion of Caxamarca [Cajamarca] there were houses filled to the ceiling with clothes tied into
bundles. Even after “the Christians took all they wanted”, no dent was made in the pile. “There was so
much cloth of wool and cotton that it seemed to me that many ships could have been filled with them”.
As Pizarro’s army progressed across the Inka realm, similar stores were found at Xuaxa [Jauja] and in
Cuzco. In the capital it was “incredible” to see the number of separate wharehouses filled with wool,
rope, cloth both fine and rough, garments of many kinds, feathers and sandals. Pedro Pizarro mused
some 40 years later about what he had seen as a youth: “I could not say about the wharehouses I saw,
of cloth and all kinds of garments which were made and used in this kingdom, as there was no time to
it, nor sense to understand so many things”.
61
Matos Mendieta, R., ‘Cultural and ecological context of the Mantaro Valley’, in D.L. Browman
(ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 307- 325: p. 313.

248
Figure 242. Storage buildings at Ollantaytambo, set high on the mountainside above the urban centre
for easy defense and control, and to take advantage of the preserving effect of the prevailing winds
(Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 243. Reconstructed storage buildings on the mountainside at Písac, located defensively and
apart from the residential areas. However with direct and limited access from elite residences. (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2002).

249
Another important area for economic activity, processing of foods and production of
utensil and common objects occurred within the family home.62 As explained in
chapter six, the family courtyard inside the patio house was the main area of family
economic activities63. Previously, the Mochica housing was often grouped around a
central patio where domestic activity was pursued in a more communal way. Here we
can presume that, as Andean’s continue to do today, the occupants of the houses,
probably related families from the house blocks, met to relax after their days work.
Here men also fashioned new agricultural tools, repaired broken ones, and shared with
women the preparation of fruits and vegetables for cooking.

In the benched courtyards of the Moche houses that served as the centres of domestic
life were found artifacts associated with women, such as sewing, cooking and
weaving implements. The women may also have participated in the domestic
distribution network whose presence is marked by the attached storage room. Here
women spun yarn from which rope and string were made and wove on their back-
strap looms64 in the shelter of overhanging verandas while children played. The
finding of a range of figurines, that may have been toys, decoration or domestic icons
shows that Moche families, like their counterparts everywhere, not only aspired to be
free of hunger and abuse, but also created a domestic sphere enhanced by relaxation,
aesthetic pleasure and play.65 This use of the patio for domestic economic activities
continues in the present day Andes, where campesino’s household traditions have
changed little.

Under the Tawantinsuyu, some of these family-produced objects, including lithic,

textiles, ceramics and bronze tools, were then placed in state storage and used for the
common goals of the empire, for military and agricultural expansion and for security
against famine.66 Specialised products for the Inca himself, such as vicuña67 textiles
for his clothing68 were produced by specialists such as the hundreds of virgins in the
numerous Houses of Virgins Temples in Cuzco and throughout the provincial
capitals69. Morris explains that ‘[s]taples, mobilized from local communities, were
moved to the administrative centres, where crafters supported by the staples produced
the fine objects that then could be moved to Cuzco and retained in central
storehouses’.70

Although the Andes never developed a market system such as Mesoamerica, where
one of the main functions of the plaza was for the bazaar, in the Andes the plaza also
played a type of economic role. Not only was it used for the large religious and state
festival in which part of the previously gathered surplus was redistributed in festivals

62
Earle (2002): p. 154.
63
Bawden (1978): p. 20; (1996): pp. 81-2.
64
A back-strap loom is a popular indigenous loom used throughout the Andes. In the home it is tied to
a roof support pole for working and is strapped behind the back. See figure 235.
65
Bawden (1978): p. 20; (1996): p. 84- 85.
66
Earle (2002): pp. 218, 244.
67
The Vicuña is a small wild cameloid whose flesh and fur were reserved only for use by the Inca.
68
The clothing of the Inca was burnt everyday after use, but had to be made from textiles woven by the
holy virgins from the fur of the vicuña.
69
Bawden (1996): pp. 79, 81; Hardoy (1973): p. 418.
70
Morris, C., (Storage in Tawantinsuyu, Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1967) from Earle (2002: p.
218).

250
of eating and drinking of a reciprocal basis,71 it was also used for the gathering of the
military. This served two functions: firstly, the display of might and benevolence
served to publicly reinforce the control of the state and help ensure the continued
collection of surplus, but, secondly, it also meant that areas conquered by wars and
after suppressed revolutions served to maintain the economic equilibrium of the
empire. Without the ability for large military manoeuvres, certainly under the
Tawantinsuyu, the empire could not have held together the vast region of varied
cultures, nor conquered new areas with their important resources. The assembling of
the might of the empire, who were usually armed farmers under mitae attached to a
small professional army, in the centre of the city was also a symbolic gesture of the
size of the force the empire could maintain. The power of the political economy could
be seen in the mass of infantry that it could muster or the size of the feast the state
could sponsor.

Earle is not unaware of the role that the environment played in the growth of a
political economy able to support urbanism. He states, that ‘[t]he local ecology, its
potential for long-term intensification, and the ability to control surplus production
from the subsistence economy are all of great importance in limiting or encouraging
political development’. It also had great effect upon the form that Andean urban areas
would take.

71
Earle (2002: p. 246) makes an interesting observation based on bone analysis showing a maize
enriched diet, that the Wanka III, Mantaro valley (Tawantinsuyu occupation period) males ‘…who
were apparently “eating out” for a significant proportion of their meals, suggest the importance of state
sponsored feasting. The support of massive ceremonies was part of the states broader control over
cultural production functioning to legitimize the states hegemony’.

251
CHAPTER EIGHT - Environmental Design
It is not for nothing that men have dwelt so often on the beauty or the ugliness
of cities.
Lewis Mumford1

In chapter nine it will been demonstrated how the environment was represented in the
religious and social structure and symbolic world-view of Andean life. This chapter
will explore the relationship between urban design and the Andean environment as
expressed in the adaptation to topography, the inclusion of natural features and the
through aesthetic expression which create an internal urban environment. The Andean
environment through its volatile and tough nature has always been a large shaping
influence on Andean cultures. Its role in the physical design of the cities certainly
determined some aspects through adaptation to geography, availability of water and
ease of access to other cities. The environments widespread and varied inclusion in
urban planning shows the large part that it played in Andean cultures.

8.1 Topographical Adaptation

The Andean cultures have always had, and continue to have, an integral relationship
with the environment both physically and spiritually. Physically, the difficult and
varied geography has forced them to adapt in various ways all aspects of their lives.
They transformed the land through irrigation, terracing, canalization, roads, bridges
and urbanization to be able to forge their civilizations. When building their cities the
topography, availability of water and arable land were also controlling factors for
position and design.

The coastal areas, being flatter, had greater areas of arable land and easier access to
water. It has previously been noted in chapter six how the location of a city had
importance, and how the flatter form of the coastal terrain allowed cities to be created
with a design of greater regularity based upon the repetitive use of enclosures.
However in the highlands, where the terrain was often topographically extreme, some
of the cities were forced to alter their forms to accommodate the individual natures of
the terrain. This is particularly the case for Huari and later there are many more
examples under the Tawantinsuyu, the finest of which were Machu Picchu as well as
Písac, a large city of that was constructed over the entire top of a mountain in the
Urubamba (Sacred) valley2.

Although Wari-Tiwanaku culture introduced regular enclosures, their use as a

standard layout in the highlands was limited in comparison to the coast. Huari, for
example, was defensively enclosed by a wall and built on the top of a plateau of
which two sides vertically descend to rivers, making space limited. Inside the city
walls the terrain is composed of many small knolls and a regular layout was not
possible. Even though there was use of enclosures in a scattered way the design of the
city is controlled by the available usable land and the form of the terrain. However,

1
Mumford, Lewis, 'What is a city?' in The Architectural Record, 1937, re-published in Malcolm Miles
and Tim Hall (eds), The City Cultures Reader, Routledge, New York, 2nd edn 2004, pp. 28-32: p. 29.
2
Niles, S. A., The Shape of Inca History - Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire, Iowa
City, Uni. of Iowa Press, 1999.

252
the city design still included the same traditional city elements with plazas, temples,
streets and administrative centres, central to the housing.

Figure 244. A Plan of Huari (Wari) showing its use of regular enclosures despite its difficult
adaptation to the hilly terrain. Note also the repeated use of circular plazas and large dividing wall
(Source: Escalante, 2001, p. 132)3.

Accommodating structures and urban features to the terrain was a characteristic of

highland people. The Tawantinsuyu builders of Marca Huamachuco skillfully utilized
the differences in elevation and agricultural terraces to strengthen the cities defence
system. On the elevations to the northwest of the mountaintop, the inhabitants built
other fortified complexes to defend the access to the city from that direction4. Also
Machu Picchu and Písac both had naturally defensive positions. It was common
amongst all the urban settlements to build the cities upon the non-arable land, usually
rougher terrain, in order to maximize production5. The case of Galindo using the
topography of the site to help in political and social division demonstrates a good
understanding of the possible uses of topography in urban design6.

This system of adaptation of form while maintaining the same design elements was
used as the foundation of urban planning by the Tawantinsuyu, this was in contrast to
the Wari-Tiwanaku formal rigid planning in mitmaequna colonies as represented best
3
Escalante Moscoso, J.F., De la caverna a la metrópolis – 5000 años de arquitectura, 2nd Edición, La
Paz, Producciones CIMA, 2001.
4
Hardoy, J. E., Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. 346.
5
Bawden, G., ‘Life in the pre-Columbian town of Galindo’, Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin,
vol. 49, no. 3, 1978, pp. 16-23: p. 16.
6
Bawden, G., ‘Galindo: a study in cultural transition during the Middle Horizon’, in M.E. Moseley &
K.C. Day (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp.
285-320.

253
by Pikillacta and Viracochapampa. Although Huari uses the Tiwanaku design concept
the form which has been adapted to the difficult terrain was Huari in design7. Písac,
the second Cuzco and Quito, are all found to have the main infrastructural elements
although their placement within the city varies according to the topography,
maintaining only the central placement of the state, religious and elite residences
around or nearby the main plaza.

No matter what the topography the central position of power retains its importance,
with the housing surrounding, and the form of the ‘barrios’ depend upon the lay of the
land. Such as at Ollantaytambo which tries to adhere to a grid plan, but the
topography forces the city to have an upper and lower level and to build the barrios in
a trapezoidal form. The elite housing will usually be found in the upper or higher
areas, as first seen in Caral. Cuzco, Písac and Machu Picchu of the Tawantinsuyu
used this layout, while, of the Huari influenced coastal cultures, El Purgatorio,
Galindo and Pachacamac also use this criteria. Huari itself located the religious and
administrative buildings on the down slope and in a less central position; however this
utilized the flatter terrain and allowed a better water service from reservoirs above.

Figure 245. Plan of Ollantaytambo. The religious and defensive part of the city through which the
inter-city road passes is on the terraced hillside to the left of the central river. On the right is the
housing area, barrio, shaped in a rough trapezoid to fit the features of the terrain. Note the two plazas,
one on either side of the river, servicing religious and administrative functions (16) and public space
functions (23) respectively. A spring of sacred waters is associated with the religious plaza (Source:
Hardoy, 1968, Figure 62)8.

7
Spickard, L. E., ‘El análisis de la arquitectura de los sitios de Huari y Tiwanaku’, Dialogo Andina,
45th Congreso Intercultural Americanistas, Bogota, 1983, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 73-88.
8
Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in pre-Columbian America, London, Studio Vista, 1968.

254
Figure 246. A rough plan of Písac, a city comparable in size with Cuzco. Note how the city is spread
over the mountain peak, using the natural terrace-like formations for constructions. However much
effort has been put into the agricultural terracing that transforms the sides of the mountains. The elite
housing and religious complex are placed higher up the mountain. The red line represents the modern
road from Cuzco crossing the Urubamba valley. Not represented on this map are the vast quantity of
agricultural terraces on the other side of the river (Source: Angles, 2001, p. 40).

Bonavía states:
One common feature is seen in all Inca and pre-Inca centres of population: i.e.
their complete adaptation to topography and the maximum use of natural
features in their building of these centres. This results from the imposing
geomorphological conditions which they had to master. This was undoubtedly
a determining factor preventing (in many cases) any regularity of urban
design, as Rowe (1946:2289) has observed. The Andean man in fact made
relatively few changes in his natural environment when setting up his home.
Major changes were directed towards problems of much greater importance,
such as the obtaining of arable lands and the carrying out of engineering works
to preserve them permanently.10

As previously discussed in chapter six it is the plazas that noticeably and continuously
change form to suit the topography, leading to the wide diversity found under
Tawantinsuyu planning, although with a propensity for trapezoidal or some form of
geometric shape. Machu Picchu, Cuzco and Tambo Colorado’s plazas are clear
examples of this topographical adaptation11.

8.2 Natural Features

Building in environmental extremes or otherwise, the use of natural features has
always been a component of urban design in the Andes. The foremost aspect is the

9
Rowe, J. H., ‘Inca culture at the time of Spanish conquest’, in J.H. Steward (ed.), Handbook of South
American Indians, vol. 2, Smithsonian Institution Bulletin 143, Washington D.C., 1946, pp.183-330.
10
Bonavía, D., ‘Ecological factors affecting the urban transformation in the last centuries of the
pre-Columbian era’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton
Publishers, 1978a, pp. 393-410: pp. 394- 395.
11
Baudin, L., Daily Life of the Incas, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, Original Publication 1961c,
unabridged Dover Ed., 2003: p. 41; Hardoy (1968): p. 48.

255
use of vistas or views. Entire cities, or particular structures or avenues, were designed
to give maximum views of the natural scenery, such as mountains, river, valley or
ocean. Unusually, however, Cuzco makes no attempt to create vistas and variety by
bringing into play natural differences in elevation12. The general orientation of the
buildings at nearby Chinchero were built to discourage access but to afford views of
the main plaza, and represents only one example of where the Tawantinsuyu also
show an appreciation for the man-made environment13. As noted earlier the pyramids
in Caral were built so that they all looked over the central plaza and onto each other,
as did those of Tiwanaku.

Machu Picchu provides one of the best known examples with the famous ‘three
windows’ looking out over the valley. There are also many windows and balconies
with apparently no other purpose than to enjoy the famous view14. Písac built upon
the entire top of a mountain has superb views and buildings with windows and doors
that faced in directions to appreciate them and to take advantage of the natural
features15. Cuzco is constructed without monumental buildings leaving an open view
of the surrounding mountains, while Sacsawaman commands a spectacular view over
Cuzco and the mountains, and was built with many windows to appreciate it.16
Ollantaytambo was orientated to enjoy the view of the river and valley17.
Pachacamac’s pyramids and plazas have a view of the ocean, river valley and the two
sacred islands just offshore as did some of the major streets18. Caral had a view of the
river valley and mountains, Tiwanaku a view of the sacred mountains, setting and
rising sun and the lake (which may have been higher during its time) and also of the
residential districts19. Huari had a commanding view over the two connecting rivers
and their valleys and Chan Chan a view of the ocean, river mouth and mountains.
Cajamarca was such a popular city for views, and thermal baths, that many Inca and
elite families built palaces there. Obviously clear views must also have played a
defensive role.

12
Hardoy (1973): p. 456.
13
Niles (1999): p. 284.
14
Baudin, L., Daily Life In Peru: under the last Incas, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1961b: p. 29;
Bingham, H., Machu Picchu - a citadel of the Incas - report of the explorations and excavations made
in1911, 1912 and 1915 under the auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society,
(1930), New Haven, Hacker Art Books, Inc., New York, re-issued 1979:pp. 50, 63, 66, 75. Bingham
(1979: p. 52), the first archaeologist to explore Machu Picchu, passionately describes the view; ‘I know
of no place in Peru that has a more charming view. Many of the mountains sustain a cover of dense
tropical vegetation from top to bottom; others are bare except for scant pasture; while still others
consist of sheer granite precipices. On clear days snow-capped peaks may be seen both east and west,
the finest being those of Salcantay and Soray, which are conspicuous from the lower Cuzco Valley’.
15
Niles (1999): p. 268.
16
Hyslop, J., Inka settlement planning, Austin, Uni. of Texas press, 1990: pp. 53- 4.
17
Niles (1999): pp. 291- 2.
18
Reinhard, J., ‘Tiwanaku: ensayo sobre su cosmovisión’, Pumapunku- Nuevo época, año 1, no. 2,
1991, pp. 9- 66: p. 48. The orientation of the view for the ocean becomes exceedingly apparent when
walking the ruins of Pachacamac. Looking down the main east-west street is looking out towards the
ocean.
19
Spickard (1985).

256
Figure 247. Písac was built to take in the view of the two valleys below, and especially of the sacred
river Urumbamba. From its peak all its land could be surveyed, even the terraces on the other side of
the valley (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 248. Windows on the Písac watch tower that guarded the entrance from the valley and watched
over the river, most of the terraced farming land and the intercity road (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

257
Figure 249. A group of Písac watch towers with windows outwards in all directions. The Incas were
always worried about Amazon tribes making raiding trips up the Urubamba valley (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

Figure 250. A Machu Picchu house from the Kings district with windows overlooking the Urubamba
river valley. These windows may also have played a role in ventilation for the storage of dried food
products, such as corn (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

258
Figure 251. A large window at Machu Picchu looking over the agricultural terraces (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 252. Windows in the Temple of the Sun over looking the central plaza, the Kings district and
the Urubamba river valley at Machu Picchu (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

259
Figure 253. In this photo can be seen the mass of windows facing over the valley, and what an
importance they played in the architecture of Machu Picchu (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figures 254. Above and Below (Fig. 255), windows in the elite housing complex of Tambo Colorado.
Some of the windows face inwards towards the internal patios while others look out over the settlement
and the river valley towards the mountains beyond (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

260
Figure 255. This vista is across a small plaza, note the painted niches on the other side.

The enjoyment of nature did not necessarily end at the cities entrances and was often
included into urban design. With the Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu, bedrock was
always used as a building base where possible. Staircases were often cut out of the
bedrock, with natural caves used as passages and dwellings (eg. the caves of
Cajamarquilla20), parts of buildings and temples, particularly the Tawantinsuyu’s
numerous ‘hitching post of the sun’21. The hitchng post of the sun was a ceremonial
sacred stone to which the ‘sun was tied’ to ensure its return each year, and a feature of
many Tawantinsuyu cities.

