Ñawpa Pacha

Journal of Andean Archaeology

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The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From

The Coast

Howard Tsai

To cite this article: Howard Tsai (2019): The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From The
Coast, Ñawpa Pacha, DOI: 10.1080/00776297.2019.1581452

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Published online: 01 Mar 2019.

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 THE “COASTAL CAJAMARCA” STYLE DID NOT COME FROM
THE COAST

Howard Tsai

The Coastal Cajamarca style of pottery was first reported on the north coast of Peru and subsequently interpreted as an
emulation of highland Cajamarca ceramics by coastal potters. Alternatively, some researchers proposed an origin of the
style in the chaupiyunga, or the intermediary area between the coast and the highlands on the western slope of the
Andes. This article presents excavation data from the site of Las Varas, an 11th-century village located in the
Middle Jequetepeque Valley, to the support the chaupiyunga-origin hypothesis. The quantity of Coastal Cajamarca
sherds recovered from Las Varas (3,223) accounted for more than a third of the total number of diagnostic pottery,
making it the dominant style of the site; this sample revealed a variety of motifs and designs not documented in
coastal sites. Other vessels in Las Varas’ ceramic assemblage – domestic ware used for cooking and storage – resembled
highland Cajamarca pottery in form and surface decoration.

El estilo “cajamarca costeño” registnado en la costa norte del Perú, ha sido interpretado como una imitación de
cerámicas de la zona serrana de Cajamarca. Por otro lado, algunos investigadores han propuesto un origen del estilo
en la zona chaupiyunga o área intermedia entre la costa y la sierra en la vertiente occidental de los Andes. En este
artículo se presenta resultados de excavación en el sitio arqueológico Las Varas, un asentamiento del siglo XI situado
en el Valle Medio del Jequetepeque, para sustenar el origen chaupiyunga del estilo cajamarca costeño. La gran cantidad
de cerámica cajamarca costeña recuperada (3.223 fragmentos) en Las Varas representó más de un tercio del total de
cerámica diagnóstica del sitio. Esta muestra estableció al cajamarca costeño como el estilo dominante de Las Varas y
reveló una variedad de motivos y diseños sin precedentes en otros sitios en la costa. Otras clases de ceramios de Las
Varas – las ollas y paicas – son semejantes a las de la sierra de Cajamarca en su forma y decoración superficial.

Keywords: Cajamarca, Jequetepeque, Las Varas, chaupiyunga, Late Intermediate

he Coastal Cajamarca style was first discovered

T by Hans Disselhoff (1958) at San José de
Moro, a ceremonial-mortuary center in the Lower
Jequetepeque Valley. Consisting of bowls with
painted designs, the style bore some similarities to
highland Cajamarca traditions, leading researchers to
suggest that (1) it was produced on the coast as an
imitation of highland Cajamarca pottery or (2) it

Howard Tsai, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
(hitsai@umich.edu)

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of Andean Archaeology, pp. 1–24. # 2019 Institute of Andean Studies. All rights reserved.

1
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
was produced in the middle valley or chaupiyunga
zone, an intermediate area between the coast and
the highlands on the western slope of the Andes. I
believe the second hypothesis is correct, that is, the
so-called “Coastal Cajamarca” style of painted bowls
did not come from the coast but instead originated
from the chaupiyunga zone of the Jequetepeque
Valley, some 40–100 km inland (300–1000 masl)
from the Pacific shore (Figure 1). This area, which I
will refer to as the chaupiyunga or middle valley, is
a warm tropical zone found in the river valleys
along the western foothills of the Andes.
In this article I present excavation data from Las Varas,
a Late Intermediate village located in the Middle
Jequetepeque Valley, to support the chaupiyunga-
origin hypothesis. I first review previous research on
Coastal Cajamarca which has provided information on
its substyles, chronology, and geographical origin. I
will then list major characteristics that define the
Jequetepeque variety of the Coastal Cajamarca style.
Excavations at Las Varas had produced four lines of evi-
dence that favor the chaupiyunga-origin hypothesis: (1)
dominance of the Coastal Cajamarca style at Las Varas;
(2) ubiquity of the style in all excavated contexts; (3)
diversity of Coastal Cajamarca motifs in the middle
valley; and (4) discovery of additional pottery forms,
local to the chaupiyunga, at Las Varas. If the chau-
piyunga-origin hypothesis were proven correct, the rec-
ognition of this mid-valley ceramic tradition would have
important implications for how we interpret the
Figure 1. Archaeological sites and modern settlements in the Jequetepeque Valley. Numbers in parentheses indicate elevation (meters
above sea level). Cerro Chepén, not drawn on this map, is 6 km south of San José de Moro.
2
archaeological evidence for exchange, population move-
ment, and ethnic interaction in Andean prehistory.
Coastal Cajamarca: Origin,
Substyles, and Chronology
Disselhoff’s excavation of San José de Moro in the
Lower Jequetepeque Valley uncovered a style of
painted bowls resembling those of highland
Cajamarca. He found these bowls in burials with
Lambayeque-style pottery and described them as repre-
senting a “locally modified Cajamarca style” (“örtlich
modifizierten Cajamarca-Stil” [Disselhoff
1958:189]). He did not, however, name these bowls
“Coastal Cajamarca.” The earliest use of the term
“Coastal Cajamarca” that I could find is from Izumi
Shimada’s 1982 article “Horizontal Archipelago and
Coast-Highland Interaction in North Peru” in which
he noted Cajamarca-like plates from Sicán and dis-
cussed their implication for understanding interregio-
nal interaction (Shimada 1982:173).
Based on his survey and study of museum collections,
Daniel Julien (1993: Figure 3) plotted the distribution
of Amoshulca Cajamarca and Coastal Cajamarca
pottery on the northern highlands and coast of Peru.
He raised the possibility that Coastal Cajamarca came
from the chaupiyunga because, as he observed, Coastal
Cajamarca was never the dominant style at any coastal
site, and Coastal Cajamarca frequently appeared in
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast

