Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012)

Chachapoya Eschatology:
Spaces of Death in the Northern Andes

JAMES M. CRANDALL, Gainesville

Abstract. In this article I explore the mortuary patterning of the pre-Columbian Chachapoya.
Previous researchers in the region suggest that the regional ethnogenesis of material traits asso­
ciated with Chachapoya identity occurred by AD 800. Archaeological expressions of the Chacha-
poya are readily identifiable by the distinct stylistic representations in the region’s material cul-
ture. Within the Utcubamba Valley of northern Peru, ritual treatment of the dead was expressed
through the construction of decorated sarcophagi in secluded locations, or within the context
of elaborate chullpas. I argue these practices represent a well-defined vernacular mortuary cos­
mology. The public display and representation of ancestors as reconstructed persons in the form
of sarcophagi and textile encased mummy bundles suggest that some bodies maintained an active
relationship with the world of the living and were actively engaged as social agents. An analysis
and discussion of these contexts will follow two lines of inquiry related to mortuary patterning.
1) The material engagement of Chachapoya bodies can be viewed as a process of constructing
active agents who interacted with the living. These mortuary bodies and spaces defined living
communities’ association to the ayllu. 2) A viewshed analysis of these ancestral communities
shows that these spaces were segregated from living communities.
[Chachapoya, Andes, mortuary spaces, materiality, viewshed]

“The space of death is notoriously conflict-

ridden and contradictory […] in northwest
­Amazonian indigenous tradition the space of
death is a ­privileged zone of transformation
and metamorphosis.” (Taussig 1987: 374)

Introduction

The Chachapoya of pre-colonial Peru inhabited the region bounded between the Mara-
ñon River valley to the north and the west and the Huallaga River to the south and the
east (Fig. 1). Between these larger rivers, which feed the upper Amazon, lies the
Utcubamba River valley where the city of Chachapoyas was founded by Spanish
conquistadors in the 16th century. The majority of pre-Columbian Chachapoya sites
are found along the eastern piedmont of the northern Andes across a varied
environmental land-scape. Pre-conquest Chachapoya sites have been recorded over a
broad range of terrain and nucleated Chachapoya settlements along the Utcubamba
river valley are commonly situated between 2,000–3,500 meters above sea level
(Kauffmann Doig and Ligabue 2003: 157). Pre-Columbian Chachapoya
communities share several characteristics. Numerous settlements within the western
boundary of Kuélap and the Luya district of Chachapoyas are situated on the peaks of
mountains and at lower elevations in the more agriculturally fertile riverine basins
along the Utcubamba River. Many of these sites have concentric walls along the
exterior of these communities and are often surrounded by agricultural terrace
systems. Some southern Chachapoya sites, such as the large center of Gran Pajatén,
were occupied by at least AD 200 (Bonavia 1968; Church 1994; Church and von
Hagen 2008: 910). Other larger regional centers, such as Kuélap, appear to have
developed at a later date, sometime between the 7th and 9th centuries AD (Ruíz 1972;
Narváez 1987).
Several scholars have developed regional chronologies of Chachapoya material cul-
ture largely based on the distribution of ceramic typologies (Fig. 2). While many have
2 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