Figure 256. Hitching Post to the Sun at Machu Picchu, cut out of bedrock. The form seems to imitate
the sacred Huayna Picchu mountain behind (Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

20
Baudin (2003): p. 40.
21
Baudin (1961b): p. 40; Bingham (1979): p. 52.

261
Figure 257. Stairs at Machu Picchu cut from bedrock (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 258. A subterranean temple under Kenko, carved out of bedrock following a natural fissure. A
Peruvian guide desecrates the sacred site by climbing atop the alter (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

262
Figure 259. Part of a system of subterranean tunnels under the Sacsawaman. This short arm leads from
the circular plaza to a group of tombs carved into cliff faces and boulders (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Natural water courses were channeled to run through the cities both for function and
also to enhance aesthetics, as may be seen in fountains and canals of Pikillacta22,
Cuzco, Machu Picchu23, Pachacamac, Ollantaytambo and especially in Písac24, with
its sacred baths. They were also often made to form similar designed artificial pools
and reservoirs that were constructed with cut stone and suggest similar ritual use.25 In
Cajamarca some of the palaces included pools with channeled thermal hot and cold
running water.26

The use of canals for the movement and collection of water in the Tiwanaku temples
of Akapana and Pumapunku is seen by Reinhard27 as representative of the cult of
water/fertility, which is in relation to the river that connects Tiwanaku with Lake
Titicaca ‘the mother of all waters’. The engineers and architects of Tiwanaku also
planned the elaborate system of covered drainage canals for the city28. This aspect
was also built into Pachacamac with a complex system of canals and reservoirs29 and
played a very important part in the design of the Chan Chan citadels. Tomebamba had

22
Lumbreras, L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: p. 168.
23
Bingham (1979): pp. 48,80.
24
Hyslop (1990): p. 135.
25
Hyslop (1990): p. 137.
26
Niles (1999).
27
Reinhard (1991): pp. 18, 28, 30.
28
Browman, D.L., ‘Toward the development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) state’, in D.L. Browman
(ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978b, pp. 327-349: p. 330.
29
Gisbert, T., ‘Pachacamac y los dioses del Callao’, Reunión Anual de Etnología 1990, La Paz,
MUSEF: Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, 1990, pp. 13- 30: p. 20.

263
a complex system of canals and drainage in the centre and the main plaza of the city.30
Iskanwaya in its extreme mountain top position used a system of canals to collect
water, funnel and distribute it to the patios of the mansions inside the city31 – a system
not seen in other sites in Bolivia.

It is difficult to trace the inclusion of plants in cities in the archaeological record, but
conquistador accounts do mention that in Cuzco sacred corn was grown in the main
plaza and city terraces were set aside for growing the Inca’s favourite flowers. Also
that the people of Tawantinsuyu were renowned for keeping beautiful treed parks,
floral gardens and menageries32. Lumbreras describes a patio in the Koricancha at
Cuzco, which blends the elements of water use, planted gardens and the heights of
aestheticism:
A large central patio is said to have contained a partly natural and partly
artificial garden that was provided with water by channels sheathed in
precious metals and issuing from a central octagonal fountain completely
encased in gold. Beneath the semicircular structure were plants made from
gold and gems, among them stalks of maize with leaves and ears.33

This symbolic garden was a representation of the sacred place of the environment in
the Andean cosmology. So, too, was the Huakaypata Plaza in Cuzco, that was covered
with a deep layer of sand from the Pacific coast34.

Figure 260. The original drain and aqueduct system still bringing water to Ollantaytambo through the
public plaza (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

30
Hyslop (1990): p. 140- 141.
31
Ponce Sanginés, C., ‘La ciudadela precolombina de Iskanwaya’, Arte y Arqueología: Revista del
Instituto de Estudios Bolivianos, vol. 3 & 4, Sección Arte, 1975a, pp. 251-257: p. 252; Portugal Ortix,
M., & Portugal Zamora, M., ‘Investigaciones arqueológicas en el valle de Tiwanaku’, Jornadas
Peruano-Boliviano de Estudio Científico del Altiplano Boliviano y del Sur del Perú, vol. 2-
Arqueología en Bolivia y Perú, 1977, pp. 243-283.
32
Niles (1999): p. 272.
33
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 218.
34
Hyslop (1990): p. 37.

264
Figure 261. Ollantaytambo Tawantinsuyu kancha house, still in use with original water channel
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 262. Aqueduct and street water channel in Ollantaytambo (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

265
Figure 263. Original Tawantinsuyu perimeter road and houses on the river side of Ollantaytambo with
still functioning drain and aqueduct system (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 264. The water system built into the original foundations of the Sun Temple Korikancha, that
was turned into the Saint Dominican Church by the Spanish, who kept the original foundations
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

266
Figure 265. Machu Picchu was fed my many small springs, often bringing water by channels from
great distances. This is the system of fountains served by the main spring that fed a water system that
went through the centre of the town marking the division between the elite and workers residences. A
system of small created waterfalls allowed the water to easily fill containers (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 266. The complex system of water falls used at the ceremonial centre of Tambo Machay, and
still operating today, demonstrates the great importance and symbolism placed on water and the
sophisticated manipulation to which it could be put (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

267
Figure 267. These three photos show the passage of water works that’s start from a spring in the Sun
Temple at the peak of Písac and continue down through the city to the terraces below. First the channel
flows from the spring along the side of the temple, then second, it flows across the plaza in front into a
pool of sacred significance, and thirdly from the pool it flows to the right across the plaza and is
channeled down hill (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

268
Figure 268. The ceremonial baths at Písac, located below the Sun Temple (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 269. Part of the drainage system from the pool atop the Pumapunku temple in Tiwanaku. It fed
into the system of drains and canals for which the city is well known (Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

269
Figure 270. The drainage system for the Semi-subterranean Temple at Tiwanaku (Source: L.Hasluck,
2003).

Figure 271. The drainage system for the Kalasasaya temple at Tiwanaku, the drains run down the entire
length of the east and west side spaced at intervals and would have drained into the larger city system
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2003).

270
Figure 272. The large water reservoir at the Chan Chan citadel of Tschudi is still functioning because it
is deep enough to collect ground water (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 273. Tawantinsuyu ritual baths at ruins above Lago Chillata in Bolivia. The site has a large and
complex water system (Source: ongoing excavations, L.Hasluck, 2003).

271
Figure 274. Road works have uncovered some the sophisticated drainage system at Huari, in the middle
left of the photo one of the underground channels is revealed (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 275. One of the Huari reservoirs situated in the centre of the city, identified by the author. This
probably fed the elite district and temples below (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

272
Figure 276. A Huari stone fountain, in the Huari Site Museum (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 277. The part of the reservoir and underground water and drainage system at Pachacamac.
These three small reservoirs were part of the Mamacuna, House of Virgins religious complex (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

273
Figure 278. Part of the Cambemayo water aqueduct system at Cajamarca, a place also known to have
had flowing hot thermal and cold water systems for the Incas pools. The channel is cut from the
bedrock (Source: 1973, p. 245, fig. 314).

Figure 279. A colonial drainage system made using indigenous stone masons. The Spanish traditions
and the Andean can sometimes bare much in common, Arequipa, Peru (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

274
8.3 Aesthetics
It is difficult in the Andean cultures to talk in terms of pure aesthetics as there appears
to be no separation between functionality, ideology and art. Yet it is clear through
their cultural representations and decoration in ceramics, textiles, metals, architecture,
sculpture, music and urban design that they had a complex and sophisticated sense of
aesthetics.

Most aspects of life from the mundane to the highly sacred tried to be aesthetically
pleasing. The design of cities, buildings, temples, plazas and streets were all
aesthetically treated. As will be further discussed in the following chapter the
different elements of the city design all have an aesthetic touch that played a role in
social coercion. However, the decorations that adorned the walls, temples and
gateways did more than represent the ideological power of the state and cohesive
forces of the culture; they were also designed to be pleasing and invigorating to the
eye. The cities of all epochs, from Caral to Cuzco, were individually places of great
beauty and this must have been part of the attraction of urban living.

The living conditions were probably not abhorrent, at least for the ruling classes, but
created an ambience of colourful vibrancy and beauty, which also held great symbolic
meaning. Niles35 in her analysis of Tawantinsuyu architectural styles points out that
there was an aesthetic difference between works that were dedicated to the
administrative and imperial needs of the state and those that were designed to serve
the private needs of the ruling class. Lumbreras states that ‘the forms of the stones
incorporated into the Cuzco walls reflect an underlying aesthetic sensitivity…’36, and
the Cuzco style was chosen specifically to imitate Tiwanaku stone work – Cieza de
Leon in Ibarra, Mesa & Gisbert states;
‘…yo he oído afirmar a indios que los ingas hicieron los edificios grandes del
Cuzco por la forma que vieron tener la muralla o pared que se ve en este
pueblo [Tiwanaku]’ 37.
Niles38 also cites Cieza de Leon who states that the masonry style used by Pachacutec
for Cuzco and Ollantaytambo was an emulation of the earlier Tiwanaku.

Indeed, in the broader view of Andean urban design it is the aesthetic and social
components, as much as economic and political, that keep the fluidity, status and
structure of the tradition flowing through the ages. The Andean’s close connection to
the environment, and expression of that connection, must also include the urban
environment. In ceramic art through different cultures and epochs is found
expressions of all aspects of their lives, from animals, war, agriculture, hunting,
fishing, ceremonial and religious life, sexuality, through to the urban, of daily
activities, houses, social elite, religion, games, calendars and disease. The Mochican

35
Niles (1999): p. 263.
36
Lumbreras, L. G., (1974c: p. 219), continues ‘…expressed in arrangements that vary from an even
surface composed of rows of equal-sized stones to a technique known as “cellular polygonal,” in which
the stones with different numbers of sides were fitted together so precisely that they resemble the cells
of an organic tissue. The outer face of a wall generally exhibits slight convexity because of the pillow-
like contours of the stones.’
37
Ibarra Grasso, D., De Mesa, J. & Gisbert, T., ‘Reconstruccion de Taypicala (Tiahuanaco)’,
Cuadernos Americanos, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 149-176: p. 158. …I did hear affirmed by Indians that the
Incas made the grand buildings of Cuzco like the form of that of the walls to be seen in this town
[Tiwanaku] (translation by L.Hasluck).
38
Niles (1999): p. 267.

275
pottery for instance gives us an assorted view of life in their time39. To a lesser extent
the same can be said for their textile and ornamental tradition.

It is true to say that within the physical design of the cities was a rich tradition of
aesthetic expression in everyday objects, clothes and music that would have made the
cities colourful and vibrant cultural centres40. Holstein describes the walls of Chan
Chan as an aesthetic masterpiece:
The walls of both palaces and many other buildings – possibly all of them –
were profoundly decorated in high relief, some worked in plaster in the form
of animals, stars, leaves, circles and complicated intricate lines similar to some
of the Chinese ideographs and executed with admirable regularity and
precision. The friezes stood out from a painted background of bright colours
which have entirely disappeared but which have been seen by some of the
oldest inhabitants now living in Trujillo.41

The use of decorated walls was clearly present in the sacred, public and domestic
buildings42 in Caral which used combinations of red, white and yellow.43 This same
combination of colours also adorned the walls at Moche, and the much later
Tawantinsuyu settlement of Tambo Colorado and Ichma constructions of the Regional
States, and Tawantinsuyu Periods at Pachacamac. Remains of these colours are still
visible in these locations today.

Figure 280. Part of wall frieze from Huaca de la Luna, Moche. Some of the colours were formed by
urban manufacturing processes. The yellow and red ochre are oxides from the kilns, also the black
which is an oxide formed at 600°C. The white is talcum powder and the blue is a compound (photo by
L.Hasluck, 2004, ochre analysis by Uceda & Paredes, 1994, p.45).44

39
Bawden (1978); Bawden, G., The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher, 1996;
Davies, N., ‘The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru’, London, Penguin, 1997: pp. 15- 28; Lumbreras (1974c):
pp. 99- 111.
40
Bawden (1996).
41
Holstein, O., ‘Chan-Chan: capital of the great Chimú’, The Geographical Review, vol. 17, no. 1,
1927, pp. 36- 61: p. 58.
42
Llamas–Moxeque was also richly decorated with friezes that were probable painted although I have
found no reference to their colours, which may have been washed away before the colonial period.
43
Shady, R., ‘Caral Supe Perú: La civilización más antigua de América’,Lima, Instituto Nacional de
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, 2nd Ed., 2004.
44
Uceda, S. & Pareda, A., ‘Arquitectura y Función de la Huaca de La Luna’, MASA, vol. 6, no. 7,
1994, pp. 42- 46.

276
Figure 281. Decorated adobe walls of the Dragon Palace at Chan Chan (Source: Lumbreras, 1974, p.
185).

Figure 282. Adobe frieze wall design at Dragon Palace, Chan Chan (Source: Lumbreras, 1974, p.186).

This use of colour on walls, buildings and interiors was also repeated widely by the
Tawantinsuyu, and especially at Cuzco45. The cities, with all they contained, would
have been the peak of cultural expression in their periods, and for this they would
have been an attraction, centre of tradition maintenance and dynamics, and stylistic
exchange. Part of this rich tradition is still clear today in the fine array of decorative
ceramic and woven artifacts, which probably belonged in the main to the elite and
wealthy.

Some specific aspects can be traced through the pan-Andean tradition, but aesthetic
and ideological design is bound to differ and change greatly between cultures and
periods. The stone heads of Kotosh, Chavín de Huantar, Tiwanaku, Huari and Marca
Huamachuco was a style that existed for a long period, around 3000 years. The
45
Hyslop (1990): pp. 11- 12; Lumbreras (1974c): pp. 217- 235; Niles (1999): p. 289, 290.

277
pyramid form, the staircase, geometric designs, the trapezoidal doorway, wall niches
and wavy lines, all these are used from the urban traditions inception or before,
beginning in ceremonial centres and later continued in urban centres46.

Rather than analyse all the countless different ways in which aesthetics were used in
the Andes, it is better to accept from the varying evidences noted above that aesthetics
have always played an important and determining role in cities and urban design in
the Andean region. It would be difficult to believe that plans were made without
taking account of the aesthetic effect. Aesthetics could have also been included in the
following chapter on social design, as it was a part of social and cultural
representation through style and iconography. However it was included under
environment because the general ambience aesthetics creates is part of the urban
ecology, and because much of Andean imagery and aesthetics draws inspiration from
the surrounding environment, an in-escapable part of the Andean world-view.

Figure 283. A Wari drinking vessel or cup (kero), highly decorated in geometric, relief and feline
designs (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p. 98.

46
Bingham (1979): p. 73; Lumbreras (1974c): p. 219.

278
Figure 284. A Wari textile showing four figures of anthropomorphic designs holding staffs. A small
dog can be seen in the bottom centre (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p. 100).47

47
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004.

279
Figure 285. Detail from a Paracas Necropolis (Late Formative Period) wool textile, showing
anthropomorphic figure. The Paracas culture from the South caost was not urban but have the
reputation for having made the finest textiles in the Andes, and as such make a good example of the
heights this art form could achieve. The figure is approximately 5cm in height.(Source: Cáceres, 2004,
p. 57).

280
CHAPTER NINE - Social Design
What men can not imagine as a vague formless society, they can live through
and experience as citizens in a city. Their unified plans and buildings become
a symbol of their social relatedness, and when the physical environment itself
becomes disordered and incoherent, the social functions that it harbours
become more difficult to express.
Lewis Mumford1

This chapter is an analysis of those aspects of urban design that affected the social
functioning of a city, which is the people’s commitment to a shared world-view and
ethos that allowed the continued existence of an urban way of life2. In the Andean
urban tradition it is apparent that the use of shared symbolism, both in construction
and decoration, helped to maintain a certain level of ideological and therefore social
cohesion. That cohesion, whether produced through coercive power on the part of the
ruling elite, or by the voluntary acceptance of social ties, affected the length of
occupation of cities. The social success of a city can be partially determined by the
length of time that it remains an important centre of habitation, and the economic and
cultural benefits that flow from residing in the centre of its influence.

The way in which cities were planned to create and/or maintain social stratification
was previously discussed in chapter six. It need only be noted here that this was also a
large part of the social design tradition of Andean cities, used to maintain the power
of the centralized government essential to urban existence. This, however, was also a
way of maintaining social stability.

Planned cities often included special purpose areas such as the religious complexes,
plazas and thoroughfares that have also been previously discussed. These planned
areas include those set aside, both centrally and on the perimeters of the city, that
were used for economic purposes such as delivery, collection and storage of goods,
trade and the manufacture of products, both luxury and utensil. However although
these areas had a strong social role they were discussed previously in chapter seven
under the idea of political economy and the social ties formed and strengthened by the
system of wealth finance and ritual exchange of luxury goods.

9.1 Length of Occupation

The length of time for which a city is occupied is a good indication of its social,
cultural and economic success. That a city is occupied for a great length of time, such
as Tiwanaku and Pachacamac which were occupied for over 2,5003 and 1,500 years
respectively, suggests that something in the design of the city and the length of time it
is occupied were functions of the success of the socio-political structures in the city.
This is further supported by the fact that though cities came under foreign domination,
such as Pachacamac (twice), Cajamarca (twice), or Chan Chan (or most of the
Tawantinsuyu provincial capitals), after a minimum of modification these cities

1
Mumford, Lewis, 'What is a city?' in The Architectural Record, 1937, re-published in Malcolm Miles
and Tim Hall (eds), The City Cultures Reader, Routledge, New York, 2nd edn 2004, pp. 28-32: p. 29.
2
Hardoy, J.E. (Pre-Columbian Cities, London, Allen & Unwin, 1973: p. xxiii) states ‘[a]n urban way
of life implies urban institutions and an important percentage of the population living and working in a
nonrural environment; an economy based, at least in part, on the mass production of goods for market,
heavy population density, and a marked social stratification.’
3
Reinhard, J., ‘Tiwanaku: ensayo sobre su cosmovisión’, Pumapunku- Nuevo época, año 1, no. 2,
1991, pp. 9-66: p. 9.