mid-valley collections (Julien 1993:262). Jorge Table 1. Earliest reported Coastal Cajamarca finds in the
Montenegro, working with pottery from the Jequetepeque Valley.
Lambayeque area, likewise suggested that the chau- Absolute
piyunga or cis-Andean zone was the source for “Sicán Area Site Period dates Reference
Painted Plates,” a northern variety of the Coastal Coast Huaca Late A.D. 600- Swenson
Cajamarca style (Montenegro 1993:144). Recent inves- Colorada Moche 850 et al.
tigation by Del-Solar-Velarde et al. (2016) provided pre- 2011:123
Coast San José Late A.D. 750- Bernuy
liminary findings in favor of the chaupiyunga-origin de Moro Moche 900 and Bernal
hypothesis. Utilizing a handheld (portable) X-ray fluor- 2008
escence spectrometer, they tested the chemical compo- Coast Cerro Late A.D. 550- Rosas
Chepén Moche 800 Rintel
sition of 56 sherds from San José de Moro and
2007
detected distinct compositions for each of the following Middle Paredones Middle Middle Watanabe
ceramic styles: Mochica, Coastal Cajamarca, and Valley Cajamarca Cajamarca 2012
Highland Cajamarca. They concluded that “Coastal C B & C date
to A.D.
and Highland Cajamarca potters did not produced 750-950
[sic] ceramic bodies using the raw materials exploited
by Mochica potters” (Del-Solar-Velarde et al. 2016:12).
There are substyles within the Coastal Cajamarca Andean chronology, ca. A.D. 700-850/900
style, and Julien (1988:228–229) lists three: Moro, (Table 1). The oldest Coastal Cajamarca specimen in
Sicán Painted Plates, and Jequetepeque Red-on- the middle valley was a plate from Chulpa EST-B1,
White. The Moro substyle refers to the type of bowls which dates to Middle Cajamarca Phase C (ca. A.D.
first encountered by Disselhoff at San José de Moro, 950), at the site of Paredones near Chilete in the
whose interior designs consist of red circles and lines Middle Jequetepeque Valley (Watanabe 2012:117).
painted on a white background. The Sicán Painted Less is known about Coastal Cajamarca’s obsolescence,
Plate is a variety found in the Sicán and Lambayeque but some published data (Bernuy 2008: Figure 10;
regions (Montenegro 1993; Montenegro and Shimada Swenson 2007: Figure 6) point to the style’s continued
1998); these plates are flatter compared to the presence in the Late Intermediate or Lambayeque
Jequetepeque variety and have different painted motifs period (A.D. 1000-1350). Cutright’s excavation of
and designs (Montenegro 1997:209–212). Julien’s Ventanillas, a Lambayeque-period site in the Middle
third substyle, Jequetepeque Red-on-White, comprises Jequetepeque Valley, provided radiocarbon dates of
painted bowls from the Middle Jequetepeque Valley. By ca. A.D. 1200-1300 for some Coastal Cajamarca
contrast, Montenegro and Shimada (1998:268) sherds (Cutright and Osores Mendives 2021).
propose just two substyles: Jequetepeque/Zaña (CCV) Disselhoff first reported Coastal Cajamarca in
and Sicán Painted Plates (PPS). I prefer Montenegro Lambayeque context, and Jacquelyn Bernuy (2008:
and Shimada’s typology over Julien’s because, in my Figure 10) similarly documented a Coastal
view, the Moro and mid-valley Jequetepeque (Red-on- Cajamarca bowl from a Lambayeque burial at San
White) varieties are the same. In this article I will only José de Moro. To tie in with highland chronology,
be focusing on the mid-valley Jequetepeque variety Coastal Cajamarca was contemporaneous with Late
(Montenegro’s “CCV”). Cajamarca (A.D. 900-1200) pottery in Terada and
In the Lower Jequetepeque Valley, the earliest-dated Matsumoto’s sequence (1985:81–83; Matsumoto
Coastal Cajamarca pottery came from Late Moche 1993:188) or Cajamarca IV in Reichlen and
contexts of sites like San José de Moro, Cerro Reichlen’s scheme (1949:168–170).
Chepén (Rosas Rintel 2007:231), and Huaca Over two decades of excavations at San José de
Colorada (Swenson et al. 2011:123), thereby placing Moro yielded the largest sample of whole, intact
the style’s origin in Middle Horizon 2 of the general Coastal Cajamarca bowls to date (Luis Jaime