1 Church has recovered

two carbon samples from
Manachaqui Cave dating
to ~12,200–11,900 BP
(Church 1996; Church
and von Hagen 2008).
2 The majority of Chacha-
poya studies have either
focused on the material
culture or the art and
­architectural styles that
are endemic to the region
(Bradley 2008; Lerche
1995; Muscutt 1998;
Narváez 1987, 1996a,
1996b; Ruíz 1972; von
Fig. 1 Map of the Andes. The highlighted area shows the extent of Chachapoya settlements. Hagen 2002a, 2002b,
2007), or have been
­concerned with the con-
struction of biological
argued for a long-term regional social development going back to the early ­histories of interred indi-
Holocene1 (Church 1999; Church and von Hagen 2008; Schjellerup 1997), others have viduals recovered from
maintained that the Chachapoya ethnogenesis is the result of more recent migratory the region’s chullpas, or
cliff tombs (Gaither et al.
movements into the region (Koschmieder 2012). It is likely that regional ethnic
2008; Guillén 2002, 2003;
identities had begun to develop prior to AD 800, after which time common vernacular Nystrom 2006, 2007,
styles of architecture and other material culture became more widespread. 2009; Toyne 2011; Urton
Few scholars have directly addressed the ethnogenesis of the Chachapoya or the 2001; von Hagen 2002a).
3 I share Isbell’s (1997:
basis of their social relationships before the arrival of the Inka in the region circa AD 98–99) definition of the
1470.2 Archaeologists and other preservationists rarely consider the place of mortuary ayllu which he defined as
remains as part of a social ecosystem within the built environment. When interments “a group of people who
shared a resource attri-
such as Andean mummies are removed from their original context, mortuary remains buted to a founder or
are often treated as objects or even artistic representations. In contrast, I situate my ap- ancestor and whose mem-
proach within a broader anthropological discussion of the social relationship be- bers could therefore be
ranked in accord with the
tween these “objects” and living peoples. First, I discuss the nature of mortuary bodies
idiom of kinship when the
as they relate to the living. For the Chachapoya, the relationship between living com- founder was employed as
munities and the deceased was an active ongoing set of practices designed to reaffirm a common ancestor.” This
social relationships to the ayllu, or kin group.3 Second, I define the variation of spatial definition is predicated
on there being a founding
relationships between communities of the living and mortuary complexes of the de- ancestor as the focus of
ceased along the Utcubamba River. A viewshed analysis is used to show that many social cohesion.
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 3

Chachapoya Ceramic Chronologies

Rowe-Lanning Reichlens (1950) and Ruiz Estrada Schjellerup Kauffmann and Koschmieder
Year
(1971) Horkheimer (1958) (1972) (1994) Ligabue (2003) (2012)

Late Horizon
Inka Inka Inka-Kuélap Inka Inka
1532 (AD 1470s –1532)

Chimu
Late Intermediate
Period Kuélap Late Chachapoyas
Chipuric-Revash
(AD 1000 –1470s) Chachapoya
Chachapoya(s)
Kuélap
1000
Middle
Middle Horizon
Chachapoyas –
(AD 600–1000) Pumahuanchina –
Cajamarca III
Cajamarca III

Early
500 Chachapoyas –
Cancharin Huepon II
Early Intermediate Tosán
Period
AD (200 BC–600 AD) Initial Cajamarca –
0 Huepon I
BC

Pre-Chachapoya(s)

500
Early Horizon Period
(900–200 BC)

1000 Lámud-Urco
(BC 2870–400)

Initial Period
(1800–900 BC)
Chiñuña-Yamón
Lonya
1500
Manachaqui s

Fig. 2 Several proposed chronologies of Chachapoya development have been proposed. These chrono­
logies are based on ceramic materials recovered from different regions within Amazonas, Peru.
­Adapted from Kauffmann Doig and Ligabue (2003), Koschmieder (2012), and Schjellerup (1997).

communities of Chachapoya ancestors are situated in strategic locations separate from

4 Robb’s (2004) concept
of the extended artifact is
a useful method for repo-
sitioning archaeological
questions from “what
­objects mean?” to the
more appropriate “what
do objects do?” Robb’s
­argument was largely
­situated around an under-
standing of artifacts as
having the “effective”
agentive qualities of insti-
tutions or producers of
possible agency. When
dealing with mortuary
complexes we can con­
sider the role of bodies
in places as the material
expression of institutional
power, i.e. structure.
living communities. Finally, I will discuss how ancestor bodies “act” by mediating the
relationships between the deceased and the living for the Chachapoya.
Materiality of Bodies and Space
In Andean societies objects and bodies maintain their own social agency (Allen 1998).
However, we can recognize those places that share collective ideas of this objectifica-
tion; for the Chachapoya these places are constituted by the salient embodiment of an-
cestors which continually acted as a locus for the social lives of particular ayllu. These
places served as locations of engagement that reproduced social relationships with af­
fines after death. For the Chachapoya the institution of mortuary practice situated social
relationships of “deceased” actors to kinship relations and obligations.4 It is also clear
that social actors take an active role in the construction of institutions; these intersubjec-
tive relationships may result in unintentional developments in social structures which
have deleterious long-term effects for subaltern groups (Pauketat 2000). Conversely,
funeral ceremonies often reinforce social hierarchy and status in systems of weak cen-
tralized political authority where such authority is garnered through ideological recog-
4 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