281
continued to serve as cultural, political and economic centres for the invading
empires. An important part of a city plan is its choice of location, as previously
discussed, with urban sites chosen for communication and trade routes, availability of
arable land, access to and control of water sources, defensibility and in some cases for
religious considerations. Tiwanaku and Pachacamac fulfill all these requirements, and
their locations contain sizeable towns to this day.

The longevity of some cities, such as Tiwanaku and Pachacamac, in their own times
contributed to their grandeur and reputation. The grandeur of the cities was part of
upholding peoples desire to live in an urban environment. Grandeur and civic pride
helped to maintain political stability and was also an attraction for artisans. Chan
Chan enjoyed great prestige and foremost status among cities because of its size and
centralization of services4. For instance, the reputation of the Tawantinsuyu Empire
meant that not all people were resistant to coming under its governance, and many
cities that joined enjoyed a bettered style of urban existence than they had previously
experienced5.

A city was never a stand alone entity but connected via roads was always a part of
system of cities belonging to a region, a culture or an empire. Often a region of cities
would have connections with regions of cities from other cultures so that in fact a city
was part of a large urban setting, a network of other cities all in close or distant
relations with each other. Without this system of urban influence there would not have
been the exchange of ideas needed for creation, maintenance and transmission of an
urban tradition. Most of the cities with planning, either prior or re-modeled, remained
populated for a period of over 500 years. The exception is those cities and
administrative centres newly created under the Tawantinsuyu Empire whose futures
were cut short by the Spanish invasion. However none of these showed signs of
imminent collapse and it is probable that they would have continued to prosper for
some time further if their civilization had also remained. Some cities like Cuzco, that
in recognition of its physical and symbolic importance, after remodeling continued
under Spanish occupation. However most were destroyed and depopulated by force,
with their inhabitants moved to new regional centres of Spanish construction.

Galindo, Pampas Grande and Huari are some of the shorter lived cities due to their
construction in periods of ideological, environmental change and political instability6.
However their collapse led to the formation of the Chimú culture and the city of Chan
Chan the largest for its time on the coast. The Tawantinsuyu practice of re-modeling
provincial capitals shows their understanding of the importance of the long-term
stability and reputation of a city. These captures Andean cities had also been built
under the same planning traditions inherited by the Tawantinsuyu, and so their
locations generally proved useful to the Empire. As such the Inca maintained the city
of Chan Chan, Pachacamac, Cajamarca, Cajarmarquilla, and many others as centre of
their own administration.

4
Lumbreras L. G., The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru, Washington, Smithsonian Institute
Press, 1974c: p. 183.
5
Baudin, l. Daily Life of the Incas, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, Original Publication 1961c,
unabridged Dover Ed. 2003: pp. 52-57.
6
Hardoy (1973): p. 337; Bawden, G., (The Moche, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publisher,
1996: pp. 288- 289), also states that Galindo’s ‘burial platform may well have housed a single ruler and
possibly his retainers, a situation that would indicate the town was only occupied for a relatively short
period. This suggestion is supported by its uniform architectural style and little evidence of
remodeling’.

282
There are more reasons than the mere positioning of a city that lead to its continued
existence. There must also be a quality of life and cultural cohesion that maintains the
reputation and ideal that its urban way of life represents and realizes. However the
quality of life may be far greater for the elite, and the lower classes may be required
or coerced to remain urban through social inequitable or feudal type bonds The cities
of great reputation maintain the central power, attract new citizens and the most
talented artisans, the best trade and house the most, and most powerful elite, which
also made them the greatest religious centres attracting pilgrimage, gifts and
ceremonial gatherings that kept cities’ economies buoyed. Tiwanaku and Pachacamac
existed for the longest periods as urban and religious centres precisely for these
reasons. They were in their time the two most important religious centres of
pilgrimage in the Andes, one highland and the other coastal, yet they maintained
cultural ties after the Wari-Tiwanaku collapse. Cuzco, although shorter lived, was
another of exceptional importance and all three attracted the finest artisans, while in
the luxury trade importing and exporting their products. All these products were
ideological representations of their power and influence, and so these cities were
exporting their ideologies to both subsume and transcend local beliefs7 and to bring
people within their urban framework.

These long-lived cities, creators and exporters of their ideologies, were also products
of their ideologies. Planned into their designs, especially through iconography, were
different aspects of their esoteric knowledge that helped to maintain the cohesion and
stability of their ideological systems and societies over vast tracts of time. Not only is
this iconographic aspect of design a strong part of Andean urban tradition, but from
the evidence it would seem that those cities that included the greater amount of
esoteric knowledge in their designs, not only survived the longest, but had the greater
reputations and played the larger part in pan-Andean influence and imperial politics.

Huidobro presents us with one of the best examples from Tiwanaku culture:
En cuanto a la ideología predicada por la elite gobernante para justificar su
dominio, como clase, sobre las demás, hallamos en Tiwanaku el registro
arqueológico. Sin embargo veamos lo que al respecto de las ideologías
dominantes nos dice Isbell: ‘ La característica final del Estado es la ideología
de la autoridad jerárquica, sin la cual es imposible el control estatal. Las
sociedades, en distintos lugares y tiempos han logrado comunicar esta
ideología a través de distintas formas de símbolos’(Isbell 1985:71)8. En
Tiwanaku esta ideología está plasmada en el friso superior de la denominada
Puerta del Sol, donde se aprecia al personaje central denominado Dios de los
Báculos, rodeado por otros personajes que a las claras representan jerarquía
menor. Esta simbología traductora de la ideología dominante fue impuesta por
los tiwanacotas en regiones alejadas de su habitad primigenio, caso Wari y
Nazca en la sierra y costa central del Perú respectivamente. Para nosotros, por
lo menos, el personaje central representa (entre muchos otros cosas) a esa
burocracia agraria domínate y los demás personajes visitos de perfil, estarían
representando a los dominados. Tiwanaku, pues, impuso despóticamente el
uso de esa simbología en los valores estilísticos y artísticos de su pueblo y de
los pueblos conquistados.9
7
Bawden (1996): p. 69.
8
Isbell, William, ‘El origen del estado en el valle de Ayacucho’, Revista Andina, año 3, no. 1, Centro
de Estudios Andinos Bartolomé de las Casas, Cuzco, 1985, pp.57-83: p. 71.
9
Huidobro Bellido, J., El Estado despótico De Tiwanaku, La Paz, Centro de Investigaciones
Etnoarqueologicas, 1994: p. 9), There is in the preached ideology of the elite government a justification

283
Several of these aspects of esoteric knowledge were built into the planning of the city
layout and its structures, not just in the greatest cities of Tiwanaku, Pachacamac, Chan
Chan and Cuzco, but also the lesser towns and settlements, and those occupied for
shorter periods of time. The use of esoteric design in urban planning, which places
hidden meanings in symbolic designs, is a clear part of the Andean tradition from its
inception in the Supe valley and Caral until the end of the Tawantinsuyu Empire. A
review of this part of the tradition reveals the following particular aspects are
repeatedly used.

9.2 Directional and Astronomical

The use of particular directions and astronomical alignments lent dignity and force to
the reputation of a city as a desirable place to live and reinforced the dominance of the
ruling elite. The cities were in accordance with divine plan. The use of these grand
symbolisms reinforced the Andean belief system in the protection and benevolence of
their Gods. A city that was constructed in tune with the power of the Gods, as
represented by the ability to read the directional and astronomical heavens, etc. and
thereby predict the sunrise, equinox, eclipses and agricultural seasons, made for a
better place of habitation and a shared cosmology for the society that lived within and
around it. These symbolic aspects then formed part of social design as a cohesive
cultural force.

The cardinal points of the compass were not only often used to align religious
structures, such as the temples Kalasasaya and Pumapunku10 in Tiwanaku11, but also
the cities themselves. In Tiwanaku there is rectilinear direction of composition to the
cardinal points and most of the residential areas maintained the alignment of the
religious buildings12. Chan Chan’s citadels, with the exception of Uhle, maintained a
direction facing the summer equinox13.

for their domination, such as class, above others, found registered in Tiwanaku archaeology. With out
doubt we can see in this respect the dominant ideologies, says Isbell: ‘The final characteristic of the
state is the ideology of the authority hierarchy, without which it is impossible to control the state.
Societies, in distinct places and times have communicated their ideologies through distinct forms of
symbolism’. In Tiwanaku this ideology is shaped in the frieze above the Gate of the Sun, where the
central character, God with Stick, is surrounded by other lesser characters who clearly represent the
lesser authority. This symbolism translates as the dominant ideology that was imposed on the
Tiwanacotas in the regions removed from their first habitat, such as Wari and Nazca in the mountains
and central coast of Peru respectively. For us, if nothing else, the central character represents (along
with many other things) this dominant agrarian bureaucracy and other characters of visiting profiles,
who are representing the dominant. Tiwanaku, for sure, implemented despotically the use of this
symbology in their valued styles and artworks of their city and the cities they conquered (Translation
by L.Hasluck).
10
Ibarra Grasso, D. E., (Ciencia en Tihuanaku y el Incaico, La Paz, Los Amigos Del Libro, 1982)
states that the Akapana pyramid was commenced much earlier and does not align to true north
11
Browman, D.L., ‘Toward the development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) state’, in D.L. Browman
(ed.), Advances in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978b, pp. 327-349: p. 330; Hardoy
(1973): pp. 337,348; Ibarra Grasso, D., De Mesa, J. & Gisbert, T, ‘Reconstrucción de Taypicala
(Tiahuanaco)’, Cuadernos Americanos, vol. 14, 1955, pp. 149-176: pp. 152- 153; Kolata, A. The
Tiwanaku: portrait of an Andean civilization, Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell, 1993: pp. 96 -98;
Reinhard, J., ‘Chavín y Tiahuanaco’, Boletín de Lima, vol. 50, 1987, pp. 29-51: p. 45; Reinhard
(1991): p. 33; Spickard, L. E., ‘El análisis de la arquitectura de los sitios de Huari y Tiwanaku’,
Dialogo Andina, 45th Congreso Intercultural Americanistas, Bogota, 1983, vol. 4, 1985, pp. 73-88: p.
82.
12
Hardoy (1973): pp. 337, 348); Ibarra, Mesa & Gisbert (1955): pp. 159- 160); Reinhard (1991): p. 33.
13
Hardoy, J. E., Urban planning in pre-Columbian America, London, Studio Vista, 1968: p. 43;

284
Figure 286. A ceremonial stone that also played an astronomical role, situated in the centre of the
grand plaza at Supe Caral, in alignment with the surrounding pyramids. As excavations continue more
of the complexity of their symbolism and esoteric knowledge systems will come to light (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004)

The direction of East throughout the Andes was considered a sacred direction14 and
usually the temples and pyramids were aligned to face eastwards, the direction of the
rising sun. Huaca de los Reyes was an early ceremonial centre example15, however
the cities of Pachacamac, Tiwanaku, Huari16, Viracochapampa and Huánuco Pampa17
are urban examples. Reinhard states;
‘El Este es la dirección frecuentemente asociada a la fertilidad y los ritos de
fertilidad constituyen la vasta mayoría del culto comunal andino’18.

The points of north and south were also of repeated importance in religious
complexes. However, in a wider application many cities were divided into quarters by
major thoroughfares running either due or roughly North-South and East-West, such
as at Tiwanaku, Cuzco, Pikillacta, Viracochapampa and others19. For Cuzco these
cardinal dividing roads also represented the division of the quarters of the Empire, of
which it was the centre20. In Pachacamac and Tiwanaku the cardinal point
thoroughfares divided the central religious complex into temple, plaza and palace/elite
dwelling quarters.

Hardoy (1973): p. 365.

14
Reinhard (1991): p. 31.
15
Pozorski, T., ‘The early horizon sight of Huaca de los Reyes: societal implications’, American
Antiquity, vol. 45, no. 1, 1980, pp. 100-110.
16
Hardoy (1973): pp. 337, 348.
17
Hyslop, J., Inka settlement planning, Uni. of Texas press, Austin, 1990: p. 216.
18
Reinhard (1991: p. 310) The East is the direction frequently associated with fertility and the rites of
fertility that constitute the vast majority of the communal Andean cults (translation by L. Hasluck).
19
Hardoy (1973): p. 332, 348; Ibarra Grasso, D., Tiahunaco, Cochabamba, Editorial Atlantic, 1956: p.
80; Ibarra, Mesa & Gisbert (1955): p. 52; Kauffmann Doig, F., Manual de Arqueología Peruana, 5th
Edición, Lima, Ediciones Peisa, 1973: Figure 732.
20
Hardoy (1968): p. 47.

285
Astronomy repeatedly played a role in city design in different ways21. In Tiwanaku
the religious complexes have alignments with stars that clearly show them to be
observatories, including reflecting pools atop the pyramids for easier observation22.
There can be found in the alignment of the monoliths and the Puerta del Sol (Sun
Gate) the first American calendar, later also adopted by the Mayans23. In some cases
positioning of monoliths and friezes played a part in the maintaining this calendarical
process, so important to agricultural societies for sowing and reaping, and therefore to
maintaining the consolidation of ideological power and belief in the elite with their
divine connections, and the obedient awe of the common people. Gisbert24 relates the
astronomical and observatory role of the temples and pyramids of Pachacamac. The
earliest urban example was represented in the pyramids of Supe and in planning at
Caral. The temple in the centre, and at the top of the mount, of Písac played the role
of an astronomical observatory.25

Figure 287. Markings and divisions of the Tiwanaku 30 day calendar from the Puerta del Sol frieze.
Part of the esoteric designs that represented the Tiwanaku cosmology and made the city a famous and
respected ideological and urban centre (Source: Ibarra, 1982, p. 355).

21
Reinhard (1987: p. 34), notes that the religious centre of Chavín de Huantar also was designed for
astronomical uses.
22
Ibarra (1982); Reinhard (1987): p. 45.
23
Buck, Fritz., El Calendario Maya en la Cultura Tiahuanacu, La Paz, Sociedad Geográfica, 1937.
The Tiwanaku system is not only sun and moon based, but also planetary. Actually Buck incorrectly
believes that the Maya are older than the Tiwanaku culture and so upon finding they use the same
calendar system believes the invention is that of the Mayas, later borrowed by Tiwanaku, whereas in
fact the opposite is most likely true, as Tiwanaku is much older than Mayan culture. Ibarra, Mesa &
Gisbert (1955: p. 162) also find much in the design of Tiwanaku that’s is similar with the Maya
designs.
24
Gisbert, T., ‘Pachacamac y los dioses del Callao’, Reunión Anual de Etnología 1990, La Paz,
MUSEF: Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, 1990, pp. 13- 30: p. 20.
25
Cáceres Macedo, J., Prehispanic cultures of Peru, in Sandweiss, D. & Cáceres, C. (trans.), Guide of
Peruvian Archaeology, Lima, 2004: p. 132.

286
Figure 288. Astronomical alignment of Kalasasaya temple and stones at Tiwanaku. Note the central
equinox line. The temple was designed as a testament in stone to represent the state of the art
astronomical and calendarical knowledge of the Tiwanaku civilization, and pride of the city. Even after
its demise the Tawantinsuyu respected the ruins and maintained a small ceremonial population amongst
the ruins. Still today the mid-winter equinox-solstice is celebrated by the Aymaras at the ruins (Source:
Ibarra, 1982, p. 348).

Figure 289. The relation of the Kalasasaya wall stones to calendar months. Every aspect of the design
has a significance. The first stone represents 6th of July, winter solstice (Source: Ibarra, 1982, p. 348).

287
This observatory aspect is also found in earlier ceremonial complexes such as Cerro
Sechín in the Casma valley. The dates for sewing and reaping, the annual equinoxes
and ceremonial times were noted and celebrated in unison by this method. The
Tawantinsuyu also used similar methods including alignment of stones with natural
features, especially mountain peaks, and solar observation temples were common26.

Figure 290. Petroglyph in wall at Cerro Sechín in the Casma valley marks astronomical alignment,
serving a calendarical and social function similar to that of the outer wall stones of Kalasasaya at
Tiwanaku (Source: Milla, 1992, p. 204)27.

26
Ibarra (1982).
27
Milla Villena, C., Génesis de la Cultura Andina, 3rd edición, Lima, OMPI, 1992.

288
Figure 291. An astronomical stone and petroglyph at Cerro Sechín, represented in preceding diagram
Fig. 290 (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

289
Figure 292. A calendar stone built into the entry of Cerro Sechín (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 293. A reconstruction of the Cerro Sechín temple in Casma. The above calendar stone (Fig. 292)
stands at the right of the entrance. While the astronomical stone petroglyph of Figure 291 is still found
on the left-hand side wall (Source: Cáceres, 2004, p. 36).

290
Figure 294. Cerro Sechín as it is today (2004), taken from the hill behind looking across the river flats.
The site is still undergoing excavations and reconstruction (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

The geometric construction of the monuments also played an astronomical and

esoteric role28. Hardoy29 analyses the geometrical relationships in the Tiwanaku
religious complex and concludes that the semi-subterranean temple at Tiwanaku bears
a relationship between it and the enclosure of Kalasasaya, with both groups conceived
on an axial criterion and that an intentional bilateral symmetry function was created
on an axis which, passing through the eastern gateway of access to Kalasasaya, unites
the central stele of the temple of the Ponce monolith. Another axis then also united the
centre of the access stairway and the semi-subterranean temple. Hardoy explains the
complexity and intention of these axes in relation to the city design:
This, in turn, is at right angles to the principle axis of the whole central group
of Tiwanaku, by which is meant the axis or roadway running east-west and
dividing the Kalasasaya on the north from the Pyramid or Akapana to the
south. These two structures, the most important of this sector of the centre,
have a similar orientation.