3
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
Castillo et al. 2008). Nevertheless, San José de Moro’s
dominant pottery styles were coastal: Moche,
Transitional, Lambayeque, and Chimú. Moro’s
burials contained exotic, imported ceramic styles
like Wari, Highland Cajamarca, and Nievería; the
inclusion of these foreign goods in tombs alongside
coastal pottery allowed for a cross-dating of local
and non-local sequences. Bernuy and Bernal
(2008:73–74, Cuadro 2) devised a chronology of
Coastal Cajamarca bowls spanning Late Moche,
Early Transitional, and Late Transitional periods.
This sequence began with a spiralling wavy-line
design (“Type 2”) that was present in Late Moche
and Early Transitional burials, followed by the “satel-
lite” motif (“Type 4”) that appeared in the Late
Transitional period. Type 2 is characterized by a
painted band, formed by two lines, that spirals out
of the bowl’s center interior like a mosquito coil;
painted inside that band is a single, continuous
wavy line (Figure 2). The satellite motif resembles a
tic-tac-toe grid with two parallel lines drawn intersect-
ing and perpendicular to another set of double paral-
lel lines; painted in the center is a large round dot that
completely covers the central cell (Figure 3). A vari-
ation of the satellite motif includes multiple red or
brown dots connected by straight parallel lines, and
next to these radiating dots are wavy parallel lines.
The satellite motifs are about 2–5 cm long.
In sum, previous research by Julien and
Montenegro established the existence of at least two
substyles of Coastal Cajamarca, one of which, the
Figure 2. Examples of Coastal Cajamarca bowls with painted wavy line: left, rim fragment of painted bowl from Las Varas; right, top
view of a Coastal Cajamarca bowl from San José de Moro painted with coiling wavy line (redrawn from Rubacado Yong and Castillo 2003:
Figure 1.3d).
4
Jequetepeque variety, had been sequenced by archae-
ologists working in San José de Moro. Julien and
Montenegro suggested that the Coastal Cajamarca
style originated from the mid-valley or chaupiyunga
zone. Within the larger Andean chronology, Coastal
Cajamarca appeared in the latter half of the Middle
Horizon (ca. A.D. 800) with continued presence in
the Late Intermediate (ca. A.D. 1300).
Coastal Cajamarca: Key
Characteristics
Coastal Cajamarca bowls have been documented in the
Jequetepeque Valley and the Contumazá area (high-
lands south of the Jequetepeque Valley) (Jaeckel and
Melly Cava 1987:7; Swenson 2007:Figure 6;
Watanabe 2012:117, Figure 19), but I suspect that,
due to their obscurity in the literature, they have
been under-reported as many archaeologists still do
not recognize the style during fieldwork or analysis. I
now provide the defining characteristics of Coastal
Cajamarca bowls from the Jequetepeque Valley so
that they can be properly identified in the future.
What exactly, then, does a Coastal Cajamarca bowl
from the Middle Jequetepeque Valley look like?
Coastal Cajamarca bowls of the Jequetepeque
variety are defined by (1) painted interior designs in
either red-on-white or black-on-white slip, but
never both, i.e., designs that are always bichrome
and never tricolor; (2) painted interior designs that
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 3. Fragments of Coastal Cajamarca bowls from Las Varas painted with the “satellite” motif.
include geometric, zoomorphic, or botanical motifs, a
common motif being a combination of circles and
crosses (the satellite); (3) everted, flaring rim; (4) a
single exterior decoration in the form of a white
band painted on the exterior surface just below the
rim; and (5) ring base or, on very small dishes,
tripod (Figures 4–7; digital 3D models of Las Varas
Bowls 1 and 2 are available for viewing and download
at sketchfab.com/umichlacs). A painted Coastal
Cajamarca bowl from the Jequetepeque Valley
always, without exception, has these elements.
A few bowls have post-fire incisions (Figures 8–11)
on the interior surface that represent an abstract
symbol (Bernuy and Bernal 2008:76–77; Disselhoff
1958:189–191). On one bowl from Las Varas it
was clear that usage occurred after the incision, indi-
cating that someone had incised the bottom of the
bowl and then repeated scraped that incised design,
presumably with a spoon (Figures 8 and 9).
Compared to painted vessels from the highlands of
Cajamarca, Coastal Cajamarca bowls have simpler
5
interior and exterior designs (Figure 12). Highland
Cajamarca pottery from the Late Cajamarca period
can have tricolor (red, black, and white) designs
(Terada and Matsumoto 1985:81; Toohey 2011:183;
Figure 12), whereas Coastal Cajamarca is always
bichrome – red-on-white or black-on-white. Many
researchers noted the lack of kaolin clay in Coastal
Cajamarca bowls, which is true, though it should be
noted that there was, in general, a decline in the use
of kaolin clay during Late Cajamarca (Terada and
Matsumoto 1985:81). Coastal Cajamarca paste is
pinkish orange (Munsell 5YR 7/6) with little to no
inclusions, indicating that coarse particles had been
removed by sifting or settling (Rye 1981:37).
The other substyle of Coastal Cajamarca is the
Sicán variety, analyzed by Montenegro in his
master’s thesis (1997). Compared to its counterpart
in the Jequetepeque, the Sicán variety includes true
plates, that is, flat dishes with an inclination angle
between 8 and 32 degrees (Montenegro 1997:141).
By contrast, the Jequetepeque variety is more of a
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
Figure 4. Las Varas Bowl 1 (diameter 15 cm, height 5.5–
6.5 cm, ring base diameter 6.5 cm), found in Layer C, Unit 12,
Llama House. Key characteristics are (1) painted interior design in
red-on-white slip, (2) interior designs that consist of geometric
and botanical motifs, (3) flaring rim, (4) white band painted on
the exterior just below the rim, and (5) ring base.
Figure 5. A small painted bowl with tripod base (Las Varas
Sherd #7920; diameter 9 cm).
6
Figure 6. A piece of ring base from a Las Varas painted bowl
(Las Varas Sherd #2504; ring base diameter 5 cm).
bowl with flaring rims angling at around 45 degrees.
The Sicán variety is painted with designs like sym-
metrical red-and-black bands, anthropomorphic
heads, and stylized triangular spaces (Montenegro
1997:209–212), motifs that I have not seen on
mid-valley Jequetepeque bowls. Some Sicán painted
plates have press-molded designs on their exterior
Figure 7. The exterior surface of a Las Varas painted bowl (Las
Varas Sherd #8472; diameter 22 cm). Note thickening of the rim,
which suggests the use of one bowl as a mold for producing
another.
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 8. Las Varas Bowl 2 (diameter 15.5 cm), found in Layer
C, Unit 12, Llama House. Note incised mark worn by usage.
surface and base (Montenegro 1997), whereas the
Jequetepeque variety lacks press-molded design, its
sole external decoration being a white band painted
around its rim. Having provided a general overview
of the Coastal Cajamarca style, I now present evidence
from the archaeological site of Las Varas that supports
a chaupiyunga origin of this type of painted bowls.
Las Varas: A “Coastal Cajamarca”
Village in the Jequetepeque Valley
Las Varas is located in the Middle Jequetepeque
Valley, 40 km from the coast at an elevation of 300
meters above sea level (Figure 1). When I first
Figure 9. Close-up view of the post-fire incision and use wear
on Las Varas Bowl 2.
7
Figure 10. Las Varas Sherd #4680 (width 5 cm) from a painted
bowl (diameter 14 cm), showing post-fire incision.
visited the site in 2005, I was impressed by the abun-
dance of Coastal Cajamarca sherds on its surface.
Neighboring sites, by contrast, had predominantly
coastal-style pottery, that is, paddle-stamped ollas
and black, reduce-fired bottles and plates, commonly
classified as Lambayeque on the northern Peruvian
coast. Because of this unique location of a “Coastal
Cajamarca” site surrounded by coastal
(Lambayeque) sites, Las Varas was selected for exca-
vations in 2006 (Tsai 2012:58–60).
Las Varas is located on an isolated patch of land on
the south bank of the valley, cut off from neighboring
settlements by hills to the east, south, and west, and
cordoned off by the Jequetepeque River to the
Figure 11. Las Varas Sherd #2708 (width 6 cm) from a painted
bowl (diameter 14 cm), showing post-fire incision.
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Figure 14. Map of Las Varas Sector 1. Gray boxes indicate

Figure 12. Highland Cajamarca style ceramics found in Plaza 2, excavated structures. Contour intervals at 5 m.
Sector 3 of Las Varas.

north (Figure 13). Residential structures built on hill-
side terraces are found on the western part of the site
(Figures 14 and 15). An interesting architectural
feature of Las Varas residential structures is the stand-
ing or jamb stone next to house entrances, a
construction technique common in the highlands
but not on the coast (Figure 16). Radiocarbon dates
place the occupation of Las Varas at around A.D.
1000 (Tsai 2012:71, 83), which falls within the
Lambayeque period (A.D. 900–1375) on the coast

Figure 13. Las Varas viewed from Google Earth, looking south. Excavations uncovered residences on hillside terraces (1), a small
reception platform (1), burials (2 and 4), and plazas (3). The distance between (1) and (4) is approximately 1 km.

8
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 15. Las Varas Sector 1, looking north. The Llama House is located in the gully or quebrada between the Reception Platform and
the Crystal House.
and Late Cajamarca (A.D. 900-1200) in the high-
lands. The nearest monumental center is Ventanillas
(Cutright and Osores Mendives 2021), a huaca
complex located 4 km west of Las Varas on the
south bank of the Jequetepeque River.
The Las Varas Archaeological Project uncovered
residences (Figures 17–19), a small ceremonial plat-
form, three plazas, and burials. The site covers 50 ha,
with archaeological features and structures sparsely
scattered within this area. Excavation confirmed
my initial observation based on surface collection:
Coastal Cajamarca was indeed the dominant style
of the site, with more than 99% of Las Varas’s
bowls (n = 3223) being in this style. Las Varas is
the only site that I know of with more than 3000
pieces of Coastal Cajamarca sherds (out of a total
8785 diagnostic sherds) recovered in excavated
contexts.
9
Evidence for Chaupiyunga Origin of
the Coastal Cajamarca Style
Here I present four lines of evidence to support the
hypothesis that “Coastal Cajamarca” came from the
chaupiyunga. At Las Varas, (1) Coastal Cajamarca
was the dominant style; (2) Coastal Cajamarca
bowls were found in all excavated contexts; (3) a
wide range of motifs, more than those documented
at coastal sites, was painted on these bowls; and (4)
a full suite of chaupiyunga domestic pottery
accompanied the painted bowls.
Dominant Style
The vast majority of the bowls recovered at the site
(more than 99%) was painted and decorated in the
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Figure 16. The interior of Spondylous House, Sector 1, Las Varas, looking out the main entrance. Note stone jamb framing the
entrance. A scale bar (1 m) stands in the corner.