nition (Dillehay 1995: 300–307). For pre-Spanish peoples of the Andes the nature of
this authority was derived from an association with the ayllu based on members’ rela-
tionships to specific ancestors (Isbell 1997; Ramírez 2005: 113–156). The renewal and
reconstruction of mortuary spaces, and the interment and reconstitution of bodies by
the Chachapoya, likely played a part in the creation of places associated with the
living. By focusing on the actions of groups in constituting their material worlds it is
possible to understand how social relationships become codified in the landscape
through repetitive practice.
Mortuary bodies often serve as mediators of social fields. The routinized deposition
of interments structures the ritualized landscape and future action (see Fahlander and
Oestigaard 2008). Through this process spaces become culturally codified places of
value. Throughout much of the Andes identity was constructed by association with “de-
ceased” progenitors of descent groups. These groups structured the gender and
social hierarchical divisions in Inka and pre-Inka societies (Silverblatt 1987: 68–75).
The practice of mortuary ritual interment, through the mediation of bodily objects,
reaffirmed social identity while simultaneously restructuring the nature of power
relationships between members of Andean societies.
Chachapoya communities constituted places through their active engagement be-
tween spaces of death and living communities. The nature of memory encapsulated in
physical places has a significant political component (Duncan 1990: 11–24). Duncan
outlined the process by which physical spaces in Kandyan society became a
referential “place” imbued with cultural signifiers. Terrestrial spaces materialize
according to narratives of cosmological origins. In this way landscapes can be read as a
textual referent. By examining the deeper structure of a places’ text, or its iconology,
we can develop an iconology for Chachapoya space and place. While the Chachapoya
did not conceive or construct mortuary spaces under the authority of divine kings,
they did produce both space and place in accordance to fundamental elements of their
cosmology by reconstituting bodies through ritualized practices. The manufacture of
ceremonial complexes and their role in social reproduction were not conceived of in
their original conception of material expression and they did not maintain a static
symbolic meaning. The practice of producing mortuary centers as separate spaces
from living communities reveals social divisions in the memory of space, unveiling
who has the right to appropriate space and access ancestors.
The objectification of things or bodies in death serves as a key element in the repro-
duction and alteration of social life.5 For the Inka and other Andean peoples this objec-
tification of bodies affected social practices as the “dead” mediated social relations of
the living (Cobo [1653] 1990: 37–40; Isbell 1997: 38–100). For the Late Horizon Cha­ 5 “The representation of
­humans as cultural catego-
chapoya, relationships between members of a group and the authority of individuals ries is the central material
within those groups were likely determined by their relationship to objectified ancestors form of individual exter-
(Espinoza 1967). nalization, and its medium
is a very political choice.
Chachapoya ontology, akin to other Andean peoples, was predicated on a Gendered identities are
collective relationship to ancestors who had an active role in reproducing social life. created through the pro-
The construction and periodic engagement of the living with ancestors residing in cess termed ‘dynamic
nominalism’ in which new
mortuary complexes both reinforced social obligations to local kin groups and categories of people come
reconstituted the identity of individuals according to the degree of access to these into existence at the same
places. Chapman’s (2000) focus on the body as a social field in the construction of time as the people who
identity is useful for understanding this practice among the Chachapoya. The fill those categories. This
works as much in the
objectification of bodies as elements of cosmologically significant places, and their ­mortuary domain as in
dynamic relationship with the living, likely mediated the production of identities for any other cultural context,
the living through their active ritual engagement at mortuary sites. through the form of the
burial rituals selected for
Objects do not merely inhabit a functional space in the quotidian lives of individuals; any given individual”