However the over-all urbanistic organization would not have been the same.
The east-west axis and a north south axis at right angles to it …were utilized
as a device for freely arranging the principle masses. None of the principle
structures corresponds axially to either of them. The two axes do not give the
impression of having been determining elements in locating the
constructions, but of having been traced out later to introduce some kind of
order into the movement towards the ceremonial centre30.

28
Hardoy (1968): pp. 39- 40; Ibarra (1982).
29
Hardoy (1968): pp. 39- 40.
30
Hardoy (1968): pp. 39- 40.

291
Figure 295. A Bolivian archaeologist, Eduardo Pareja, measures one of the Tiwanaku monoliths in the
belief that it has significant astronomical alignments between the position of the hands and the stars
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 296. The Hitching post of the sun at Machu Picchu where a symbolic cord of force was tied to
the sun at the winter equinox to ensure the suns return (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

292
Sacsawaman above Cuzco was probably an observatory connected to land sight
markers in the surrounding hills for maintaining the calendar for the Incas and the
Tawantinsuyu.31 Solar observatories were common throughout the Tawantinsuyu
Empire. Korikancha the sacred centre of the empire, as also the centre of
Tawantinsuyu esoteric knowledge, was composed of astronomical alignments32.

Figure 297. The Koricancha Sun Temple at Cuzco was one of the main astronomical structures within
the Tawantinsuyu empire, and aligned with many points on the hills around Cuzco. Now the Santo
Domingo church which still encompasses much of the original structure (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

9.3 Symbolism
Symbolism in construction and layout influenced both form and position. The
mountains had always played an important part in Andean symbolism. Most
authorities agree that the pyramid structure itself is believed to symbolically represent
mountains. Some authorities, however, believe a pyramid can relate to a particular
sacred mountain,33 such as may have been the case for Akapana in Tiwanaku, but the

31
Hyslop (1990): p. 61.
32
Hyslop (1990): p. 225.
33
Huidobro Bellido, J., ‘Akapana: su verdadera interpretación’, Reunión Anual De etnología 1990, La
Paz, MUSEF; Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, 1990, pp. 3- 6; Reinhard (1987): p. 35;
(1991): p. 28. Reinhard (1991: p. 28) explores the idea of the pyramidal symbolic representation of
mountains further when he states in relation to Tiwanaku; ‘Existe la posibilidad de que estas estructuras
piramidales representaran montañas reales o “cósmicos”, como ha sido hipotetizado en relación a
pirámides de otro lugares de Latinamerica (Benson 1972:34, 94-95; Grieder 1982:133; Townsend
1982:46-47). Esto se hace aún más probable cuando las pirámides, como la del Akapana, tenían
elaborados sistemas de recepción de agua – que se almacenaba en tanques o hendiduras en sus cimas –
para que ésta corriera de ellas hacia afuera. Los tanques pueden ser interpretados como
representaciones simbólicas de lagos en las montañas y los canales como representaciones de ríos
(Bastien 1978:60). Parece ni ser mera coincidencia el hecho de haber encontrado piedras pequeñas del
lago Titikaka ne la cima del Akapana (Posnansky v.1:74) (figura 3).
Benson, E., ‘The cult of the feline: a conference on pre-Colombian iconography’, Washington D.C.,
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 1972.
Grieder, T., ‘Origins of pre-Columbian art’, Austin, Uni. of Texas Press, 1982.

293
pyramid/mountain notion is generally applicable throughout the Andes34. Bawden
agrees with pyramid imitation of the mountains and furthers asserts that, for the
Mochica, the position of a pyramid between the mountains and the river, sometimes
aligned with a prominent peak, visually linked the valley bottom, mountain and sky.
The form and location of important architecture reflected the deep-seated Andean
practice of integrating topography and cosmology in all aspects of life35.

This symbolism probably began with the earlier ceremonial centres, and is
demonstrated clearly in Chavín de Huantar, which is also positioned between a sacred
mountain and a river. This position created a physical statement of sacred symbolic
significance, outlining the relationship between water and the mountains, the two
most important features in Andean cosmology. The use of the pyramid design created
a fundamental feature of a symbolic tradition recognizable throughout the Andes, and
also in Mesoamerica.

Moreover, the identification of platforms and huacas with mountains would have
carried for the Andean populace the implication that they possessed a similar spiritual
capacity to provide water and fertility to the human community. Further, this quality
would have identified the leaders of the rituals conducted on their summits with the
life-giving powers of the mountain deities. Specifically, the visual location of the
platforms at the intersection of the terrestrial and celestial spheres and their mountain-
derived character as entrances to the supernatural world provided, Bawden36 states for
the Moche, leaders with a powerful context for their claim to penetrate the spiritual
world as shamanistic mediators on behalf of their people.37 Thus platforms and
pyramids, by reproducing the form and function of the mountain at the centre of
social control, generated omnipresent awareness of the essential forces of the nature
and permitted Andean leaders to harness these forces in the interests of political
control. The Moche, for instance, located their religious and corporate authority on
top of platforms to associate both symbolically and visually their authority with the
spiritual forces that ensured cosmological balance and the human social order that
depended on it.38 This reasoning serves equally well for the other Andean cultures
which also submit to the same sub-strata of beliefs, and with which, as previously
noted, it is possible to derive comparisons.

Reinhard39 also argues that not only important is the alignment of Tiwanaku pyramids
and temples with the nearby sacred mountains but that stones used in their
construction were brought over considerable distances from sacred peaks, which
strengthened the symbolic connection between these pyramids and their sacred

Townsend, R., ‘Pyramid and sacred mountain’, Aveni & Urton, 1982, pp. 37- 62.
Bastien, J.W., ‘Mountain of the condor: metaphor and ritual in an Andean Ayllu’, New York, West
Publishing Co., 1978.
Posnansky, Arthur, ‘Tihuanacu: the cradle of American man’, 2 vols., New York, J.J. Augustin
Publisher, 1945.
34
Reinhard (1987).
35
Bawden (1996): pp. 71- 72.
36
Bawden, G., ‘Life in the pre-Columbian town of Galindo’, Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, vol. 49, no. 3, 1978, pp. 16-23; (1996): p. 72.
37
Earle, T., (Bronze Age Economics, U.S.A., Westview Press, 2002: p. 166) reinforces this idea when
he argues that ‘Specific materials, objects, and symbols serve to materialize the ruling elites’ identity
with supernatural forces’.
38
Bawden (1996): p. 72.
39
Reinhard (1991): pp. 12, 16.

294
mountains40. The staircase design representing ascension, as previously discussed in
chapters two and six, is an important Andean sacred symbol and is therefore included
in many sacred structures and avenues.

Figure 298. Pachacamac’s huaca stepped pyramids. In the foreground is the original Wari-Tiwanaku or
Ichma pyramid, while behind is the Tawantinsuyu Temple of the Sun (Source: photo. By L. Hasluck,
2001).

Figure 299. A staircase that served as the symbolic entry to the ceremonial platform at Kenko near
Cuzco. The Inca would have been delivered to the base of the stairs carried on a bier (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2001).

40
Reinhard (1991: p. 12) states that some of the rocks used in the religious constructions of Tiwanaku
have been removed from the nearby sacred mountain Ccapia, the highest peak bordering Lake Titicaca.
He also states page 16 that stones from the sacred mountain of Quimsachata, south of Tiwanaku, were
used in construction and for monoliths.

295
The most comprehensive use of iconography in urban layout in the Andes tradition
occurred in Cuzco, not as a repeated formula of the Andean design tradition, but as a
new design idea. Although the exact design doesn’t appear to have been repeated in
other parts of the empire, as part of the tradition of Andean symbolic design it is
worth mentioning, unique as it may be. In Cuzco, apart from the symbolic division
into the four quarters of the empire, the entire layout of the city, including the fortress
of Sacsawaman was built so that the streets and buildings formed the design of a
Puma.41 Although the Puma was an important symbolic figure since Chavín and
Tiwanaku times, this iconographic city layout was not repeated in other locations and
may have served to mark the importance of the sacred capital over all the other cities
of the Tawantinsuyu Empire.

Symbolism was also manifested in the use of natural elements such as stone, wood,
water and fire. Stone is constantly represented in the range of monoliths from the
early ceremonial centres of Cerro Sechín, to the cities of Tiwanaku, Huari and
Tawantinsuyu. Monoliths were even built into the walls of temple structures as in
Cerro Sechín and Tiwanaku’s Kalasasaya. Wooden poles serving the same function as
monoliths were found in Pachacamac and Chan Chan (where stone is rare). The use of
sacred fires in temples and on pyramids such as at Caral and the Supe valley, or
Llamas-Moxeque and the Casma valley is part of a tradition of elemental use42.
However, clearly the most important and widely used in varying manifestations was
the inclusion of water, always considered a sacred symbolic element in the Andes.

Tiwanaku city and pyramids used pools and canals, Huari and Cajamarca used small
canals dug from the bedrock, Chan Chan had reservoirs, Pachacamac used canals and
reservoirs43 and the Tawantinsuyu generally used canals, fountains and pools in a
different formula in all locations. Reinhard44 sees a symbolic connection between the
water use in Tiwanaku and Lake Titicaca and fertility. It would be a surprise if that
connection did not exist; however Escalante45 also sees a more functional role for the
pyramid pools as astronomical reflectors for cosmic observation. The technology for
channeling of waterways for irrigation was also used to bring or control waterways
within the cities, for functional, sacred and aesthetic purposes. A prime example of

41
Hyslop (1990: p. 51), Hyslop asserts this Puma design aspect that has been generally accepted by
Andean scholars.
42
Pozorski, T. & Pozorski, S., ‘El desarrollo de la sociedad compleja en el valle de Casma’, Revista de
Ciencias Sociales: Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni.
Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 79-98; Shady, R., Dolorier, C., Montesinos, F. & Casa, L.,
‘Los orígenes de la civilización en el Perú: el área norcentral y el valle de Supe durante el arcadio
tardío’, Arqueología y Sociedad, vol. 13, Lima, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología, Uni. Nacional
Mayor de San Marcos, 2000, pp. 13 – 48; Shady, R., Haas, J. & Creamer, W., ‘Dating Caral, a
preceramic site in the Supe valley on the central coast of Peru’, Science, vol. 292, 2001, pp. 723-726;
Shady, R. & Machacuay, M., ‘El Altar del Fuego Sagrado del Templo Mayor de la ciudad sagrada de
Caral-Supe’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La ciudad sagrada de Caral- Supe: los orígenes de la
civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de
Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral Supe, 2003, pp. 169- 185; Shady, R., Machacuay, M.
& López, S., ‘Recuperando la historia del Altar del Fuego Sagrado’, in Shady & Leyva (eds.), La
ciudad sagrada de Caral- Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado
prístino en el antiguo Perú, Lima, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral
Supe, 2003, pp. 237- 253.
43
Gisbert (1990): p. 20.
44
Reinhard, J., ‘Las montañas sagradas: un estudio etnoargquologico de ruinas en las altas cumbres
Andinas’, Cuadernos de Historia, vol. 3, Julio, 1983, pp. 27- 63.
45
Escalante Moscoso, J., Arquitectura Prehispánica en los Andes Bolivianos, 3rd Edición, La Paz,
Producciones CIMA, 1997.

296
this urban use was the channeling of the river that now flows beneath the main plaza
at Cuzco.

Figure 300. Hitching stone of the sun platform in the centre of Písac (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figure 301. A reconstruction of the sacred fire altar atop the largest pyramid in Caral. Note that
although the smoke from the altar fire could be seen at great distance from the pyramid, actual access
to the fire was restricted (Source: Shady, 2001, p. 22).

297
Figure 302. Pachacamac’s Tawantinsuyu religious House of Mamacuna, with private water reservoir in
the foreground (Source: L. Hasluck, 2001).

The most obvious form of symbolism used was the iconographic representation of
ideological and esoteric knowledge systems.46 Bawden47 states that iconography is the
symbolic manifestation of a cultural tradition, and can only be understood as an
outgrowth of social structure. In the case of the Mochica formal iconographic themes
painted on the surfaces of ceramic vessels, woven into textiles, formed in gold and
silver, and fresco decoration on stucco walls of Mochica houses, proclaimed the
principle tenets of an ideology that supported Mochica leadership and the political-
religious system through which it exercised power48.

Decorative symbolic motifs evolved in different styles while retaining the original
pattern, however historically specific meaning is not important to the findings of this

46
Earle (2002: p. 180) supports this statement, when he states that iconographic ‘…style is a formal
and an informal way to present meaning. In a society divided by classes and factions, style is actively
constructed within the iconographic system. It is used to create and manipulate knowledge and thus to
fashion consent as the necessary adjunct to power based on economic control’.
47
Bawden (1996): p. 12.
48
Bawden (1978); (1996): p. 92; Davies, N., The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru, London, Penguin, 1997:
pp. 22- 28; Hardoy (1973): p. 318.

298
dissertation.49 This is the case of wavy lines, for example, that are found in Chavín,
Tiwanaku, Wari and in Tawantinsuyu iconography, with the variations, naturally, of
each style and each cultural complex50. Iconographic motifs were expressed as
painted, used in friezes, molded, engraved and formed into and onto the street walls
and structures, both externally and internally, of the cities51. Although an analysis of
the actual forms (geometric, representational, anthropomorphic, etc.) and colour
coding (red on black, yellow and red on white, etc.) and themes (daily life, animals,
anthropomorphic, religious ceremonies, war, sex, sacrifice, disease, etc.) would reveal
internal pan-Andean traditions, in much the same way that these can be found within
the ceramic and textile traditions of the Andes, that does not fall within the scope of
this work. The pan-Andean urban design aspect of this iconographic tradition is the
use from the earliest times in Caral of symbolism (be it painted , frieze, carved, etc) in
the design and construction of city areas52.

Figure 303. Painted colourful murals of life-scenes on the walls of Chan Chan, visible to Holstein in
the 1920’s but now erased by the weather (source: Holstein 1927, p. 57)53.

Figure 304. Painted murals of life-scenes on the walls of Chan Chan (Source: Holstein, 1927, p. 47).

49
Earle (2002: p. 180) states that ‘stylistic patterning, commonly studied by archaeologists, offers ways
to investigate political and social processes at the very core of societal dynamics. It seems likely that
cross-cultural and cross-time similarities in the specific patterns of stylistic identification and
differentiation will be shown to articulate with broad evolutionary patterns in society. To do this, as
archaeologists, we must be concerned with the specific uses of style as identified by the contexts of
their appearance. This should not, however, concern us with identifying historically specific meaning
but lead us to a concern with functions of style and symbolic representations in human culture’.
50
Linares Malaga, E., ‘Prehistory and petroglyphs in southern Peru’, in D.L. Browman (ed.), Advances
in Andean Archaeology, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp. 371- 391: p. 378.
51
Lumbreras (1974c).
52
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 183; Shady, Doloerier, Montesinos & Casas (2000).
53
Holstein, O., ‘Chan-Chan: capital of the great Chimú’, The Geographical Review, vol. 17, no. 1,
1927, pp. 36-61.

299
Figure 305. Chan Chan adobe wall with painted relief of geometric design (Source: Holstein, 1927,
p. 47).

The use of rich contrasting colours are to be seen in all cities and within temples and
private residences, some of which survived until relatively recent times in
Pachacamac, Galindo, Chan Chan54 and are still present at Moche55. A further
indication of their importance, vivacity and complexity of symbolism can be gained
by the study of ceramics and textiles that functioned within the same cultural codes.
Earle argues that symbolic style should be
...viewed as an active medium of communication by which individuals and
social groups define relationships and associations. Elements of style, as in
objects used in ceremonial display, are chosen purposefully to signal social
relationships and group membership. Thus style acts as a critical prop in social
drama as it functions to form, maintain, and transfigure social relationships.56

Figure 306. A recreation of one of the large faces that adorned the Cerro Sechín ceremonial centre
typical of the early Casma valley religious style (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

54
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 183; Holstein (1927).
55
The surviving painted friezes at the Huaca de la Luna are in excellent condition due to having been
buried below the dry sand for an extensive period, probably since before the Chimú period.
56
Earle (2002): p. 163.

300
Figure 307. God with Stick petroglyph at Cerro Sechín, Casma valley (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 308. Body parts represented in petroglyphs in the walls at Cerro Sechín, probably symbolically
showing its role as a medicinal centre. Above the spine (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

301
Figure 309. This is a collection of heads. Internal organs such as stomach and intestines were also
represented (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Gold, silver and copper were also used to adorn temples and sacred plazas in
symbolic imagery, and conquistador accounts tell of the marvels of Pachacamac57 and
Cuzco where temples were sheeted in patterned gold and silver, while the precincts of
Koricancha, as described by Cieza de Leon58 and Pizarro59, were filled with golden
replicas of sacred objects such as corn and llamas60. Tiwanaku also shows signs of
having been covered in golden metal sheets61.

Tiwanaku has a less evolved style of enhancement in that sculpture revolved around a
single type of monolithic sculpture which in its rigidity and synthesis of details of
garments and physical features were simple and stele62. The style had a feeling of
superhuman dimension in the more than seven meter high proportions of the human
figures represented. These types were also used in Huari, and in most of the pre-
Chavín ceremonial centres.

57
Gisbert (1990): p. 20.
58
Cieza de Leon, quoted in Lumbreras (1974c: p. 218) describes the interior of the Koricancha thus;
‘There was a garden in which the earth was lumps of fine gold, and it was cunningly planted with
stalks of corn that were of gold – stalk, leaves and ears. These were so well planted that no matter how
hard the wind blew it could not uproot them. Aside from this, there were more than twenty sheep [ie,
llamas] of gold with their lambs, and the shepherds who guarded them, with their slings and staffs, all
of this metal’.
59
Lehman-Nitsche, R., ‘Coricancha’, Revista del Museo Nacional de la Plata, vol. 31, Buenos Aires,
Uni. Nacional de Plata Museo, 1928: p. 30.
60
Lumbreras (1974c): p. 218.
61
Baudin, L., Daily Life In Peru: under the last Incas, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1961b: p. 42.
62
Hardoy (1973): p. 332.