Coastal Cajamarca style. In total, 37% (3223 out of reported site has this overwhelming proportion of
8785) of the diagnostic sherds found at Las Varas Coastal Cajamarca pottery. In our excavations of resi-
were pieces of Coastal Cajamarca bowls. No other dential middens there were units (e.g., Units 13 and

Figure 17. View of the Llama House from the Reception Platform: (U) upper terrace; (M) middle terrace; and (L) lower terrace.

10
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 18. Plan of the Llama House. Numbered squares
represent 2 × 2 m excavation units.
15 of Area Quebrada 2 “Llama House”) in which
40% of the diagnostic sherds were painted bowl frag-
ments. During the excavation of those units, each
scrape of the trowel or bucket dump on the screen
revealed a cornucopia of colorfully painted pottery.
Even now, after six months of excavation and
surface collection, visitors to Las Varas can still
easily find fragments of painted bowls littered on
the surface.
Coastal- (Lambayeque) and highland-style (high-
land Cajamarca) sherds were also present at Las
Varas, but they constitute a very small minority in
the overall assemblage (n = 324, or 3.7%).
Interestingly, coastal-style pottery at Las Varas was
found concentrated in one particular sector – the
Reception Platform – which, I had argued, served as
an entrance for people arriving from the coast (Tsai
11
2012:81–82), but even here we found fragments of
Coastal Cajamarca bowls. At Las Varas, whenever
coastal-style pottery was present, there was also
Coastal Cajamarca.
The dominance of the Coastal Cajamarca style at
Las Varas supports Julien’s (1993:262) earlier obser-
vation that “it is very common in sites in the central
Jequetepeque Valley.” I want to stress that the term
“dominance” does not mean the absolute amount,
but the relative proportion of artifacts bearing a
certain style. In other words, had I recovered 3,000
fragments of Coastal Cajamarca bowls at Las Varas,
but also 8,000 fragments of coastal-style pottery, the
coastal style would be the site’s dominant style, and
I would be providing a very different interpretation.
There are several coastal sites where Coastal
Cajamarca sherds have been reported, but, as men-
tioned, no published data attest to their dominance
at any coastal site.
The inference that the dominance of a style points to
the style’s origin had always been an implicit assump-
tion in Andean archaeology. No one doubted a
coastal origin for the Moche and Chimu styles given
their abundance in coastal assemblages – and this
determination was made before the advent of chemical
and compositional clay analysis. The paucity of archae-
ological research in the chaupiyunga area contributed
to lingering uncertainties regarding the Coastal
Cajamarca style. Were we to have more detailed exca-
vations and reports of mid-valley sites, we could plot
the percentages of Coastal Cajamarca pottery recovered
and map them site-by-site along a stretch or transect in
the Jequetepeque Valley; I expect that sites in the
middle valley would, like Las Varas, have higher per-
centages of Coastal Cajamarca than sites in the Lower
Valley, a pattern that would qualify as strong evidence
for the chaupiyunga-origin hypothesis. Unfortunately,
no such synthesis could be made using currently pub-
lished data.
Contexts of Recovery
Archaeologists investigating migration and ethnicity
have started examining what Stefan Burmeister
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
(2000:542) calls the “internal domain,” an arena of
social interaction related to the practices or
“habitus” (Bourdieu 1977:72) of one’s private lives.
The expectation is that locally produced and con-
sumed artifacts, deeply embedded in the material
culture and material practices of the local populace,
would feature more prominently in domestic or
household contexts. By contrast, extra-household
contexts like burials or ritual offerings tend to
include foreign, exotic, or imported objects (Stanish
1989:13; 1992:41–43). Careful consideration of con-
textual information allows for meaningful interpret-
ations of the material culture (Hodder 1987).
Fragments of Coastal Cajamarca painted bowls
were recovered in every context at Las Varas, includ-
ing residences, plazas, platform, and burials. They
were present in large quantities in residential struc-
tures and household middens, and unless Las Varas
residents were importing all that serving ware – a dis-
tribution system more typical of elite consumption or
modern market economy – these painted bowls
should have a local, mid-valley origin. We did not,
however, find substantial evidence for pottery pro-
duction aside from a fragment of an eye mold and a
Figure 19. The middle terrace of the Llama House, showing an offering of three bowls in Unit 12, Level 1C. Bowl 1 is illustrated in
Figure 4 and Bowl 2 in Figures 8 and 9.
12
possible potter’s tournette (Tsai 2012:73–74).
Given the high percentage of Coastal Cajamarca
sherds in residential contexts, it appears that bowls
of this style were regularly used, broken, and dis-
carded by Las Varas households.
Despite having recovered thousands of fragments of
painted bowls, we found only three whole, intact
examples from a unique context – the ritual closing
and “sealing” of a house in which these bowls were
placed together, like a cache, and buried under layers
of ash and refuse (Figure 19). They were found in a resi-
dential structure built on three levels of terrace inside a
quebrada (Tsai 2012:68–72). As this house was being
abandoned, a layer of ash and midden was laid over
the floor of the middle terrace. An offering of three
bowls was set above this layer of ash and midden and
then covered by more layers of refuse. I interpret this
grouping of three bowls as a deliberate offering
because had these bowls been discarded carelessly,
with less intention, we should find many more unbro-
ken, complete bowls scattered randomly in fills and
trash heaps during our excavation. Instead, we encoun-
tered thousands of fragments but found only three
intact bowls – three complete specimens that happened
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 20. Las Varas Bowl 3 (diameter 15.5 cm), found in Layer C, Unit 12, Llama House. Close examination of faded paint reveals the
hook-and-funnel motif (reconstruction to the right).
to be deposited together. The painted interior surfaces
in two of the bowls were eroded and faded (Figures 8, 9,
and Figure 20), indicating usage before they were used
as offering. Whole ceramic vessels do not normally
“enter” the archaeological record except in contexts
like ritual offering and burial, and that is why the
largest, scientifically recovered sample of whole
Coastal Cajamarca bowls comes from the hundreds of
burials excavated at San José de Moro.
Controlled excavation has provided information on
the spatial distribution (horizontal and stratigraphic)
of these Coastal Cajamarca sherds, information not
available from survey or surface collection. Were we
to find Coastal Cajamarca pottery concentrated in
one house and coastal-style pottery concentrated in
another, this would indicate differential access to
styles of pottery between households, thereby
hinting the existence of a multi-ethnic neighborhood.
No such inter-household difference in style prefer-
ence, however, was detected at Las Varas. We can
also imagine a scenario in which we find mostly
coastal-style (e.g., Lambayeque) pottery in the resi-
dences but mostly Coastal Cajamarca in the burials,
leading us to interpret that the residents were using
mostly coastal-style pottery in their day-to-day activi-
ties, but for funerary rituals, they either produced or
imported Coastal Cajamarca bowls to accompany
their deceased. Instead, Coastal Cajamarca is predo-
minant in all contexts, suggesting that this style is
13
the one preferred by the community for feeding
both the living and the dead.
Diversity of Motifs
The most commonly reported motif of the Coastal
Cajamarca style is the “satellite,” which was first illus-
trated by Disselhoff in his report of burials from San
José de Moro, where subsequent excavations by
Castillo and his team furnished more examples.
Data from Las Varas would greatly expand the
corpus of Coastal Cajamarca motifs and designs. In
addition to the famous satellite (Figure 21a), we
found motifs depicting animals like foxes, llamas,
and crabs (Figure 21b); geometric designs like the
checkerboard and net (Figure 21c); and organic, cur-
vilinear elements like the volute, wave, and spiral
(Figure 21c). Some motifs and designs at Las Varas
followed a compositional canon, such as the hook
and funnel (Figure 20) and the spike and crescent
(Figure 4). The hook-and-funnel combination
appeared on many sherds, and one complete bowl
from Las Varas revealed the arrangement – the
canon – in which two hooks were separated by two
funnels (Figure 20). Another regularly appearing
design was the checkerboard with filled spaces
painted red or black and empty spaces containing
crescents or rectangles (Figure 21c). The
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Figure 21. Fragments of painted bowls from Las Varas exhibiting a variety of motifs: (a) satellite; (b) animals like crab, fox, and llama; (c)
checkerboard and wave; and (d) unique designs that appear only once. Scale 10 cm.