instead, materials can be considered to have personhood, so that the arrangement of (Chapman 2000: 192).
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 5
6 Households here refer to
architectural houses, not
houses in the Lévi-Strauss
tradition.
7 Amos Rapoport (1969: 2)
refers to this social con-
struct as “the folk tradi-
tion, [which] is the direct
and unself-conscious
translation into physical
form of a culture, its needs
and values–as well as
the desires, dreams, and
passions of a people.”
objects in space takes on greater meaning. Native American societies, historically,
have attributed personhood to substances, objects, and places outside of the human
body (Gillespie 2001; Joyce 2005). While objects themselves are often considered by
Amazonian peoples to lack individual souls, as they are not primary social agents
(Santos-Granero 2009; Viveiros de Castro 1998), the anthropomorphized mimesis of
Chachapoya interments suggests this is not the case with their deceased ancestors.
Additionally, spaces are marked by the qualities of secondary agency. The
negotiation of bodies within spaces may enhance (Moore 1996: 121–167) or restrict
(Bender 1999: 97–131) the authority of human bodies through their presentation.
Hence, by constructing, visiting, and engaging the social life of bodies (i. e. deceased
relatives), entombed ancestors played a fundamental role in the social relationships of
living peoples.
The material consequence of Chachapoya mortuary practice was the construction
of new bodies and new communities, either in the form of sarcophagi (the textile
encasement of old bodies into new forms), or the gathering of the dead in secluded
spaces. These features were anthropomorphized in some way. Constructed human
faces and body parts were encased around mummified remains using new materials.
Fowler (2004) described this process as creating fractal qualities of the body, in
which the human body is considered to be part of a greater whole and other parts
or materials are incorporated as substantive parts of the human body. Bodies and
objects served as active agents in ritual, conferring real social meaning to the lives
of Andean peoples. More importantly, ancestor relationships to spaces of the living
played an important role in these engagements.
Houses of the Living and Houses of the Dead
In the absence of evidence for a unified socio-political system, pre-Columbian Chacha-
poya culture has been codified by its material culture, which includes a suite of burial
practices, artistic traditions, and uniform architectural designs (von Hagen 2002b). The
physical reproduction of Chachapoya communities can be identified through the re-
peated patterning upon the landscape of physical places that bear the mark of those
materials that are uniformly “Chachapoya”.
Communities are readily identifiable by the presence of agglutinated households.6
These structures appear in nucleated groups that comprise Chachapoya villages were
often situated within systems of agricultural terraces or within ringed wall boundaries.
The visually-striking houses are large circular constructions with ringed platform ter-
races around the exterior platforms of the structures (Fig. 3). The uniform construction
techniques visibly expressed in Chachapoya houses is representative of what has been
termed a vernacular architectural tradition.7 The design of Chachapoya houses repre-
sents a material ideal that is mutually conferred upon in its construction and reproduc-
tion. A distinct artistic tradition of geomorphic designs resides not solely in the domain
of cultural elites, but is patterned within the facades of Chachapoya households.
The structure of Chachapoya communities is likely representative of social kin-based
relationships. It is clear that many pre-Columbian ayllu reckoned both descent and inti-
mate connections to cosmological authority through an active relationship to “living”
mallqui, or mummified ancestors (Isbell 1997: 68–100). As mutually understood pat-
terns in the formation of Chachapoya communities emerged, similar patterns developed
in regional mortuary complexes such as at Revash, Laguna de los Condores, Pueblo de
los Muertos. While the region is most widely renowned for the presence of anthropo-
morphized sarcophagi, there were clearly several mortuary traditions.
The sarcophagi tradition is largely relegated to the Luya district of Amazonas on the
western side of the Utcubamba River (Kauffmann Doig 2009). Whether this specific
6 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

