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THE INCA STATE AND THE VALLEY OF ACARÍ, PERÚ

Conference Paper · April 2018

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THE INCA STATE AND THE VALLEY OF ACARÍ, PERÚ

Lidio M. Valdez,
MacEwan University, Canada
The south coast of Peru was one of the regions conquered relatively early by the
expanding Inca state. Following incorporation, a series of Inca administrative
centers were established, all linked by a highway. Tambo Viejo was established in
the Acarí Valley. The south coast in general being incorporated peacefully, the
control exercised by the Inca state likely was through local authorities. However,
Inca control was brief and at most probably lasted no more than fifty years. As a
result, the residents of valleys such as Acarí experienced little change in their daily
life. The architecture of Tambo Viejo and the associated ceramics do not exhibit
much outside influence. Though material items display only minor changes, Inca
ideology is apparent in the manner in which the center was planned. Tambo Viejo,
although built with architecture in the local tradition, was conceived following the
standardized Inca structural pattern that included a large rectangular plaza and an
enormous mound that likely was an ushnu.
Symposium: Are we Inkas? Inkas and Local Polities Interactions as seen Through the Material Culture.
Society for American Archaeology 83rd. Annual Meeting. Washington, DC, April 11 – 15, 2018.

For some time now, Tawantinsuyo has been recognized as “a great amalgam of units which
differed in size, customs, political structure and often language” (Morris & Thompson 1985:24).
Just how this great amalgam was established is a valid question and deserves our attention. The
great amalgam, in part, is related to Inca militarism, which was “to be generous with those
capitulated, and to punish those who resisted harshly” (D’Altroy 2003:207). Those who opposed,
such as the Guargo from the Cañete Valley (Hyslop 1985; Marcus 2017), were either massacred
or deported (D’Altroy 2003:69, 207-8); in contrast, those who accepted diplomacy and were
incorporated peacefully under Inca control “were allowed to keep many of their resources,”
while their leaders were able to enhance their status (D’Altroy 2003:207).

In her seminal paper published almost six decades ago, Dorothy Menzel discussed the Inca
occupation of the valleys of Chincha, Ica, Nazca and Acarí, a region that was incorporated to Inca
control by means of diplomacy (Menzel 1959:126; Morris & Santillana 2007:135-136). Rather
surprisingly, Menzel concluded that Inca period south coast was far from being homogeneous in
spite of its peaceful incorporation. For example, it was noted, on the one hand, that in the
Chincha Valley the Inca state took advantage of existing administrative facilities and a strong
centralized authority; on the other hand, in the Acarí Valley that was without centralized
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authority, the Inca state established a new center (Menzel 1959:129). The significant variation
observed in several valleys that were incorporated without resistance, according to Menzel, was
a reflection of both the diverse cultural situations the Inca found in those territories and the
outcome of the different responses implemented by the Inca state for each of the conquered
valleys. Therefore, in addition to Inca militarism, particular local situations encountered by the
Inca state and the specific responses put forward by the Inca administration also had much to do
in the creation of the great amalgam.

Figure 1. D. Menzel at Tambo Viejo in 1954.

Menzel’s pioneering work on the south coast has deeply shaped our current understanding of
the Inca state and Inca power (Morris & Santillana 2007:136; Malpass & Alconini 2010:3). In
contrast to the monolithic view of the Inca Empire that dominated the previous decades, Menzel
demonstrated archaeologically that the Inca state showed great flexibility (Malpass 1993:2) and
whenever possible was prepared not only to delegate local affairs to native authorities, but also
to take advantage of local circumstances. In doing this, “the Inca merely confirmed in power
authorities who were already installed or whose selection was basically a local matter” (Morris
& Thompson 1985:24).
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Figure 2. The valleys of the South Coast.