Tembladera Archaeological Museum and the inside. Certain elements are not drawn together, as
National University of Cajamarca Museum have on if one element is not allowed to trespass into the com-
display complete Coastal Cajamarca bowls painted positional canon of another. For example, the satellite
with the hook-and-funnel and checkerboard designs.
The hook-and-funnel arrangement contrasts with
the checkerboard in that the former divides the
bowl into vertical panels of design space, whereas
the latter consists of horizontal registers that wrap
around the bowl’s interior surface. In other words,
in painting the interior of a Coastal Cajamarca
bowl, the ceramicist chooses a design composition
that is based on either (1) vertical panels or (2) hori-
zontal registers. Las Varas Bowl 1 exemplifies a hori-
zontal-register composition with a top horizontal
register interspersed by spiked stalks and a middle
horizontal register containing curved-tail creatures
(Figure 4). Each vertical panel or horizontal register Figure 22. Fragment of Coastal Cajamarca bowl from Las Varas
can be internally divided – the sherd in Figure 21d (Sherd #6155), exhibiting motifs like the spiked stalk and the
(center) has vertical panels with horizontal registers circle and dot. Compare with Figure 4.

14
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
motif is not painted together with the hook-and-
funnel, nor has any solid circle been painted inside
the checkerboard. On the other hand, some elements
are substitutable, like the double crescent which is
used interchangeably with the circle and dot when
accompanying spiked stalks (Figure 22). Many
painted designs at Las Varas, however, appear only
once without any other examples (Figure 21d).
Some investigators had illustrated Coastal
Cajamarca pottery in their publication without realiz-
ing that the piece was in the Coastal Cajamarca style.
For example, Swenson (2007:Figure 6, third row
from the top, left) illustrated a rim fragment that
has a white band painted on the exterior and an inter-
iorly painted checkerboard containing a rectangle
(compare with Figure 21c). Hopefully this article
will alert archaeologists to recognize other motifs of
Coastal Cajamarca in addition to the satellite.
The richly painted bowls of Las Varas afford us an
opportunity to detect variations in the ceramicist’s
personalized “handwriting,” like the thickness of a
brush stroke, sharpness of a line, sloppiness or neatness
of execution, etc. I have seen Coastal Cajamarca bowls
in the Cassinelli Museum with clearly-drawn lines and
elements arranged in neat, symmetrical, balanced, and
carefully measured composition. By contrast, most of
the drawings on Las Varas bowls do not approach that
level of care. The lines on Las Varas Bowl 1 (Figure 4),
for example, do not have a uniform thickness and
Figure 23. Fingerprint left on the exterior surface of a fragment
of Coastal Cajamarca bowl (Las Varas Sherd #3927).
15
could be seen undulating slightly. Were we to obtain
more samples of Coastal Cajamarca bowls from mul-
tiple sites in the Middle Jequetepeque Valley, it is
highly probable that we would detect differences in
motif preference or drawing techniques between com-
munities. One might even detect unique, individual
styles based on artistic idiosyncrasies, similar to how
Donnan and McClelland (1999:187–189) had ident-
ified individual Moche fineline painters. Indeed the
closest we come to finding the trace of an individual
is a fingerprint impression in dark brown slip left on
the outer surface of a Coastal Cajamarca bowl
(Figure 23).
Soviet botanist Nikolai Vavilov famously argued
that, in order to find the centers of agriculture and
domestication, the area with the greatest genetic diver-
sity of a certain species should be that crop’s center of
origin (Vavilov 1992). Borrowing Vavilov’s maxim,
the chaupiyunga, with its diversity of painted bowl
designs, should be the place of origin of the Coastal
Cajamarca style, though I must add notes of
caution in using this analogy: (1) Vavilov’s hypothesis
as applied to agricultural origins has been quite suc-
cessful in predicting the geographical location of
early domesticated crops, but it has not been proven
true or correct for every case; and (2) biological prin-
ciples do not automatically translate into cultural
laws. Nonetheless it makes more sense that the chau-
piyunga with its diversity of designs exported only a
subset of those drawings, e.g., the satellite motif, to
the coast, rather than the obverse scenario where the
coast produced and exported its entire gamut of
designs to the chaupiyunga but leaving itself with
only satellite-painted bowls.
Domestic Pottery Forms
The Coastal Cajamarca style is anomalous for having
just one category of vessel – bowls. How can a single
form define an entire pottery style? At coastal sites like
San José de Moro and Huaca Colorada where Coastal
Cajamarca had been found, other vessel forms in the
assemblage – bowls, ollas, and jars – were in the
coastal style, e.g., carinated or cambered-rim ollas with
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
Figure 24. Everted, red-slipped vessel found on the surface of
Sector 1 of Las Varas (Sherd #8474). A finger-impressed applique
is attached to the rim. Rim diameter 16 cm.
press-molded or paddle-stamped surface treatment. On
coastal sites, coastal cultures had their own style of
Moche, Lambayeque, or Chimu serving ware.
Figure 25. Las Varas pottery, not including painted bowls: (a)
angular everted jar rim, diameter 17 cm, with finger-impressed
decoration around the rim; (b) applique with cross incision; (c)
serpentine applique; (d) jar handle incised with vertical lines; (e)
everted jar rim, diameter 22 cm, with cross-incised applique; (f )
rim base, diameter 15 cm; (g) rim base, diameter 11 cm. 3D
reconstructions made using Adobe Illustrator “3D Revolve
Effect.” Scale 10 cm.
16
Ventanillas, 4 km west of Las Varas, yielded predomi-
nantly coastal-style pottery with only a small percentage
(2–3%) of Coastal Cajamarca bowls (Cutright and
Osores Mendives 2021).
Our excavations at Las Varas uncovered a domestic
ceramic assemblage alongside Coastal Cajamarca
bowls: cooking and storage vessels made not in the
coastal style but resembled those of the highlands
(Figures 24 and 25). A prominent pottery form at
Las Varas is similar to the highland type “Cajamarca
Coarse Red” (Matsumoto 1982:107–108; Toohey
2011:188) characterized by jars with everted rim,
red-slipped surface, and applique decoration
(Figure 24). Viewed in profile, the everted rim flares
outward in a curve or, alternatively, it can form a
sharp, angular bend at the neck (Figures 25 and 26;
compare with Matsumoto’s [1982:107] Cajamarca
Coarse Red Forms 4 and 5). The surface is painted
with red slip and sometimes attached with appliques
like meandering bands and cross-incised nubs, dec-
orative elements typical of highland Cajamarca
Coarse Red. The meandering band applique is
made from a small coil of clay attached on the exterior