302
In terms of the expression some themes run for extensive lengths of time. In Kotosh63,
a Lower Formative Period monumental religious centre on the north coast of Peru,
there can be found an early expression with sandstone heads built protruding from the
temple walls, and carved birds of prey, particularly condors, into the central
columns64. Also in the Chavín ceremonial centre of Chavín de Huantar. Later in
Tiwanaku in the semi-subterranean temple we find similar heads protruding from the
walls, and again in Huari, also later also with the Tawantinsuyu in Marca
Huamachuco.

Figure 310. A sketch by Tello of the stone heads of Chavín de Huantar, the Chavín capital, arranged
protruding from the exterior wall (Source: Kauffman, 1973, p. 193, fig. 193).

Figure 311. One of the heads remaining in situ at the New Temple, Chavín de Huantar (Source:
Cáceres, 2004, p. 42).

63
Hardoy (1973: p. 303) notes that Kotosh was the most important temple built in the highlands near
the Huallaga river. The first temple built in Kotosh was in pre-ceramic times, around 800 BC, and pre-
dates Chávin influence. Characteristic of this period on the coast and in the highlands no housing has
been found near the temple. This cultural pattern was based on the nuclear role of the temple supported
by an agricultural population living in villages located close to the fields.
64
Mentioned by Reinhard in symbolic connection with the Tiwanaku symbolic use of birds of prey
(1991:52). He cites the analysis of Rowe, J., ‘Form and meaning in Chavín art’, in Rowe J. & Menzel,
D. (eds.), Peruvian archaeology: selected readings, Palo Alto, Peek Publications.1967, pp.72-103: p.
84.

303
Figure 312. A stone head protruding from a wall in the central plaza at Huari, the Wari capital. The
hole through its centre is probably a colonial addition and was used for serving cane alcohol (Source:
Kauffman, 1973, p. 226, fig. 272).

Figure 313. Carved sandstone heads in the semi-subterranean temple at Tiwanaku. Each has a different
character face (Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

304
Figure 314. Stele in semi-subterranean temple at Tiwanaku carved with figures of snakes (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2002).

Bright painted designs were used in Caral and we find the same such use in Llamas-
Moxeque and Pachacamac a millennium later, and also in Moche65. Anthropomorphic
friezes in adobe or stone were found in Kotosh’s monumental structure and they were
also found in use in Caral, Llamas-Moxeque, Pachacamac and Tiwanaku, where the
same deity figure ‘God with stick’ was used66. Llamas-Moxeque was literally covered
in adobe friezes, while Moche and Chan Chan cities were a maze of frieze designs67
and Pachacamac was covered in painted murals. The Tawantinsuyu relied heavily

65
Bawden (1978; 1996).
66
The earliest representation of ‘man with stick’ or ‘God with stick’ was discovered in Norte Chico
near the Supe Valley carved into a gourd and dating to about 2000 BC. Haas, Creamer & Ruiz, ‘Lord
Gourd’, Archaeology, vol. 56, no. 3, May/ June, 2003.
67
Bawden (1996).

305
upon anthropomorphic designs and esoteric knowledge inscribed in ceramics, and
metals such as gold, silver and bronze.

A large part of the archaeological record of the Mochica is a rich body of

iconography, painted on fine pottery, and on corporate and domestic architecture,
crafted in precious metals and woven into textiles. Included in the variety of themes
were naturalistic portrayals of elite individuals, scenes from everyday life, and
complex religious compositions portraying an array of supernatural beings as well as
elaborately garbed humans68.

Bawden also states about the esoteric nature of these expressions that:
The patterned and representational nature of this iconography permits its
characterization as the codified symbolism of an ideology of power. In this
role it depicts the religious rituals and mythic events that supported the
regional social order of the Moche period and linked it to a deeper shared
belief.69

During the Regional States Period iconographic styles evolved differently in places
but their use continued to be accepted as a normal part of the city ambience. They
were a part of the visible protection of the gods upon which each populace was
psychologically reliant and provided a cultural cohesiveness of shared beliefs and
town identity. The ideological objects used in ritual display also continued to serve as
regional forms of wealth finance and the maintenance of class divisions through elite
exchange.70

The Tawantinsuyu iconographic styles quickly became widely accepted in the regions
where they dominated, taking the place of the regional wealth finance system.
Although local styles continued to exist, they became devalued and of secondary
importance to the introduced iconographic styles which represented association with
powerful Inca prestige. New administration settlements and the conversion of pre-
Tawantinsuyu cities created areas where the regional production of Tawantinsuyu
iconographic objects, such as ceramics, cloth and metal objects, quickly spread and
consolidated the power of the Empire.71

68
Bawden (1996: pp. 11, 23) draws upon the work of Donnan, C.B., Moche Art and Iconography, Los
Angeles, Latin American Publications, Uni. of California, 1976; Topic, T.L., ‘The Early Intermediate
Period and its legacy’, in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City,
Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p. 268.
69
Bawden (1996): p. 11- 12).
70
This was explained through the ideas of Earle (2000) in chapter seven of this dissertation.
71
Earle (2000).

306
Figure 315. Adobe relief designs adorned the walls of the inner plazas of the ciudadelas at Chan Chan,
while large wooden statues guarded the entrances, Tschudi complex (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 316. Small inner plaza at Tschudi with decorated entrance and large niches for wooden idols, as
in the Fig. 317 below (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

307
Figure 317.This is a wooden idol situated in one of the Tschudi citadel plaza’s niches (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 318. Decorated gateway to a plaza at Tschudi, Chan Chan. Note the Andean stairway motif that
is endemic to the Andean region (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

308
Figure 319. Walls decoratively shaped in Tschudi citadel. Also Below (Fig. 320 – 321). This criss-
cross pattern was also used by the Tawantinsuyu, and is still clearly seen at Tambo Colorado, for
example Fig. 331 (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 320. Fish designs adorn the lowest part of the wall at Tschudi citadel.

309
Figure 321. Wall decoration at Tschudi citadel, the lower part is decorated with pelicans (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 322. Wall designs at Tschudi citadel, above are fish, below are a type of skunk (Source:
L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 323. Detail of Tschudi citadel plaza walls (below) at Chan Chan (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

310
Figure 324. Small side entrance to main plaza at Tschudi with decorated walls (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

Figure 325. A recreation of a Chan Chan wall design from the Trujillo Museum (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

311
Figure 326. Recreation of wall a design from Chan Chan, in the Museum at Trujillo. Note the constant
use of the geometric form of the staircase or ‘Andean line’ (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 327. Wall niches at the Tawantinsuyu Mamacuna complex in Pachacamac (Source: L.Hasluck,
2001).

312
Figure 328. Tawantinsuyu wall niches at Písac (Source: L.Hasluck, 2001).

Figures 329 (Above) and Figure 330 (Below) are wall niches at Tambo Colorado, painted in traditional
Tawantinsuyu colours of white, red and yellow. Note the use of the staircase design in the window.
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

313
Figure 330.

Figure 331. Tawantinsuyu geometric wall designs with red and white paint at Tambo Colorado
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

314
Figure 332. Wall niches at Machu Picchu in the King’s barrio (Source: L. Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 333. Wari wall niches painted in white and red from main temple at Huari (Source: L.Hasluck,
2004).

315
Figure 334. This is the western exterior wall of the Huaca de la Luna. Not the intricate religious motifs
in various layers of bright colours (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

316
Figure 335, below, are four different painted designs of gods from the Huaca de la Luna at Moche
illustrating the type of bright motifs commonly used in the Andes (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

317
Figure 336. The wall of the Old Pyramid at Pachacamac, once painted in bright designs of sea creatures
(Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 337. The Old Pyramid with newer Pyramid of the Sun behind, both of which were painted with
ocean designs, but only the reds, yellows and whites still surviving (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

318
Figure 338. A relief of the Andean staircase, possibly from Tiwanaku period on the Sun Temple wall at
Ollantaytambo (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

Figure 339. The complete Sun Temple wall with above relief in the centre (Source: L.Hasluck, 2002).

319
Figures 340 – 349 below, different forms of symbolic expression at Tiwanaku (Source: L.Hasluck,
2003).

Figure 340. Carvings of the Cruz Andina (Andean Cross) at Kerrikala Palace, Tiwanaku.

Figure 341. A view from the centre of the Semi-subterranean Temple, showing two monoliths, carved
heads, monumental structure and entrance to Kalasasaya. Taken from the original site of the enormous
Bennett Monolithe, now in the Tiwanaku site museum.

320
Figures 342. Above, part of the series of carved heads in the Semi-subterranean Temple. Below (Figure
343), a close up of the same. Each has a recognizably different face.

Figure 343.

321
Figure 344. Carvings on a large stone in the religious complex of Tiwanaku.

Figure 345. One of the carved monoliths covered with iconographic designs, in the Kalasasaya Temple,
Tiwanaku. Behind is the Puerta del Sol (Sun Gateway).

322
Figure 346. One of two identical carved monolith figures, removed from the ruins and now situated
outside the front of the Tiwanaku church.

Figure 347. One of the removed monoliths now inside the Tiwanaku site museum.

323
Figure 348 (Above), the Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate) located on the north-west corner of Kalasasaya
Temple. Possibly not in its original position. Below (Fig. 349), a close up of the iconographic designs
carved on the top, that formed part of Americas earliest calendar system.

Figure 349. Puerta del Sol.

324
CHAPTER 10 – Non-Conforming Cases
Thus we are never justified in giving dominant social controls such primacy
in our studies of human cultures that the existence and operation of genuine
contradictions and major differences in custom within socially controlled
groups are undervalued or disregarded. The pattern of a culture must also
include its dissident patterns.
G. Weltfish1

Theories that seek to find unity across broad stretches of time and geography may
encounter examples that do not seem to conform to the pattern. The Andean urban
planning tradition is no exception. As stated in the introduction, the examples used in
this investigation are those that are best suited as representative of periods and
civilizations, and those for which their exists sufficient data. This chapter is a brief
exploration of two possibly urban sites – Moche in the Moche valley and Armatambo
in the Rimác valley – that at first appraisal appear to be at odds with the findings so
far but for which a lack of data seriously precludes any firm conclusions at this point.

10.1 Moche
Firstly, the very interesting site of Moche, which as late as Bawden’s 1996 study of
the Moche valley was labeled as a ceremonial centre is proving to have a far more
intricate and organized history than previously suspected. This does not mean that all
Bawden’s conclusions about the Moche site should be dismissed. It is still correct, as
discussed in Chapter Four, that the political and social collapse during the Moche IV
phase brought about the shift of the capital from Moche to Pampa Grande and the
creation of Galindo as a regional centre in the Moche valley. This collapse also
brought about changes in the urban planning to manage the needs of the new social
order which in the Moche valley, became more rigid, secular and divided than was
customary in the Andes. Bawden remains correct in showing the relationship between
the environmental changes, political and social upheaval and transformation and the
later influence of the Wari-Tiwanaku cultural invasion.

Bawden’s findings were based on observations at the site, that due to severe erosion,
shows little more than a flat plain between the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la
Luna, scattered with pottery and lithic fragments2. The early investigations were a
small sample site to the west of the huacas and gave little indication of content other
than that some habitations might be under the barren windswept plain. Although there
were Gallinazo antecedents at the site3, that it was the most important Mochica site

1
Weltfish, G., ‘The ethnic dimension of human history: pattern or patterns of change?’, in A. Wallace
(ed.), Men and Cultures - Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and
Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, September 1-9, 1956, Philadelphia, Uni. of Pennsylvania Press,
1960, pp. 205- 218: p. 210.
2
Chapdelaine, C., ‘La ciudad de Moche: ‘urbanismo y estado’, in Uceda, s. & Mujica, E. (eds.), Moche
hacia el final del milenio, actas de Segundo coloquio sobre la cultura Moch, tomo 2, Uni. Nacional de
Trujillo, 2003, pp. 247- 278: p. 249, and Topic, T.L., (‘The Early Intermediate Period and its legacy’,
in Moseley, M. & Day, K. (eds.), Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, Albuquerque, Uni. of New Mexico
Press, 1982, pp. 255- 284: p. 263) also attest to the difficulty of excavation at the heavily eroded site,
also due to the compactness of the soil. Personal observation supports their statements as to the very
poor surface preservation.
3
Topic (1982): p. 265.

325
was obvious by the size of the huacas and the settlement, was unsurpassed in size for
the north coast in the Regional Development Period and Moche phases I – III.

However more recent investigations by Uceda and Chapdelaine4 although still

covering only a tiny part of the overall site5 (which is ≈ 220 metres by 280 metres)6
have begun to show that Moche, in its final stage, was probably more of an organised
city than a ceremonial site7. Still yet, a city that was built to a plan and maintained
over time to the original idea8. With these findings and by personal observation of the
excavations it becomes apparent that Moche was laid out in a rough grid plan, similar
in aspects to the Roman grid, where a system of streets joined by smaller alleyways
meeting at right-angles form a network within a quadrangle.9 However, based on
present data there appears to be two major differences both to the Roman design and
the Andean urban planning tradition. The first is that there appears to be no central
plaza, although admittedly the area, in orientation with the huacas, where according
to Andean planning tradition one would expect to find a central plaza remains to be
excavated. Both the huacas had extensive plazas for ritual, administrative or public
use on their tops and these may have served the function of the traditional central
plaza. However a system of smaller plazas for economic activities such as trading
animals, seafood, ceramics, cloth and metal goods, have been discovered within the
residential area, at a reasonably spaced distance between each.

Secondly, the major cross streets, usually running north-south and east-west that make
up a large part of the orientation and access of Andean cities (and Roman grid) at this
stage do not appear to be present. In their place are two main thoroughfares, their
width indicating that as well as granting quick general access to the public buildings
and production zones, they also played a ceremonial role10. Situated at the north and
south ends of the city, running east-west at the foot of the Huaca del Sol and the
Huaca de la Luna the grid work of streets and alleys stretched between them. It can
only be presumed from the continuation of the streets below the sands that the system
continues to at least cover the greater proportion of the site.

4
Uceda, S. & Chapdelaine, C., ‘El centro urbano de las Huacas del Sol y la Luna’, Arkinka, no. 33,
Agosto, Lima, 1998, pp.94- 103; Chapdelaine (2003).
5
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998: p. 98), point out that the east, west and north still remain to be
investigated.
6
Chapdelaine (2003): p. 250. Probable size of complete site.
7
Chapdelaine (2003): p. 250; Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 94.
8
Chapdelaine (2003): p. 250.
9
Morris, A.E.G., History of the Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution, 2nd Ed., New York,
Halstead press, 1979: p. 39. A typical Roman grid town plan is described by Morris (p. 39 -40); ‘The
perimeter is usually square or rectangular; within this two main cross streets form the basis of the
street structure – the decumanus, through the centre of the town, and the cardo, usually bisecting the
decumanus at right angles, towards one end. Secondary streets complete the grid layout, and form the
building blocks, known as insulae. The forum area … is usually located on one of the angles formed by
the intersection of the decumanus and the cardo; it normally consists of a colonnaded courtyard with a
meeting hall built across one end. The main temple, the theatre, and the public baths … were also
located near the forum in the centre of the town. The amphitheatre, a large spatial unit requiring sloping
ground for seating, was normally located outside the town. Fortifications were sometimes omitted at
first because of the strong imperial frontier defenses, but proved necessary at later, insecure stages in
the history of these towns’.
10
Chapdelaine (2003): p. 250; Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998) : p. 102.

326
Figure 350. A view of the two Huacas of Moche, looking towards the coast. The city centre lay
between the Huaca de la Luna on the left and the Huaca del Sol on the right. In front of the Huaca de la
Luna can be seen the present excavation site (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

Figure 351. A view over the present excavations of the centre of the Moche city, taken from the top of
the Huaca del la Luna looking towards the Huaca del Sol in the background (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

327
Figure 352. One of the main streets of the Moche capital that formed the basis of the grid layout.
Behind is the Huaca de la Luna in front of which ran a large avenue from which these other main
streets presumably connected to the Huaca del Sol on the other side of the city. The yellow rod is
1metre long (Source: L.Hasluck, 2004).

There are, however, many aspects that do fit within the stated Andean urban planning
tradition, and that can also be seen to continue later in the designs of Galindo and
Pampa Grande. These aspects as stated, by Uceda and Chapdelaine, are part of the
basic formula of urbanism as discussed in Chapter Three, yet they raise doubts as to
Moche’s urban designation:
Se dice que para considerar un centro urbano como ciudad, deben darse una
serie de elementos básicos: áreas de producción industrial, zonas
administrativas, viviendas de elite, zonas de servicio a los residentes
(mercados, depósitos, agua, etc.), servidores y templos. Aunque estamos lejos
de completar toda la lista de condiciones exigibles, muchas de ellas existen en
el centro urbano Moche: una red de calles y callejones que separan el centro
urbano en posibles barrios, cuyo caracteres aún no han sido plenamente
definidos; y la presencia de canales a lo largo de las avenidas principales, que
probablemente abastecían de agua a la población residente en el sitio.11

11
Uceda & Chapelaine (1998): p. 98. If we say, for consideration that an urban centre such as a city,
should have a series of basic elements: areas of production, administrative zones, elite housing,
residential service zones (markets, storage, water, etc.), priests and temples. Although we are far from
completing all of the list of eligible conditions, many of these exist in the urban centre, Moche: a
network of streets and alleyways that separate the urban centre into possible suburbs, that have
characteristics though they are not definitely defined; and a presence of canals stretching beside the

328
The organization and workforce needed to build the system of streets, canals and
public architecture, and to maintain the social stability, clearly point to a centralized
authority that was able to adjudicate between personal differences over property and
land management. It may only be a matter of time before true palaces and high-
ranking dwellings are discovered12.