Fig. 3 A large house

­structure at the apex
of Congona.

practice was the result of diachronic change or a marker of ethnic identity is unclear. A
single carbon date from Karajía (Fig. 4) suggests that mummies were interred at the site
sometime in the late 15th century (Kauffmann Doig 2009). Perhaps the sarcophagi tradi-
tion was associated with a single ayllu. At the time of conquest the Utcubamba River
served as both a social and geographical marker delineating different ayllu in the region
(Espinoza Soriano 1967). Additionally, 29 of the 31 of the carbon dates from the cliff-
side mortuary complex of Laguna de los Condores exemplify interment practices dating
to the Inka and early Spanish colonial periods (Urton 2001; Wild et al. 2007). While it

Fig. 4 The sarcophagi com-

plex of Karajía. This
tradition of mortuary
interment is most
common in the Luya
district of Amazonas.
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 7
8 The pre-Columbian
­communities used for the
viewshed comparison
were identified through a
combination of different
satellite images and on the
ground verification. The
identification of the full
range and extent of
Chachapoya communities
was limited both by the
quality and range of avail-
able images.
is likely that the presence of the Inka in the region during the 15th century impacted
Chachapoya relationships to mortuary spaces through their appropriation by Inka elites,
the tradition of housing ancestors in defined spaces appears to pre-date their arrival in
the 1470s (see Nystrom et al. 2010). The tradition of constructing publicly visible
households as mortuary spaces persists throughout the Luya district and the region to
the south of Kuélap. Interestingly, conspicuous chullpas, or cliff tombs, appear largely
absent in the region to the east of the modern city of Chachapoyas. Along the Sonche
River communities of ancestors were interred in secluded spaces away from the living
– such as within the cave complex at Chaquil (Fabre et al. 2008). Communities of
Chachapoya ancestors shared three traits: 1) they incorporated human bodies within the
expression of a social space, 2) they were located in public and prominent locations
within the landscape or in hidden secluded spaces that were actively reused, and 3) the
architectural facades of mortuary complexes were not the same as those found on
households.
Mortuary Complexes and Viewshed Analysis
Chachapoya mortuary complexes generally fall into two categories: those that have
sarcophagi, and those that are represented as mausoleums. The structural differences
between these categories does not occur as a stylistic change over time; for example,
sarcophagi from Karajía (Kauffmann Doig 2009) and the mortuary complex at Laguna
de los Condores date to roughly the same period at the end of the 15th century (Wild et
al. 2007). Sarcophagi at Karajía, however, show stylistic change between different
groups and may be the result of repeated ritual interments over a series of generations
(Kauffmann Doig 2009). Possibly, the practice of entombing ancestors in sarcophagi
(rather than as anthropomorphized textile bundles) constitutes a different set of mor­
tuary practices between ethnic groups within the Chachapoyas region (Torrejon 2007).
However, the expression of both practices is representative of a shared cosmology
wherein ancestors are represented in prominent positions within the physical landscape.
A viewshed analysis enhances our understanding of Chachapoya eschatology by
modeling the visual field of human actors with regard to mortuary spaces. While such
an analysis cannot recreate the perspectival vision of the Chachapoya, it can produce a
descriptive understanding of relationships between past human actors and cosmologi-
cally important places. A total of five mortuary sites were used for the purposes of view-
shed analysis in this study.8 Only those sites where the known extent of the mortuary
complexes could be outlined using remote sensing imagery were used. These images
were used to create shapefiles of the spatial extent of the mortuary complexes. These
files were then transferred into ArcGIS for a viewshed analysis. A digital elevation
model (DEM) was created from the 30 × 30M raster cells in SRTM imagery and the
viewshed processing tool was used to construct a viewshed analysis. The output was
then masked to the maximum extent of human vision, about 16 kilometers, given the
height and relative elevation of the mortuary complexes. The results show that inter-
visibility between individuals in Chachapoya communities and cosmologically impor-
tant places were separated from daily activities.
Kuélap
The site of Kuélap is situated on a mountain prominence that overlooks much of the
Utcubamba River Valley (Fig. 5). Kuélap consists of three concentric tiers of 420
densely packed households (Narváez 1996a, 1996b). The site appears to have a limited
amount of public architecture in spite of its centralized orientation. Within the site’s
walls are several groups of house structures and a solar observatory (Narváez 1987).
8 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

Fig. 5 The western wall of

Kuélap facing north
­towards several other
pre-Columbian com­
munities.

Fig. 6 Viewshed from

Kuélap. The area
­shaded in yellow
shows those areas
from which Kuélap
is visible. The blue
dots in the map are the
location of n­ ucleated
pre-Columbian Cha­
chapoya communities
and the green dots
represent individual
circular households.
No settlement data is
available for the area
east of the Utcubamba
River.
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 9

Fig. 7 A southwestern
view of the D-Group
mortuary complex at
Revash.

Much of the public architecture is encapsulated by the site’s outer wall which measures
over 20 meters in its highest sections. When Bandelier (1907) and others (Langolis
1934: 30) first encountered the site in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century many
of the niched buildings acted as open sepulchers where human remains were displayed
on their exterior surfaces. Many fragments of these human remains are still visible on
the surface of the Western wall today. Kuélap was both a densely occupied living and
mortuary community. Though context for many of these burials is unknown, recent
excavations revealed the presence of many burials within the site’s walls (Narváez and
Zamalloa n.d.). In contrast to the other mortuary sites in this study, Kuélap’s monumen-
tal presence is visible throughout much of the Utcubamba Valley. Additionally, many of
the large communities that lie to the west of Kuélap are situated in locations that
are directly visible from the site’s outer walls (Fig. 6). This viewshed analysis
strongly suggests that the spatial relationship of Kuélap, and the ancestors who
resided within its walls, was paramount to the surrounding communities.