surface to create a serpentine line; this line is then
repeatedly incised to make multiple segments, like
the sections of a worm (Figure 25c). The cross-
incised nub is made from a ball of clay applied to
the body of the vessel and then quadrisected to
form an “x” (Figures 25b and 25e). Some rims are
decorated with finger-impressed or incised designs
(Figure 25a), and some jar handles are incised with
multiple parallel lines running top-to-bottom
(Figure 25d).
Large cauldron was supported by ring base or
tripod, which we found as detached fragments, indi-
cating that they were first made separately and then
attached to the bottom of the vessel (Figure 25g).
The ring bases measure 10–15 cm in diameter.
These kinds of annular and tripod support are com-
monly found in the northern highlands, including
Cajamarca (Matsumoto 1982:Plate 38b) and
Huamachuco (McCown 1945:Plate 23g). In
addition, we had recovered pieces of ceramic
spoons, a class of artifact associated with the material
culture of highland Cajamarca (Figure 27). One
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
Figure 26. Rim profiles of pottery ( pots and jars) from Las Varas. Number indicates diameter of vessel in cm. Vessel on the lower right
(diameter = 11 cm) is a coastal-style carinated olla found at Las Varas.
highland pottery form not found at Las Varas,
however, is the “strainer” or “colander” form with
multiple holes or perforations cut out of the vessel’s
body (Lau 2010: Figure 50; McCown 1945:Plate
22kk; Toohey 2011:180–181). Also absent from
the Las Varas assemblage is the coastal “grater,”
characterized by multiple semilunar depressions
incised in the ceramic vessel’s interior surface
(Donnan 1997:Figure 19e). In sum, the domestic
Figure 27. Fragment of spoon found in the Llama House of Las
Varas: top, ventral view; bottom, dorsal view. Length 5.2 cm.
17
or utilitarian pottery from Las Varas is quite different
from that of the coast; it is more reminiscent of high-
land traditions, consisting of jars with everted or
angular rims, applique decoration of the body, and
tripod or rim base support.
I argue that this group of domestic ware – a chau-
piyunga version of Cajamarca Coarse Red – was pro-
duced and used by inhabitants of the middle valley
who also made Coastal Cajamarca bowls. So when
we find Coastal Cajamarca bowls on the coast, they
must have been trade items or gifts from the chau-
piyunga. This is the most consistent, logical expla-
nation of why Las Varas, a mid-valley community,
yielded a ceramic assemblage dominated by painted
bowls and everted-rim jars decorated with appliques,
whereas coastal sites have their own style of serving
and cooking ware, with occasional appearance of
Coastal Cajamarca painted bowls. In other words,
on the coast there was a coastal style of bowls, ollas,
and jars, and at Las Varas, in the chaupiyunga, we
found the chaupiyunga counterpart of serving,
cooking, and storage ware clearly distinct from those
of the coast. In light of this discovery, the coast-
origin hypothesis for Coastal Cajamarca fails
Occam’s Razor, i.e., the principle that the most parsi-
monious explanation should be the most likely
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
solution. The coast-origin hypothesis would imply
that people in the chaupiyunga produced only chau-
piyunga-style pots and jars, but imported all their
Coastal Cajamarca bowls made by coastal potters
who in turn were imitating a highland style! I find
this scenario convoluted and unconvincing.
One might ask why a complete sequence of Coastal
Cajamarca bowls is present at San José de Moro but
not Las Varas. Note of caution: we must not associate
the locale of discovery with the place of origin. This
was a mistake made by earlier scholars who attached
the label “Coastal Tiahuanaco” to the style we now
know as Wari (Goldstein 2005:88–90). The long-
term presence of a certain pottery style at one site
does not exclude the possibility that it was imported
through centuries of interregional exchange and inter-
action. In other words, we can find a complete sequence
of Teotihuacán pottery at a Maya site, but it does not
mean that Teotihuacán pottery originated in the
Maya area. As I have argued, we must consider the
context, range of variability (design, vessel form,
measurement), ubiquity ( percentage in the total assem-
blage), and other variables in order to make convincing
arguments regarding ceramic style origin and
movement.
Here I want to clarify that I am not arguing that
Coastal Cajamarca originated in the site of Las
Varas itself. Rather, my hypothesis is that Coastal
Cajamarca developed in the chaupiyunga zone,
which stretches for another 50 km east of Las Varas.
Having only scant samples of the earliest Coastal
Cajamarca design – the spiralling wavy line – it
would appear that Las Varas had been settled later
in the Coastal Cajamarca sequence, and thus we
should look elsewhere in the middle valley for the
ultimate origin point of Coastal Cajamarca. I will
explain my reasoning in the next section.
Coast-Chaupiyunga Interaction in
the Jequetepeque Valley
A chaupiyunga origin of Coastal Cajamarca would
revise previous discussions and interpretations of
coast-highland interaction in the Jequetepeque.
18
Found in river valleys that connect the Pacific shore
to the Andes Mountain, the chaupiyunga is a
warm, subtropical ecological floor that all coast-high-
land traffic must pass through. Colonial-era docu-
ments revealed that the middle valley was where the
prized coastal or “tupa” variety (Erythroxylum novogra-
natense var. truxillense) of coca had been grown
(Rostworowski 1988:65).
At Las Varas, we found only a few sherds with the
spiraling wavy line (Bernuy and Bernal’s Type 2), a
motif that dates to the Late Moche and Early
Transitional periods (A.D. 600–900). The spiraling
wavy line was found in Late Moche contexts at
coastal sites like San José de Moro and Huaca
Colorada. George Lau (2010:211) calls this kind of
painting on his Warmi-phase pottery (Chinchawas,
Ancash, A.D. 850-950) “band and meander.” In
my own (unpublished) reconnaissance of sites upval-
ley from Las Varas, I had seen sherds with the wavy-
line motif. At Las Varas, we found only a few sherds
with the spiralling wavy-line motif, whereas the satel-
lite motif was present in our earliest and latest con-
texts, indicating the satellite’s longevity throughout
the site’s occupation.
Because of the paucity of the earliest phase of
Coastal Cajamarca pottery at Las Varas, I suggest
that the chaupiyunga heartland actually lies further
upvalley. Las Varas, to my knowledge, is the western-
most site, that is, a settlement closest to the ocean
(about 40 km from the seashore) with such dominant
proportion of Coastal Cajamarca pottery. Given the
facts that (1) the earliest design or “prototype” of
Coastal Cajamarca is scant at Las Varas and that (2)
Coastal Cajamarca is never dominant on coastal
sites, we should therefore look in the other direction
– further to the east and higher in the chaupiyunga