That the Huaca de la Luna was the religious centre and residence of the ruler is known
from investigations13, it also formed the southern edge of the site, built on the foot of
the physical barrier to expansion in this direction, Cerro Blanco. Whether the Huaca
del Sol, the administration centre and focus of community life14, then formed the
northern edge of the site remains under speculation, as the area around and to the
north of it was destroyed by Spanish looters who diverted the river to undermine the
huaca foundation in search of gold supposedly buried inside. Unfortunately washing
away much of the huaca and the surrounding land means that the huaca may have
held a more central position than it appears to today.

The city was distinctly divided by social class, with the elite living closest to the
Huaca de la Luna, on the south side of the avenue and the better houses also in the
more central position15. The areas of metal and ceramic production have been found
on the outskirts of the city on the western side where a wall limited the growth in that
direction16. There may have been poorer workers housing also beyond the wall in that
direction, future investigation is needed.

The dwellings – three distinct types indicating social variation17 that have been
investigated in the area between the two huacas - were all built on a basic patio
design, undergoing increasing complexity and division of the internal space in the
later epochs. Some burials within the floors and benches were common18. Their
proximity to the small plazas, not built around intersections but with their own
allotted spaces, suggests a close economic control by the upper classes, with each type
of trade possibly controlled by a family, as each plaza is dedicated to a particular
product19. Uceda and Chapdelaine identify food resources as evidence of social
stratification and control over resources;
El estudio de la dieta será clave para establecer patrones alimenticios, así
como para identificar grupos sociales distintos según el acceso que tuvieran a
los recursos disponibles.20

main thoroughfares, that probably brought water to the resident population at the site (translation. L.
Hasluck).
12
Canziani Amico, J. ‘Estado y ciudad: revisión de la teoría sobre la sociedad Moche’, in Uceda, s. &
Mujica, E. (eds.), Moche hacia el final del milenio, actas de Segundo coloquio sobre la cultura
Moche, tomo 2, Uni. Nacional de Trujillo, 2003, pp. 287- 311: p.287; Topic (1982): pp. 273, 276;
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 102.
13
Chapdelaine (2003): p. 250.
14
Topic (1982): p. 278.
15
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 94.
16
Topic (1982): p. 266; Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 99.
17
Canziani (2003): p. 296; Topic (1982): p. 269.
18
Topic (1982): p. 270.
19
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 99-100.
20
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 96. The study of the diet was the key to establish the owners food
resources, and in this way identify distinct social groups who had access to the disposable resources
(translation L. Hasluck).

329
However the areas of economic production, such as ceramics and metal workshops,
have been found to be on the outskirts of the city to the south-west21. These were most
likely involved in the production of sacred rather than utensil items and within the city
boundary to retain control over the use iconographic representations and cultural
power, also seen in the production of their complex coloured wall friezes in both
temple and domestic architecture22. Utensil ceramics were produced in different
valleys and areas23. However, as in later epochs such as Moche IV in Galindo, when
utensil production was brought within the city limits, mass manufacturing did not
have a central place amongst the elite residential area.

No storage areas have yet been discovered, either at Moche or other contemporary
sites and the Mochica may have had a system of distribution regulation different to
that appearing in Galindo and the later Chan Chan, with their heavily controlled
community access to storage areas. The administrators seemed to have played more of
a role as planners, leaders, labor organizers, and agents of social cohesion24. However
household storage, of which there is ample evidence, shows that storage was needed
but that the households did not necessarily control a large proportion of the societies
resources25. The household patio area also played its part in household economic
production, such as weaving, in the same way that it continued in Galindo26. Trade
between the capital and its hinterland in Moche ceremonial ceramics probably had a
large part in the cities economic life27.

Finally, the city was sited in the centre of the valley, as a centre of intra-valley politics
and trade, close beside the river, but was not located on prime agricultural land28.

These evidences support the idea that Moche was a centralized state, with a weak
division between religious and secular activities29, social stratification, job
specialisation, a hierarchy of settlements, a large area of influence, relative density of
population, etc. The Mochica had the core cultural aspects to form an urban society
and, although small and individual, did so at the capital Moche and with urban
influence possibly in other locations. The use of the grid system is particularly
interesting as it seems to appear nowhere else in so formulated a design in pre-Wari-
Tiwanaku times. However this may also be proven incorrect with future studies of
early residential areas in other locations. The formulated design of the residential
areas may be seen as a connection with the later Chimú culture and the Chan Chan
citadels, as part of a Moche valley tradition, as for example their concern to control
access to elite housing areas30. That their urban grid plan was not applied equally in

21
Topic (1982): p. 275; Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 98.
22
Topic (1982): p. 268; Canziani (2003): p. 298.
23
Canziani (2003): p. 308.
24
Topic (1982): p. 278.
25
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998) : p. 101.
26
Topic (1982): p. 276.
27
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 98. There is still some doubt as Chicama also produced suitable
pottery for trade.
28
Topic (1982): p. 262.
29
The administration of the state was directed by the religious leader who was also king. That there
was some secular division is seen in the use of the Huaca del Sol for administration purposes and the
Huace de la Luna for religious.
30
Uceda & Chapdelaine (1998): p. 102.

330
Galindo and Pampas Grande in the later Moche IV and V phases may either be due to
internal cultural and political changes or in the case of Galindo to the roughness of the
terrain, unsuited to a grid system layout.

Figure 353. A reconstruction drawing of the centre of Moche. Note the wide avenue that runs in front
of the Huaca de la Luna. On the side nearest the huaca is the elite housing, while across the avenue is
the housing of the craft workers and traders, built along small streets set at right angles to the avenue
(Source: Uceda & Chapdelaine, 1998, p. 97).

10.2 Armatambo
The city of Armatambo in the Rimác (Lima) valley is also an interesting case of
differing in degree from the Andean urban planning tradition. However on closer
inspection it seems to fall within the Andean urban planning tradition to a greater
degree than Moche. However, like Moche, the site also has been massively damaged
and information regarding it is currently sparse, although sufficient to raise several
important points. The site has been almost entirely covered in the last 10-15 years by
the rapidly growing outer suburbs of Lima which are not subject to planning control
aimed at minimizing damage to the archaeological site. Luisa Diaz and Francisco
Vallejo have managed to undertake archaeological investigations and continue to
salvage what information they can31.

31
Diaz, L. & Vallejo, F., ‘Armatambo y el dominio Incaico en el valle de Lima’, Boletín de
Arqueología PUCP, no. 6, 2002, pp. 355- 374.

331
Armatambo was built with an easterly orientation, in a lengthwise direction along the
foot of the Cerro Morro Solara, so close to Pachacamac that on a clear day they are
visible to each other32. Initially built during the Regional States Period by the
independent state of the Ichma culture, at the time of their building expansion of the
capital Pachacamac, Armatambo served as a northern entrance and collection and
storage point for agricultural and maritime goods that also served the population of
Pachacamac. It continued and increased in this role under the later administration of
the Tawantinsuyu Empire with new construction to reflect the imperial power and
importance33. As noted in previous chapters the Inca held Pachacamac in great respect
and allowed her greater independence than other cities.

Although it was one of the most extensive complexes in the Lima valley, and Diaz
and Vellejo state that Armatambo was obviously an urban complex, for its extension
and diversity of buildings. However its small religious ramped pyramid structures
were not built around a central plaza but, like Chan Chan’s, are dotted around in a
generally centralized area of the city34. On the upward slope in the central part of the
city exists a large walled open space, which is tiered and may have served as a plaza.
However it is more likely that the open space served as a place for drying and
processing agricultural goods, before storage or transportation to Pachacamac. These
included large corrals for handling the continuous llama caravans for trading and
goods transportation35. No residential information is currently available although
residential areas did exist. Since the Ichma separated the elite and worker residential
areas at Pachacamac it could also be presumed to have happened in Armatambo, and
a future search around the pyramids may reveal elite residences and administrative
buildings.

Armatambo appears to be a sister city to Pachacamac, but of great importance to the

Ichma36, and may not have been designed so much as a separate city but as a
somewhat removed suburb of Pachacamac. Although it contains small pyramids and
religious structures, monumental construction may have been kept at a minimum as
the populations spiritual needs, and central administrative needs were served by the
near by Pachacamac. This means that meeting places for large ceremonial gatherings,
such as a central plaza, were not needed. Armatambo served as a resource processing
and storage centre in a semi-industrialized fashion, and its design is to meet its
working needs rather than cultural maintenance, which was easily served and
controlled from nearby Pachacamac. The Tawantinsuyu realizing its functional
purpose also used it as an administrative centre, while building their Temple of the
Sun and House of the Mamacunas at Pachacamac the ideological centre of the central
coast. Interestingly the Spanish also chose the Rimác rather than the Lurin valley for
their capital, the natural habour at this bay no doubt being a major factor in both pre-
Hispanic and Colonial choice of site.

32
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): pp. 355, 363.
33
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 359.
34
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): pp. 355, 360.
35
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 360. On page 362 it is mentioned the discovery of spondylus shells from
Ecuador that were important religious items and traded throughout the Andes as a luxury item.
36
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 359.

332
That Armatambo served as a gateway to Pachacamac is obvious as the northern
coastal road first passed through Armatambo37. Also large food storage areas for the
wealth of gifts and sacrifices required to acknowledge Pachacamac’s prestige have
not been discovered at Pachacamac itself and Armatambo probably served as this
purpose, yet there is much that remains to be discovered. However the relationship
between the two seems to have been symbiotic in nature and this is reflected in the
less socially and politically orientated design of Armatambo. Those design aspects not
reserved solely for Pachacamac still show that Armatambo existed within the Andean
urban planning tradition. The generally central location of religious and
administrative buildings, the placement of food processing centrally within the control
of the administrative elite, the connection to the highway system, location beside the
river yet not upon arable land and the location still within site of the major religious
structures of Pachacamac38 (this may also have facilitated quick communication for
ritual acceptance of gifts). The use of decorated walls with friezes and paintings of
animals, fish and maize, that continued and expanded in the Tawantinsuyu period39,
was also part of an ongoing Andean urban aesthetic tradition.

Figure 354. One of the adobe ramped pyramids in a typical Pachacamac style in the centre of
Armatambo (Source: Diaz & Vallejo, 2002, p.364).

37
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 358.
38
Diaz & Vallejo (2002).
39
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 363- 365.

333
Figure 355. A map of the centre of Armatambo. Note the scattered placement of the huacas (dark
colours, and the cities relationship with the cerro and ocean. The city makes good use of enclosures in
its planning (Source: Diaz & Vallejo, 2002, p. 356).

334
Figure 356. One of the wall murals at Armatambo, using the colours found also at Pachacamac. It
depicts a maize plant (Source: Diaz & Vallejo, 2002, p.371).

Armatambo should probably not be treated as a separately distinct city but as an arm
of Pachacamac. Although much of the site is still to be investigated, this close
relationship is clearly visible in the use at Armatambo of at least fifteen ramped
pyramids of the Pachacamac designs40.

Both these cities of Moche and Armatambo display urban planning techniques that are
used throughout the Andes and so must be still be placed within the Andean urban
tradition. The lack of information obviously hampers clear conclusions about them
and it may well be shown in the future that other important aspects currently missing,
such as a central plaza, will be discovered in the future.

For the first time it has been clearly shown that a pan-Andean tradition of urban
design and planning existed in pre-Colonial times. The features analysed in these
chapters are those that through constant repetition have formed not only the backbone
of that tradition, but are those aspects which specifically may have played a role in the
maintenance of social and state structures that helped give longevity to the urban
tradition and also to particular cities within it, such as Tiwanaku, Pachacamac and
Cuzco.

40
Diaz & Vallejo (2002): p. 362.

335
How these features of the ancient cities of the Andes, which form a cohesive urban
planning tradition, may be of use in the solving some of the present and future
problems faced by widespread and massive urbanism will be considered in the
following conclusion. That some of the aspects of this urban tradition are useful,
certainly in the Americas, if not else where is seen by the length of their endurance
and adoption under different South American civilizations. That they may be of use in
a global context is supported by the fact that some of the ideas were common in
different parts of the world prior to the planetary diffusion of ideas.

336
Conclusion
This dissertation concludes in two parts. The first summarizes the growth of the specific
design elements of the Andean urban planning tradition as described for the first time in
previous chapters. The second part points out the relevance of the Andean tradition to
international forms by demonstrating that some of the design characteristics from Andean
urban planning have similarities with general pre-industrial urban culture and design on an
international level. In addition, some of the Andean urban forms have correlations with
specific urban attributes used by the Spanish in the colonization of the Americas.

Andean Urban Planning Tradition

In the preceding chapters an Andean urban planning tradition has been outlined that covers
the time and area of Andean urbanization up to the Spanish conquest and is formed by a
range of characteristics and adaptive urban planning designs and mechanisms. The Andean
urban planning tradition can now be included in international comparisons and specific
aspects of the urban tradition used as a reference. It has been clearly shown how the
geography, and exploitation of vertical and horizontal resource zones helped spread ideas
of urbanism, and how the contact stimulated the growth of the centralized social
organization needed to manage hydraulic technology, monumental architecture and
workforce, job specialization, social stratification, area of influence, increased residential
density and ideological mastery of the population, that are the common bases of an urban
society.

The birth of urbanism and the rise of irrigated agriculture brought with it a new
appreciation of the importance of a city’s location to the success of its urban culture. The
choice of location was vital in the Andes, not only for communication routes but also to
protect arable lands and water access. Some cities were also located for the sacred
geography of the site. With irrigation and the introduction of new food resources such as
maize, the use of more land in otherwise unfruitful areas supplied, by community effort, the
surpluses needed to survive as an urban unit, especially in the extreme Andes environment.
This surplus was extracted for, and managed by, a religious and administrative elite that
could exist only with force or the acceptance by the population of an ideology that
preserved urban life-style and the position of the elite.

The need to create an atmosphere of intense ideological adherence can be seen in the
designs of the cities. The central monumental religious complexes and plazas, to which the
elite housing were attached, the fine craft workshops that produced ideological high status
and religious artefacts, and often the storage areas, represented the centralization of state-
religious power in the hands of those that physically dwelled closest to its most important
concentrations of power. The importance of the centre of the city became well understood
and valued, in that it allowed the elite administration to function with greater ease and
access to other members of the same class.

The effects of control, division, theology and reputation were a planned part of urban
design to attempt to maintain an order and hierarchy, in part necessary to urbanization. That
urban planning was important and successful is seen through its continued use within the

337
Andean building tradition. That some of the key cities were also the longest in duration,
such as Caral, Pachacamac and Tiwanaku, highlights the fact that aspects of their urban
designs were part of the success of maintaining the dominant socio-politico structure. Some
long-lasting cities like Ollantaytambo, Quito and Cuzco, the oldest serving city in the
Americas, even crossed the temporal frontier into the period of Spanish colonialism and the
present Republicanism.

The cities, especially the religious areas, were highly decorated with religious motifs that
psychologically reinforced the Andean and regional world-view and socio-political system.
In this system the religious leaders claimed access to the supernatural power of the gods
and manipulated this belief to help to create and maintain a general consensus of desire and
willingness to participate in the urban life under the control of the elite. In the case of
Tawantinsuyu, this meant taking care of and ordering every part of a citizen’s life.
Ideology, religious belief and esoteric knowledge, built into the fabric of the cities
surrounded the population with symbols that attested to the citizen’s place and prescribed
role in life. The sacred symbols could give the society a power in which to believe greater
than the natural forces surrounding and often disturbing them. The leader and elite who
controlled the symbols gained the confidence and security of the people.

The aesthetics of iconographic decoration in Andean cities is remarkable for the way in
which colour, geometric and anthropomorphic designs are used, often in spectacular sizes.
The Andean people clearly had a sophisticated sense of aesthetics that was manifested in
their textiles, ceramics, metal ware, music, dance, ritual and, of course, architecture. Their
sense of aesthetics was greatly affected by their environment, and the inclusion of this in
their cities through such means as water channels, fountains, views and carved bedrock,
made their cities far more than defensive collectives against the forces of nature or political
enemies. Andean urban design generally tried to offer an ambience that permitted the
inhabitants to feel some physical and emotional connection with the surrounding
environment. Even though living an urban lifestyle, of being apart from nature, they still
saw the physical city as a part of the environment. However, urbanization with its
aesthetically vibrant and diverse culture was recognized as a resource and security many
desired. Their pyramids imitated the wild mountains where the gods resided, and also
created a place where the religious elite lived. This intended to demonstrate to the
population that through the elite and community ritual, and constructions, the society could
have the aid of the supernatural. Where that bond was seen to be faltering it aided in the
deterioration of the elite’s control and the cities demise, such as at Galindo. Here radical
environmental changes caused by an El Niño brought about a corresponding lack of faith in
the elite and their ritual control over natural events, and subsequently created alterations in
the socio-politico power and organization.

Civic pride became recognized as an urban cohesive force, and a city’s reputation could
mean a lot to the inhabitants. A city‘s reputation could bring economic advantages and
increased status, raising the social standing of the citizens. With civic pride came also an
appreciation of the city as a work of beauty, with monumental constructions and urban
vistas included in architecture and layout where possible. The centre of Cuzco, for example,
had been built specifically to imitate the beautiful precise stonework of Tiwanaku. This was
recognition of the glory and aesthetics of a formerly important city that still lived on in

338
legend and reputation. It may also have been a demonstration of the recollection by the elite
of their true connection between the two cultures, a connection that the Inca publicly
denied.

The creation of an ordered pattern in the urban landscape after the period of Wari-
Tiwanaku influence brought state centralization and ability to control the populace to a new
level of sophistication. This new level of state control became an important part of urban
planning. The very layout of a city could help deny or encourage access to different parts of
the city for the various segments of the population. In regions where a high level of state
control receded, as after the collapse of the Wari-Tiwanaku Empire, so too did the initiative
and collaboration needed to found new cities. Where it continued, as with the Chimú and
Ichma, old cities continued to grow and new ones emerged. Not until under the
Tawantinsuyu did a higher level of centralized state control emerge and unite the Andes
area once more as an obviously visible whole, with the regional differences as varied parts.
The Tawantinsuyu concentrated their short time and much of their resources on
infrastructure and conquest, utilizing many ideas from past and contemporary cultures. But
where new cities or settlements were created, they adhered to a time-proven tradition of
planning which they had inherited from thousands of years of planning evolution and which
was suited particularly for the Andean world-view, ethos and geography.