Revash
The mausoleums of Revash are some of the closest to the site of Kuélap (Fig. 7) and
were constructed as mortuary houses similar to those used by the living. The site has
been known to Western scholars for over a century; incidentally, the site has suffered a
great deal of damage from looting (Kauffmann Doig and Ligabue 2003). Many ceram-
ics from interments and human remains are visible around the mortuary structures. Re-
vash was constructed as a series of seven square houses interred into the southern face
of a large escarpment. The foundations for these chullpa were excavated out of the sold
cliff face to create a flat base for the structures and appear to pre-date Inka influence
(Kauffmann Doig 2009: 162–163). The site is not directly visible from any of the large
pre-Columbian communities that lie to the west of Kuélap, although a few are not far
from outcrops where the site is visible (Fig. 8). The site was likely visible from the se-
ries of agricultural fields and solitary pre-Columbian households that lie west of the
Utcubamba River. The relationship of these individual houses to Revash or larger regio­
nal communities is uncertain. It is possible that the site was visible by larger communi-
10 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

Fig. 8 Viewshed from

­Revash. The area in
shaded in red shows
those areas from
which Revash is
­visible. The blue dots
in the map are the
­location of nucleated
pre-Columbian Cha­
chapoya communities
and the green dots
represent individual
circular households.
No settlement data is
available for the area
east of the Utcubamba
River.

ties on the eastern side of the Utcubamba River; however, detailed remote sensing data
for this region is currently unavailable. This mortuary complex is representative of a
tradition of mortuary patterning that mimics the construction of the households by liv-
ing communities. These structures were placed away from the more nucleated commu-
nities that lie at higher altitudes to the west of the site.

Diablo Huasi and La Petaca

The sites of Diablo Huasi and La Petaca are dual groups of cliff tomb chullpas located
southwest of the modern day town of Leymebamba (Fig. 9). These mortuary sites, sim-
ilar to that of Revash, contain small communities of houses for the dead that are con-
structed into a cliff face. While a façade was constructed to represent house features, the
tombs are actually placed into recessed niches within the cliff facing. Both sites have
been partially looted by huaqueros, and human remains are still visible in many of the
cliff-side tombs. There are several pre-Columbian Chachapoya communities in the
area; the closest sites of Bóveda, Tajopampa, and Monte Viudo lie some two kilometers
away from Diablo Huasi. Bóveda is a fairly large nucleated settlement that consists of
at least 30 structures as well as over 100 ha of terraced agricultural fields (Schjellerup
2005: 423). The site of La Petaca lies in close proximity to the site of La Joya, a small
community constructed in a similar concentric manner to Kuélap with at least one large
four story structure (Savoy 1970). At the time of occupation neither of the mortuary
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 11
Fig. 9 View of the cliff-tombs
found at Diablo Huasi and La
Petaca. Note that many of the
structures have geo-metric
designs similar to Revash and
one chullpa exhibits a stone
facing similar to the two-story
houses of Chachapoya ver-
nacular architecture.
9 Recent excavations at
Monte Viudo have re-
vealed that the site has its
own small burial complex
adjacent within the bound-
aries of the site; however,
this site only contained a
few individuals (Guenge­
rich n.d. [2012]).
10 The significance of moun-
tains as huacas is well
documented for the Inka
(Ceruti 2004). However,
the antiquity of this cos-
mological relationship for
the Chachapoya before
the arrival of the Inka has
yet to be addressed and is
worth future study.
complexes of Diablo Huasi and La Petaca would have been visible from any of the pre-
Columbian communities in the region.9 Additionally, these chullpas are less accesible
than most; in fact, some of the tombs were constructed over 40 m from the base of a
sheer cliff face. While these sites lie in opposition to the nearby Bóveda, they would
not have been visible directly from the site.
Solitary tombs and cave complexes
Unelaborated cliff tombs are commonplace in the region to the west of Kuélap.
This style of interment appears to be very commonplace in the Luya district to the
north of Kuélap (Koschmieder 2012: 50). While many of the tombs in the vicinity of
Kuélap have been disturbed, much of the human remains had been left in situ
(although heavily disarticulated) (Fig. 10). These tombs are rather unelaborate
when compared to larger mortuary complexes in the region. They are located in close
proxim-ity to some of the larger communities of the inter-montane region to the west of
Kuélap, yet are not always visible from any of these sites. One interesting aspect of
these burials is that they occur in rock outcroppings or facing nearby mountain peaks
(Fig. 11).10 In addition to these solitary burials, people investigating the region
found solitary burials within houses (Guengerich n.d. [2012]: 42–44) and within cave
complexes (Fabre et al. 2008). Most notably, when comparing conspicuous burials
designed to be viewed from a distance, these burials are not meant to be viewed.
Chachapoya mortuary complexes are often represented as either houses of the living
or reconstituted bodies in the form of sarcophagi. Chullpas and sarcophagi near the
Utcubamba River are positioned as prominent features within the landscape; this view­
shed analysis shows that there are clear spatial and experiential divisions between the
location of lived communities and the location of ancestor communities.
Discussion
This article establishes how Chachapoya mortuary spaces can be viewed as transforma-
tive zones where the living interacted with the dead through the physical construction
12 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