– for the origin and development of the Coastal
Cajamarca style. I had once thought that Coastal
Cajamarca originated from Contumazá (specifically,
near Trinidad; Tsai 2006:48), a highland province
south of the Jequetepeque River in the Cajamarca
Region, but excavations by Watanabe (2002:128) at
the site of Tantarica in Contumazá did not recover
any fragment of the Coastal Cajamarca style.
Another possibility, then, is the mid-valley area near
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
the modern town of Chilete, 50 km east of Las Varas,
where Watanabe (2012:Figure 19) had indeed found
Coastal Cajamarca pottery. My personal observation
of surfaces of sites between Tembladera and Chilete
gave me the impression that the spiralling wavy line
motif was quite prevalent in that section of the
valley. To test this speculation, surveys and excavations
there should recover a dominance of sherds with the
spiralling wavy-line motif from layers dating to A.D.
800-900. If Chilete was indeed a center of expansion
for the chaupiyunga culture, Las Varas would rep-
resent a community of chaupiyunga migrants
moving and settling closer to the coast around A.D.
1000. Our excavations were not able to find an occu-
pation earlier than A.D. 1000, hence it appears that
the residents of Las Varas had settled on empty land.
In the Jequetepeque Valley, Highland and Coastal
Cajamarca styles of pottery were present in Late
Moche sites (Luis Jaime Castillo et al. 2008:Figura
21), and thus we can surmise, at the very least, that
there was movement of highland and chaupiyunga
pottery toward the coast during this period. Marco
Rosas Rintel (2007; 2010), based on his excavation
of the Late Moche fortification of Cerro Chepén
near San José de Moro, believed that a group of
Cajamarca marauders had invaded the Lower Valley
and settled atop the hilltop redoubt. A small sample
(n = 21) of Coastal Cajamarca vessels, denominated
“Cajamarca Red-on-Buff,” was found in his exca-
vations, though Rosas Rintel (2010:649) was ambiva-
lent in pinpointing the exact area of origin for this
style. San José de Moro, Huaca Colorada, and
Cerro Chepén – Late Moche sites on both banks of
the Jequetepeque River – all yielded Coastal
Cajamarca pottery, suggesting heightened interaction
between the coast and the chaupiyunga in the waning
days of the Moche.
Regarding the continued presence of Coastal
Cajamarca on the coast after Moche collapse, I am not
aware of any site in the Lower Jequetepeque Valley,
with the exception of San José de Moro, that contained
sizeable quantities of Coastal Cajamarca pottery.
Excavations at Pacatnamú (Donnan and Cock 1986),
a Lambayeque center, and Farfán (Mackey 2006;
2009), a multicomponent Lambayeque-Chimú-Inca
19
complex, did not produce Coastal nor Highland
Cajamarca ceramics (at least none reported).
In the Middle Jequetepeque Valley, Coastal
Cajamarca pottery is present in the stretch between
Ventanillas and Chilete (Figure 1). Salvage operations
associated with the construction of the Gallito Ciego
Dam excavated Late Intermediate rectangular com-
pounds and terraces and recovered Coastal Cajamarca
(denominated “Lambayeque rojo sobre blanco”) in
addition to coastal-style pottery (Ravines 1982). At
Las Varas, we did not find Coastal Cajamarca and
coastal-style pottery separated by clearly stratified
layers, which would suggest replacement. Based on
data from Las Varas and the Gallito Ciego Project, I
interpret the co-existence of both ceramic traditions
during the Late Intermediate as an interdigitation of
ceramic cultures in the Middle Jequetepeque Valley.
In other words, people using coastal-style pottery
were living upriver from those using chaupiyunga
pottery, and those using chaupiyunga pottery had
neighbors using coastal-style pottery in both higher
and lower zones of the valley.
If we consider the distribution of fine ( painted) and
domestic ( plain, cooking) pottery in the Jequetepeque
Valley, an interesting pattern emerges: during the Late
Moche period, painted Highland and Coastal
Cajamarca bowls reached the coast, but coastal dom-
estic ware (e.g., Late Moche “platform” ollas) only
reached as far as the valley neck (Dillehay et al. 2009;
Ravines 1982). During the Late Intermediate, no high-
land or chaupiyunga pottery reached coastal elite and
administrative centers, but coastal-style domestic
ware (e.g., carinated ollas with paddle-stamped sur-
faces) was prevalent in the chaupiyunga zone
(Ravines 1982:105; Tsai 2012:53). It is difficult to
interpret the processes that led to such a pattern.
Perhaps coastal populations, once restricted to the
Lower Valley during Late Moche times, moved into
the chaupiyunga during the Late Intermediate.
Alternatively, perhaps it was coastal cuisine that was
been adopted by mid-valley kitchens, which necessi-
tated coastal-style cookware.
Interactions between coastal and chaupiyunga com-
munities followed protocol. At Las Varas, we uncov-
ered a ceremonial structure named “the Reception
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
Platform” that was built next to the western (i.e.,
seaward) entrance of the site to receive visitors from
the coast (Figures 13–15). Here we documented the
highest concentration of coastal-style pottery at Las
Varas (Tsai 2012:81–88). To the south, three inter-
connected plazas greeted travelers from the highlands
who, in contrast to those from the coast, were
immediately allowed into broad, spacious public
areas lined with cist tombs containing the bones of
ancestors (Tsai 2012:88–96). The chaupiyunga deni-
zens of Las Varas had created ritual protocols to struc-
ture their encounter with ethnic others.
Future Research
My argument for the chaupiyunga origin of Coastal
Cajamarca rests entirely on excavation data and ana-
lyses of style and assemblage. An additional, powerful
line of evidence will be source analysis, like that con-
ducted by Del-Solar-Velarde et al. (2016), which
reveals the composition of the clay used to make
these bowls. Painted bowls from Las Varas or other
mid-valley sites could be tested and compared with
domestic pottery and materials like mud mortar or
wall plaster which should contain local clay. In con-
ducting source analysis, the researcher needs to con-
sider issues of sampling and justify why certain
samples were taken as opposed to others, otherwise
the analysis would muddy rather than resolve the
issue. This article is intended to be a demonstration
that issues of cultural origin could be resolved using
analytic reasoning rather than insistence on high-
tech laboratory method.
More chaupiyunga sites in the Middle
Jequetepeque Valley should be investigated.
Construction of the Gallito Ciego Dam had unfortu-
nately destroyed numerous sites in the middle valley,
but many still remain relatively unscathed between
Tembladera and Chilete. Excavations there would
add to our database of chaupiyunga pottery and
provide a better sequence or seriation. In addition
to more excavations and surveys, we should also re-
examine the large collection of pottery from the