Here I am interested in further discussing some of the ideas initially put forward by Menzel about
the Inca occupation of the Acarí Valley and the establishment of the Inca center of Tambo Viejo
in Acarí. After more than six decades since the first ever archaeological study carried out at
Tambo Viejo, field research is about to resume at this site. When new information becomes
available, this discussion will certainly continue; in the meantime, I believe there is available
information to start a dialogue and make an attempt to answer the central question of this
symposium: Are we Incas? What does the material culture inform us about the interactions
between the conquerors and the conquered? Between the Inka state and the indigenous peoples
of Acarí.

To address these questions, I believe it is important to take into consideration the specific
particularities of a valley such as Acarí, and those are:

• First, Inca conquest of Acarí (and by extension of the south coast) was peaceful,
• Second, Inca rule of Acarí (and by extension of the south coast) was brief,
• Third, at the time of Inca conquest Acarí was without a centralized authority,
• Fourth, native settlements of Acarí were no more than good sized villages,
• Finally, Acarí is a narrow coastal valley with limited agriculturally fertile land.
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It remains unknown when exactly Acarí was incorporated to Inca control. On the basis of Spanish
sources, it is asserted that the first contact between Inca officials and the lords of Chincha took
place sometime around 1440, but the actual incorporation of Chincha seemingly did not occur
until 1476. For the Lunahuaná and the Guargo of the Cañete Valley, north of Chincha, the
suggested dates for their respective conquests are 1450 and 1470 (Marcus 2017:177, 179), thus
prior to the incorporation of Chincha. In their report of the 1954 archaeological research carried
out at Tambo Viejo, Menzel and Riddell suggested that the conquest of Acarí probably came from
the direction of the Nazca Valley. This suggestion leaves open the possibility that Acarí was
conquered after the incorporation of Chincha. However, by 1534 any type of rule established by
the Inca state in Acarí had already come to an end with the arrival of the Spaniards (Menzel
1959:126). If these dates are correct, Inca rule in Acarí was very short – hardly about five
decades. Within that limited time, the Inca state would have made significant changes, as it
successfully did in the Cañete Valley (Marcus 2017).

Figure 3. Tambo Viejo.

In Acarí the Inca state established the administrative center of Tambo Viejo, but Tambo Viejo was
different, for example, from any Inca building established in the former Guargo territory. The
most dominant features of Tambo Viejo include a square central plaza and a much larger
rectangular plaza, east of which there is a large mound that likely represents an ushnu. The Inca
Royal highway that connected Tambo Viejo with Paredones from the Nazca Valley departs from
the SW corner of the large rectangular plaza (Von Hagen 1955). In this manner, the layout of
Tambo Viejo is Inca.
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However, it is noticeable the absence of important Inca features such as trapezoidal niches and
trapezoidal doorways. The lack of such features suggests that the builders of Tambo Viejo likely
were the conquered local people, who had little knowledge of Inca architecture. It appears that
the native peoples of Acarí had some freedom to erect the walls of Tambo Viejo with little
interference from Inca officials; such liberty may have being something that the indigenous of
peoples of Acarí received from the Inca state due to their peaceful incorporation to Inca rule.
Thus, just by assessing the walls of Tambo Viejo one cannot be certain that this is an Inca center;
a complete picture emerges only when one sees the whole site plan.

Figure 4. Tambo Viejo.