Fig. 10 A partially disarticu-

lated burial placed
within a rocky out-
crop to the west of
Kuélap.
(Photo courtesy of
Anna Guengerich).

of public mortuary spaces and interaction with the bodies of ancestors. Further, site
specific viewshed analyses of these spaces shows that for many mortuary complexes
there was a physical separation between the spaces of the living and the spaces of de-
ceased ancestors. What then does this separation mean for the quotidian interactions of
past peoples?
Paul Connerton (1989) explored the place of commemorative ritual as formalized
events in which the very practice and repetitive nature of these events informs the social
body and acts as a mechanism to create communal memory. The place of ritual remains
elusive in the archaeological record, so that the social interaction of past peoples re-
mains ephemeral. Archaeologists must sort through the meanings of the materials used
for the purposes of these invisible events. However, the Chachapoya constructed phy­
sical spaces dedicated entirely to the maintenance of routinized ritual.11 In this sense
deceased relatives were reconstituted as agents of memory for those who continually
revisit and revitalize mortuary ritual through the continued production of bodies and
space.
If the routine interment and visitation of these spaces were an essential part of recon-
stituting community memories, then what is being remembered? Bloch (1971) sug- 11 Connerton (ibid.: 44)
gested that offerings made to the dead in the ritual performances reaffirms an individu- observesd that, “Rites are
al’s place within a specific kin group, and maintains their reciprocal relationships with not merely expressive
[…]. They are formalized
deceased ancestors. Likewise, objects and bodies revered by the Inka received extrava- acts, and tend to be
gant treatment and functioned as the locus for social reciprocity and exchange. The stylised, stereotyped and
Inka personified stone as people or deities. Deceased ancestors were seen as having a repetitive. Because they
are deliberately stylised,
“living” place in quotidian lifeways as a locus of reciprocal relationships (Dean 2010: they are not subject to
65–102). The Huarochirí manuscript provides an example of the Inka conflation spontaneous variation
between physical places and persons. In this document, personified mountains can […]. They are not per-
formed under inner
walk, fight, and have children (Urton 1999: 63–66). These powers are codified as
momentary compulsion
huaca or sacred objects and places in which reciprocal exchange is made. Chachapoya but are deliberately ob-
communities are found clustered within specific elevation and regional zones. Bio- served to denote feelings.”
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 13

Fig. 11 Viewshed from a

­solitary tomb. The
area in shaded in
purple shows those
areas from which this
tomb is mutually
­visible. The blue dots
in the map are the
­location of nucleated
pre-Columbian Cha­
chapoya communi-
ties and the green
dots represent indi-
vidual circular
households.