Gallito Ciego salvage project (Ravines 1982). A
20
detailed analysis and publication of this collection
would itself make an excellent thesis or monograph.
If the Coastal Cajamarca style indeed came from
the chaupiyunga, why should we continue calling it
“Coastal” Cajamarca? It might be too late or too
inconvenient now to change our terminology since
archaeologists are already accustomed to the label,
but were we to continue surveys and excavations in
the Middle Jequetepeque Valley, it seems counterin-
tuitive to keep referring to these painted bowls as
“coastal” even though they are natives of the chau-
piyunga, some 40–100 km inland from the Pacific
shore. A good type-variety (Gifford 1960) terminol-
ogy for these painted bowls could be Las Varas
Painted, since it specifies a pinkish, well-sorted paste
used to manufacture bowls whose surface was deco-
rated by painted designs. This paste and surface treat-
ment coincide with just one vessel form, the bowl, so
in this case the type-variety nomenclature will prove
effective as a classificatory scheme in light of the
valid criticism of the system by Smith (1979:823).
A more difficult task would be how to name the
assemblage of chaupiyunga pottery, or archaeological
culture, from the Middle Jequetepeque Valley. “Mid-
Valley Jequetepeque” perhaps? We should recall that
it was the report and later excavation of a Wari type
site in the Ayacucho highlands – Huari itself – that
terminated use of the nomenclature “Coastal
Tiahuanacoid” (Goldstein 2005:88–90; Isbell and
McEwan 1991; Rowe et al. 1950). The same might
be done for Mid-Valley Jequetepeque, and we could
excavate a type site somewhere around Chilete and
label the pottery there by the early colonial
toponym “Chilquete,” resulting in terms like
“cerámica chilquete” or “cultura chilquete.” Modern
communities of Chilete and the middle valley
might be receptive to the news of a recently discovered
cultura chilquete and be enthused to learn more about
this little-known prehispanic culture.
Conclusions
Locating the origin point of the Coastal Cajamarca
style has important implications for understanding
 Howard Tsai: The “Coastal Cajamarca” Style Did Not Come From the Coast
social and cultural processes in Andean prehistory.
For instance, accurate culture history is needed to
test John Murra’s vertical archipelago model, which
posits a specific mode of extraction – colonization –
as the main strategy for Andean communities to
procure resources across ecological zones (Murra
1972). Stanish (1992: 41–48) has provided the
archaeological expectations for colonization, but his
methodology still relies on correct identification of
ceramic styles and their geographical origin. If the
Coastal Cajamarca style had indeed originated from
the Middle Jequetepeque Valley, it would indicate
that sometime in the 11th-century a chaupiyunga
community moved closer to the coast and settled in
Las Varas to establish contact with lower-valley poli-
ties. So unlike the southern Peruvian highland colo-
nists who directly inserted themselves into foreign
territory, e.g., Omo, Chen Chen, or Cerro Baúl in
the Moquegua area, chaupiyunga settlers in the
Jequetepeque Valley made a slight advance or crawl
toward the Pacific shore (Tsai 2012:112–113).
Landing in Las Varas, these chaupiyunga migrants
then began acquiring resources like pottery and shell-
fish from the coast, thereby exercising a combined
strategy of both colonization and exchange.
I have presented two opposing hypotheses regard-
ing the geographical origin of Coastal Cajamarca:
the coast versus the chaupiyunga. Transcending this
binary opposition, we can imagine a third possibility,
or hypothesis, in which the coast and the chau-
piyunga once formed a single large sphere of
ceramic co-tradition where ideas and designs were
shared between coastal and mid-valley potters. This
third scenario is derived from a culture-sphere
model, which sees development not as sprouting
from a single point of origin but as the result of con-
tinuously shared innovations and improvements
through information flow across regions. As tempting
as this alternative hypothesis may sound, it nonethe-
less has difficulty explaining the data patterns dis-
cussed earlier, e.g., in the middle valley, Coastal
Cajamarca is dominant, has greater motif diversity,
and forms the sole type of serving ware.
Research by Watanabe (2002:128) and Toohey
(2011:195) has alerted us to the existence of multiple
21
sub-styles within the Cajamarca region – not surpris-
ing given that this area covers 33,000 km2 and
includes multiple ecological zones. It is becoming
clear that major Andean ceramic styles – Moche,
Tiwanaku, Wari – have many sub-styles (Castillo
and Donnan 1994; Janusek 2002; Menzel 1964),
and it is very likely we have not yet documented the
complete range of these sub-varieties. If we fail to
recognize the distinctiveness of each of these local
styles, we risk assuming cultural and political unity
over a large area, like a Moche Empire or corporate
identity that dominated the entire north coast of
Peru. Appearance of Coastal and Highland
Cajamarca ceramics has traditionally been interpreted
as “highland influence” with the coast emulating
Cajamarca painted pottery, but with the introduction
of a possible third ceramic tradition, the chaupiyunga,
we could now give proper consideration to how this
cis-Andean zone mediated or perhaps even controlled
the interaction between the coast and the highlands.
Acknowledgement
Credit where credit’s due: I want to acknowledge two
good friends who gave me the initial leads that made
this paper possible. Enrique Zavaleta first pointed out
that the pottery from Las Varas was similar to the
Coastal Cajamarca material from San José de Moro;
Hugo Ikehara presciently detected the anomalous
definition of Coastal Cajamarca by a single vessel
form. Enrique and Hugo are part of wonderful
Team Farfán – Carol Mackey (director), Robyn
Cutright, César Jáuregui, Jason Toohey, Patty
Chirinos, and Abigail Levine – to whom I’m grateful
for their friendship, wisdom, kindness, and sense of
humor. Team Farfán’s rival for that prized spot on
the Hotel Estación balcony to drink beer and watch
sunset over the Pacific – John Warner and Ed
Swenson – will hopefully accept my many thanks. I
am indebted to my Japanese friends and colleagues
Shinya Watanabe and Eisei Tsurumi for generously
sharing with me their firsthand knowledge of
Jequetepeque pottery and cultural chronology.
Professor Luis Jaime Castillo has been unwaveringly
 Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology
supportive of the Las Varas Archaeological Project
from its incipience, for which I owe him no small
amount of gratitude. This research is made possible
by the expertise and insights of wolverine archaeolo-
gists currently in Ann Arbor or once sojourned in
that hub of intellectual vitality: Joyce Marcus, Kent
Flannery, Bruce Mannheim, Jeff Parsons, Véronique
Bélisle, Allison Davis, and Jordan Dalton.
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