How soon after the incorporation of Acarí was Tambo Viejo established is another relevant
question, but still difficult to answer. From its layout, it appears that Tambo Viejo was built as a
single project and perhaps shortly after Acarí was brought into Inca rule. However, the
occurrence of large accumulations of domestic waste containing Inca period ceramic sherds that
were deposited as fills of the largest walls, such as the walls of the possible ushnu, opens the
possibility that Tambo Viejo may have been built in stages, or that the possible ushnu perhaps
was a later addition. Regardless how quickly the site was established, the occurrence of abundant
domestic waste strongly suggests the presence of a sizeable population at the site. It is still
unknown in what type of activities this population was involved, although surface evidence
suggests that spinning was one of them.
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At the time of Inca conquest, the local population of the Acarí Valley was scattered in small
settlements without monumental structures. The largest of all was Sahuacarí (Menzel, Riddell &
Valdez 2012:428), a site found across Tambo Viejo, on the opposite side of the valley. Since there
is continuity of the local ceramic style, it appears that the Inca state managed to relocate a good
number of the local population to Tambo Viejo. Then, an additional reason for the almost
superficial impact of the Inca state in the Acarí Valley perhaps was the overall small size of the
local population, a population that already showed its loyalty to Inca rule. Furthermore, a narrow
coastal valley with limited agriculturally fertile land probably had little to offer to the Inca state.
These may have been some of the reasons why the Inca state did not see the urgent need for
investing valuable resources in this valley and thus produce a significant change. Within this likely
scenario, the best approach probably was to delegate tasks to local authorities. Elsewhere, in
regions that had more to offer in terms of resources, or because of particular situations such as
resistance to Inca rule, the Inca state realized the need to invest more time and massive
resources, that ultimately resulted in the great amalgam. Had the Inca control of Acarí lasted
more than the five decades or so, perhaps the imprint of the Inca state would have been greater
than the one left.

Figure 5. Sahuacarí.

At the time Acarí was brought to Inca rule there was a native pottery style in this valley (Menzel
1959:132). This ceramic style not only survived Inca occupation, but also continued being made
during colonial times. Prior to the Inca presence, wavy lines dominated ceramic designs; with the
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arrival of the Inca, local artisans gained access to a whole new range of designs that once selected
and modified were depicted in the local vessels. In addition, some Inca vessel forms were
emulated, while a few samples of Cuzco Inca pottery also found its way to Acarí; however, and
for some reason, those few samples did not include Inca keros. Overall, ceramics indicate that
the native peoples continued producing their vessels with little or no interference from the Inca
state, and if there is any sign of change in the local ceramics, such as the emulation of foreign
designs and forms, it appears to be the result of local interest rather than the outcome of Inca
imposition.

Figure 6. Inca period vessel from Tambo Viejo.

Figure 7. Conopas from Otapara.

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During a recent visit to the site of Otapara, a pre-Inca settlement of Acarí that continued being
occupied during Inca times, a set of three conopas were found placed under a large rock (Valdez
2018). Two of the conopas were carved in wood and a third was carved in white rock. The finding
of conopas at Otapara suggests that in spite of the limited time, the Inca state had already begun
implanting Inca ideology in the native population of Acarí.

To conclude, from the few ideas discussed here, I believe Tambo Viejo provides an excellent
example of the flexibility of the Inca state. The Inca state had different responses to different
situations, for which it must have been very important to pay attention to the smallest details.
Such an observation allowed the Inca that even peoples who accepted diplomacy, still needed to
be addressed differently due to their specific local situations. The different situations found by
the Inca state in the provinces were further accentuated as the Inca responded to each case
differently. Those differences are more or less visible in the material culture and suggest that
peoples of valleys such as Acarí were not yet Inca.

References Cited
D’Altroy, Terence N. (2003). The Incas. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA.

Hyslop, John (1985). Inkahuasi – The New Cuzco, Cañete, Lunahuaná, Perú. British Archaeological
Reports, International Series 234, Oxford.

Malpass, Michael A. (1993). Variability in the Inca state: embracing a wider perspective. In
Provincial Inca: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Assessment of the Impact of the Inca State,
edited by M. A. Malpass, pp. 234-244. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.

Malpass, Michael A. & Sonia Alconini (2010). Provincial Inka studies in the twenty-first century.
In Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: toward a deeper understanding of Inka imperialism,
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Marcus, Joyce (2017). The Inca conquest of Cerro Azul. Ñawpa Pacha 37 (2):175-196.

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Menzel, Dorothy & Francis A. Riddell (1986). Archaeological Investigations at Tambo Viejo, Acari
Valley, Peru 1954. California Institute for Peruvian Studies, Sacramento.
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Menzel, Dorothy, Francis A. Riddell & Lidio M. Valdez (2012). El centro administrativo Inca de
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Valdez, Lidio M. (2018). La ocupación Inca del valle de Acarí. Revista Haucaypata 13: 6-15.
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