physical analysis on Chachapoya mortuary remains hints at endogamy throughout the

region (Nystrom 2006; 2009).The location of these communities and their spatial
relationship to codified spaces of cosmological exchange suggest that some degree of
an in-group kinship system was in place before the conquest by the Inka.
Additionally, there is a clear political economy to the placement and management of
Chachapoya burial complexes. Clearly, not all members of each Chachapoya settlement
had burial rights within elaborate tomb complexes. For example, at sites such as Pueblo
de los Muertos and Karajía only a small group of individuals were interred. Many of the
materials associated with the deceased in these locations were interred with prestige
goods from Cajamarca, the lowlands to the east, and elsewhere (von Hagen 2007).
In many pre-capitalist agrarian economies, rights to land and access to labor were
not bought or sold, but were maintained through social relationships (MacAnany
1995). Likewise, the landscape of Chachapoyas is representative of an intensive
investment in landesque capital in which the agricultural infrastructure in the region
had been improved through the construction of terrace systems for the maintenance
of top soil. In order to understand the role that ideology plays in formation of Andean
economies, it is necessary to define the nature of Andean world-views. Schaedel
(1988: 772) argued that “Andeans have world views that stress reciprocity and
regulation rather than hierarchy and control.” This mode of political control
reconciles the ideology of individuals or groups by conferring the power to regulate
exchange with those forces that are seen to govern human relationships. The presence
14 Crandall, Chachapoya Eschatology

and well-being of mummified ancestors as the source of this power likely played a
pivotal role in the maintenance of the cosmos, and therefore the “dead” were actively
engaged in a reciprocal relationship with the living (Classen 1993). Inka ancestors
gave permission to marry and negotiated conflict. If ancestors were not fed and
maintained through reciprocal offerings, then they were viewed as a detrimental
force in the lives of the living (Ramírez 2005: 94–98). Offerings of maize and other
foodstuffs at Laguna de los Condores and other sites indicate that this tradition was
also present among the Chachapoya as well (Wild et al. 2007). This may be one
reason for the spatial separation of the deceased from living communities.
The Chachapoya reaffirmed their living social relationships as well as their connec-
tion to land by constructing visible communities of deceased ancestors. The intrusion
and reappropriation of these spaces, e.g. the removing and replacing of bodies with Inka
interments at Laguna de los Condores (Guillén 2003; Wild et al. 2007: 379), signifies
dominance over the source of moral regulation and authority in social relationships.12
The continued reappropriation of group identity, through commemorative ritual, al-
lowed specific members of these communities access to land and social positions. At the
moment, the long-term development of Chachapoya socio-political systems is poorly
understood. Though we know that at the time of Spanish contact a regional system of
political hierarchy existed under the authority of local curacazgos, the antiquity of such
political systems is uncertain (Schjellerup 2008). Nonetheless, we can broach larger
anthropological questions of cosmological and social exchange by understanding how
these fundamental social relationships were in part maintained by the interaction be-
tween communities of the living and deceased.
To that end, we can make three broad conclusions on the burial practices of the
Chachapoya and the placement of burial communities. First, a fundamental relationship
between living communities underscored the spatial patterning of mortuary sites, i.e.
what places were appropriate for ancestors to be buried. Second, the practice of burying
ancestors can be viewed as an agentive process. The construction of new bodies and
new communities in the form of mummification and the construction of chullpas not
only situated Chachapoya ancestors within the sphere of Andean cosmology, but situ-
ated the social experience of living actors by their relationships to the deceased. In this
context, the living mediate between “subject” and “object” as rights and obligations are
bestowed among members of the community by their relationship to the deceased.
Third, although elements of ritual are often ephemeral in the archaeological record, we
can understand the material processes that lead to the reinforcement of social memory
through the process of defining deceased communities and the act of entombing
ancestors. These processes, of constructing and engaging communities of ancestors,
informed the persistence of culturally conferred social relationships within a
conservative tradition, i.e. burial practices. Hence, the location of ancestor
communities informed the location of living communities. Mortuary contexts are
bounded spaces, often segregated from the world of the living, in which the ritual
transformation of community members takes place between the living and the
deceased.
Acknowledgments. Funding for this research was made possible by a Ruegamer Award and a
Tinker Grant administered by the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida.
I would like to thank Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo and Meggan Jordan for their helpful comments
on earlier versions of this article. I am grateful to Anna Guengerich, Rob Dover, John Warner, 12 Helms (1998: 74) suggested
Olivier Fabre, Manuel Malaver Pizarro, Adriana von Hagen, Klaus Koschmieder, and Edward that these “Reference[s] to
Swenson for their insightful conversations and support in the field. Any errors remain my respon- cosmological beginnings
sibility. validates this activity and,
in addition, legitimizes the
authority of the persons
who conduct or direct
these affairs.”
Baessler–Archiv, Band 60 (2012) 15

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