The Tawantinsuyu understood the need to control ideology, and to represent the state as the
centre of the people’s universe, as Cuzco was the centre of the empire. The city’s form
through its grandeur and reputation served the state’s need as representing the power and
magnificence of the empire and its Inca. The empire placed temples and administrative
buildings in the centre of cities, often removing the same sorts of buildings of the previous
elite, to reinforce and display their reputation as the only dominating force. In a similar
process the Inca tried to deny the history of the existence of civilizations before them, so
that the civilized world and its marvels would appear as created by the Inca alone, which
would increase the peoples awe and the Inca’s political power.

The length of time that a city existed for increased its success and greatness, so that the
older cities such as Tiwanaku and Pachacamac became also Andes-wide centres of
pilgrimage drawing to them greater wealth, fame and prosperity. These three powerful
aspects allowed growth in their city and their power of influence over neighbouring
peoples. In so doing, however, Pachacamac created a peaceful polity, while the Tiwanaku
established an empire that stretched the Andes, and later re-emerged as the Tawantinsuyu to
reach even further afield over an area comparable in size to the Roman Empire. The
dynamic and enduring effect of Tiwanaku city and their urban ideology can not be denied.

That urbanization was a desirable response to the growing size and complexity of these
Andean cultures and civilizations and that it was a continued response, is demonstrated by
the increased use of existing and new urban centres during the Regional States Period,
particularly under the Chimú. By the time of the Tawantinsuyu Empire the Andes was so
well populated and urbanized that the Tawantinsuyu often had to do little more than
connect their better system of roads, and build, improve or maintain infrastructure.
Although they brought urbanization and hydraulic agriculture to new areas, the
Tawantinsuyu’s main developmental role was to force the Andes into an organized urban

339
network and society of a massive agrarian empire under a well regulated economy. In this
way population centres, especially the large cities, not only remained important to their
satellite cities and countryside, but grew to become an attraction by their diversity of
culture and work, important parts of urbanization. The urban network caused new
agriculture and resources to be exploited, and cities, towns and villages to be created and
grow to supply the increasing urban demand. When the Spanish arrived they encountered
an urban society of great size and complexity and even though they walked amongst the
busy city streets in varied parts of the Tawantinsuyu Empire they only vaguely noted the
repetition of city design elements belonging to an ancient but unrecognized tradition.

International Comparison
Although the Andean urban planning tradition developed in isolation it shares certain
aspects in culture and design with other pre-industrial urban societies and forms around the
world. Using the comprehensive summary of the generalized attributes of pre-industrial, or
‘Feudal’, urban societies in Gideon Sjoberg’s, The Preindustrial City (1960),1 it is possible
to form a comparison of the Andean urban planning tradition with those of the rest of the
world in different epochs. Since it is the generalized form that is to be compared, it is not
important that urbanization developed unevenly around the world in both space and time.2
As demonstrated in chapter three, this comparison is possible because, although the Andes
never developed a system of writing, which is part of the urban criteria used by Sjoberg, the
Andes does fit with many other urban criteria including the development of a form of
‘literati’ class.

The use of generalizations for comparison is justified by Sjoberg when he argues that;
‘Only to the extent that structural similarities among pre-industrial cities over the world are
isolated can the influence of cultural values upon city life be perceived’.3 Like Sjoberg’s
summary this study has also raised a set of generalizations as to urban design in the Andes,
using a sufficient set of data to form a solid opinion and to enhance accuracy. This allows
for the comparison of the Andes urban tradition with the set of generalizations formulated
for the rest of the pre-industrial urban world.

Before looking at the built characteristics of urban planning that the Andes share in
common with the rest of the pre-industrial urban world, the cultural aspects that helped
form the urban designs which are in common to all pre-industrial urban societies need to be
evaluated. One of the pre-conditions for city life in Sjoberg’s4 analysis is a favourable
ecological base, which for the Andes may be contested.5 Yet the system of trade between
vertical and horizontal resource zones was a part of what led to the creation, maintenance
and dispersion of urbanism in the Andes. So it can be argued that the difficult geography, as
such, forced into creation an economic and social system, and political centralization that
was favourable to the growth of urbanism. Difficult as the Andean geography is, it was

1
Sjoberg, G., The Preindustrial City: Past and Present, New York, The Free Press, 1960.
2
Sjoberg (1960): p. 64.
3
Sjoberg (1960): p. 16.
4
Sjoberg (1960): p. 27.
5
Mumford, Lewis, The City in History, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1961: p. 92.

340
obviously more favourable to the rise of urbanism than, for example, an entirely barren
desert.

Secondly, Sjoberg6 bases much of his argument on the existence of an advanced technology
relative to the pre-urban forms, which was necessary for urbanism to economically support
itself. In the Andes the introduction of new food resources and the use of flood plain and
irrigated agriculture, also the use of monumental architecture and systems of food
preservation for year-round food supply, such as ceramics and drying techniques, and a
system of inter-zone resource sharing enabled by the domestication of animals for increased
transportation of goods, shows an increase in technology that did not exist prior to the
beginnings of urbanization. Where previous to the existence of cities these technologies
were developing independently, the new social power of increased centralized organization
under a controlling elite brought them together and allowed urbanization to begin. These
forms of technological increases, and others that did not affect the Andes, such as the
wheel, animal drawn plow and the use of iron, are present in the formation and spread of
urbanization in the Andes as else where in the world. Of course serious consideration must
be given to Reader’s theory that perhaps the formation of the city caused the development
or adoption of new agricultural techniques and technologies to supply the increased
demands of the city.7 This appears to have been the case with Caral, the first city in the
Americas, which developed before the people of the Supe valley were using ceramics, large
scale irrigation, metallurgy or the domestication of llamas for transportation.

A complex social organization, and above all a well developed power structure were
necessary for the creation and maintenance of urban conglomerations and ethos. In all the
urban societies of the Andes there is a clear and rigid distinction by social class into the two
basic divisions of upper and lower, corresponding to elite and worker, or administrator and
producer. The Andes also fits the requirement of having a well developed power structure
as outlined by Sjoberg8 for pre-industrial urban societies where ‘a power group…can
sustain itself only if its members concentrate in the kinds of settlements we call urban.’9 He
argues further that urbanization needs a well developed power structure to exploit its area
of influence, and so account both for the expansion of cities in size and number, their
diffusion into previously non-urbanized or lightly urbanized areas, and their decline and
possible resurgence. 10 All of these aspects occurred under the theocratic power structures
of the Andes. Similar to the pre-industrial cities described by Sjoberg11, cities in the Andes
do not necessarily end with the demise of an empire or kingdom but are able to attach
themselves to a new political entity and prosper again, such as Pachacamac, Cajamarquilla,
Chan Chan and others that continued under various regimes.

Sjoberg argues, and it was also the case for the Andes, that cities were focal points of
transport and communication enabling the ruling elite not only to maintain surveillance
over the countryside but also to permit ease of interaction with members of their own
6
Sjoberg (1960): p. 27.
7
Reader, J., Cities, London, William Heinemann, 2004.
8
Sjoberg (1960): p. 67.
9
Sjoberg (1960): p. 67.
10
Sjoberg (1960): p. 68.
11
Sjoberg (1960): p. 74.

341
groups in other cities as well as within a city. The congestion that defines the city
maximizes personal, face-to-face communication, which is essential if the heads of the
various bureaucratic structures – governmental, religious and educational – are to maintain
ties with each other. So, too craftsmen and merchants prosper in the urban milieu, whose
density and occupational heterogeneity foster economic activity.12 Sjoberg states for pre-
industrial cities in general, and is also applicable in the Andes, that ‘[s]ocial power on the
local, societal and extra societal levels influences the expansion and location of cities, their
internal ecological arrangements and their social structures as well’.13

Although many of these aspects, such as communication between bureaucratic structures

and ease of communication between elite members, are difficult to trace in the
archaeological record, the fact that they formed a basic part of urban culture in other pre-
industrial societies and have been hypothesized to exist also within the Andes urban society
means that in all probability the Andean cities also played these roles.

There are also specific physical aspects shaped by cultural similarities between pre-
industrial cities as Sjoberg describes them and those of the Andes. For instance, Sjoberg
argues that the location of pre-industrial cities is mainly effected by the factors of
‘environment, technology, the economic structure, the power structure, and cultural
values’.14 This can be seen to be part of the process in location choice in the Andes, where
position for protection of arable land, water rights, sacred geography, interurban road
connection, trade, and political and military tactics, all play a role.

The great importance of a city, Sjoberg argues, does not necessarily mean that it is of great
size.15 Cuzco and Pachacamac were smaller than Chan Chan, yet in their contemporary
time the former two were of wider-reaching cultural importance and of greater reputation.
However, Sjoberg stresses that a city’s reputation does count and the attraction to the
capital of the larger part of the surplus where the ruler lives subsidizes high culture, in the
form of astrologers, artists, musicians, artisans and such.16 Sjoberg17 cites the example of
Edo (Tokyo during the Tokugawa period) where, like Cuzco under the Inca, the nobility
from the lesser cities were forced to spend a part of each year living in the capital. Sjoberg
sees the greatness of a city in population and reputation as closely related to social and
political power. He argues that;
The more potent the elite, the grander the city. The more services and luxury goods
the elite commands, the larger and more specialized can be the urban population
that supports the upper class, and the more likely is the privileged stratum in a
particular city to expand its membership, either by absorbing some of the cities
lower class or by attracting upper class persons from other portions of the realm.18

12
Sjoberg (1960): pp. 67, 114.
13
Sjoberg (1960): p. 17.
14
Sjoberg (1960): p. 85.
15
Sjoberg (1960): p. 82.
16
Sjoberg (1960): p. 70.
17
Sjoberg (1960): p. 87.
18
Sjoberg (1960): p. 115.

342
This socio-economic relationship was clearly demonstrated in the Andes, when Cuzco was
rebuilt to begin its era of empire expansion, the lands around it were annexed and given to
the people of Cuzco. The former owners were sent to another part of the empire, and all the
people of Cuzco, even the lower classes became Lords, thus swelling the numbers of the
upper class to manage the needs of the expanding empire. So too, the nobility from other
parts of the empire were forced to live in Cuzco and have their children educated there in
the lore of the Tawantinsuyu upper class, thus expanding its membership.

The internal design of pre-industrial cities also has design similarities with those found in
the Andes. Sjoberg19 describes three ways in which land use patterns in pre-industrial cities
operate, and these were also used in the Andes. For example, in both there existed the pre-
eminence of the ‘central’ area over the periphery, especially as portrayed in the distribution
of the social classes. The elite, for reasons of ease of communication with their own class,
separation from the lower class and access to the buildings of political, religious and
economic power, claim the central area of the city as their own residential area.20 This is
clearly seen in Andean urban design from its inception in Caral and continuing up to and
under the Tawantinsuyu. Wheatley explains it succinctly but from an Old World point of
view and in comparison with the industrial city that;
In many traditional urban forms, for example, the pre-eminence of the central
sector over the periphery derived less from economic and technological
considerations than from a principle that may conveniently be termed proximity to
the focus of power in both its secular and sacred material and ritual aspects. In
such cities rent-distance relationships appear to have been structured on principles
that generated a zoning of land-uses somewhat different from those commonly
encountered in the modern city. Not only were location patterns based primarily
on localized vertical organizations and product groupings ….but the central
precinct was also often reserved for ritual purposes, a situation which tended to
create central population-density craters that persisted in many cases until the
onset of modernization.21

Secondly, in pre- industrial cities certain finer-scale spatial differences existed according to
ethnic, occupational and family ties, with kinship groups even owning particular areas.22 A
clear case of this in the Andes can be seen in the citadels of Chan Chan, occupied by royal
families and their retainers. It is also clear in the layout of Cuzco where areas were resided
in by groups segregated on a family, ethnicity or occupational basis, with the royal families
exclusively occupying the centre of the city, and foreigners and artisans the outer areas,
while the workers were further out still on the city’s perimeter. Pachacamac stands as
another clear example of the results of such socially segregationist tendencies. Low status
occupation groups could be forced to the periphery of cities as the elite sought not to have
contact with them. On the periphery the poor could supplement their lives with crops grown

19
Sjoberg (1960): p. 95.
20
Sjoberg (1960): p. 99.
21
Wheatley, P., ‘The concept of urbanism’, in P.J. Ucko, R. Tringham & G. Dimbleby (eds.), Man,
Settlement and Urbanism: Research Seminar in Archaeology and related Subjects, Institute of Archaeology,
London University, Duckworth, 1972, pp. 601- 637: p. 619.
22
Sjoberg (1960): p. 102.

343
on and beyond the outskirts of the city.23 This separation is seen to begin in the Andes with
urbanization in Caral, where elite housing was distinct from lower class dwellings.

Thirdly, there is a low incidence of functional differentiation in the other land use patterns
of pre-industrial cities. Occupations tend to group themselves in quarters or particular
streets of the city. Although this aspect is not particularly obvious in Andean cities with a
market free economy, the grouping of weavers and chicha brewers, for example, into their
own compounds is an Andean form. Sjoberg sees this as an expression of the limited pre-
industrial transport technology in which the time-consuming delivery of raw materials and
collection of products forced similar productive activities to group together.24 In the
production of sacred items, there was in the Andes also a factor of elite control over the
ideological items, not mentioned by Sjoberg as a general pre-industrial urban trait.

Religion, according to Sjoberg, played a large role in pre-industrial urban life controlling
education, which was typically religious in orientation,25 and demanding labour services, in
the Andes known as mitae, for the construction of religious monuments, temples and the
delivery of part of the food surplus.26 The mitae service tax was a well known form of
payment from very early times in the Andes; however religious education can only be
proven for the Tawantinsuyu, where it is referred to in various accounts. That it existed
prior to the Tawantinsuyu can be surmised as not only were they the inheritors of thousands
of years of urban culture and tradition, but previous societies such as the Tiwanaku had
sophisticated calendars that would have needed a system of education to pass on. Education
also played the role of indoctrinating a part of the population with a creed that upheld the
elite. Sjoberg argues, and the same is applicable in the Andes, that:
…the educational system is the mechanism by which the formal religious norms
sustaining the elite are propagated; in turn matters pertaining to religion make up a
large proportion of the academic curricula.27

In pre-industrial cities religious buildings had areas in front of them, such as plazas, which
were suitable for markets and fairs as they were places of high pedestrian traffic.28
Although market commerce, as such, did not play a large role in the Andes, and festivities
were state or religiously arranged and were used for the ceremonial exchanges, it is true to
say that the Andean plaza played the role of the centre of festivities and activities of a
public nature. They also acted as areas of military assembly, which is an aspect that Sjoberg
does not refer to as being common throughout.

Having established through this dissertation that although Andean cities and their urban
planning tradition are individual in many design aspects they also share much in common
with pre-industrial cities generally, it may be assumed that there will be specific aspects of
Andean urban design that were shared in common with the pre-industrial urban designs and

23
Sjoberg (1960): pp. 99 -100.
24
Sjoberg (1960): p. 101.
25
Sjoberg (1960): p. 90.
26
Sjoberg (1960): p. 199.
27
Sjoberg (1960): p. 119.
28
Sjoberg (1960): p. 269.

344
ideas transplanted by the Spanish during the colonial era and coming from their own pre-
industrial urban planning tradition.

From a comparison with the general state of pre-industrial cities, there can also be made a
comparison with specific components of the Spanish tradition that was transplanted into the
Andes by colonization. Aspects that may have made the Spanish constructions not seem so
alien to the Andeans, even though they were enacted by a different type of socio-political
force. At the time of the Spanish conquest the Tawantinsuyu were using a system of urban
domination not unlike the Romans before them around the Mediterranean and northwestern
Europe. This was a method also used to a lesser extent by the Chimú kingdom and far
earlier by the Wari-Tiwanaku. Both the Roman Empire and the Tawantinsuyu Empire used
a massive road network to link together the cities and settlements that formed a vast urban
empire, bringing urban organization to many new areas. Both were agriculturally based but
urban in focus, with a prominent city, Rome and Cuzco, as the spiritual and cultural centre
of the empire.

In new urban formation the Romans used a grid system, based on the military camp
design,29 to lay out new cities and they placed the important religious and state
administration buildings around a central plaza that was reached by main thoroughfares and
served public, military and ceremonial needs. Cities were located in strategic places for
military and economic aims. They, like the Tawantinsuyu, tried to keep conquered cities
serviceable but with the centrally located addition of important Roman ideological, cultural
and religious buildings and decorations, such as the forum, temples, baths, fountains,
sculptures and amphitheatres.30

The Tawantinsuyu also used a design of urban space and location of important state and
cultural buildings but did not use a rigid system of grid planning, such as had been the
height of planning under the Wari-Tiwanaku. Instead they maintained the central location
of the main plaza, state and religious buildings but adapted the grid layout for the
sometimes difficult terrain. Both empires used a system of colonization to spread their
control. This spread urbanization and their ideas on urban planning throughout their
empires. However, for both the Romans and the Tawantinsuyu the location of new colonial
towns often differed from that of the conquered people due to the needs of the new political
and economic structure.

One of the effects of the Roman spread was that Spain became heavily influenced by
Roman ideas of urban planning, some of which persisted and were transmitted through
colonization to the New World.31 Kagan, who has studied cities and towns of colonial
Spanish America makes an interesting comparison when he states that:
According to the sixteenth-century Spanish geographer, Juan Lopez de Velasco, by
1576 Spaniards had established over 200 towns in the Americas, an achievement

29
Morris, A.E.G., History of the Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution, 2nd Ed., New York, Halstead
press, 1979: p. 39.
30
Amphitheatres were actually usually located beside the town as they needed a lot of space.
31
Crouch, D.P., Garr, D.J. & Mundigo, A.I. Spanish city planning in North America, Cambridge, Mass., MIT
Press, 1982: p. 2.

345
 second only to that of the Romans whose own empire was grounded upon an
extensive urban network.32
In the Andes the infrastructure of the urban network was already established by the
Tawantinsuyu, adding to the ease of the colonial urban spread. Castilians had already used
towns in Iberia to take land from the Muslims, and in a similar imperial manner in the
Americas colonial towns served as an antidote for what many Spaniards perceived as an
alien environment inhabited by hostile people. The town, however, was synonymous with
order, justice religion, and organized economic activity in the form of crafts, workshops,
markets and the like.33 The official ordinances of 1573 giving the most explicit instructions
on locating, planning and creating new cities, towns and villages must have been a great
tool in the speedy reproduction of Spanish urbanization.34

A planning system based on the Roman grid was used by Spanish colonists in the Andes as
a quick and proven planning solution for new towns in a rapidly expanding empire.35
Although it was not always possible comply due to difficult topography, there was an
ordinance by Philip II stating that all towns were to be laid out on a grid.36 The grid
represented order and symmetry, which was thought of as a refuge in a natural environment
only marginally subject to Spanish authority.37 This idea of urban creed and orderliness as
representing the authority of the empire was also used by the Wari-Tiwanaku and
Tawantinsuyu in the conversion of new areas. Kagan argues that although the Spanish idea
of the grid also derived from a medieval ideal of the perfect town, it may possibly have
been influenced by indigenous designs, as at Cuzco.38 By 1513, as referred to by the
Spanish monarchy in instructions to Pedrarías Dávila, an ordered city or town was
generally understood as one laid out according to a grid or checkerboard plan, that
is, in symmetrical fashion with a series of straight streets emanating from a central
plaza or square endowed with a church, a town hall, a prison, and the pillory….39

These royal ordinances which stressed a Christian ideology were above all designed to
provide the Spaniard in the New World with an urban environment that would include
recognizable features while remaining adaptable to a variety of geographical features.40 A
similar policy can be seen at work in the topographically adaptable but traditional Andean
characteristics of the new cities of the Tawantinsuyu Empire as it spread into foreign lands.
For both, the application of standardized ideas on urban planning based on the proven
methods of long design traditions was of great value in empire forming.

32
Kagan, Richard L., ‘A world without walls: City and town in colonial Spanish America’, in James D.
Tracey (ed.), City Walls: The urban enceinte in global perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge Uni. Press, 2000,
pp. 117 -152: p. 131.
33
Kagan (2000): p. 131.
34
Crouch, Garr & Mundigo (1982).
35
Kagan (2000): p. 139; Morris (1979): p. 39.
36
Crouch, Garr & Mundigo (1982): pp. 1 -3.
37
Kagan (2000): p. 140 -41.
38
Kagan (2000): p. 140.
39
Kagan (2000): p. 139.
40
Crouch, Garr & Mundigo (1982): pp. 2 -3.

346
Walton argues that Spanish state centralization, like the Andean designs before them, was
reflected in the ecology of the Spanish colonial city in Latin America:
Ringed around the central plaza were the headquarters of the church and the state
and the residences of the social elite, passing through a second ring of public
functionaries, merchants, and artisans to the peripheral ranchos or workers and
peones. The major urban landholders were the church and the municipal (though
territorially sovereign) government which reserved 1/3 of the land for public
purposes’.41

The grid plan has come to be used in the modern era in many parts of the world as a simple
and proven urban planning method. Earlier than the Romans the grid had been used in
Egypt at Kahun42 (2670 BC) and Tel-el-Amarna or Akhetaten (1350 BC), and in the
rebuilding of the Greek city of Miletus in 479 BC. In the case of Akhetaten even though the
value of the grid system was known and used for the workers quarters the town proper was
built laissez-faire.43 The central location of a plaza surrounded by the important buildings
of state and religion can still be seen throughout Europe, pertaining to a bygone era.

The Spanish conquest brought towns down from topographically difficult terrain where
they had not disturbed arable land into the valleys and plains. Walton describes the strategy
of Spanish colonization as ‘centred on the city, from which civil, military, and ecclesiastical
authority maintained a tenuous purchase on the hinterland’.44 This form of consolidation
after conquest had also been used by the Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu empires. The
Spanish built upon the good arable land or expanded into it. In the present day with the
massive growth in population, Andean cities have now spread without control across some
of the best arable land. Lima is a fine example, where under the city are the original olive
orchards of the colonial period. The Spanish chose the Rímac river plains for the same
reason as the Ichma and the Tawantinsuyu (Armatambo was in fact built on the slopes of a
cerro above the river plains, not affecting the arable land). The bay in front of Armatambo
makes for the area’s best port, and the valley has connection by road with the highlands and
coastal valleys, while the river is a permanent water supply. Peru has little arable land along
its barren coast and to lose these plains has been a hindrance to production. The Andean
tradition of using the marginal or agriculturally useless land for settlement, even though it
required greater engineering feats, is an important urban design aspect in which they greatly
differed from the colonizing Spanish. Millenniums of experience had taught the Andeans
that preserving arable land was more important than the costs of locating their cities on
more topographically difficult terrain.

41
Walton (1984): p. 80.
42
Haverfield, F., (Ancient town-planning, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1913: p. 19), describes Kahun as using
the grid method for workers housing at the Illahun pyramid, but does not describe it as a town;’Here Professor
Flinders Petrie unearthed many four roomed cottages packed close in parallel oblong blocks and a few larger
rectangular houses … But the settlement is very small, covering less than 20 acres; it is not in itself a real
town and its plan has not the scheme or symmetry of a town plan’.
43
Morris (1979): pp. 13, 27.
44
Walton, J., ‘Culture and economy in the shaping of urban life: general issues and Latin American
examples’, in Agnew, J., Mercer, J. & Sopher, D.E., (ed.), The City in Cultural Context, Boston, Allen &
Unwin, 1984, pp. 76 -93: p. 80.

347
Walton45 also remarks that cities were not created to serve, but to subdue. However, the
Spanish also kept some of the cities that were in important locations or were of a high
status, such as Cuzco, Quito, Ollantaytambo and Cajamarca, but preferred to destroy the
old towns, especially if they were built on difficult topography, such as Písac, and build
Spanish towns nearby to which the local population was forcefully invited.46 The city or
town was also used by the Spanish to represent the power of the state authority, the empire,
and to show the indigenous people the permanency of the new political and social control.
Kagan quotes an ordinance ordering settlers not to let any ‘Indians’ even approach a new
town until
it is built, defended, and organized, so that when the Indians see the towns, it sparks
their admiration, allows them to understand that the Spaniards living there are not
transients but staying for good, and creates such respect that, rather than dare attack
the Spaniards they will seek out their friendship.47
Although the existence of a policy such as this is difficult to prove in the pre-Columbian era
from the archaeological record, a sign of a similar approach can be seen in the single, or
rapid, construction phase of cities and administration towns from the first planned
application at Caral to later empire phases of Pikillacta and Viracochapampa under the
Wari-Tiwanaku, the Chan Chan citadels of the Chimú and many sites under the
Tawantinsuyu such as Incahuasi, Huánuco Pampa and Tambo Colorado, to name but a few.

Spanish colonial towns in the New World were built as more than ‘an instrument of empire,
[and] a convenient means of exercising jurisdiction over new land’.48 Kagan argues that
‘[t]he town served also as an instrument of indoctrination, the mechanism through which
American natives were to be converted and acculturated to the Spanish way of life’.49 It
may be claimed that the Tawantinsuyu were to an extent using a similar policy as can be
seen in the location of Temples of the Sun and other administrative buildings and plazas
within the centres of cities or settlements. The Tawantinsuyu use of the city for
indoctrination though probably did not include the forced residence of the general
population, although much of the general population would live in the cities for particular
short periods according to the state events calendar.50

The Spanish colonial ideas, however, were rather more forceful in bringing the natives
under the ‘civilizing’ influence of urbanization. Under Charles V (1521 -30) there was
obligatory resettlement of natives into towns.51 Later, in 1549, in Peru a royal order was
issued that ‘instructed local magistrates to cooperate with church officials in order “to
reduce, little by little, the Indians into towns”.52 Under Viceroy Francisco de Toledo letters
were written stating ‘they [the Indians] can neither be instructed in the faith nor can they
become men if they are not gathered into towns’, also ‘the reduction of the Indians to
villages and parishes makes them easier to manage, to be governed, and given religious

45
Walton (1984): p. 80.
46
Kagan (2000): p. 137.
47
Kagan (2000): p. 141.
48
Kagan (2000): p. 144.
49
Kagan (2000): p. 144.
50
von Hagen, A. & Morris, C., The Cities of the Ancient Andes, London, Thames and Hudson, 1998.
51
Kagan (2000): p. 144.
52
Kagan (2000): p. 144.

348
instruction’.53 Differently, the Tawantinsuyu had been content to allow willing adherents to
their empire a relative amount of cultural autonomy, insisting only that their religion was of
state importance and primary above the local religions, something that the Catholic Church
could not permit, and its absolutist stance needed stronger measures for enforcement.

Figure 357. The old town of Písac above the river was built by the Tawantinsuyu on the difficult terrain of the
mountain top. Below beside the river is the modern town of Písac built in the colonial period with the Spanish
grid layout design. Note also that the ‘new’ town was built on the old Tawantinsuyu agricultural terraces by
the river. The population was forced to leave the old Písac and live in the new (Source: von Hagen and
Morris, 1998, p. 164).54

The new towns may not have seemed too alien to many Andeans who were used to living
in and around towns under the Tawantinsuyu. The general layout of a grid with a central
plaza, and religious and administrative buildings might have seemed familiar. Also, unlike
the European towns of the same period, the Spanish did not build walled towns in the
Andes. Some see this as a reliance upon the protection of religion or ‘spiritual walls’, while
others see it as the continuation of indigenous urban practices; that is, the adoption of part

53
Kagan (2000): p. 145.
54
Photograph from Photo Shippee-Johnson, negative no. 334768, Department of Library Services, American
Museum of Natural History, in von Hagen & Morris (1998).

349
of the Andean urban planning tradition in which defensive walls were rarely used around
cities and towns. Since most towns in the pre-Columbian Andes were not built with
defensive outer walls, it may be that reliance upon spiritual values for protection was also
part of the Andean reasoning and so the indigenous form fitted easily with the utopian ideas
of the mendicant orders, which were a powerful authority in secular and spiritual rule.55

What was missing, and for which the Spanish sometimes tried to compensate, was the lack
of ideological decoration. The Catholic Church, needing to win over the Andeans, used
local stone masons to sculpt highly decorated facades for the cathedrals and churches, with
motifs to which the Indians could relate, many being a mix of indigenous and Christian
symbols. This decoration was especially apt since the buildings were often built on older
Andean religious sites, and it served to attract Andeans to attend church services. Religious
decoration was not unusual for the Andeans, and indeed may have helped them to
understand that a fusion of two distinct cultures was occurring. A similar experience that
many of them had relatively recently undergone with the Tawantinsuyu. The Spanish
harnessed indigenous notions of divine protection, in that, as Kagan states:
individual towns appropriated particular manifestations of Jesus and identified with
particular saints, integrating them into the fabric of the community through the use
of votive paintings, processions, and prayers, both individual and collective. In turn,
these patrones and patronas rewarded the faithful by serving as their defensors,
offering them divine guidance together with protection against disaster, both,
natural and man-made.56
The specific intention of this new Christian cult was as a substitute for indigenous beliefs
and religious practices, and it fulfilled the same protective role.57

The Spanish pursued a policy of urban creation, instituted by Queen Isabella in which
towns and cities were to be used to pacify and convert the native population into ‘civilized’
people. To the Spanish reasoning it was ‘impossible to convert natives unless they were
obliged to live in organized towns’.58 This policy has antecedents with the Romans, and its
success can perhaps be judged by the adoption of the conqueror’s culture and urbanized
ways. The extent to which this was a success for the Spanish in the Andes is perhaps
difficult to judge since, although cities were growing at a rapid rate rate, due mainly to
economic reasons, much traditional culture remained. Nevertheless it is true to say that
these pockets continued to exist in those areas most remote from cities, towns and urban
culture. Although in the pre-Colombian Andes the general population was probably not
obliged to live in towns, urbanization was seen to be a pacifying and civilizing influence,
which was part of the reason for the Wari-Tiwanaku and Tawantinsuyu policy of swapping
people from un-urbanized areas to urbanized areas and vice versa in a state controlled
migration to introduce urbanization. The Spanish world-view and ideology must have been
difficult to understand, but their towns at least could be navigated with ease. The familiar
wide avenues to the central plaza still existed, larger now for the introduction of the horse
and wheel. The Andeans who were familiar with town life quickly adapted to the Spanish

55
Kagan (2000): p. 118.
56
Kagan (2000): p. 148 -49.
57
Kagan (2000): p. 149.
58
Kagan (2000): p. 133, 136.

350
version, perhaps showing that the sophistication of urban life holds a basic education in
community living.

The Spanish patio house design, which was probably a remnant of the Roman ‘villa’ or
Middle Eastern town house59 and had suited the hot Mediterranean summers, was used
throughout Andean Spanish towns and may not have seemed so strange to the local
peoples. The Spanish patio design, similar in form to much of Andean housing, the
Andeans could understand and most of the houses continued to be built in familiar stone or
adobe. The central patio continued to serve under the new era the same cultural function as
an area of domestic production and relaxation.

Like the conquering Spanish’s urban design, derived in part from Roman practices, the pre-
industrial Western urban design tradition also held urban planning ideas of a Roman nature.
The use of grid, central placement of important buildings both state and religious, and roads
making an urban network, colonization, and ideological architecture, means that some of
the ideas used in the Andes are not alien to Western planning traditions as well. The use of
these shared designs serves to reinforce their proven usefulness in many different regions of
the world in the pre-industrial epoch. As an adaptive solution they have proved widely
applicable.

That some of these urban designs from pre-industrial Andes and Spanish traditions remain
pertinent even in present day South America can be seen in their continued use. Even now
in Bolivia, when towns and villages are being revamped under a policy of widespread
government improvements, the central plaza is the first area to be paid attention. Often
prior it was little more than a grass and dirt area in the centre, but is then enhanced with
sculpture, gardens and a plaque commemorating some aspect of Bolivian regional or
national political events physically marking the central position of the state. The central
plaza is still used for markets, fairs, dancing, state and religious events and an area of
public relaxation. Here also will usually be found the church, school and any government
administration offices. The patio-designed house, and traditional construction techniques in
un-worked stone, adobe, and wattle and daub, still remain common throughout the Andes.
Even parts of the Tawantinsuyu road system still remain in use by local pedestrian traffic.
All these planning aspects can be found both within the Andean and Spanish planning
traditions, and the process of cultural fusion of the two in the colonial and republican eras
could make for a fascinating further investigation, now made possible by the revelation of
the Andean pre-Hispanic urban planning tradition.

This dissertation has covered an extensive field, and obviously some publications may have
been overlooked. Scholars who have specialized in particular fields will find room for
criticism, but what has been achieved places South America on a more equal basis for
international urban comparative treatment in the future. The body of the dissertation has
shown the existence, through particular characteristics, of a pre-Hispanic Andean urban
planning tradition, while the Conclusion has sought to begin the dialogue of comparison

59
Morris (1979): p. 8; Rugg, Dean s., Spatial Foundations of Urbanism, Dubuque, WmC. Brown Company
Pub., 1972: p. 26.

351
with international pre-industrial urban forms and Spanish colonial urban concepts. Both of
these subjects require deeper investigation which was beyond the scope of this dissertation.

The existence of a pre-Hispanic urban planning tradition in the Andes is not only of great
scholarly interest, and may be used for cross cultural comparative purposes, or to aid in the
discussions of general pre-industrial urban forms or culture, but it may also be of practical
use to archaeological investigations of Andean cities. By using the planning tradition as a
guide, archaeologists may be able to determine the possible whereabouts of structures and
housing types based upon their typical position within a city or town under the traditional
Andean planning forms. Such a typological approach may also help in the recognition of
new sites as being urban or pre-urban by matching their designs against that of the Andean
planning tradition. However, there is always the possibility of urban areas having grown
from organic processes with no plan involved, these too will be easier to recognize by a
comparison with the planned forms from the Andean tradition. Hopefully the revealing of
the complexity of the planning tradition, and the realization of certain similarities to other
pre-industrial cities elsewhere, will help to give the Andean people a further sense of
accomplishment and pride, of connection with their ancestral roots, and of connection with
the planetary cultural evolution of humanity and urbanism.

Finally, this dissertation will hopefully help to resolve doubts about whether South America
had truly achieved an advanced level of urbanism, significant cities, and an urbanized
culture. The existence of an Andean urban planning tradition that started as early as Kahun
in Egypt, or the Early Dynastic Period cities of Sumer in Mesopotamia, or the Indus Valley
Chalcolithic cities, or the city of Troy in Anatolia, shows the depth of the tradition and the
value of international comparison. South America developed its own form of urban design
in response to its own complex conditions, varied geography and cultural influences, and
can rightfully take its place alongside its fellow urban pre-industrial forms in the long
history of the ‘urban revolution’.

The existence of an Andean urban planning tradition poses vital questions needing further
exploration, especially about the validity of continuing to count Mesoamerica as one of the
areas in the world that independently created urbanism; that is, without outside influence.
As has been noted in previous chapters, not only was Andean urbanism and civilization far
earlier than the Toltecs of Mesoamerica, but there has clearly been contact between the two
areas from the Formative Period, and possibly the Archaic Period onwards. The similarities
in some Andean temple designs and symbolic motifs, such as the Andean staircase, make a
strong case for the Andes being one of the few places in the world that independently
created urbanism and civilization and that it probably then spread to Mesoamerica. This
theory, if proven, would call for a reassessment of the opposing ideas of independent or
diffusionist urban development for Mesoamerica, and perhaps recognition of the primary
role that the Andes played in urbanization of the Americas. The coast of Peru may be one
of urbanization’s birth places, a cradle of urban civilization. This dissertation is a
contribution towards discovering how important a role South America has played in the
ancient world’s cultural evolution.

352
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